Saturday the 3rd, the girls had a mock piano recital in preparation for the big recital the following week, then Cole, Cooper, and their parents came up and we all went to the Wescott beginning-of-summer pool party! The girls had a fun sleepover with their cousins that night.
Sunday the 4th at 9:00am was Erin's First Communion. Our church has a few kids at each mass over 2 weekends instead of one big mass only for the communicants. We had maybe the smallest group at our mass, being at an earlier time and on the weekend following Memorial Day. It turned out that many families chose the holiday weekend for visiting family to have an extra day of travel. Anyway, it went very well and Sister Mary Erin was so happy. We had a fun spaghetti lunch and water fun back here afterward with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa!
The following week, we attempted to settle into a summer routine...also, Anna had her 7-year checkup (which went fine), Erin had speech, Sawyer was here 3 days, I had a moms' dinner at Brio which was very good, and the week culminated with the girls' first piano recital on Friday evening! It was at a piano store in North Raleigh that has a performance room. They both did a wonderful job, and we were very proud of them!
Saturday the 10th, Bob took the girls to Hanging Rock State Park for the annual Uncle Camping expedition. This time, they added a fun experience - river tubing! The girls really enjoyed it, and it sounds like lots of fun.
I took advantage of some time to myself to wash the windows and screens, cut the grass, run errands, and went to a very fun baby shower for neighbors Marc and Amanda. Sunday, the campers got back around lunchtime and we had Liz and David over for a cookout that evening.
Monday the 12th, Bob left for a week-long "internal meeting" in Key West........he does claim that some work happened, but they also got to do some fun things like snorkeling, a sunset cruise, and a dolphin experience! It sounded like lots of fun! We girls held down the fort with the usual events, including watching Sawyer, and we tried to go to a Holly Springs Salamanders baseball game on Friday evening with Bob's Knights of Columbus group (he was going to meet us there from the airport), but everything got messed up with some big storms. His flight was delayed, and the game never ended up happening. Alas, the girls got their unlimited hot dogs and popcorn, so it was probably the best-case scenario for them: snacks but no baseball!
That weekend, we mostly took it easy and enjoyed a leisurely Fathers Day at the pool with some neighbor friends.
Monday the 19th was Erin's procedure, which went very well. The rest of the week was pretty laid back, just letting her recover and we did a few small things around town. Saturday, we went to the NC Zoo with Olivia, her mom, and sister. That was so much fun! It was hot, though, and we only made it through the Africa section (about half of the zoo). The girls especially liked the car ride, lunch, and tram ride. Animals got an afterthought mention.
Sunday was more family fun at the pool, then some more kid torture at the Durham Bulls baseball game, supporting Catholic Charities. It was a beautiful evening with no rain, and I think they even managed to enjoy themselves with the help of lots of snacks and some coloring pages.
The final week of June was the much-anticipated, long-awaited dance camp for Erin. She had decided this spring to take a break from gymnastics after nearly 4 years and wants to try dance. She's starting a year-long class in August, but also wanted to do a half-day camp to get her feet wet and have a little activity this summer. It was a "junior ballet intensive" at Holly Springs School of Dance from 9am-noon Monday-Friday, and she LOVED it! They learned a lot and had a mini performance on Friday. Anna also started tennis lessons over at Sunset Ridge, which have also been a hit so far. She will have this coming week off, then 3 more weeks of lessons two days per week. Bob also was busy this past week with meetings regarding the upcoming dedication and opening of our new church. The clock is ticking now, and we are all very excited!
So, we had a good month of summer fun. I've spent a good bit of time grumbling about the hot weather, and I'm afraid I have rubbed my bad attitude off on the kids. Whoops. Regardless, we are having fun at the pool and braving the great outdoors when we can. When we can't, we've stayed busy playing inside, working on summer reading/workbooks, hit Marbles once with Sawyer, have been to the library, and have had lots of fun! We're looking forward to two short trips in July (a long weekend at the beach and Nashville for Doug and Christina's wedding), plus the church opening and party/picnic! It's going to be a great month!
