We have a swimmer!

Lucas has been taking swim lessons at Lifetime all month. On his last day of this session, he actually swam! Put his face in and paddled and kicked all at the same time - without the floaty barbell! I almost cried. It's a beautiful thing! His teacher, Rachel, is adorable with a capital A but she's taking next month off. Boo ... hope he gets another good teacher!

Happy Father's Day

This Father's Day, we sent Jacob off on a week-long, sleep-away Boy Scout camp in east Texas. I am pretty sure we overpacked for him, and I'm also pretty sure we'll have forgotten something very important. I just won't know about it until he returns Saturday. No electronics allowed so we cannot talk to him or text, but his Scoutmaster is there and promised to send periodic emails and photos. I can't wait for those and I'm slightly anxious about it. I hope Jacob is so busy and having such a good time that he forgets to be homesick. If I timed it right, he should get two letters from home during mail call. 

Super Dad!

This pie is for my Dad...lemon meringue always makes me think of you! Happy Father's Day!

They're Baaccck!

The neighbors that lived across the street moved to Germany last summer and came back for a visit. So we tried to get the old 'hood back together ... including friends that have moved a short distance away but we don't see them nearly often enough! 

(Catherine, Julie and Sarah - and Catherine's yet-to-be-named hedgehog)

We had a nice BBQ hosted by the Donohos and were able to laugh like old times and talk about how much the kids have grown. LOL, that makes us sound old!

(Clockwise from Lucas, Peyton, Connor, Riley, Chase, Julie, Ethan, Zac, Jacob and Sarah)

School's Out For Summer!

Jacob graduated from elementary school today with all A's and B's for grades and all E's for conduct. We are very proud of how hard he worked this year and can't believe we are parents of a middle schooler!

Receiving his certificates from the principal...

This was taken at preschool, shortly after we moved here eight years ago!

Now, he's 11!

Sarah with her teacher, the fabulous Mrs. Tiller. I am hoping Ethan has her next year.

Ethan's posse: Phillip and Leora

Captain Vader Power Ranger Home Run Derby King Lucas.

Sarah and Ethan are doing tennis camp the first two weeks of June (and yes, I have another job ... coaching at tennis camp!) Lucas is taking swimming lessons twice and week and Jacob is preparing for a week away from home at Boy Scout Camp. Who said summer was relaxing? 

Jacob's Birthday!

Jacob's birthday happened to fall on the day of the fifth grade pool party at school! All the students walked from school to our neighborhood rec center for a fun-filled day of swimming, games, tennis, basketball, pizza, slushies, popcorn, and more! Not a bad way to start his birthday! 

After school, several carloads of kids caravanned to the southeast side of town for a dining adventure. Big Lou's Pizza has been featured on Man vs. Food and here you can see why! This 42" pizza was as big as our table. Half cheese and half pepperoni, sliced in slivers as long as your forearm - or your whole arm if you're Lucas! This one pizza fed seven adults and 11 children with no slices left. I was impressed with how good it tasted. I was expecting much worse ... size over quality ... but it was like Jersey pizza. Soft and foldable, cheesy and delicious.

After pizza, we had birthday cake. One of the employees came out and led the restaurant in the birthday song accompanied by a megaphone! Jacob was thoroughly embarrassed but he recovered pretty quickly.

And because the end of the year is crazy like that, we dropped Sarah off at a sleepover on the way back to our side of town and then hit a graduation party! 

Cub Scout Transformation Booth Meeting

Ethan's den did the flag ceremony to open the meeting and Ethan got to read the Cub Scout pledge.

At the end of the year, the pack has a transformation booth that the boys walk through and get "changed" to the next rank.

Ethan, the new Bear scout!

Preschool Graduation - Lucas

Lucas graduated from preschool on Wednesday. It was a bittersweet day filled with laughter and tears, memories and talks of the future ... kindergarten! His preschool puts on a wonderful commencement ceremony complete with slide show, pomp and circumstance. Miss Betsy asks all the children what they want to be when they grow up. Lucas said he wanted to be a Policeman, which was news to me since all along he'd been saying he wanted to be a "tractor guy."

Walking across the bridge...

to receive his diploma.

Miss Christy and Miss Malia with Lucas.

Miss Eva, our babysitter, came to see the ceremony.

Future world leaders, for sure!

Miss Susan, the best preschool director in the world.

One of our gifts to the school, mentioned in this post, with Roxanne, Susan and Audrey.

 Back in class with his sweet teachers again.

Lucas Nault, preschool class of 2012.

Blackhawk Helicopter Tour

Ethan's Cub Scout den organized a tour of a Blackhawk helicopter at a local airfield. Mark took him and was the photographer for the day.

I love this picture. Absolutely love it.

Baby birds nesting on a Humvee tire.