Hooray for Independence!

How can it be July already?  May and June were so busy with so much going on.  Mother's Day has always been a nice day, but now that the girls are getting older, their notes to me are more precious . . . especially Amelia's "because she is so nice to me".  I'm glad she feels that way . . . I know I'm not always nice.  Being a mother is hard!

Mother's Day was a hot day, and while I relaxed in the shade, the girls (and neighbor) ran through the sprinkler . . . with goggles on . . . because apparently that's required 😂

I took the girls to the last STEM night of the year at the school.  Amelia loved flying the kite she made . . .

 And Sophie had fun playing with the sling-shot.

I was lucky enough to be a chaperone at both of Amelia's field trips.  Her first one was to the "prairie".  I loved it . . . except that I was outside walking around in grasses for hours. . . achoo!  Amelia had a hard time restraining herself not to pick the flowers . . . so I took pictures of them for her.

 My favorite part was watching Amelia sketch her prairie experiences.

The Lacey Spring Fun Fair was next . . . and we enjoyed a ride, multiple vendor booths, and an ice cream treat from the ice cream truck.

Amelia's 2nd field trip was to a Pioneer Farm . . . with multiple hands-on experiences, including milking a cow.  Only a few kids were brave enough to try it - Amelia included - but she said she definitely didn't enjoy it, ha-ha.

We did our annual Memorial Day beach trip - this time to Ruby Beach.  It's over a 2-hr drive from our house to the beach, but it's sure worth it . . . even if it was freezing while we were there, (I had one of Ken's jacket on underneath mine!).

The Science Fair at the elementary came next.  The girls were so excited to participate and Ken was a great Dad and helped them each with a project.  Who knew they'd have to spend the entire day sitting in front of their exhibit explaining it to all the other kids.  As you can see, Sophie was worn out by the time I came to pick her up at the end of school.

Amelia thought it was fun .  . . her favorite part was "skipping class all day".  Oye that girl!

All during the school year I have been volunteering in Sophie's class once a week.  On my last week there, the teacher presented me with this potted plant which all the kids had signed.  I love it!    And the kids were so excited to show me their signature.

In the midst of my busyness, I decided to have a garage sale - who knows why!  By the time I decided I didn't have energy or much to sell, it was too late, because the girls were super excited to have their lemonade stand.  I love the sign that Amelia made . . . and was surprised by people's generosity.

I knew I didn't have much to sell (I just don't keep a lot), so it was a pretty small garage sale once everything was out on display.  Still, we made about $100, so I'll call it a success.

The last week of school was dress up days.  On "Career Day" Amelia dressed up as a dancer/ movie star . . .

 And Sophie dressed up as a cowgirl.

Amelia has a very creative, imaginative mind.  She made this "house/ playland" in the middle of her bedroom floor.  It might not look like much, but she spends a lot of time playing with her small dolls in this playland made of seashells, etc.  I love her creativity, but it takes all my will power every time I go into her room not to gather it all up and move it out of the way.  It doesn't bother her at all that she has to step over it to get into and out of her room.  😜

June 21 - the last day of school!  Finally!  And this year, I remembered to take a last day of school picture to compare with the first day of school.  Both girls really grew up!  I'm not sure how I feel about Amelia being in 3rd grade next year.  That sounds so grown up.

And my dear Sophie.  She is SO ready to be done with Kindergarten.  The poor thing was so bored the last few months of Kindergarten . . . and now she thinks she's ready for 2nd grade.  Hopefully her 1st grade teacher will be able to keep her busy and learning, since she's already reading chapter books and doing 1st grade math. 😮

We all wore our Evergreen Forest t-shirts to celebrate the last day of school.  I was able to go to the Awards Assembly at the school and see the kids get some fun awards.  And I was pleasantly surprised to be given an award for volunteering over 100 hours during the school year.  Not sure if I can keep up with that next year, but I volunteer because I enjoy it.  It's my "happy place" and I love that my work schedule allows me to spend so much time with my kids.

The day after school got out - no sleeping in for us - up early to pick strawberries!  My awesome helpers and I picked 2 overflowing flats in just over an hour, which ended up being 4 batches of strawberry freezer jam and endless bags of frozen strawberries to last us for another year.

There is so much to do on my "Summer To Do" list, but one of our favorites and low-key events is the city's concerts in the park.  Amelia was thrilled to be up on stage helping the singer.

Another activity we added to our summer list was bowling, as part of the "Kids Bowl Free" program.  Since neither girl has ever bowled before, I wasn't sure how it would go, but they didn't do too bad for their first try (and the gutter bumpers didn't hurt either).

3rd times the charm, hopefully!  Amelia finally decided that she was ready to get her 2nd ear re-pierced.  She said it didn't hurt as bad as the 2nd time and we're all hoping there is no drama involved in this round!

I am grateful for good neighbors that my girls love to play with.  We have a neighbor boy who is 13 years old that would rather do outdoor activities with 2 young girls than be bored at home.  Everyone is active and happy, jumping on the trampoline, swinging on swings, or playing at the park, which makes me happy because I don't hear "I'm bored" too much.

