Hellooooooo Summer! (lots of pics!)

Yep, HELLO SUMMER! We've gone from 50-degree weather a week ago, with the heat on in the house, to 90+ and the A/C on instead! Crazy weather in St. Louis...gotta love it!

So, I'm sure you've all been hanging on the edge of your seat wondering what we've been up to....so i'm trying to think of blog-worthy stuff to relate:

There was the Mother/Daughter Girl Scout brunch that Alaina and I and a few other girls/moms went to from our troop. It was a LOT of fun....Alaina really wanted to dress up for the event, and insisted that I dress up as well.....and the result was this:



(this was using Haynay's new kit: Good Times All Around)

While Alaina and I were glammin' it up with the Girl Scouts, Karl met up with his brother Ken at a Pow Wow in northern Illinois......and he took along our little friend Max as well:


Most annoying toy EVER......Max's parents were SO thankful Karl bought him this:


And it wouldn't be a week in May without a field trip for one of the kids....last week it was the PreK nature hike at Pere Marquette State Park. It was cold and rainy, and so they didn't actually hike at all! What they did instead was go to the visitor's center to look around at the displays there:


Then they watched a movie and listened to a presentation about mammals from the park ranger....then they walked over to a pavillion and made some smores (thankfully it had stopped raining by then). so we still had fun, even in the cold, yucky weather.



Now that it's 90 degrees out, it's hard to believe that I was wearing a sweatshirt and a jacket just last week! :P

this past Friday was our first experience at "the farm".....some friends of ours, the Kottens, just relocated to Philadelphia, and when they moved, they gifted us with their membership to the local community farm for this summer. SWEET! I was so excited. So Friday we showed up and picked up all our veggies for the week: bok choy, kale, lettuce, spinach, radishes, turnips, broccoli, strawberries, and all kinds of salad greens I've never seen before in my life (remember, I come from a family where the only green thing I usually saw was green beans....and those were cooked with bacon of course!). So I'm on the hunt for some recipes to use with all this healthy food!

Saturday was a retirement party for one of Karl's coworkers, Greg Gude. And to celebrate his 30+ years of teaching, a bunch of teachers/spouses got tickets and we all went to the Cardinals' game Saturday afternoon. It was a lot of fun, as games always are. It stinks that they lost and all, but we were hardly watching the game, we were so busy socializing with everybody else there!

Albert Pujols batting:

Karl and the honoree, Greg:

Former student and current Cardinals reliever, Kyle McClellan, hangin' out in the bullpen:


Then, once we gave up on the Cards', we headed to a pub down in the Soulard area of St. Louis for the actual party where they 'roasted' Greg and everyone consumed mass quantities of beverages and free food. :P

Uncle Dean and Auntie Stacy had the pleasure of all 3 Herman children Saturday night, so after we left the pub, Karl and I had the evening to ourselves. We went out for a nice, late dinner, then came home and watched a movie. it was wierd for us to not have the kids around!

Sunday was Alaina's Bridging ceremony for Girl Scouts......she bridged from Brownies to Juniors.....it was a cute little ceremony, if I do say so myself.

Here's our troop reciting the Girl Scout promise:

Alaina crossing the bridge from Brownies:

her fellow Juniors of our troop helping her switch vests....

And now she's a Junior Girl Scout! congrats, Alaina!

Here's our new troop....we started the school year with TWO girls.....look how much we've grown!


Monday night was the PreK graduation ceremony. Zach wasn't graduating, as he still has another year of PreK ahead of him. That would be IF there is a preK next year for him to even go to! So for that reason, this ceremony was especially emotional for the teachers, as Mrs. Young, the aide, is currently without a job thanks to our state's big ol' financial messola......and Mrs. Pohlman will be reassigned to another grade if there's no PreK for next year. They've been teaching PreK for 20 years. It'll be such a HUGE loss to the kids of this area if there's no PreK next fall. I cry just thinking about it......not just for Zach, but for all the other kids that could benefit from the program as much as he has. The progress he's made over this last year is just amazing.....I hate the thought of him not getting to go next year...having a year of no school and then going straight to kindergarten. stinks. it just stinks! **climbing down off soapbox**

So here's the pictures from graduation:

Zach refusing to sing any of the songs:


receiving his gift from his teacher:


our little returning PreK-er:


and with his teachers, Mrs. Pohlman and Mrs. Young:


Tuesday was the kids' last day of school......I ducked out of work for a couple hours to help "lifeguard" Zach's pool party:





And then there were bubbles to blow as well (i just LOVE this picture!):


Then I went to take some pictures of Alaina and Matthew enjoying the last day of school with their friends:


Saying goodbye to Mrs. Medford:

and Miss Beauchamp:

And it was also Award Day, and Matthew brought home three of them:
One for Character Plus Reliability:

And the others for being a Math Wiz and for being on the Honor Roll:

That's our smartie-pants Matthew!

So that catches ya up! Today was the first day of summer vacation for the kids and the last day of school for Karl.....tomorrow summer officially starts for the Herman family.....and the countdown is on for all those fun summer activities you know I've got planned! :D First up, wedding this weekend in Fairfield.....and then finding somebody with a pool for Memorial Day! Any volunteers? :P

And I guess I'll finish with the layouts I've done the last few days or so......

the PreK fishing field trip


misc. pics from our Atlanta trip:


Alaina's class Nature hike:


Alaina's first softball game:


and lastly, Matthew's class trip to the Zoo:


That's it for me for now...that's enough blogging to last me for awhile! :D Have a great holiday weekend everybody! Remember the sunscreen for all you fair-skinned folks like myself! :D

Busy, Busy, Busy!

yes, I know. EVERYBODY else is busy too! but it seems that with the whole Facebook thing going on, the ol' blog tends to get neglected nowadays! :D ah well....here I am, a week-ish late.......didya miss me? If you're my FB friend, you basically know what's going on with me anyways. and if you're NOT my FB friend....why would you be reading my blog? are there people out there NOT on Facebook? **GASP** :P rambling aside......

