Summer Reading Program -- "All Together Now"

 This year the theme for our Summer Reading Program is "All Together Now" -- Robin and Becky had so many fun activities planned for the kids of Wellsville!  Evelyn "double-dipped" and went to both the elementary programs on Wednesday mornings AND the middle school programs on Tuesday afternoons.  She had friends going on Tuesdays and Violet is in middle school and these activities were more up her alley anyway, so it was great!  To kick off the whole Summer Reading season, they hosted a "Fondue Frenzy" with Wellsville trivia.  So fun and so yummy!

Here are a few of the elementary programs.  Alan Cunningham shared his fun music. . .

KS Department of Wildlife & Parks taught them all about owls and the kids got to dissect owl pellets! This was NOT Evie's favorite, but it brought back memories of my elementary years when I did this. Check out her concerned face in this first picture!

There were SO many kids doing owl pellets -- lots of little bones to find!

Another week they got to play all kinds of cool games.

And the community scavenger hunt taught them lots of fun things about our wonderful home town.

The final week we learned about animals that had been rescued, including a hawk and a snake!

Most weeks we helped prepare the sack lunches for all of the kids to take after the program was completed.

We made about 150 lunches each week!

The Middle School group had "Tacos vs Burritos" where they ate walking tacos and played games like "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza." 

During the "Science of Ice Cream" week, they made homemade ice cream in baggies and played miniature games.  Vi loved playing with Nora, and Evie loved hanging out with Carly at these events.

The final event was "Donuts & Art" where the kids got to paint donuts and eat donuts!

All of the kids did a great job on their canvas paintings! I especially liked the two pieces of artwork that came home to my house!

I love that we've been a part of our awesome library's summer reading program since the boys were little!  Evelyn did a TON of reading this June also and won a great prize that included a $10 Aurora gift card!  I'm SO thankful for Miss Becky and Miss Robin, who have been the wonderful librarians since before we started attending -- they are such a gift to Wellsville --  It was another FANTASTIC Summer Reading Program thanks to them!

Father's Day Golfing Trip -- and Calvin's Hole in One!

For Father's Day last weekend, we got Dad a round of golf at a cool par 3 course called Mountain Top. This is one of the Big Cedar courses, and they are all supposed to be really beautiful. So Grandpa, Kyle, Ty, Calvin, and Oliver set off early Friday morning to get some time in on the driving range before their 1:00 tee time.  Maybe some day my boys will be cool enough to wear pink golf shorts. . . (if you have a really good memory, you may remember that I got those matching shorts for them last year for Christmas).

Photo credit to my brother, who took the great pics for my blog -- The course really does look nice!

A good day of golf turned into a REALLY good day of golf for my oldest, when he got a Hole-in-One!  Ty documented the occasion with a great video. (My favorite part of the video is when you hear Oliver saying, "It wasn't even like a very good shot, either, Calvin" and then Grandpa chimes in, "It was a perfect shot!")

He got a flag and ball from the clubhouse to commemorate this awesome accomplishment!  Some (most) guys go their whole lives without a hole in one, so Calvin was super excited on this day!

I love that my boys love to golf and they get so much quality time with Grandpa Kermit on the links!  Happy Father's Day, Dad! And Congrats, Calvin!!

Celebrating Fathers

 This was the first Father's Day in a very long time that we've been home.  We are almost ALWAYS on vacation during this time, and I honestly can't even remember the last Father's Day we spent in Wellsville.  This year we got to join the rest of the family for dinner at Joy & Scott's and we had a great time celebrating the wonderful Dads in our family!

The best two Grandpas in the world with most of the cousin crew (just missing Dana's kids).

I'm SO thankful for these men we get to call "Dad."  God truly blessed us with the best!

And my kids have also been blessed with THE BEST! I can't imagine a better father for my children than Russ.  We got him a gift basket with the 100th anniversary Rand McNally Road Atlas and some other goodies in attempts to show our appreciation.

We thank God for all of these amazing Fathers in our family. We thank God for their good health and their love for their kids/grandkids.  We thank God that we get to see them anytime we want and they have such a strong godly influence on the next generation. What a gift these men are!

June Happenings

 June has been a busy month around here! I can't believe it's half over already. Summer always flies by, it seems!  Boys have been busy working (Calvin lifeguarding at the pool again, and Oliver working on the farm with Grandpa Denny), Violet's been doing summer school, and Evelyn is our little social butterfly as always.  Here is a little taste of other things we've been up to. . .

We took our moms to the Dinner Theater to redeem their Mother's Day gift and we had a great evening enjoying "The Million Dollar Quartet."

Violet has been OBSESSED with her new kitten, who she named Milo.  He's pretty stinkin' cute. We'll see how long this one lasts. Our track record with outdoor kitties isn't all that great.

Evie and I have had a blast garage-saling.  She was especially excited about her new 75-cent star fairy lights for her room.

Evie also had a 3-night-in-a-row sleepover with Ava and Charli (and this was after she'd already spent 2 nights in Emporia with Ava, attending VBS at her new church).  They did some swimming. . .

. . . shopping, and plenty of playing.

We also got to have a fun night celebrating Dawn Rottinghaus at her retirement party.  It was 80s-themed, with an awesome cover band and everything.  It was fun catching up with high school friends who came back for it.

Megan and I were Kansas State officers back in the day, and when we added in Evan and Derrick, we determined this could serve as our 25-year class reunion!  This may be our biggest one yet :)

Summer is always so much fun with lots of things going on.  I just love the memories we get to make!

A Night at the "K"

We don't get to Royals games very often, but when Edward Jones has appreciation night with Jack Stack BBQ catering, we make sure to get there!  Evie and I went with Grandma and Grandpa and John and Becky, and had a great time.  We happened to be there on Chiefs night so got cool Rally Towels with both of our KC teams represented.

It was a really nice night and we walked around the stadium before the game started.

Since it was Chiefs night, all of our favorite Super Bowl champions were in attendance.

They even brought the trophy with them.  Kelce threw out the first pitch and all of Kansas City was cheering him on!

What a fun night at the K!  I'm thankful we were able to go! And mom is already making those rally towels into super-cool golf towels for the boys. . .