SCHOOL'S OUT!

What a great day! Mary and her littlest 3 came to visit me and my littlest 3 as the rest of our kids finished off their last day of the school year. We had a great visit, she brought lots of yummy food from Trader Joe's, and the kids had a fabulous time playing together. It is amazing and wonderful that our kids are so well matched in age and gender.

The kids came bounding home at the usual time, with backpacks brimming and overflowing with STUFF. The STUFF is now spilling all over my kitchen, the table, the entryway, and the stairs. Yippee for STUFF. We all piled into the truck for our first real outing since Bethany came home one week ago. Where did we go?

Out for Summer Vacation Ice Cream, of course!

This was Tubby's first ever ice cream cone...he did pretty well!

We then dropped Melissa off at an all-classroom party that one of the kids was having at his home. Water slides, bounce house, hot dogs, chips, drinks, water guns, you name it, it was there. There were about 50 or more kids there, running around, having a blast. These parents must have been certifyably crazy to put something like this on fro three hours. Though she was a bit overwhelmed at first, Melissa had a great time, and was not ready to leave when we came to pick her up on the way to Uncle Billy's.

Yes....our first major outing as a family! We crammed into the truck with everyone (except Alex, as now one person will always have to volunteer to be left behind due to lack of space in our truck), and drove the hour up to Maple Grove for dinner and a friendly game of poker, including visitng with Grandpa from Duluth. We had a fun evening, and it was nice to show Bethany off to Bob's family who has not yet seen her. She got lots of good attention tonight! Carly entertained the little ones well, as she always does. Even Laura had some fun when she wasn't scared to death of the "attack dogs"(a mini-toy poodle that MAYBE weighs two pounds, and a furry little shi-tzu). The kids even got to jump on a trampoline...normally a forbidden pleasure in our family of medical personnel.

What a great way to end the school year. We are SO looking forward to this summer vacation....it is going to ROCK this year!

Happy 3 Week Birthday, Bethany!