Emma turns 8!

Emma turned 8 exactly a week ago. Since we had the birthday weekend at Yogi Bear, Monday was a pretty low key day. Emma went to summer care while John and I had to work. Emma and I did make some brownies that she brought to share with her friends.

After summer care, the kids spent some time playing with the neighbors and then we went to softball. After the hot games, we got some ice cream with Jim and Barb at Dairy Queen. All in all, not such a bad birthday.

Emma is turning into such a little women. First of all, she has had a growth spurt recently, and it's just crazy how big she is getting. Her feet aren't much smaller than mine, and sometimes she wears some of my shoes. Who is this little girl? She is all legs, and it is not going to be long until she as tall as me.

Emma has so many passions and loves so many things. She absolutely loves animals. All animals. She loves to pet, carry, or play with any cat or dog that she sees. And she is really good with them. She still says she wants to be a vet. But she also wants to be a hair stylist, a construction worker, and maybe a nurse. So, she's going to have like 4 separate careers I guess. She also loves baking, crafting, scrapbooking, and reading. She likes to help me clean around the house, and she does like to do chores, as long as we are willing to pay her for her time. She also loves "mommy and Emma days" and camping and everything summertime.

Emma is also really into music right now and loves to tell Alexa what to play and to sing along. It's pretty cute, but can annoy her brother. She's a pretty good big sister, but she does know how to push Elliott's buttons, and she does do that quite often. However, she does help him open things in the backseat when he can't get them, she reads him things when he asks what they say, and she does show a lot of patience towards her brother. And those two can play together so nicely when they want to.

Emma does have things she does not like. The last few weeks of the school year were very painful, and Emma did not have any patience for schoolwork or challenging herself in anyway. She can still have some outbursts over some really minor things. She can still be a fussy eater and she is still not a morning person. She can be a bear when we have to wake her up in the mornings.

Emma is super excited to be 8. She is already asking when she can have a cell phone (Yikes!!) and loves her increasing independence. We love that little girl so much, and can't wait to see what this next year brings!!

Camping at Lake Herman

We just capped off another busy week. Most of this week was very hot and windy, and just kind of miserable. On Monday night, we had softball again. I had one game with Steak Out and one game with Bethel. It was hot, and miserable. And I had a collision with the pitcher from the other team during our church league game, so I chewed up my knees and my right elbow pretty well. So, that has been a pain the butt for the entire week.

This past weekend, we went camping at Lake Herman, We kind of all fell in love with the campground. It was beautiful and quiet, and the campground is really spread out. We were also right night to the campground hosts and we were able to borrow ladder golf, croquet, tic tac toe, and discs for frisbee golf. The kids loved all the new outdoor games.

The campground had a really nice frisbee golf course that John and I really enjoyed. We played a game on Saturday, and then on Sunday Emma wanted to play. Emma did really well for her first time, and we all had a lot of fun.

We also did some swimming and biking and just had a really great weekend. The weather was beautiful. It rained a little bit on Saturday morning, and otherwise it was 75 degrees and sunny and just plain beautiful.

The kids had a really fun weekend. They met some friends at the playground, and they spent a ton of time playing with them. On Saturday night, they were out playing until 10:00pm. They were playing hide and go seek with flashlights in the dark. They were totally loving life. And best of all, everyone slept in until 8:30 am.

We ate good food, saw beautiful sunsets, biked, swam, and had two wonderful campfires. It was a really great weekend. And I had today off for a catch up day, which is fabulous. The kids spent the night out at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so I have a day at home by myself to do whatever I want. And I am loving it. So far, I've accomplished laundry, paying some bills. and then some cleaning. Pretty exciting, I know. Possibly some mowing this afternoon and the gym, and then softball games again where we will bring children back home with us.

This next week is a little calmer, and we have nothing planned for next weekend, which is actually kind of nice. We can catch up around home and maybe slow the summer down a little bit.

Yogi Bear Birthday Party

Whew, this weekend was a blur. I took Friday off, and John worked a half day, so we used most of the day to pack and bring our camper to Yogi Bear park. We also squeaked in a lunch date at Chevys, which was amazing. It had been a long time since we had been out on a date. It was delicious.

We brought the camper to Yogi Bear at around 2:00pm and spent a little time setting up and unpacking. Then we went to pick up the kids, plus Hannah T and Lily K. The girls were super excited to see each other, and were just plain giddy and crazy when we first brought them to the park. The enjoyed a water fight, and then we went down to the activity field for a chocolate worm eating contest. Basically they put gummy worms in chocolate pudding or whipped cream, and then you have to fish the worms out with just your mouth. Elliott and girls had a ton of fun participating in that, and they were a mess!

They also squeezed in some fun on the bouncy pillow and some mini golf, and then it was time for birthday celebration. We ate some Cesar's Pizza, and then sang happy birthday and had some Unicorn cake. The girls couldn't wait any longer, so we also did presents. Emma got a Unicorn sand kit, and a bowl full of crafting things from Hannah. Emma loved it all. Next up, swimming!

 Because of Covid, we had to reserve a time to swim, and then could swim for 90 minutes, before it was time for everyone to get out and they could clean the pool area. It worked pretty well. All the kids loved swimming.

