Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend was one big extended party around here.  Or more accurately, we hopped from one party to the next to the next.  We were pretty busy so I didn't really get many pictures, but we did eat well and enjoy very good company.

On Saturday we started out a graduation open house for the high school seniors in our ward.  There was a yummy nacho bar and lots of other goodies.  It was also reallly nice to visit with friends from church.  One of the girls graduating used to babysit our girls when they were little, now she is all grown up and off to BYU.  It happens so fast, Ashley's turn will be here before we know it. 

After the open house, we sped over to our neighbors' house for a bbq and pool party.  The kids swam in the pool while the adults visited.  Our friends, the Edrosa's have a little girl, Riley, who is Paige's age.  Riley and Paige are basically best friends and play together all the time.  Recently, if Paige isn't at home then she is at Riley's.  We always joke that the girls are just another member of each of our families.  The other day, we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner and Riley was with us.  Dave was still at work so it was just me and the girls.  Funny thing was that when I said, I have two daughters and the other little girl is my daughter's friend, they thought that Riley was my daughter and Paige the friend.  You see, the Edrosa's are a Korean/Phillipino family, so Riley really does look more like me than Paige!

Anyway, we had a great time at the bbq.  We ate lots of delicious Korean bbq as well as all the regular cookout staples.  It was fun to just visit and joke around with friends.

The next day, after church we hosted a bbq at our house and had some friends from church over.  We thought it might be too hot to eat outside but fortunately by evening time it cooled down.  So we had some yummy grilled chicken in the backyard.  We ended that evening, with a rousing game of dominoes.

On Memorial Day, we were invited by some other friends to a bbq, but they had to cancel at the last minute because the mom was very sick with strep throat.  Instead, we had their kids come over and go swimming with us.  Because, yes! our pool officially opened for the season.  I love having the pool, it really is one of the best parts of summer.

Renwick Lake Preserve Heron Rookery - family field trip

Not too long ago our Relief Society (women's organization at church) made a visit to a bird refuge not too far from our house.  I decided to go because, 1)we always drive by and see these huge nesting platforms in the middle of a lake and wonder about them and 2)since my family is into "birding" now, I thought this might be something they would like.  So I went and I am so glad I did!  Not only did I learn a lot but I basically found a lovely little gem of a place about 20 minutes from our home.

After my visit, on our first free Saturday, I took the whole family for visit.  The refuge is called the Renwick Lake Preserve and is in Oswego, Illinois.  In addition to the birds, the "lake" itself has an interesting history.  It used to be a gravel pit, but in the late 1800s the digging uncovered a natural spring and subsequently filled the pit with water, creating a lake.  For a time the lake was used for recreation---swimming, fishing, ice skating.  They even built a hotel and restaurant on it's banks.  Unfortunately, this same hotel and restaurant dumped it's garbage and sewage right into the lake so that by the 1920s the lake was too polluted to be usable and the lake and land around around it were basically left to nature. 

There were a few small islands in the lake covered in trees and other vegetation.  And eventually birds started using the islands to nest.  Three major types of birds would come every year to nest -- Great Blue Herons, Cormorants, and Great Egrets.  There were so many birds that their droppings killed all the vegetation on the islands, so that is when the State of Illinois stepped in and declared it a preserve and built wooden nesting platforms for the birds.  Basically, the islands are a bird nursery, but from a distance they look like the sails of a haunted pirate ship.

Not my photo, it's taken from the Preserve website.  This place
is also popular with nature photographers

Now the area is protected and during the nesting season you can only visit on certain days at certain times, and many of the trails around the lake are closed so as not to disturb the birds.  When you do go visit however, there are volunteer "birders" there with really nice scopes so that you can view the birds. 

Now with all that background out of the way, I have to tell you we loved our family field trip.  It was so fun.  There are thousands of birds and they are huge.  A Great Blue Heron stands over 5 feet tall, yep just about the same height as me!  We could see the birds' nests very clearly.  We were also able to see the parents fusing, feed and taking care of their fuzzy headed babies in their nests.  It really is interesting to see so many birds of different kinds all nesting together.  They sort of have a pecking order or as the visitor center at the rookery said an "apartment building" arrangement.  The Great Blue Heron's are on the top floor, Cormorants on the middle, and Egrets on the bottom.  These birds fly south for the winter but come back every spring during breeding season.  They come from as far away as Argentina. 

Another plus was that we saw a bunch of other birds and animals while at the preserve such as turtles sunning on the islands with all the birds and turkey vultures flying overhead.  While we were there we got lots of good advice about backyard birding from the volunteers and even some more suggestions for birdwatching field trips in the future.

Go Lightning! 2nd Grade Soccer

Paige also played soccer this season and we had just as much fun watching her as we did Ashley.  Those 2nd grade girls are so cute and they really do have the best coach.  We adore Coach Kerry!  He is so good with the girls and also teaches them a lot about soccer. 

