A Big First

Danny lost his very first tooth last Sunday! He was pretty thrilled about it, too. I don't think I can tell the story as well as he can, so I'll just be his typist. Here he is, verbatim:

"I was at church, in Primary. And...well...I was wiggling my loose tooth really hard back and forth and all of a sudden it popped out and landed on my friend's pants! And he wasn't really like grossed out or anything. He was like, "Eww" and "Cool" at the same time. There was lots of blood on it, too, and Sis. Gilbert (Primary President), she told me to go to the bathroom and clean up all the blood. And how I cleaned it up is I got this dry paper towel and I wiped it on it lots of times. Before I did that, when I was still in Primary, I touched the hole in my mouth and there was blood all over my finger. And that's how I lost my tooth!"

So, quite the exciting Sabbath Day for Danny! Happily for him, the Tooth Fairy remembered her duties and left him a dollar (she is notorious - at our house, anyway - for being flaky and forgetting to stop by).

What We're Up To

A brief update on our comings and goings:

Jacob...
...is happily playing outside with Alyssa and Danny all day, every day. Their favorite thing to do is to get their swimming suits on and turn on the sprinklers (sprinkler under the trampoline is a favorite at our house.) Jacob is probably our biggest raspberry fan as well, and since we have our best crop of raspberries ever this summer, he can often be found out back picking and eating handfuls of them.

Danny...
...started off the summer with a week at Nana Jo and Papa Jim's house, while I was at Girls' Camp with Amber and Haley. He enjoyed spending time with them and then got a little homesick near the end of the week, as he has never been away from home alone before. He loved flying home on the plane, though (with Nana accompanying him.) In other Danny news, he has an increased chore list this summer and is loving it! With Amber and Haley working so much we have given a few of their chores to younger siblings for the summer. Danny's still at that age where chores are fun, so we're milking it for all it's worth!

Alyssa...
...also inherited extra chores from Amber and Haley, but is less enthusiastic about it. She did enjoy, however, getting to spend a week-full of days playing at her friend's house with Jacob while I was at Girls' Camp. Next week she goes to Nana Jo and Papa Jim's house for her one-on-one time with them (they try to have each grandchild who is past kindergarten age come visit on their own for a few days each summer.) She is really looking forward to it and is positive they have big things planned for her (no pressure, Nana and Papa!)

Haley...
...has had a summer so far that's consisted of picking strawberries, attending Girls' Camp and now picking strawberries again. She gets home from work by 1PM each day and hurries to shower and run out into the neighborhood to play with friends. She loved Girls' Camp (her first year) and is anxiously awaiting the end of the strawberry season!

Amber...
...Amber's summer has closely mimicked Haley's. She loved Girls' Camp and is now back to picking berries in the morning and processing them in the afternoon. She has gotten the Top-Strawberry-Picker-Of The-Day award twice now. Learning to work hard and getting to experience the satisfaction that comes with a job well done has been great for her. Up next for Amber: EFY in Provo!

Brad...
...is staying oh-so-busy with his work schedule and church responsibilities. He continues to make us feel that we are his #1 priority, however, and we love him for it. He coached Alyssa's softball team again this year and assistant coached Haley's. Their seasons came to an end in June and I could almost hear the sigh of relief as his schedule went back to normal. He did a great job Mr. Momming things while I was away with Amber and Haley, and now he is up in Canada for a cousin's wedding.

Amy...
...has been busy with the usual, mostly. I had fun at Girls' Camp but am always so glad to get home. It's hard to farm kids out for that long and not be able to communicate with them to make sure everything is going well. I was happy to be able to be there with my girls, though - especially considering it was Haley's first year. Think I'll take a hiatus now until Alyssa turns 12 and goes for the first time :) We have raspberries and cherries coming out of our ears right now, so I've been busily freezing (and pitting) them. I love being able to hear the kids playing outside while I am working in the kitchen. So fun to have them home for the summer!

Klickers

Amber and Haley have a real job this summer...well, the first month of the summer, anyway. And, get this, it involves serious manual labor AND evidence that they both posses a work ethic! We couldn't be prouder!

Klickers is a great, family-run strawberry farm here in Walla Walla. They've been around for 90 years and for over 80 of those years they've been employing Walla Walla youth as their harvesters and processors. It's an awesome, G-rated environment where kids can learn to work hard and earn money. Yesterday was Amber and Haley's first day. They had to be there at 6:45 AM, which, in the summer, is a feat in and of itself! They will work 5 days a week, spend their day picking strawberries and come home in the early afternoon covered head to toe in red juice. They were SO tired last night that they both voluntarily went to bed at 8:30!

