Good-bye Kindergarten!

It's official . . . Ephraim has graduated from Kindergarten. They had a short ceremony on Thursday night, the 27th.
The kids in front of the Fremont Wildcat.

Getting his cap on in the kindergarten room.

Just about missed this picture, but Ephraim is escorted in with the 8th graders who are graduating.

Mrs. Glick addressing the class. Ephraim is the 2nd kid from the right.

Singing a Kindergarten Graduation song.

Slide show of their year. They also had to tell the audience what they want to be when they grow up. Ephraim's answer: A Storm Chaser.

Getting his certificate from Mr. Snakenberg.

All done!

Proud siblings with their big brother.

Ephraim and his teacher, Mrs. Glick.

A little fun time with Emmet afterwards. Congratulations Ephraim!

Just another day at home . . .and lovin' it!

Here are a few of the things that happen at our place.

The boys get the occasional opportunity to ride with daddy in the tractor.


Eden can wake up, walk to the couch and fall asleep again. On Saturday, she woke up, came to the kitchen and then went back to bed and fell asleep.

The kids are fascinated with Ted, the toad.

We can play Croquet in the yard for as long as we want.

We clip coupons.

And we love sidewalk paint (flour, water and food coloring).

Ephraim painted a shark.

We are glad that summer is here and we can enjoy many fun activites outside and we don't have to worry about school schedules.

What do you do with a lot of Strawberries?

Make jam, syrup and pie, of course!
We picked 14 ice cream buckets full of strawberries on Thursday. I brought home 7 buckets full and Michelle took the other 7. Friday I made jam and strawberry syrup (for pancakes). It was fairly easy and I definitely want to make more. On Saturday, I made another 14 pints of jam. It would have been 15, but one of the jars broke in the hot water bath. And I goofed on one of Friday's batches of jam and forgot to add the pectin. Oh well, those jars of strawberries are still good for topping on pancakes or in smoothies.

Ephraim helping stir the strawberries and sugar.
Emmet insisted on helping cut off the tops of the strawberries and he did an awesome job.

Eliza helping wash the berries.

Eden stirring and Emmet mashing.

Eliza helping me fill the jars.

I do enjoy have the kids around to help me. This is all part of why I'm home more. To give them these kinds of experiences. But I must confess that on Saturday, I got up early to get the berries washed and cut before they woke up so that the process would move along a little faster.

Track Time!

It was the Elementary Track & Field day on Tuesday, the 18th. And it was a beautiful day outside. The events began at 9 and lasted until 3pm! It was a big day for the family, too. The Kindergarten class started out with the high jump, minus the bar to jump over.

There was some extra time before they could move to the next event, so there was an exciting game of Duck, Duck, Goose going on. Emmet just couldn't sit on the sidelines, so he joined right in. Emmet's in the green shirt. Once Ephraim sat down, then Emmet would move to sit next to him.

Long jump!

Ephraim and Emmet holding hands while walking to the next event.

They got to toss 3 Frisbees and then sit by the one that went the farthest.

Football throw. Definitely, not his strongest area right now, but that's okay. In the 2nd photo they are all standing by where their farthest throw landed.

Eliza just waiting and watching.

Passing the time before lunch.

Stretching before the races. Emmet was eager to join right in. It was also before lunch when Emmet walked up to a tree, started to pull down his pants and yelled to me, "Mom, I'm just going potty." Mrs. Glick caught him in time and we took off for the bathroom--a long ways away.

A class phot0.

The 25m dash. Ephraim is 2nd from the left and got 4th, I think, out of 8.

Relaxing in between races.

Daddy came for lunch and was a fun toy after lunch. Eliza is chasing Emmet's friend Gavin in this picture.

And hugging him.

The perfect seat.

Emmet and Gavin waiting for the big boys to race.

Ephraim came in 4th in this race, the 200mdash. A picture similar to this was in the Fremont Village Vine newspaper.

Just relaxing . . .

Ephraim got 3rd in the 50m dash.

Overall, he came home with 5 ribbons, a 2nd place, 3rd place and 3 4th place ribbons. Good job, Ephraim!