First day of "summer"

After our celebration at the mall, Scott went to a friend's house to spend the night.  His friend's birthday is ALSO on May 29th.

So the next morning when we woke up, Ashley, Ryan, and I had a fun morning-just the 3 of us!  Greg said that it was very hard to get motivated to go to work that morning!

We started the day with a rousing game of "balloon tennis"

 Love this picture where Ryan has jumped nearly as high as the back of the sofa!

 Then I took the opportunity, which is rare, of the playroom being clean to take some pictures of one of our VERY favorite rooms in the house!  It is awesome.

 This is Ashley's toy kitchen

 the dress-up closet

 Lego city

 All the kids have a closet where they play inside sometimes

 The computer corner

 Scott's special place

 Ryan's other place for legos

 My personal favorite corner where I scrapbook!

 1 more shot of balloon tennis and a last shot of the room.  The red print sofa unfolds and the kids love to flip and tumble on it.  Ashley has another fold out sofa in her room and then we open the sofa bed for visiting APAC athletes from school to visit.  There is also a bathroom up there and a closet for our Christmas stuff.

We spent the rest of the morning playing games just the 3 of us-battleship, guess who, and mille bornes.  It was a fun relaxing morning!  Yeah for summer!

Moving Up Day at School

 2nd post of the day-Ashley with her best buddy Hannah for the last time before we leave for the summer.

Sorry these pictures are dark-Ashley, Hannah, and David decided that we should sit up on the top row of the bleachers far away from the action.

They man standing in the white shirt is Ryan's teacher with his class

 Scott's class is over on the far right side of the gym

 The administrators all swaying together like the Seniors do during the singing of the Brent School song.

 Parents all taking movies

 The seniors shoot off confetti!

 Ryan and his great teacher!

 Scott with his class and his teacher

 Here are the 4 of us just before leaving Scott's class

 Then we picked up Greg and went to the mall for a celebration of birthdays, end of school, and the boys terrific grades on report cards.  Scott gave 7 As and 2 Bs and Ryan got almost all 4s on his subject area checklists. 



We ate lunch at McDonalds mostly.  Greg went to Wendy's and sheepishly came back admitting that when he walked to the counter they looked at him and said "mayonnaise and mustard right?"  He really does not eat out often at lunch but it cracked me up that the Wendy's people know what he likes on his hamburger when Greg OFTEN makes fun of me and the kids for how we stand out so much here and I readily admit that we do.  The ladies at S and R (our version of Sam's) know Ashley by name and ask me about her when I go in there by myself.  Greg just thought he was keeping a low profile by himself but he was WRONG!

After some debate about what treat to have, we went downstairs to Dairy Queen and ordered blizzards.  Ashley's is strawberry oreo, Greg's is chocolate chip-the same since we went to DQ in college after Baptist Student Union meetings on Tuesday night, and the boys get Kit Kat.

 They actually serve them upside down and the shirts say "Served Upside Down or it's free"

 It was a great way to end the school year!  I am just as glad or more so than the kids that it is "summertime" now-though it always feels like summer here to me!

Can't believe how grown up she is!

 This was right around her birthday-the LAST day ever for her at preschool.  It seems like she was just born yesterday, I blinked and now she is 5!

There are many GREAT things about this stage we are in now with everyone being more independent though.  We have been practicing bike riding a lot lately and on June 6th she figured out how to start pedaling on her bicycle all by herself-no pushing from me and not even help balancing!  Now she doesn't do too well with hills yet but I am hopeful that I am actually going to get to ride my bike soon along with everyone instead of walking and pushing!

Fun day with Ashley

2nd post of the day- One of my final quiet days with just Ashley at home before her brothers are out of school for the summer and she begins Kindergarten in August.  We made blueberry muffins, made egg salad for Greg who was coming home for lunch.

 Did some math

 She thinks straws are a fun way to learn about ones and tens in math and they blow great bubbles in your water too.  Then Ashley rode her bike a long "big kid" ride with me still pushing to help her get going but she really is riding by herself.  and after that we had to cool off in the pool for a while.

She is my shopping helper (she even likes to hold the list and mark off things as we buy them) and companion and it is going to be SUPER quiet at home next year but I am glad that she is so excited about being in Kindergarten and riding the bus to school with Ryan and Scott.

Birthdays!

and we just keep on party-ing!!!!

 Our traditional picture of the birthday people-before we went out to have dinner at Chili's and had molten lava cake for dessert and the waiters sang to us!

 Daddy and Ashley with her birthday rose!  A tradition that Grandpa Larry always did for Emily and Jodi on their birthdays that Greg has carried on.

 Ashley was curious about the presents!

 Opening one from the Gregorys-a cute bag, a doll with pink hair that Ashley has named Christina, and some new books

 Ashley has decided that Christina is better than all of her other dolls to sleep with because she is so soft and is planning to bring her with us this summer for home leave!

 From Jake, Emily, and their girls-a new green dress-up dress that looks a lot like Tinkerbell

 a yellow little pony

 and some more books

 from us-a Minnie Mouse shirt

 new Leap pad games

 another new dress-up dress that she would probably wear in China if we let her-I suggested maybe she wait for United Nations day at school next year-you don't have to dress up in something from your home country!

The new dress twirls really great!

 Greg and I also gave her a lego kit with Olivia and her treehouse.  We had to build it right away!

 Scott and Ryan had been gone all day, celebrating with 2 brothers they are friends with who had had their first communion.  So Scott opened his gifts when they got home.

from Emily, Jake and the girls-a Geronimo Stilton book and a kit to build a model whale shark!

 from Jodi, Chris, Katie, Ian, and Maggie a book about comic book heroes and a Captain America kit to build

 

 Legos and his scuba class were the gifts from Greg and I this year

 The birthday girls on Sunday after church

 Ashley showing off her new VERY purple dress and new Sunday shoes with bows on them.  I found this dress at the American Women's Club bazaar for 600 pesos about $14