School's out!

Summer is here! We had a great last few months of school leading up to summer.

In April our good friends from BYU came to FL on vacation and we met up with their family at their fun hotel's water park in Orlando. We all had a blast until a sudden downpour appeared!

I love Russell in this picture focused on his cookie and not the rain and Caroline snuggling into her new friend.

All the kids had fun watching a movie together while we adults had fun chatting and catching up!

Other fun spring activities: picking blueberries! So funny that the season here is in April and in Washington it was July. But we all love this fun activity and the kids ate almost all of these blueberries in 1 week.  

A little tree climbing...

We finished out the tball/baseball seasons. The boys had lots of fun and learned a lot. Tball coaches are the most patient people on the planet!

On Mother's Day weekend we met up with my parents at a park in between us and had a picnic and played. I failed to take any pictures of my mom with the grandkids but we all had a great time and it's been many many years since I've seen my mom for mother's day! 

Thomas had the best preschool friends this year.

There's this tiny little runoff area by our house which my kids call a pond and is where they caught their tadpoles last year (one frog is still standing), as well as several minnows. Unfortunately, we have found it to be dried up lately. But these two left no stone unturned double-checking for signs of life here. 

Fun birthday party for a friend at our neighborhood pool, complete with ice cream from the ice cream stand. These kids have it too good.

 I have a good friend from high school that happens to live near me, so I got to throw her a baby shower in May. So fun to celebrate Tyler!

We played hooky one day from school and work to use another one of our Disney days. The boys were initially both very disappointed to miss school (they're obviously my kids), but by the time we got there, they were excited. We had a great day at Hollywood Studios!

Caroline was super excited to visit Doc McStuffin's house. Here she is trying to lie down on the stretcher. 

Ricardo's motorcycle is a very popular hangout spot.

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Sometimes she rides her own bike. She's super speedy.

Other fun garage activities include making endless costumes. Russell has always been big into costumes but at least he's old enough now that he makes his own and Thomas often follows suit.

He's a blue tiger (obviously).

And the regular tiger. Russell doesn't miss a detail including the claws on the feet.

Ricardo made Russell an awesome garage workbench for all his crafts and other projects. It turned out great and I love containing it all in the garage!

Their art is so fun. I loved Thomas' depiction of a mouse here. Unfortunately for them, we can't keep every art project and drawing! But I save my favorites and try to take photos sometimes too. Of course, every time I throw away something that I think isn't too important, they ask about it the next day.

Other fun sibling times: working on their fitness. Situps.

Russell reading bedtime stories to Caroline.

Also in May, we traveled to Jacksonville for Russell's good friend's baptism. We came Saturday and went to the beach with friends. It was actually super cold and windy which was unexpected! We didn't swim but had fun in the sand. First beach trip in a while!

 

Afterward, we spent time with some of our dear friends and enjoyed their fun backyard and dinner at their house. On Sunday we got to go to our old ward and saw so many of our old friends who we truly love. Then we attended our friend's baptism in the afternoon and the kids played with their buddies until I finally had to call it and drive home before it got too late. They all fell asleep on the drive back! It was a great trip!

I didn't do great on photos that weekend but I did snap this one of Caroline playing with this adorable handmade dollhouse.

Luckily I did a little better for Russell's baptism which was the following weekend. He was so excited and worked hard to prepare to be baptized. It was a lovely meeting with great talks by both grandpas, a song by the cousins, and a really sweet and personal confirmation by Dad. One of the best parenting days ever.

We had some treats outside after and it was a beautiful afternoon.

These sweet friends drove down from Jax just for Russell's baptism and it was special to have the boys be a part of each other's baptisms on back-to-back weekends.

Thomas had his preschool graduation in May, which was also very exciting.

Loving his school shirt for his Penguin Class. And yes, those are all my Christmas cards which I finally just took down. I just like having them there!

Fun graduation party afterward!

And now school is officially out! We had a fun Memorial Day and Ricardo surprised me with a trip to St. Pete together. His mom was kind to watch our kids while we were gone. They love eating their spoils from her garden!

And on Saturday Russell got to attend his first primary day camp. I got to go too and chaperone and it was so fun to see him enjoy everything, from service projects to genealogy to relay races. Here they are tying blankets to give away. It was a great experience for him!

We are looking forward to all the summer fun we have planned! Russell's already concerned that it will go by too fast and asked me yesterday how many weeks they have left! Hope you all have a wonderful summer too!