After School Fun

Simone has 27 kindergartners in her class. Only 3 of the kids are half day, including Simone. Since she is only 1/2 day she does miss out on some activities that the all day kids have in the afternoon. I try to make sure she has craft time/art class and some fun time (this is usually while River is sleeping). She also gets to spend Wednesday and Friday afternoons with my mom, which she loves and wouldn't be able to do if she was an all day student, as I tutor those days. Here is an envelope puppy that we made....we also made a bunny envelope and an elephant envelope. She loves to cut and glue.

In the other picture she is holding a car "King" from the movie Cars. Her favorite has always been "King". She has a bunch of cars that she plays with and we made a parking lot out of construction paper so they all have a place to park.

Please pray that Simone has a great Kindergarten year. So far, we are doing well!

August Rush

Yes I did see the movie, it was okay.
I wrote August Rush because there is so much to do this month. We ended last month with Michael's Birthday. Simone and I made a double layer chocolate cake with sprinkles. She was very pleased to be able to give this to Michael on his special day. Since his b-day is near our anniversary, we usually celebrate them together with a weekend getaway. This year we celebrated his 38th b-day and our 7 year anniversary with a trip to the Windy City. Usually we go see a play when we go into Chicago, but this year we just relaxed. We had dinner with friend Jerry and later went to a nice evening cafe. The next day we tooled around Chicago taking in the sites. My mom graciously watched the kids for the 2 days so we could have time away.
This month, we've had to take simone to the doctor and dentist for her kindergarten school forms. We've had to make appts. for shots and for teeth fillings as we found she has 2 caveties. Simone is going to a school where uniforms are required so we need to go and buy those. Then there is the lovely list of school supplies to buy. We have school orientation and p/t meetings all in the next 2 weeks. Plus and most importantly, our little girl turns 5 in 3 weeks. Her b-day request is to go to Hacienda as she wants a sombrero on her head and the staff to sing happy b-day to her. All this and it seems like so much more. Once September hits it will be a breath of fresh air.

More Family Reunion

Here are some more pics from our family reunion in West Virginia.

The top pic is of Simone and Emily.....they are 3rd or 4th cousins. They had fun playing together.

The next pic is of all the cousins who got together for this reunion. My dad is in the white shirt on the far right. Next to him is his cousin Abe who retired recently from the pentegon as a full colonel in the Air Force. The lady in the front row on the far left is my Aunt Donna (my dad's older sister). She's the one in my family that I take after the most. In the back row the gentlemen 2nd from the left is my dad's cousin Jim Bill. I'd not seen him since I was a kid. Well he's in education too so he and I had a nice time talking about our careers. His wife Marsha was lovely and I enjoyed getting to know her (she's not in the picture) My Great Aunt is in the white shirt and pink pants in the front row. She is my Grandmother's sister. My grandma passed away 8 years ago. My aunt who is 89 still lives by herself, drives, goes to church and sings in the choir. When she's up to it, she helps out at the Ronald McDonald House. She's been doing this for years.

The 3rd pic is my cousin Troy and his family. His 2 boys TJ and Duane got along with Simone splendidly. We stayed in the same hotel while on vacation and they were anxious to help simone learn how to swim. She loved that!!!

The bottom pic is my fav. candid shot of Michael and Simone. I love candid shots.

It was a wonderful reunion

West Virginia Vacation

Michael Simone and I took a trip to WV with my dad for a family reunion. Family reunion pictures will follow as they are still being processed. On our no family activities day, Michael Simone and I travelled to the New River Gorge Nat'l Park. This was about 1 hour from where our reunion was taking place. The picture right above is the 2nd largest (highest) bridge in the United States. We took a tram ride (pic above) down to the bottom of the gorge and then took a jet boat ride right up to the bottom of the bridge. It was beautiful. God gave us a beautiful day. 78 degrees. We stopped by hawks nest...another park and observed the beauty there. At the end of the day we went to a wonderful open aired restaurant called Smokey's on the Gorge. It was an elegant buffet and we stuffed ourselved to the gill. The family reunion was wonderful, meeting some family I'd never met before and seeing some that I hadn't seen in 10 years or so. Simone enjoyed meeting 2nd cousins and playing with them in the hotel swimming pool in the evening. I think the pool was her favorite part. Lest you think I forgot River, he stayed home with family and friends. It was a wonderful vacation!

Bathtime at the Muhme House

River loves to splash in the water whilst big sis takes her Saturday night bath. They are getting to the age where they are playing nicely with each other and usually enjoy being around each other.

Patient Chef

Here's my patient chef waiting for dinner to be finished.

My Perfect Bread

I made European Herb and Cheese bread today. I'm not an expert on bread, so when something like this turns out and is so yummy, it's quite a treat. The family loved it.