Soccer season was much more manageable this season because Ashley played during the week and Paige on Saturdays so we didn't have to worry about conflicts. 

Paige had a great season and scored a goal in 4 of 6 games!  She perfected the long range shot and caught a lot of little goalies off guard with her outside shots. 

End of season trophies!

Go Bulldogs! Girls' Soccer

Ashley played on her school soccer team this year.  This was her first time ever playing competitive sports, she has always just played recreationally.  It was a good learning experience for her and I think she enjoyed being part of a school team.

Her team took 3rd place in the conference tournament.  They were a pretty good team and did have a shot at the championship.  The conference league is really interesting.  It basically consists of half Oswego schools and half Aurora schools.  The Aurora schools are more inner city and the Oswego more suburban.  Basically, the way it works out is that the you have a huge talent gap between the Aurora and Oswego schools.  This means that for teams like Ashley's they spent half the season killing teams from Aurora, beating them 8-0 and the other half of the games against other Oswego schools were very, very close.  No middle ground really.

We had a great time going to watch Ashley play and cheer her on.  I'm pretty sure she will try out again next year.  The whole next year thing is a little up in the air, with the school boundary change, half of the team will be going to a different school next year as will the coach.  It will be difficult to replace some of the really good players.  As for the coach, I can say that many of the parents are NOT sad to see her go---to put it nicely, she is a different person and really just plain mean but not in a "coach trying to motivate players" sort of way, more like a "sarcastic, bully" sort of way--not really the kind of person you want as a role model for your child.

Anyhow, soccer kept Ashley and our family very busy in the spring but it was fun.  Ashley chose to be #10, Grandpa Tana's number and a tribute to Pele!

 

Flat Stanley Got Spoiled

2nd grade = The Flat Stanley project and this time we sent Flat Stanley to California to visit my sister Debby.  And my, oh my did he get spoiled.  He went to a Laker's playoff game, Disneyland and In and Out Burger.  After all that fun, we are lucky that he came home.

We have to give a big shout out to Aunt Debby, who so graciously carried Flat Stanley around and took pictures with him.  She sent a big packet of pictures, a DVD and a letter back to Paige's class.  Paige was very excited to read all about California and share it with her class.  Now that Flat Stanley has shown us all the fun things to do in California, we can't wait for our trip! 

Spring Smiles

Okay new school picture plan.  Remember all my complaining about Fall school pictures.  Well here are the girls' Spring pictures and I have decided this is the way I am going to go next year. 

In the Spring, everyone gets their picture taken and then the photographer sends home a packet of photos.  If you want any of the photos, you keep the ones you want to buy and send in a check to pay for them, returning pictures you don't want.  If every photo is horrible, then you send it all back and you aren't out any money.  The new plan is to try the risk free Spring photos.  If I don't like them, I'll take the girls to a studio.  No more worrying about retakes, refunds, etc.

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day.  I know lots of other moms & women hate Mother's Day for a bunch of different reasons.  I'm not going to judge, to each their own. 

But...I LOVE MOTHER'S DAY!  It is not about the presents I get or what my family does or doesn't do for me.  It about spending time together as a family.  Okay the "the Restaurant" is pretty fun too!

Our family tradition is for Dave and the girls to create a "restaurant" for dinner.  They are really getting pretty good at this.  They also have to be creative to come with a new theme every year.   This years restaurant was called, "Mother's Day Surf and Turf."  There is even a picture of me surfing on a steak on the cover of the menu.

As you can see we had NY steak, sea scallops and watermelon (my favorite food!)  For dessert Ashley made strawberry Danish dessert cake.  Everything was delicious.  It was such a nice day that we ate outside on the patio and soaked up lots of warm sunshine.

I also got some fabulous presents from the girls.  First off, an alarm clock with iPhone dock for my side of the bed.  We have one on Dave's side but I really wanted one for my side.  Secondly, Dave & Ashley bought each person in the family a tennis racket.  This has been on my list of wants for a long time but I have just never got around to it.  We have a tennis court as part of our rec club, so it will be great to go over as a family and hit a few balls around.  Fun, fun, fun!

I also got a few handmade gifts from Paige.  Between class, church, girl scouts, and every other group she is in, she had a quite a few Mother's Day projects to give to me.  In fact, I opened the coil clay pot she made in art early, because according to Paige, "Mom, I already have so many gifts for you to open on Mother's Day, can you just open this one now?"  I was the proud recipient of duct tape flowers, flower pens, a chocolate bar and three separate poems.  Wow!  I loved all of them!

Awesome picture Paige drew of us playing soccer

Can't forget the entertainment.  The girls upped the ante this year-
Ashley learned to play, "The Music of the Night" from Phantom and Paige sang the words.  So cute!

I've been particular lacking when it comes to taking pictures on Sunday mornings.  I always forget.  I would have liked a picture of me and the girls in our church clothes, but oh well, t-shirts are good too.

What a nice day, everyone was happy.  What more can you ask for as a mother?  It doesn't have to  be perfect, just happy.