Joel, Anna, Joel's buddy and I went to the State Capitol. It was amazing inside (I had never been). This adventure was to fulfill a requirement for Citizenship in the Nation merit badge.
After seeing the Capitol and the Ola Miller Babcock building (another Citizenship requirement.....visit a location on the National Historical Register....The Ola building was conveniently located near the Capitol.....it was a former Iowa Historical Museum and now houses the State Library and legislative offices....not too exciting) we went for lunch at Tacopocalips for lunch. This cool piano lives on the corner of a downtown street.
June included a bunch of baseball for Joel. He finished his regular season and now is practicing for the All Star games that will take place this weekend.
Joel unofficially won the "most hit by pitch" award on our team.....ouch......taking one for the team.
Actually on May 31, Carolyn had her buddies over for a post-finals, end of school celebration. Then at 3:00pm they anxiously found out their Show Choir placements for next year. Carolyn was excited to be place in "Yet to be Named" the newest (obviously, given that it has no name) show choir for our school. I wanted to write a letter to the director, thanking him for making her (and therefore the house) so happy for the summer. In the end she would have done fine in any choir, but she would have stewed over the summer until show choir camp started if she was placed in a lower choir.....at least I have a very good guess this would have been the case!
Vacation Bible School.....Maker Fun Factory......Carolyn and Joel were crew leaders and Anna had her last year as a participant. Yep - she will be a crew leader next year - crazy! Matthew stayed home and cared for the puppy. (He named the dog a crazy Pokemon name, but we just called the dog "bear") Joel isn't in the VBS shirt picture below as he left for Scout camp before I took a picture. (The girls wore their shirts on Sunday to sing a song for the congregation.) Bear went back for his surgery and I am sure was adopted the next day.....so cute....but all puppy!
Joel was the official Bugler for his troop at scout camp. It was at Family Night that I realized how badly his trumpet was damaged since I last saw it. We have since bought another trumpet, but will save the story for another day!
We play more board games in the summer than the entire school year. One new game for 2017 is Telestrations.....pretty entertaining. (Think of the "telephone game" (where on person starts a story and passes it along.......but instead of words use pictures)).
Four Person Chess, another new game for the summer. I find chess a challenge, this game is over the top hard. Luckily, I have 4 kids and it isn't called Five Person Chess
Here is Matthew at University of Iowa Orientation (actually at the beginning of the month, followed very closely by Wisdom teeth removal) Here he is with a real periodic table of the elements. Right up his alley, although he isn't going to take chemistry until Spring.
