Ryan & Erinn's Family: May, and Remodel Part 3

We celebrated Elise's ninth birthday! She picked out an Oreo ice cream cake for our family party, which is pretty much the best cake in the world. Her gifts included an enormous canvas print of a peacock, which she wanted placed right above her bed, a 3DS video game about pet puppies, and several large boxes of fruit rolls and treats.

While sitting and watching taekwondo, Corinne started taking pictures of the class. At least someone was doing it.

Corinne Self Portrait (In the Background)

Connor and Grady Sparring

We did the final Disneyland day on our three-day pass. Corinne mostly hung out with me, while the older kids did scarier rides with Dad.

Waving to the Princesses

In mid-May, I signed Corinne and Evan up for two weeks of swimming lessons. The goal was to get Corinne pool safe by the time summer started, and she made it! She can now swim, take a breath, and swim again.

Connor got to attend 11-Year-Old Scout camp, which is a great introductory overnighter in the local park. He was a little nervous about going without Dad (Ryan was at a conference), and sleeping in a tent with a kid he didn't know, but ended up having a fantastic time, and made a new friend.

The end of the school year brought final exams for the older classes at co-op. Connor took his Insects exam and his First Form Latin final (which took over two hours and was done at the park.) He did great on everything. Elise took her last Prima Latina test, and got the high score!

Insects Final

Latin Finals

While trying to avoid an oncoming car on our street, I took out a neighbor's garbage can. My poor side mirror got destroyed. Luckily, Ryan was able to order a new one and put it in himself!

Elise's dance class got their recital costumes, which were an awesome combination of lumberjack, long-haul trucker, and sequins.

In Primary, we decided to revamp the gifts we give to kids after their baptisms. I made some great "My Gospel Standards" bookmarks at home, and we put them in a cellophane baggie with a scripture pencil and their Faith in God books. Cute and inexpensive!

For Memorial Day we were invited to a potluck at our friends' house (the same friends who invited us for Thanksgiving and the Superbowl). They were about to move to Orange County, so it was our last chance to celebrate holidays with them locally. Ryan smoked a pork shoulder AND tri-tip, which were both a huge hit.

Memorial Day with Friends!

We decided that as long as we were messing with the inside of our house, we might as well update the outside, too. This is what it looked like before most of the work got started:

After lots of agonizing, I decided to take most of the trim off of the house, which meant we had to repair the stucco. Picking paint took forever - I think I made the paint guys try out eight or more samples, but I finally decided to just drive around until I saw a house whose color made me happy and copy it!

My lousy picture manipulation, to see if the house would be okay without it's "rays."

My Color Inspiration

Peach Smoothie

Construction waste turns into great Kid Art.

Meanwhile, the inside of our house was a total mess. We had cabinets filling up our whole dining room, all our food on our table, and all our linens in piles in the kids' rooms. We got really sick of toast and microwaveable oatmeal (okay, only I got sick of it - the kids were in heaven.) Eventually, the new cabinets got installed in the kitchen, hall, and bath, and we picked out tile and paint for the master bathroom.