Let’s finish off our June in pictures.
Shelling peas with the boys. I made the comment that, for me, summertime smells like fresh shelled peas. Moments later, I am faced with this…
Not exactly what I meant.
Boys roughhouse. Even my most mellow son gets a bit too bouncy and dangerous at times. In June, he was attacked by his toy box. I’m sure it jumped out and bit him. Rusty would never have tried jumping or climbing onto the upper bunk, I’m sure. (read: sarcasm)
In June, Ricky and Billy were able to go to “Kids Camp.” It was a 6 day program sponsored by our school district. They spent two days focusing on different topics – art, forensic science, and technology. For art they did several projects, including these awesome gargoyles.
For their forensic science days, they had to solve a crime from a mock crime scene and during their technology days they learned how to make stop animation videos. The boys absolutely loved doing this camp!
I absolutely loved having all these faces home every day – as long as they could spend time outside. My house isn’t that large and 5 boys take up a lot of space!
Because they were spending so much time outside, Bobby required a new hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. He pretty much thinks he’s Superman anyway!
Every week during the summer, we met with friends from our neighborhood on Wednesday mornings for Play Group. Sometimes we met at people’s home, but more often we visited different parks in the area. For the week I was in charge, I chose the park near my mom’s home. They had just barely completed the renovation of the playground and it is pretty awesome! Even Ricky was entertained for 2+ hours! (he’s on top in the white tank top)
When Kevin dropped his ratchet set in the garage and a hundred little pieces fell all over, he groaned at the thought of cleaning it all up. Then he remembered our third son. For Rusty, this was a fabulously fun activity and a great way to spend half an hour! Gotta love that kid!
The four older boys all got to spend a day (or part of one) at the Ogden Nature Center doing day camp. Ricky and Billy got full day camps and the younger two had half day camp. They learned about animals, habitats, and a catchy song, “Here we are at the Ogden Nature Center…” While Rusty and Tommy did camp, I stayed and went exploring with the other three. We hadn’t even gotten to the visitor’s center when two big deer when bounding by … pretty cool!
Bobby loved seeing the birds of prey in their cages – although he called them all “Ducks!”
And he was determined to walk with this big brothers!
The mosquitoes were pretty bad, especially by the beaver pond/bear cave area, but the boys just kept showing all that they had learned at their camps and swatting the bugs away.
They took good care of Bobby. I’ve got to hand it to that little guy – we walked a good mile and a half and he did almost all of it on his own. He’s tough!
For Father’s Day, I had the boys draw pictures for Grandpa Dick. Ricky’s was particularly touching. Here is his picture of Grandpa Dick in the middle of a war and the arrow pointing at him says, “you being brave.”
And then the letter that went along with the picture. He’s a pretty cool kid.
The end of June brought Ricky’s piano recital. It was his last recital with Ms. Melanie. She got a job teaching school and decided that was a better move for her family than piano lessons. I agree, but we are going to miss her teaching Ricky! You can hear his songs HERE.
Finally, sometimes, on a lazy summer day, when you are one, you just need to chew on your fingernails. And after you’ve chewed them down to nubs, you must move on to your toenails. Naturally.
And that was June.
There you go.