I'm so behind! I missed a lot because I've been lazy about uploading photos. I haven't even posted most of these to facebook, so they will be new to you! So here's what you missed :P
Way back on April 9th, my little girl earned her Junior Bronze award in Girl Scouts. This is the highest honor you can earn as a Junior Girl Scout and Jenna's troop earned their's by doing a big literacy project with the local library, schools, and community charity groups. There are many things you have to do to earn this award and it is no small feat. I am so proud of Jenna and her troop and I feel so blessed to have her involved in this troop that has been run by several wonderful women who give their time and love to these girls so that they may grow into amazing women themselves.
In May we attended Marah's end of the year performance- "The Kindergarten That Could." It was a cute little thing they put together where the kids showed what they learned during the course of the year.
Marah really loved her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. McDonald, and her teacher loved her, too! :)
With summer here we decided to put some flowers out in the front yard in our little garden area. We live in a rented duplex that is set up a bit strange. It is a house that was transformed into a duplex with the bottom level being one home and the top level a second home. Because we aren't in a side by side set up the yard situation is a bit tricky. We had a neighbor in the past that was very difficult and we did not care for her at all. We are lucky to have neighbors that we get along with now and we have shared the yard in our own way.
So we have a small space to decorate as our own and since we can't dig a garden we made it look cute by setting out planters with flowers. Last year I could not afford planters so I just used the pots that the plants came in but it didn't look very cute. This year, again, I could not afford planters but I found this cute idea on Pinterest.com and decided to go with it. I think it's very cute and I like the color it adds to the front of the house.
I had the girls help out. We started by spray painting empty soup cans.
Hammer some holes in the bottom of the cans for drainage.
Add some rocks to the bottom of the can, place your flower in the can and add soil around the edges of the flower's roots.
Add some rocks to the bottom of the can, place your flower in the can and add soil around the edges of the flower's roots.
Stand back and admire your handiwork.
I should really take a new picture. The flowers are doing very well, with many more blooms, and there are vines growing all over our bamboo vine arches you see in the back there. I like it a lot!
June 1st was the last day of school for Marah. She won't be returning in the fall because she will be home schooled with Jenna so it was a big day for us. I am amazed at how much she has changed over the last year and I can't wait to see how much she learns here at home this coming year!
My niece, Zion, came for a visit while her mom (my wonderful sister-in-law) attended a conference in Fargo. The girls had so much fun together and I enjoyed having her here. My kids only have one cousin, which is so weird for me because I grew up with a LOT of cousins and I loved them all so much, so it is really nice when they are able to spend time with each other. They are moments I know they treasure.
Let's see, what else... well, we have a complete LOVE/HATE relationship with our pug, Penny. I mean it is seriously that extreme. One moment we love her and then, suddenly, she poops or pees on our floor or our bed and, oh man, we hate her guts. Like, let's list her on Craigslist right this second because I'm about to lose my freaking mind kind of hate. Please, please, somebody tell me this will get better because we are at our wits end. I had a dream about murdering her. Okay, well it was really more like involuntary dog slaughter by wooden spoon, but it was bad.
More to come. I'm done for today :)
Make each day count!
What a nice update. Congrats to Jenna on the Girl Scouts award! Those homemade pots for plants are absolutely adorable! I've never been able to grow a flower from a seed or transfer it into a pot w/o killing it but these I might just have to try! Marah really has changed since the beginning of the school year to the end, that's a fantastic idea, to take a photo the first day as well as the last! I know EXACTLY what you mean about the "one cousin" issue! Although my boys have eleven cousins (from mine & Brad's sides combined) they almost never see ANY of them! Three are brand new (as in, less than a year ago), three we haven't met yet and all but four live in other states! They spent time when they were younger with Lily & Libby but now that they're in Texas, they only have Ryan nearby. Although their cousins from Brad's side live only 30 minutes away, we hardly ever hear from or see them. It breaks my heart because I too cherish my memories of times with cousins when I was growing up (and now!) As for the dog, it DOES get better! We've had our Sadie Lady for nearly 10 years now (wow! hard to believe) and she used to be that way too... but she's near perfect now, she has her occasional old-lady-sneezed-and-squirted moments but for the most part, she knows better and takes care of buisness outdoors. It's all about consistancy when training. -- that's it, because you didn't update us on Alex.
ReplyDeleteWow- ok, a blog w/in a comment! Sorry for rambling!
Loved this post! I honestly don't know what I would do without the computer. Living so far away from my only grandchildren is so hard, but you are so good about blogging and posting on Facebook (and calling!), so it eases the pain a lot! Thank you for that, Ashley. It really does mean so much. Congrats to Jenna on the Girl Scout award and to Marah for graduating Kindergarten! They are growing up so fast!
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