End of the School Year Stuff, a Little Outdoor Time, a New-to-Us Piano, and Gardening. Oh, and Larry!

Things got a little crazy after Spring Break...  Once again, I apologize for my blog absence.  I thought it would be best to get caught back up in smaller increments.  As I have mentioned before, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you'll have a more up-to-date version of our daily happenings as they occur :)

This past school year was the last year that the minions and I will probably work/attend the same schools...  It was a little sad for me.  In the Fall, little man will be heading off to middle school, little miss will remain at her current elementary school, and I will begin a new school nursing job (a full-time position instead of the half-time) at a different elementary school.  Juggling everything next year with drop offs and pick ups and school activities is going to be interesting but we'll get it all sorted.

The minions had a lot of fun during our Field Day this year.

Each year, our elementary schools holds a big talent show that usually encompasses part of two days towards the end of the school year.  This year, little man partnered with a friend of his for a Ghostbusters performance.  As they talked about it, the idea for costumes came about and I was able to find brown coveralls and could customize the patches to make it more authentic.  The proton packs and Stay Puft costume was created by Nick's friend's Grandmother.  I thought it all came together rather nicely :)

There were band concerts and orchestra concerts and piano recitals...  Little man had his graduation ceremony, and plans were made for Summer activities.  Spring was nice though - the weather was good, we played lots of soccer and spent quite a bit of time outdoors.

 

I am very proud of how well both minions are doing in school. As part of little man's 5th Grade Award Ceremony he was one of the ones awarded with the President's Award for Educational Excellence. :)

   

Random afternoon spent trying to "get the shot". 

When the weather was nice and we happened to have an afternoon to ourselves, we liked to head to the parks and stretch our legs for a while.

   

 I think it was early April when I received a call from the minions' piano teacher asking if we wanted a piano for the minions to practice on at home. "How much?" Free - all we had to do was move it! The hubby made a call or two and within a few days the guys had taken a smaller Wurlitzer piano from one house to ours. Then the fun began. Some of the keys didn't quite work but it seemed to be in fairly good condition so we opened it up and found a bunch of stuff on the inside.

 

Some of the paperwork was from the 1970's. Now that it's been properly tuned both minions are enjoying their time on the piano :)

 

Last year, our gardening projects were almost non-existent due to scheduling and weather. This year, however, we are on the ball and have 13 large containers lining our fence containing various peppers, tomatoes, and peas. We had a nice thing of peas going along but they didn't get watered over Memorial Day weekend so we are starting again. Not sure how the peas will do being planted so late, but we'll see :) We've also got flowers, herbs, and I made some hanging pot holders for the fence again this year!

   

I think that's enough pictures for this post.  Next up will be soccer!  I'm hoping to find more time this evening to get that post finished as well :) Totally forgot to put up a picture of Larry. Larry is a tarantula that I got to hold this year :) Isn't he cute????? He's an Arizona Gold.