In the evening, there was a lollipop hunt for the kids in the dark, and we enjoyed a campfire and part of a movie, and it was time to send some tired kids to bed. Elliott fell asleep during the movie, and then I had to make the tired girls get some sleep. It was a successful first day.

Saturday was hot, and a little windy. The girls started the day by jumping on the pillow and playing some mini golf. We did some more swimming from 11-12:30pm, and then had some BBqs for lunch. In the afternoon we rented a two seater and a single bike, and the kids had a lot of fun playing on those. We also smashed a Pinata, which was stuffed full of candy and did a few crafts. Everyone was pretty tired by mid-afternoon, so we took the girls home, and both Emma and Elliott took some much needed naps.

We ate some kabobs for supper and then we had one more swimming session from 7-8:30pm. The kids were still pretty tired, so they headed in around 9:30pm for a movie, and us adults sat around the fire and enjoyed the quiet. We were all in bed by 11:00pm.

Today has been a typical catch-up day around here. We packed up the camper, dropped it off at the farm, and then have been catching up on laundry and unpacking all the things we had. Emma spent some time doing her Unicorn Sand Art, and Elliott ran over to the neighbors as soon as we got home. It is a windstorm today, and it's supposed to be that way for the next 4 days. It's going to be really hot and windy tomorrow for softball. Yikes.

We are also trying to prepare for another full week of work and activities, and more camping next weekend. We are going to blink and summer will be over. But, we are having a lot of fun!!

Campground Waterfight 

Chocolate gummy worms 

Happy 8th Birthday Emma!

Finally swimming 

Lollipop hunt 

Blue frosting 

Emma's Minnesota Birthday Party

We are flying right through June. We are already almost halfway through. I haven't really enjoyed 2020 very much, but it's still going by way too fast. I'm going to blink and summer is going to be over.

This month brought a few more things that are helping us feel like things are a little more normal. We started softball this past Monday. It was hot and windy, and we played without having any practices so that made for an interesting night. We lost our first game, and then won our second. I pitched both games, which went ok. But man, was I sore the next couple of days. It was really fun to be back out playing softball and hanging out with friends.

Last weekend, we went to Minnesota to celebrate Emma and Elena's birthdays. Mom and dad rented a giant bouncy house slide, and that was their gift to the girls. The kids had a really fun time with the bouncy slide/pool, and definitely got their money's worth out of it. It did get pretty windy on Saturday, but  luckily the inflatable held up and did just fine.

On Saturday, Marcel and Gretchen and their kids and grandkids came out to use the inflatable and to just hang out with us all. I also invited Samantha over to catch up. It was a great afternoon of visiting, pool time, and we capped it off with a nice bonfire. It was nice to see Emma and Elliott get to spend some time with their cousin as well. It had been quite a while since we had seen everybody.

Then, on Sunday, we headed to Tim and Janel's house for Jenna's confirmation. It was nice to see the extended family, but it was definitely different without any grandparents around. It was a nice gathering, but by early afternoon we were ready to head home and get ready for another crazy week.

During the first weekend in June, we hosted a grill-out at our house with some of my friends from work. It was fun to have people over, and the kids really enjoyed having all the other kids over to play with. We got to enjoy our pergola, and it was a beautiful evening for a fire. We also used our projector and had an outdoor movie with the kids, which everyone enjoyed. We decided we are going to have to have more friend gatherings this summer when we are around.

Covid-19 seems to have stabilized for the time being. Our numbers here in South Dakota have remained pretty flat, and have even gone down overall. The city removed all restrictions, and they are just trusting us to be smart and protect ourselves when in public. The city pools are closed for the summer, but the Midco and the splash park are open, so there are some options. Also, we are camping a few times this summer, so there will be some lakes we can swim in. The panic seems to be lifting over the virus, but the experts are still worried that this fall we will have another spike.

The bigger news lately has been the Black Lives Matter movement. There have been protests all over the country and people are fighting for equal rights for everyone, no matter the color of your skin. On Memorial Day, a white officer in Minneapolis, arrested a black man, George Floyd, for using a counterfit bill. After the black man was cuffed and laying facedown on the ground, the white officer knelt on the back of his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. During this time George kept saying he couldn't breathe, and pleaded for the officer to get off. There were bystanders who were witnessing this occurring, and one lady recorded the situation. The bystanders were also yelling for the officer to get off the man. George eventually lost consciousness, the EMTs were called, and he died on the way to the hospital. Rightly so, this angered many people, and helped to initiate a change across the country.

The police officer who knelt on the suspect was fired and arrested for second degree murder. The other three police officers who stood by and did nothing lost their jobs, and could possibly face charges as well. And Minneapolis plans to completely restructure their police force and how they do things. There has been some good changes that have occurred so far, and the protests continue to happen. There have been some violent protests, and a lot of businesses in Minneapolis were looted, damaged and some were even burned down. This has caused some more division within our country, but it has also united people to help change the world for the better. It's sad that in 2020 I even have to write about things like this. Hopefully, we can all help nudge the world into a better place with more love and generosity and less greed and hate. Fingers crossed.

Emma having fun at summer care

Deck photo shoot 

The birthday inflatable slide 

Almost 8

Birthday gitls