June - The month of celebration

Flowers bloomed, rain stopped, clouds gone, my sister came to live with me and interning with Microsoft, it must be summer!!! 

I'm so late to write up the events of June.  I can hardly believe it is mid July already!!!  We had an eventful June.  The first part of June was really nice so we got the kids swimming pool out for them to play in and we had a few more bbqs with friends and neighbors.

 We've been inviting a family over to our house just about every FHE for about 4-5 months now.  It's been a lot of fun getting to know people this way and having them over to our house creates a greater friendship.

The Poppies Arrived
       A little story about these wild flowers.  Our builder brought in an excavator who apparently didn't see the fence line and brought dirt about 8 ft past our fence line.  The HOA complaint and told us we have to do a hydroseed and fill that area up with wild flowers seed.  We had our landscapers do that and we've thoroughly enjoy all the different flowers that came up.  In may we had tiny little bluish flowers that looked like forget me nots. Then the poppies came and everyone in the neighborhood stopped by everyday admiring them.  Photographers brought by their cameras and would be back there for hours taking pictures of the beautiful wild flowers.  It was very fun for us to watch the whole thing.  We enjoyed the view it gave us from our bedroom window and meeting some neighbors who came by asking us if we had put those lovely flowers down for the neighborhood to enjoy.  We liked it so much we're thinking about putting seeds down every year for the sake of the enjoyment.

End of the Year Celebration
     Reena's school had an end of the year celebration and since I was part of the PTSA I volunteered to be one of the party planners.  We had a lot of fun games and a lot of food.  I for fun decided to make a cake.  It was for the parents to enjoy. We deserve it!! We made it through a whole year of school just like the kids.  Reena did really well on her report card so she deserve some cake, too.

The Yellow Team (Susan, Irina, and some other lady in the hat:)

Gymnastics Olympiad
    Reena also had a gymnastics performance where she was rewarded a completion medallion.  She was very proud of it.

Brie also completed her one year of gymnastics.  Dance is next.

Debrie's Preschool End of the Year Circus Theme Celebration

Highlands Day

We have a very diverse community, enough to have dances from many countries performed by the Highlands Community residents.

The kids enjoyed the rides they brought in and we enjoyed the food made by the restaurants in our community.  I just love our community!!

Skyhigh Sports.  To celebrate school being over, bc we didn't have enough celebration already, I took the kids to Skyhigh Sports trampoline with my friend Rachel one day when our Zumba class was canceled.  Fun?  oh yeah!

 

One of the things the kids enjoy watching in the summer is parachutes falling from the sky.  We see them in the other months as well but they are definitely more common in the summer. Not too far from our house is a mountain that is known for hang gliding.  They usually land at the park in front of our house and our kids have seen and talk to some of them.  I have taken pictures of the hang gliders in the air and show them the pictures I took.  Maybe some day we will have the courage to try hang gliding.

 

 The Big 50k Ultra Marathon

 So out of pure peer pressure I signed up for an Ultra Marathon in Vashon Island with my friend Danielle. I've always wanted to do a marathon before I'm 30 but I didn't think I would feel ready after 4 months of training.  I ran into Seattle from our house which is about 18 miles and felt good enough to sign up for an ultra marathon, a 50k or 31 mile race.  It was the craziest thing I've ever done.  I felt pretty good after 20 miles but my knees and legs started feeling it about 25 miles in.  The last 5 miles was probably the hardest but I'm glad I finished.  Not counting a break after 20 miles for lunch and some electrolytes food and drinks, bathroom breaks, we did it in a little under 7 hours, which was not fast but we ran it and we finished!! It was worth it and I would do it again!!!  Thanks to a wonderful husband who took care of our children while I was training and for his support throughout.  Couldn't have done it without him.

 

Barbershop Concert.  Dan and I bought tickets to see Matt Astle, Dan's cousin in law and hisbarbershop group performed.  We almost forgot because it was on the same day as my race.  We called our neighbor and her son over to watch the kids for us and we took off to see the concert.  They had many different barbershop groups from all over the country performed and they were really good.  We missed part of it and I talked to the guy in charge of the tickets and he gave us tickets to see it the next day.  We were very grateful since we spent $40 on it and hated that we missed part of it.  It all turned out great and the kids even got to see some of it the next day when we brought them to see the parts we missed.

Another celebration we had this month was a block party.  I just love our block. It was a very fun celebration.  The street was blocked off and the kids got to ride their bikes and scooters.  We had food from many countries because we are very diverse neighborhood. I'm in Vegas blogging this in and do not have those pictures on my laptop so those pics will have to go into July's blog.   Lastly, to celebrate the start of summer we also bought a fire pit and made s'mores as a family for FHE.  We look forward to cooking some good grubs with real fire.  Notice the wood.  Left over from our fence. We have 3 boxes full.  Should last us a while.

Lastly, Father's day.  We got the Amazon Prime and got our daddy's gifts and went out and splurge a little on Dan.  He got robotics stuff and a whole new Sunday outfit.  Father's day morning he beat me out of bed and made me breakfast in bed.  I meant to do that for him but it was sweet of him to serve.  I love him.