Summer's here!

Most of my blog readers live in Texas so this comes as no surprise, I'm sure. What with the 100 degree weather we are ALREADY having! The strange thing is, less than a month ago, we were still opening up all our windows to let in the fresh, cool air. It was unusual for May to be so temperate but we liked it. I especially liked my $25 electric bill last month. I can't even imagine what it'll be this month... YIKES!
Anyhoo, school is out (and has been for a week) and we have taken our first mini-vacation of the summer. With gas prices crushing us, we have planned to take little trips to places within an hour or two of home instead of a big trip somewhere far off. Added bonus to this is that with Jayme's schedule (he is off Tuesday through Friday) he doesn't have to use any vacation days and can save them for weekends in the fall when it's actually cool enough to camp without dying of heatstroke :)
At the end of the school year, Raley's school had an awards ceremony and we got a notice that he would be getting an award so we went up there and were very proud to witness his acknowledgments. He got awards for All A Honor Roll for the entire school year, Good Behavior (no detentions for the year), Top 10 AR Points in 5th grade (he was #10 with 480 points) and the Principal's Award which is based on criteria we were not really told about but the recipients are nominated by their teachers. Here's a pic:

They didn't have his AR award but we got it in the mail last week

From there we headed over to Clay's school for his class party. I was asked to bring "veggies and dip" which was a little disappointing because I knew the kids wouldn't eat it and I have some pretty good recipes for sweet treats. But I brought a nice veggie tray that included cucumber from our garden. I brought most of it back home. To be fair, the kids did like the carrots. Clay had a great time running around with the camera taking pictures of his friends. They had made tie-dye shirts and used markers to write their names on each other. Several of the sweet kids asked Jayme and I to sign their shirts! We even think we are going to make some shirts for our summer trips and write the names of all the places we go, kind of like a band tour shirt.

Clay with his sweet teacher, Ms. Keane

At the same time as Clay's party was the party for my Wednesday 2nd graders so I sneaked out to where they were to say goodbye. They had already given me two beautiful plants and homemade cards from each student. They were so adorable! my favorite was one little boy's that said, "Dear Mrs. Sims, I love you with all my heart, even when you yell." ISN'T THAT AWESOME?? At the party there were a couple more kids with presents for me. One sweet boy made me a little towel that he drew a picture on. I'm going to miss them so much! I hope I get to see them all next year in 3rd grade.
So summer is here, regardless of the date on the calendar, and we are looking forward to tons of fun. I will do my level best to document it here for you to enjoy!