The funniest part of yesterday (and taking one look at their dishevelled, strawberry-stained selves was pretty darn funny) was that Amber won an award for being their top first-year strawberry picker! Don't get me wrong, Amber is a great kid and we love her to death, but she is not necessarily renowned within our household for her natural work ethic. Brad and I were a little bit surprised to find out that she is a work horse in the strawberry fields! Looks like she's been holding out on us! She even got asked to stay into the afternoon and learn how to process the berries on an assembly line (which is way more lucrative than picking.)

So, summer's off to a good start! An exhausting, hot, sticky, start, full of great life lessons!

Middle School Graduation

Last night Amber graduated from middle school. I don't know how that goes in other areas, but it is a pretty big deal around here. It's held at Cordiner Hall on Whitman College campus. The kids walk, receive diplomas and everything.

She had a great time. She looked gorgeous (see pic below) and enjoyed being with her friends and celebrating their accomplishment. She has really enjoyed middle school, which leads me to believe that she will probably be able to enjoy anything in life!

Amber also received a Super Scientist Award (for "Attitude, Aptitude and Hard Work"), presented to her with her diploma, which was a fun surprise. I have to admit I got a little teary eyed when they got to the N's and I saw her standing anxiously on the stage waiting for her name to be called. My emotions were partly the result of how quickly she is growing up and partly that I am just so proud of the person she is. Jacob, on the other hand, was teary eyed when the 5th speaker took the microphone (thankfully each speech was only about 2 minutes long!) Near the end of the ceremony he started asking us, "Is it over yet?" every 30 seconds.

We are proud of Amber and know she will do great things in high school and beyond!

Kindergarten Celebration

Here comes the barrage of last-week-of-school posts!

Today was Danny's Kindergarten Celebration, which was pretty much like a little graduation. The kids performed a few songs for all the parents/families. Then, one by one, they were given a little diploma-ish paper and took the microphone to share one thing they learned in Kindergarten this year. It was pretty cute. Loved seeing all the different personalities! The thing Danny chose to share was that he learned to be a good friend in Kindergarten this year. And it's true - he has learned that well. Things learned this year that he didn't mention include reading, writing and math (he loves math!)

Danny has had a great year in school. We cannot believe the growth and maturity we've seen. Maybe it seems so dramatic to me because he has been our "active" and occasionally high maintenance child :) But he is truly growing up - still with that Danny spunk that we love so, but definitely ready for 1st grade now.

Letting the crowd know one thing he learned this year.

Receiving his diploma.

Danny and his teacher, Mrs. Takemura, who is retiring (she SWEARS it has nothing to do with Danny!) We are so sad Jacob won't get to have her for Kindergarten - she's fantastic!

'The Warriors' - Tournament Champs!

Haley's softball team finished up their end-of-season 4-day tournament last night - victorious, as you can see by the picture above! They had games Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night and two games on Saturday. They played their tails off and won every single game, the final in a huge rain storm!

It was such a great softball season for Haley! Coming off of knee surgery, she was really not sure what to expect of herself this year. It wasn't until just before the season started that she was even given the green light by her doctor to go ahead and play. To say the least, we all thought she might have a struggle ahead of her and she was feeling pretty nervous and insecure. She was lucky enough to play for a fantastic coach, who truly built her up, and two equally great assistant coaches (one being her Daddy). She worked hard, gave it her best and ended up being a real asset to the team. In the tournament alone she scored several runs, caught a pop fly, covered first for a crucial out and even conquered one of her greatest post-surgery softball fears by sliding home (successfully!) twice! We are really proud of Haley for having the courage to give it a go this season and for having the tenacity to stick with it until she began to see the results she wanted.







CONGRATULATIONS, HALEY!

Cute Kid Comment

Lyssie has said a couple of things in the last week that have made me laugh out loud! She has such a vocabulary for an 8-year-old. Those who know her well and have heard her in action will find these "Lyssie-isms" funny :)

The other day I forgot it was "early release" from school and that the elementary school kids were getting home an hour early (feel free to nominate me as Mother of the Year!) I pulled into our neighborhood just as the school bus was leaving and realized that Alyssa and Danny had probably been dropped off at least 5 minutes before that (the bus's first stop.) They were waiting by the front door, relieved to see me and came running to tell me all about their efforts to get inside the locked house after the bus had dropped them off. They had tried every window and door they could reach, all while our dog, Mabel, barked at them from inside, anxious to have them come in. When they ran around back to try the sliding glass door and found the stick securely in place (I'm paranoid - always have been) Mabel was barking through the glass at them. Wishing Mabel could somehow help get the stick out of the door Alyssa said, "Dang! I wish Mabel had opposable thumbs!"

Over the weekend, while we were fishing, Alyssa saw a creepy-crawly on my shirt and with alarm said, "Mom! There's a spider on you!" I'm not much for spiders and jumped up quick and yelled, "A spider?!" Then Lyssie shrugged and said, "Well, some sort of arachnid."