Finally...

After a fun-filled week, the waiting is finally over. The kids are finally out of school! It is official. Our summer has begun! Ashley has completed 7th grade and Anthony has completed 1st grade! I am so proud of them both. This year has had many challenges with both of them, but we have come through it all. And looking back on it all, I realized how much Ashley and Anthony have grown and learned from this school year...and so have we. Ashley has had the best academic year of her life. She was on the honor roll all year long. We are so excited to see what she will accomplish in 8th grade! Anthony has improved so much with academics, athletics and especially his social skills. We know things can only keep improving.

The last 2 weeks of school were fairly hectic, but I was able to participate in several activities with the kids. I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with Anthony and his class. I helped with his school's field day as well. And I went to the Denver Zoo with Ashley and her class. It rained all day when we were there, but it still was fun and all the middle-schoolers were very well behaved. (surprisingly!) Last night, Ashley had a sleep-over with most of her friends here and we had 7 teenage girls celebrating the end of the school year. It was so much fun with them staying up until 4 in the morning! (Not really) So we are all pretty tired today because they kept us up too! However, they are a good group of girls, so more than anything they are just silly together.

Now begins our summer outdoor projects including rebuilding the fence and deck and maybe re-doing our landscaping. We will see how quickly the money runs out with those projects. Also, we will begin our summer school again, led by Mrs Hoyt (that would be me). Ashley is not really looking forward to that but we will be incorporating more fields trips this summer, with the help of Mrs Buschy (that would be my sister, Gerianne) who is also beginning a summer school project in her home as well. And of course, we will be embarking on the annual family camping trip up to Steamboat Springs. All-in-all, it will be a fabulous summer with many things to do. Looking forward to it!