The last couple of weeks have just been non-stop action around the Herman household.....softball games, practices, field trips....it's been pure insanity, as always. what would I do without the hectic schedule to keep me on my toes? I really don't know. I'm guessing I'd get more sleep, the house would be cleaner, and Subway would make a lot less money.....but where would the fun in that be? :P

We had an interesting storm last week......just got rain at our house, but apparently, just a couple miles north of us, there was inch-diameter hail! And then there was this:


And this was all on our way to a softball game......and in town it had barely rained either. Wierd storm! The Strykers totally wiped the field with their opponents once again....check out that most-serious batting stance:


So, lemme think what else we've done......There was Alaina's class field trip to the Magic House in St. Louis. i LOVE the magic house. it's one of the best children's museums I think I've ever been to. It's a blast. and they've just added a huge new wing, so it's twice the size it was the last time we were there.

There was this beanstalk that all the kids got to climb up 3 stories.....us parents were pretty tired by the time we followed them up the stairs! :D



Her hair was too long for this to work very well this time, but it's still funny:


she would've staying in this room blowing bubbles all day if I'd let her:


and another favorite.....the mock-TV station where she got to read the newscast for the day....cool!



The Magic House is awesome.......if you ever make it to the St. Louis area, I highly recommend spending the day there! :D

Then there're all the PreK events going on.....it's hard to keep up with all those field trips! Last week there was the PreK bike ride:
Zach and his Thomas bike:

getting ready to start the 'race'



And this week was the PreK fishing trip.....not too hard to pick which pictures to post from that, as karl only took TWO OF THEM. grrrrrrrr......sheesh.



And of course this past weekend was Mother's Day......I got a semi-cooperative picture of myself with the kids:


I'm a little bummed at present, because this morning I was supposed to be running in the PTA 5K at Karl's school......I've got my tshirt....i had my number ready to pin on....we wake up this morning and it's pouring down rain. boo! now, granted....they still had the run.....but uhm.....I'm not THAT hardcore that I'll go run 3 miles in 40-degree rain. my apologies to all the hard-core running enthusiasts that're probably mortified and disappointed at me pulling out of the race, but knowing MY luck.....i'd end up with pneumonia! plus, i didn't exactly want my kids standing out there in it to cheer me on....and they insisted on cheering mom on because they know how important this was to me. So oh well....no race today. Hopefully we'll have better weather next month for the Komen race.....and here's yet ANOTHER plug.....PLEASE DONATE TO MY RUN

And now, I'm off to go get dressed for the Mother/Daughter brunch our Girl Scout council is having. Alaina and I are having a "girls-only day" today....as Karl, Matthew, Zach, and our little friend Max have taken off on for some Native American Pow-Wow with Karl's brother Ken......so they'll be gone all day.

SOOOOO.......still haven't really been in the mood to scrap much, I'm ashamed to say. not sure what the problem is.....i've just been doing more reading lately than scrapping. What am I reading? Wuthering Heights. I'm ashamed to admit I'd never read it before. HOW i managed to get through all the schooling I did without being required to read that book is a mystery. And I just finished it. That thing is darned LONG! But anyways....now I can check that off the list. Heathcliff is nothing to my beloved Mr. Darcy though, that's for sure. still, an interesting book, and i can see why it's a literary classic. now, I get to move on to the umpteen other classic novels I never read and have now downloaded for free. woohoo!

tonight.....grand plans for our girls-only evening.....alaina wants steak n shake for dinner and then a movie. i'm guessing i'll be dragged to that 'how to train your dragon' thing that i have no desire to see. bah. oh well.....she'll love it!

Layouts......first up......a plug for Haynay.....her kit Mr. and Mrs. is obviously wedding-themed, and since I've been married awhile and didn't have anything wedding-ish to scrap, I did what I always do now......channeled the power of Facebook! And the result, courtesy of my friend Heather, and her fiance Scott:


Hope she likes it! I'm gonna frame it and give it to her as a wedding gift. :P

And speaking of gifts......Here's what I'm giving the kids' teachers for their end-of-year gifts this year....same concept:

First up, (using School's Out for Summer and it's add-on), For Mrs. Pohlman and Mrs. Young, Zach's teachers:


For Miss Beauchamp, Matthew's teacher, whose class nickname is the Busy Bees:


And for Mrs. Medford, Alaina's teacher.....the Mega Minds:


the final layouts from our trip to World Conference:
my friend Kerri's daughter Tatum's birthday party at the pool:


and the other misc. pictures I took over that weekend....of the services, and me and Karl with our church President:


i made this layout with another kit of Haynay's, "Chronicling Life: May"....it's to immortalize Zach's obsession with the Owl City song "Fireflies"....he LOVES this song....the instant we get in the car, he asks me to play it. "Play MY SONG!" he'll say......he's so cute....love it. and since i love the song too, i don't mind:


last layout to post....of Zach's preK field trip to the town library a few weeks ago...it was only the library, but those kids had a GREAT time!


and so I guess that's it for now.....