Time flies when you're having fun! We are having a great summer, jam packed with lots of fun activities. It's past time to get some updates written!
The month of June started with Margie spending a week at Finance Park. Kind of like a life-size game of Life, you may remember that Lyn went there for a field trip back in March. Margie joined her as a parent volunteer and discovered that it is her favorite place to be in all the world. She immediately signed up as a permanent volunteer and was assigned a week of working with another county middle school. She loved loved loved loved it!
John wrapped up electronics club with an end of the year party, during which everyone was supposed to unveil the projects they had been working on all month. Unfortunately, John's imagination exceeded his skill level, and he wasn't able to complete the game he had in mind. Bummer!
John also participated in the biggest track meet of the season--the Junior Olympics tryouts. While he did extremely well and set two personal records, including shaving a full TEN SECONDS off his previous time in the 200m dash, he was not fast enough to make it to the next round. His team mates did very well, though, and two of them have made it all the way to the finals to be held in Dallas next week!
Margie seems to have turned into the queen of ticket sales and spent another week at Lyn's school, this time selling tickets to Tiger Night. This is an evening of fun, games and food just for the students--no parents allowed! Lyn had a great time.
Margie loved Finance Park so much that she practically begged for additional volunteer opportunities and found out about another program called "JA in a Day." Finance Park is sponsored by an organization called Junior Achievement--a non-profit dedicated to teaching children work-readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Typically, teachers use the Junior Achievement curriculum (offered K -12) and have a volunteer in their classroom over the course of several weeks. Sometimes, however, they prefer to knock it all out in one day--hence, "JA in a Day." Anyway, there was a school in need of someone to come in, and Margie jumped at the chance. She spent an entire day with a group of first graders (quite a bit different than the 8th graders she had been working with at Finance Park!), and it was a blast! They were soooo cute, and they just loved Margie so much. They told her they wanted her to stay forever.
The family also had an opportunity to help serve at the opening night party for Plaza Suite at LTA. We have done this several times in the past. Margie started it, then Dan said he wanted to help, then Lyn said she wanted to help, and now we've roped in John as well. It is a great opportunity to serve, and this last time we received lots of comments about how great it was to see a whole family working together. Go Remmers!
Speaking of Plaza Suite, I mentioned last month that Dan had been asked to build the signature headboard. He ended up hand painting the elaborate details, and it turned out beautifully. I wish we would have thought to get a picture. It truly was exquisite. He did such a good job, though, that now he's worried people are going to start asking him to paint more!
Also in June, Dan and Margie went on their little bike trip vacation. They had a great time, but the details deserve their own post, so we'll cover that separately.
While they were gone, John headed off to a week of overnight Boy Scout Camp. Usually the troop goes to Goshen, but this year it was full, so they went Camp Rodney instead, which is near Baltimore. John had a great time learning swimming, archery, rifle shooting, and digital technology. He said that camp is really fun the first two days, kind boring the second two days, and finally, you just really want to go home. LOL! Unfortunately, he slashed his foot on the last day, so he wasn't able to complete his swim test, but thanks to the lessons, he feels confident that he'll be able to do it. His scout leader is arranging another time to do this, which is really important for John to be able to continue to advance in rank.
The last night, Camp Rodney has a family night, where they serve a big meal, do a little program, and give the scouts an opportunity to show their families what they have been doing and where they have been living all week. John's campsite had a beautiful view of the Chesapeake Bay, but holy cow--there were so many spiders!! Good thing boys are hardy!
Also in June, Dan's sister Debbie turned the big 5-0!! (Or, as Dan pointed out, 32 in hexadecimal.) She and her husband hosted a big party, and we got to meet their friends and neighbors. Plus, what a shock(!), we received a surprise visit from sister-in-law Jen, who just happened to be visiting from Seattle for a conference in DC. It was a fun time, but this means it's Dan's turn next year. Mark your calendars now!
A couple other random things that happened in June:
1) Earlier in the year, Margie bought half a share in a community supported agriculture program, and now she is enjoying the bounty of farm fresh fruits and vegetables.
2) The kids enjoyed their last day of school. Due to all the snow earlier in the year, the school year was extended three days. Because camp was already scheduled and paid for, John had to miss his last days, which was particularly sad because he had to miss his 6th grade promotion ceremony. While Dan and Margie were on vacation, Lyn managed to get herself to school, which included the end of the year awards ceremony. She received special recognition for getting all A's all year long. Go Lyn! One crazy thing that happened was that due to the snow schedule, the last day of school was only TWO HOURS long. Such a waste of tax payer money, but they had to do it due to regulations regarding the number of days the kids are required to be in school. Her classes were only 10 minutes each that day, and they spent most of the time talking and getting yearbooks signed. Sheesh
3) Shortly before the end of school, we found out about a FREE, school-sponsored day camp available for rising 7th and 8th graders. We had to scurry and change our plans to allow John to attend, but he started on June 30 and has been having a great time. I'll write more about it in the July update.
And that's it for June. Hope you are having a great summer as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment