Treasure Hunts

So I know it’s time for an update and although last week was busy, it was a normal everyday non-thrilling busy and the week ended completely pictureless. This week we are commitment free… no classes or speech therapy for J, no summer camps or swim lessons. Although I love the option of staying home (which we did most of today) we have lots of fun options for the rest of the week.

Yesterday we got together with the Fletcher family to visit with three of Justin’s Aunts who are in town for the HUGE quilt hop in western WA… I believe it’s becoming an annual tradition for the sisters. And once again his Aunt Joann organized a treasure hunt for the kids to enjoy. Clues were hidden all over the yard and each kid had their own clues to follow with lots of fun prizes, treats, and even a personalized goodie-bag. I hope she knows that since she’s done it two years in a row that the kids are already looking forward to the great treasure hunt of 2010.

These two are becoming great little buddies – they also participated in the treasure hunt, but were much more interested on eating the prizes and running around

School's Out for Summer!

Yesterday marked the 29th consecutive day that Seattle has not received any precipitation, tying the record for the driest May-June ever. It’s been an absolutely beautiful spring… ironically until today when school lets out for the summer and we had plans to spend the afternoon playing in the sunshine.

Today was the last day of school (if you can call 2 hours of school an actual day… which, according to our school district you can). We spent the morning at the end of year assembly where Abigail was recognized with an academic honors award. I received a letter from the principal earlier in the week notifying me she would be recognized in the assembly, but I didn’t know what the award would be. Apparently each teacher is allowed to choose two students from their class to present honors to. We are so proud of Abigail and all her hard work. Abigail was born with a desire to learn and she is always striving to be better. I couldn’t be happier with her achievements. Her teacher wrote a note which I’m hesitant to share for fear of being “one of those Moms”, however since I already shared Carly’s sweet note from her pre-school teacher I feel like I shouldn’t leave out Abigail’s note.

“I have really enjoyed having Abby in my class this year. She is extremely smart, caring, and has a sweet personality. She has continued to make tremendous social and academic gains this trimester due to her good working habits and determination to be successful. She has become an amazing reader, writer, and mathematician. Way to go! Abby is always pushing herself to a higher level. She is a special person and should experience lots of success in the second grade. Her teacher is going to be so lucky to have her next year. Thank you for sharing her with me!"

Abigail and her awesome teacher

Our Graduate

It’s official, I have a kindergartener. Carly’s last day of pre-school was today and her teacher had both her morning and afternoon classes meet at a local bouncy house to celebrate.

Carly and her fabulous teacher

Carly had lots of fun climbing, sliding, and bouncing with her friends. Jason thoroughly enjoyed himself as well and I was surprised that he was able to climb up all the toys by himself… before I know it I’ll be sending him off to school too. {sniff sniff}

While I wasn’t looking Jason climbed up this steep slide completely on his own.

Miss C and Miss C – these girls played non-stop (well, except to eat pizza and cake)


Carly’s teacher wrote each of the kids a special little note:

“Carly is awesome! I enjoy her serious nature with her bright, beautiful smile. She is so incredibly smart, well advanced of the rest of the class. She is good at everything, always gets right to work, and is one of the first ones finished with her table work. She is a great example for everyone. Carly is one of the kids whom I use as a leader for others to follow and as a helper. I love Carly’s questions about things that are going on. It’s been fun to see her love of babies earlier in the year… I will seriously miss her next year while her Kindergarten teacher will be lucky to have her in class!! I love you Carly!!”

It’s always wonderful to hear how much people love your kids. I completely agree. Carly is bright, inquisitive, and so full of personality. She is a friend to everyone – younger, older – boy, girl, it doesn’t matter. She’s such a joy to have in our family! Congratulations my sweet girl!

There wasn’t an official graduation ceremony so I pulled out Abigail’s pre-school graduation cap and bribed Carly into letting me take her picture.

the only Fletcher men

Three generations
and my favorite shot

Family Pictures

Justin’s sister’s sister-in-law (which I suppose could be me, but it’s not – maybe it’s better to say our brother-in-law’s sister) was visiting over the weekend and took pictures of us and the extended family on Saturday. She’s posted a small sample on her blog with more to come. Here’s some of our favorites so far:

She asked him to “blow” which Jason interpreted to mean “eat”

We went with a totally casual look - so I told the girls to wear their flip-flops. It wasn’t until we got to the photo location that I noticed Abigail was wearing her big ole clunky black shoes… oh, well.

As I was saying...

Can’t turn your back on this guy
Looks like we’ll be having a wet summer

Waterboy

Jason loves water. He’s always loved taking baths and is fearless in a swimming pool. When Justin waters outside Jason will run through the water and even when he is soaking wet he doesn’t want the fun to end. Here’s what I found Jason entertaining himself with this morning.

Can you tell how wet he is? He just kept spraying himself in the face over and over again.

"All Done"

Jason has asthma and while I realize there are much worse health issues my boy could have besides allergies and asthma, it can still be difficult to deal with. Every so often his asthma acts up and he sounds like Woody’s friend Wheezy from Toy Story. After his last episode I bought a nebulizer so we would be able to treat him at home. Yesterday was especially bad so we broke out our new contraption only to realize we were missing an essential piece to use the face mask. We attempted to stick the provided inhaler into Jason’s mouth and struggled unsuccessfully to get any medicine into our strong, hysterical little boy. By the time we got home from church at 4:30pm he was completely wiped out from having to work so hard to breathe that he quickly fell asleep and slept til 8:30 this morning (that’s even after sleeping for two hours before church).

This morning he was still wheezy, but much better and he was VERY happy (who wouldn’t be happy after sleeping 16+ hours?). I called the pediatrician office and picked up the missing piece to the nebulizer. While we were there the doctor wanted Jason to do a treatment in the office. What a workout. I literally had to wrestle with him to try and keep the mask on his face. The only time he wasn’t trying to pry the mask away was when he’d hold his little hands up in the air signing/pleading to be “all done.” Thankfully, the doctor came in after five minutes and told me we could stop even though we hadn’t finished all the medication. Jason and I were hot, sweaty and grateful to be done…very traumatic for us both.

Isn’t it wonderful how quickly children forgive their parents? But just to be safe (and since I still hadn’t eaten breakfast) we swung by Jamba Juice and tried the new Blackberry Bliss… just what we needed. Jason is once again a happy (wheezy, but happy) little boy and is sleeping it off.