Well we are wrapping up the end of school days. Scott just finished his last full week of 5th grade. School was trying to get in a few more assignments-hopefully they will actually put the grades towards their final report card. Scott could use some help in a few areas. This was such a short semester with Easter being so late that Scott's class didn't really have very many assignments. They did manage to finish reading the Rats of NIMH which Scott admits was good but did not like the ending.

Tom took him to his Boy Scout meeting this week. I got him to gymnastics-happily he has graduated to the Intermediate group next year in gymnastics class. We really don't want to take this program too seriously. Some families at the gym live there with their kids if they are on a gymnastics team. They practice for several hours a day, 3-4 days a week if not daily. And they travel quite a bit to compete. We are just not into all that(yet). Then I took Scott to his swim lesson and sure enough they recommended he consider joining a swim team. I said the same thing after I watched him swim his first class with a little redirection from the instructors. Scott said "No Way" to a swim team. Too bad(for now). I also took Scott for a physical for his boy scout summer camp. I had lots of forms that had to be turned in by next week for his camp scheduled the last week in July. I also had to drop off more forms at the YMCA to cancel his STEM class so he can go to boy scout camp instead! Love forms.

Allison is back at it full force with school work after a minor break over Memorial Day Weekend. She is putting together a spanish presentation and she had Tom take her to the library to work with her project partner on SAturday after she got off work. At least she has today off of work to study for an upcoming math test. And tonight she was invited to a Mexican Fiesta at church as a Thank You to all the hardworking church volunteers. That was a lot of fun. Our four priests dressed up in traditional mexican costumes, complete with the big sombreros and did a skit from the movie The Three Amigos with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase. The priests were so funny! And when they weren't dancing and singing for us, they were tending bar! I decided to go as Allison's "date" since it was Mexican food and Tom figured it was right up my alley. We also got a Salsa lesson, so Allison and I spent a little time on the dance floor before heading home. It was very nice and a lot of fun. And I am sure alot of work for the church staff that put it on. Allison is also wrapping up her school year piano lessons but we have classes scheduled during the summer too. If she doesn't sign up for summer lessons, she doesn't have a guarantee that she will have the same piano teacher in the fall. And because we love her piano teacher so much, we sign up. Musical blackmail.

Tom and I enjoyed an evening out on Friday night. I bought Tom tickets for his birthday to an evening at the Capital Jazz Fest. It is an outdoor concert event held every June here in Columbia by our mall. We have always gone on Saturday or Sunday with the kids and spent the entire day. Sometimes we have been parked up on the lawn with our sun umbrellas, or tenting out in the wooded area, literally with our tent pitched because it was raining. They show the concert on large screens all over the park. We would pack games for the kids and lots of food and beverages and spend the whole day. Then we would run over to the Meet and Greet table and get autographs of the jazz performers. This year we decided to try sitting in seats in the pavilion on Friday night. The concert ran from 730 to 11pm and they had 4 performers, including Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, George Duke and David Sanborn. We were a bit disappointed that they put the last 3 performers on stage together because they are wonderful to hear just by themselves. And Herbie Hancock was the headliner for the evening and plays incredible piano, but he played a lot of slow, quiet music that night-you could barely hear the music as everyone started talking. It was like listening to dinner music. At least he ended with
something more lively. He also got stuck on playing other musicians' music like John Lennon's Imagine with some girl trying to sing that you couldn't hear because the music was so loud. Anyhow, it was still alot of fun and I literally ran into David Sanborn coming back with coffee drinks during the break. I did not buy a poster this year though-it looked like the label off a beer bottle.

On SAturday morning I discovered that SCott did indeed sign up at the Boy Scout meeting(Tom missed this part) for a Boat Float scheduled at 230 Saturday afternoon. There had been talk about participating but the boys kept missing their meetings(either they were sick or it was raining). So they did not build a boat ahead of time. Instead, you could show up the day of the race and construct a boat with the cardboard, duct tape and plastic provided by the Rotary Club that sponsors the event. The event was also supposed to be scheduled next weekend, and this weekend was supposed to be a Cub Scout Olympic event. The Cub SCout event was cancelled and the boat float was bumped up a weekend. So after Scott's swim lesson, I ran him over to the boat float. Fortunately we were early enough to get parking since this was held on the lake, next to the mall, next to the Jazz Fest. ONe of our previous Cub Scout moms took the initiative and registered the boys for a walk on team. She already had them started on the design after studying suggestions for boats on line. We all got busy with the duct tape and box cutter and built a boat for 3 boys. Afterwards it was all wrapped in plastic. Then the mom disappeared to a soccer game with her son and promised to be back in time. She wasn't. The next thing I knew I was the impromptu captain of the Duct Tape Pirates. I even had to scrounge up enough boys to paddle the boat as they were all wandering around. The event was running early, so our race started 45 mins before the scheduled time. We carried our boat down to the dock and dropped it in the water. I was sure the boys were going to sink so I kept giving them directions on where to swim after they went down. The lake is manmade and only 4 ft deep and full of duck poop. The course was 200ft and the boys were competing against a group of Girl SCouts, and another bunch of older guys. I was so proud of the boys: they did not sink! And they took 3rd place(out of 3 teams)! They even won a trophy! Good thing I had all that Dragon Boat racing experience!

That was enough excitement for me for the weekend. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon raking up leaves and shrub clippings. Tom had decided to trim all the shrubs on Saturday after he dropped Allison off to work. Boy are my arms sore! When Tom decides to trim the shrubs I liken it to clipping your toenails with a chain saw! So I usually have to go back and reshape, retrim and then pick up all the clippings. And because it got so warm so fast this spring, and we had plenty of rain, everything was growing like crazy.

I sent a few photos of the boy scouts and their cardboard boat. They are also proudly holding up their glass trophy after they won 3rd place(and did not sink!). And a group shot of our priests singing to the audience.

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