Summer is here! Happy day! What a full, fun month it's been. Biggest highlight: Dane's graduation from Poway High. This was our first actual graduation ceremony as Evelyn skipped out a year early. We loved every minute of celebrating our awesome boy and his high school career. Girl's Camp, Father's day, Blake Rustand's wedding and a visit from Grammy and Papa made for the perfect start to summer.
With the school year winding down, we had quite a few parties to prep and plan. Anna and Grant invited all of their friends over for a year's end pool party- they were both a little miffed that they had to share the space with each inviting about 20 friends, but overall- it was a success. I wonder if there will ever be a time that they enjoy each other's friends and hang out together?
We had all of the youth over for a pool party that last week of school as well and the kids enjoyed root beer floats, soccer, basketball and swimming. Dane invited all of his senior buddies over for wings and sliders and swimming. I am going to miss all these boys- they have been good friends to Dane and I'm so glad he had such a stable group of friends through high school. We loved having Grammy, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Stacy down for a graduation dinner to celebrate Dane. We ate his favorite: salmon and steak and each of us gave him advice for college next year and shared our favorite stories about his growing up years. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful extended family- they have impacted Dane's life more than words can say.
It was such a treat to have Grammy and Papa in town especially with so much going on! As usual, I put them both to work with carpools, cooking, decorating and the like. My mom has more energy then I do- and is always so helpful. My dad does too, for that matter! He played pickleball every day for 6 hours while the kids were at school and loved every second. Though we mostly just stuck around town, we enjoyed attending the Speckles Organ concert at Balboa Park on Sunday and eating out at Cross Streets with Grant -- he's been dying to take us there; Handels for dessert was a win! SO grateful for my parents and their love and support. It's the best of times when they come to visit.
Father's day was very sweet. We made pies for all the dads at church, ate homemade cafe rio salad and brownie truffle for dessert! We drank dads root beer and told Blake all about why we love him so much and how grateful we are for all that he does for us. Our family is so blest to have the best father on earth.
Anna had quite the month- performing in a beautiful dance recital of which she was actually scared to death because she had missed the prior 4 rehearsals and didn't know the ending of the routine- ha! But she did so well and really pulled through with courage and confidence and talent. She is the cutest little dancer on earth and I LOVE watching her dance. Grandma does too-- it was so fun to sit with Nancy and watch together... we are both equally invested. At the end of the recital- they announced that Anna had earned the internship at Socal Dance! This means that she will get to help with classes and answering phones when she is not in class- she had applied, but since we hadn't heard, I was surprised she was chosen! Keeping Anna busy so far this summer--- Girl's Camp at Camp Wildwood with all of her little friends was such a blast. She loved doing the polar plunge and sunrise hike, the trail of treasure and crating, the t-shirt making and classes; the team building and devotionals. She loved her YCL's: Brookly, Bonnie and Prestly. On the last day, she became a camp-wide celebrity due to a tick embedding on her neck-ha! It was quite the talk of the town. We extracted that old sucker and she came out unscathed. Overall, a great experience.
Anna also enjoyed tennis camp this past week with Afton. I was surprised I heard not ONE complaint at any time, despite the heat and the length of the camp. Proud of my little girl! Anna won an incredible award at Twin Peaks at the close of the school year for Ram Scholar of the year out of the entire 7th grade! It was SUCH a surprise as school is not easy for her and works SO hard to keep up. I guess that was the whole point of the award- not just intelligence, but conscientiousness as a student and effort. Our girl is ALL ABOUT effort! Anna had the best day ever at Disneyland with the crew- celebrating Megan's 13th birthday! She had the best time supporting Silver at her acro competition and Megan at her dance recital. Summer is one constant string of activity. Anna NEVER wants to rest. From dying her hair, to swimming, to creating delicious meals for herself like avocado toast, blueberry cobbler and breakfast sandwiches, she is a whirlwind and hates sitting still.
Dane's last few weeks of school were full with grad nights, grad rehearsals, senior scavenger hunt, field days, senior picnic, etc! He was busy every moment! This summer is a little lighter as he only works part time at ESS due to all of our trips out of town. The kids at ESS sure love "Mr. Dane". They even created a sash with all of their handprints for him to wear on graduation day-- and he did wear it: with pride! Loved celebrating this wonderful boy all month long and truly do not know what we'll do without his funny jokes, helpful hands and kind words that regularly stabilize my sanity. He's the best.
Grant has entered a phase of obsession. It started off as typical: kid likes to surf in down time. It has increased to a level of crazy: kid will wake up at 5am numerous times a week to surf before school and then also beg his mom to take him the moment he walks in after school. Kid will do nothing but work on surfboards and check out waves in between and has lost interest in all other facets of life. Ha! I'm exaggerating a little, but only a little. He's always loved water-- I even found this picture of him as a 3 year old, leaping mightily into the pool-- so in many ways, this makes sense. Grant continues to also love driving and he's good. He enjoys soccer- less so now, but it's there. He thinks about his hair often, and loves his haircuts from Kenzie. He gets straight A's and O's for behavior. He is a lovely boy and I'm a big fan.
Ev continues to plug away at nursing school. This semester is really tough and she is stressed and working as hard as she can to excel and master the material. It was so fun to see her in Utah for Blake's wedding and also this past week here in San Diego- she came home for a concert to celebrate Emma's birthday. She grows up more and more each month and I'm so proud of the awesome person she is and all she teaches me about life. She is so insightful and a very deep thinker. So grateful for such a strong daughter.
Keeping Blake and I busy: Orthodontic staff appreciation day! I put together 18 baskets for the girls. And Blake took everyone out to dinner. Lots of fun youth activities such as the pinewood derby- YM/YW edition! It was a very fun few weeks putting together cars and then the actual event was also a huge success! So happy we did this. Loved celebrating the senior girls graduating this month with a spotlight, gift and a Q and A from all the younger girls. We are going to miss Emma, Ella and Anna!
Blake and I spent exactly 24 hours away in Utah for Blake Rustand's wedding to Maddie Smith. This was such a special day and we were over the moon excited to be there with the entire Rustand family- it had been a while since we'd seen Carie and Grandpa Rock and all of the Rustand sibs- such fun! And loved giving Blake and Maddie, along with Kate and Sione (soon to be married) a big hug and wishing them well on their new life together. Special day!
Loved attending little Sophie's preschool graduation- she makes our life happy; Celebrating Ashley's birthday with a big luncheon at my house and Leticia's birthday with Helen and Michelle; helping Sameen move to her new home in 4s Ranch!
Cathy came to visit for just one evening with the kids and we had the best time trying to catch up with many many interruptions from all the kids- ha! So grateful for this beautiful friend and all of the amazing memories we have together.
Gave part 2 of my executive functioning presentation at Trascend Behavioral Health! It was in person and I gave everyone a clipboard with a few ideas for client morning routines!
Please don't let summer go too quickly. I don't even want to think about Dane leaving---- ack!
