May 2022

 McKenna finished up her first season of soccer and had a really great experience. I loved being able to share my love of soccer with her and her team. They had a tournament to end the season with two games on Saturday and the two teams who scored the most points would play in a championship on Sunday.

 McKenna played her heart out on Saturday and even scored one of the goals that allowed her team to be in the championship! Richard tried to get a picture of her goal but someone moved in front of him so he shifted how he was holding the phone and didn't notice his thumb was right in front of the camera. So here is what we got of Kenna's amazing goal. We love to tease him about it!

I was proud of McKenna for knowing and understanding that we wouldn't be at the championship game on Sunday, even though it was hard. It was even harder knowing that two of her teammates wouldn't be there and so they wouldn't have any subs if McKenna didn't go. Afterwards, we heard that two of her other teammates got hurt during the game so they ended the game with not even enough players on the field. They did their best but ended up in second place and they all got silver medals.

Brooklyn got to go on a field trip to the zoo. The week before, they tie-dyed T-shirts at school so they were all matching. The class broke off into little groups that were each assigned to a chaperone and then they were able to go anywhere they wanted in the zoo. Brooklyn's group combined with another group and she had most of her closest friends to walk around with. Sounded like they had a great day!

Brooklyn loves to play with makeup. One day she went into the bathroom and then I heard her giggling. She said, "Mom when you see me, you're gonna laugh because I look like a clown!" She wasn't wrong about that- ha ha!

All of the paranoia that Richard has had about the girls damaging the wall apparently should have been turned onto me. I was playing the floor is lava with Brooklyn and jumped onto one of our kitchen chairs. It slid across the floor and slammed into the wall, where it left a big dent in our beautiful, newly painted wall that we had worked so hard on! Oops!

McKenna had such a great school year! This year really made such a difference for her. Her teacher saw a lot of good in her and gave her chances to be a leader and grow. She was chosen to do an after school club called Girls in Science, she was chosen to be the tech helper for her classroom, she was chosen to be on an advanced team for Momentum, and was frequently chosen to help the younger grades with gym. She grew so much in confidence and I loved watching her grow into her abilities. Thank goodness for great teachers who see that potential and help the kids figure out how to access it!

Kaylee has such a great Young Women's class. They all seem to get along and have fun together. One of them has been inviting the entire class over to her house for pizza, games, bowling, ice cream, swimming, etc. and it has really helped them bond. It makes me happy that she has a good group of girls to rely on and be friends with.

I wasn't looking forward to my birthday very much because we had a crazy couple of weeks and I knew we wouldn't be able to do much to celebrate. We went out to eat a few days before my birthday because it was the only night we had open. I had been feeling overwhelmed and it just felt like we had been running from place to place and so the morning of my birthday I just decided that what I needed the most was just to do nothing! I didn't clean or cook or work and I was able to sit down and read and watch a movie and just relax. It was just what I needed and surprisingly I was super happy about my day! Ha ha. I also had my ministering sister take me out to breakfast a few days later and Kelsey and I went to lunch. 

We finished our bathroom renovation! It was extremely satisfying to take out the makeshift countertop and the ugly industrial light and make it something I am not embarrassed of when people see it! I think we are ready to take a break from renovations for a while though!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

For Mother's Day I made the family go on a long walk around Antrim Lake with me. It was a gorgeous day and I got exactly what I wanted- to spend some time out in nature with my favorite people.

We had been reading about the Tabernacle in the Old Testament and I thought it might be fun to try to recreate our own to give the kids a better idea of how it was set up. I gave everyone an assignment and we all had a few minutes to gather what we could. Kaylee volunteered to be our priest and I got to dress her up. McKenna's Ark of the Covenant with wings cracked me up! I don't know if they will remember this but I had fun making our own little Tabernacle!

Along with all the other end of school events, Kaylee had her final orchestra concert. She has really enjoyed playing viola and decided to keep going with it next year. I was surprised at how much they learned and how well they played in just one year!

Our friends, the Crossley's, got roped into helping us build our shed. We promised them a BBQ lunch if they would come help us for a few hours but I don't think they knew what they were getting into! It ended up taking us a full 7 hours to finish! We kept telling them they were off the hook and could leave any time but they stayed through to the end. We were so grateful they helped us and made it a manageable project for one day. I'm not sure we could have done the whole thing on our own! We absolutely love it and I love not having to bring the girl's bikes up from the basement every time they want to ride.

Our ward had a Memorial Day 5k and breakfast so we got up early to participate. Kaylee ran with me, McKenna rollerbladed, and Brooklyn roller bladed (with Richard's help) for part of the race. I forgot how much I enjoy running those races but I could only do half of it before I decided I was too out of shape for the rest! Ha ha. We had a great breakfast and played at the park for a few hours before heading home. Richard went to his branch's activity for lunch and we came home and watched a movie and had a kebab BBQ for dinner.

For the first day of summer, I surprised the girl's with new water guns and they seemed to have a lot of fun with them. When they got tired of spraying each other, they just went around and sprayed everything else!