back on track

After a very busy spring, I am back! My friends warned me when I quit work that I would be busier than I ever was with a full-time job ... they were right!! Although I LOVE volunteering at church, it seems to keep me quite busy. So, now that our 'spring semester' of Women's Ministry has come to an end, my summer break begins.
Ema's last day of school is Tuesday; she has awards day! She'll be receiving a trophy for straight A's on her report card (although she did actually receive on "B" in conduct - they don't count that subject - good thing for us). She is full-force into softball right now. She is the youngest in the league this year, so she sits the bench about half the game. But she prefers that because she's mostly there to socialize more than play anyway!! She is looking forward to a summer filled with swimming. She was writing a list this week of what we'll do this summer (yes, she is her mother). The list consisted of: 1. wake up; 2. make bed; 3. go swim; 4. lunch; 5. ellie's nap; 6. swim again. She has invited all of her friends at school to come spend the night (not all at the same time again, though ... Mommy only makes that venture once a year for birthday). They all keep asking me, "can we really come swim this summer?" ... "are ya'll really gonna swim two times every day?" I can just imagine their conversations at school.
Ellie has become quite the conversationalist. She was 'discharged' from speech therapy a few weeks ago after her therapist decided there was nothing else she could really teach her at this age. She still can't say the 'r' sound and she gets her 'v' and 'b' confused alot, but apparently that's normal for a 2-year-old. She is so funny. She has the best sense of humor. Today Joel decided to wash his truck at the house, so the girls got dressed in swim suites and went to "help" Daddy. Ema would spray one spot about ten times with the hose and insist that it still wasn't clean enough. Ellie just played in the bucket of suds ... at the end of it all, after splashing in puddles and throwing soap everywhere, Ellie finally crawled into the 5-gallon bucket of soapy water and had a seat. Of course, Ema had to try that too. I just took pictures of it all. It's so fun to just sit and watch them!