July 3 - the city of Lacey celebrates on the 3rd, in order to not complete with neighboring cities.  We went early enough to the celebration to get faces painted, play in the kids area, watch a fun trampoline aerial show, and get great seats for the fireworks.

And now I'm finally caught-up.  I feel so free and independent, ha-ha.  I am grateful for any of you who are still reading this :)  Happy July 4th!

Ack! Almost through April!

If February went quickly, then March and most of April has zoomed by. . . either that or I'm just finding it harder to update this blog of all of our happenings.  So here's our March and most of April in a nut-Schnell.

After we celebrated Amelia's birthday, we went to get her ear's pierced.  I was hesitant, but she was so excited and brave!

 We also went to Boomshaka to celebrate Amelia's birthday, rather than having a birthday party.  So fun and so much easier!

I help out in Sophie's class every week and was able to go with them on their field trip to the Children's Museum.  Gratefully, the four kids I had mostly stuck together, making my job much easier.

Our Relief Society had a "formal attire" event to celebrate the Relief Society's birthday.  I wore this outfit that one of my employees from Africa gave me over 10 years ago and I've never had anywhere appropriate to wear it.  Yeah for fun events!

March 24th was a great day - Amelia chose to be baptized.

It was a small family affair, with only 2 other couples there, but the Spirit was there, and that's the most important part.

 I'm proud of Amelia for doing something she knew was right, even with her small testimony.

 When you take out your earrings at night, after your ears have only been pierced for 3-weeks, and you have a young, healthy body, the result is closed in holes the next morning 😞  Amelia was brave and got her ears re-pierced . . . and put up with another 3-weeks of maintaining newly pierced ears.

For Spring Break, we headed to UT to spend some time with my Dad.  Since we were traveling over Easter weekend, we had an Easter egg hunt and dyed Easter eggs while we were at Grandpa's house.

And of course we got ice cream (at least once).  This time was with cousin Richelle, in the snow!

We spent a day doing "UT" things.  We toured the newly renovated Jordan River temple.  The girls were excited to go inside a temple, but I think Amelia was a bit disappointed that it didn't look like a palace inside, ha-ha.

 We went to This is the Place Heritage Park and had fun being a pioneer.

And we ended the day by doing a quick tour of the Conference Center in Salt Lake.  By that time, the girls were tired and not so excited to have their pictures taken, ha-ha.

One day my Dad showed the girls how he used to dye Easter eggs - with onion skins.  I've seen the finished product many times, but I've never seen how it was done . . . so we all thought it was cool.

We had a play date with friends who used to live on our street in WA, who now live in Layton.  How we've missed them!

But the best part of the whole week was spending time with my Dad - visiting, working together, and watching him play with my girls.  It's hard being so far away from my Dad, so the time we spend together is precious.

Ken had a birthday this month, but I realized we didn't get a single picture - happy birthday to him anyway!  I'm sure there was more for April, but that's it in a nut-Schnell for now!

Marching into March

February went by too quickly . . . and we weren't even that busy.  I'm participating in a #bebetter52 challenge this year, and each week we get an assignment to help us become better people.  The week of Valentine's Day, we were challenged to write love notes to random strangers.  I stuck a note in the mail slot for the mailman, put up notes in the teacher's lounges at the Elementary school, and put hearts on random neighbor's houses.  I have no idea what anyone's reactions were, but I hope at least one heart made someone's day - I know it made mine.

This year Ken and I are putting more of a specific focus on Family Home Evening, to help Amelia prepare for baptism.  These are snap-shots of my lesson on preventing "spiritual eclipses".  Moon pies and Capri Sun drinks were the treats that evening :)  I wish I had the mental energy to always plan such fun FHEs . . . they definitely go over much better with the kids . . . but life goes on and we do the best we can.

Both girls love playing music with Daddy . . . and that often takes many forms.  More cowbell Sophie!  And don't mind the photo-bomb at the end ;)

Sophie LOVES helping Ken work out in the yard . . . even when equipment and/or tools are too heavy/ hard for her to use.  We'll thank her this summer for our green, moss-free lawn ;)

Ken and the girls had President's Day off, so we headed up the mountain for a little fun in the snow.

We had sleds, but Sophie wanted to try her own way of doing things . . . and had just as much fun.

When the girls tired of sledding, there was always snow to play in.  They started digging this hole and were using it for their "house" by the time we left. 

 

I love how their different personalties come out, how they each chose to be when they asked me to take a picture of them in their "house".

 A few days later, we got snow at our house!  I caught this sunrise at the end of our street.

And with the snow, of course comes a snow day.  And playing outside as much and as long as possible.

 Sometimes, the snowball is just a bit too big to push, but that doesn't stop Sophie!

The last week of February, I had the opportunity to do a business trip in Milpitas, CA, which put me 15 min. away from one of my dear friends.  We got together for dinner and catching up like old friends do. 

And suddenly we're into March, and celebrating Amelia's 8th birthday!  I can not believe this sweet girl is already 8.  She helped me make her lemon blueberry birthday cake, including decorating it, and loved every minute of eating it.  She loved the cake so much, she wanted to share it, so we delivered chunks of cake to a few of her friends!  Love her generous spirit!