Summer Fun

School let out about a week-and-a-half ago. In that time the kids have been busy. They have spent a lot of time playing with the neighbor boys and the other neighborhood kids. Joanie still gets in a tiff because a lot of times she's still the only girl.
A week ago they spent three days and two nights at Granny and Grandpa's house (my parents). They had a blast. Hunter helped Grandpa in the garden, becoming I'm sure really dirty. This was a rough couple of days and nights for me. The second day they were gone I was so bored. I thought I was going to go crazy. Although I was bored it was nice to be able to rest without worrying about the kids. It was also nice to be able to spend some alone-time with Ryan. With a five and six year old we don't get that much time to ourselves.
Hunter had his last two soccer games last week. He scored in one of the games. He had a good time. We need to work on building his stamina. Of course, most of the kids don't have that long of stamina's.
Joanie had a violin lesson on Saturday. She is doing extremely well. Her violin is in the shop right now so she doesn't have to practice that, but she still has to practice her piano (as does Hunter).
Joanie also gave a talk in Primary on Sunday. This is a huge improvement because when we first moved into this ward she refused to give a talk. She wouldn't even talk to her teachers. Of course, with her love of music she sang "Jesus Said Love Everyone" in her talk. It was awesome.
Last Friday I was laying in bed watching a movie with Hunter. Joanie was supposed to be getting in the shower. I kept hearing a buzzing sound, but Ryan was outside mowing the lawn, so I just assumed it was him. Then the lawn mower stopped and I continued hearing the sound. I went into the bathroom to check on Joanie and she has used my clippers on her hair. It didn't look too bad, but I told her it was getting chopped. The results are below.

Although, it's really short, I think it's adorable. She absolutely loves it. And it's really easy maintenance. The great thing is when she wears her helmet for riding her bike she doesn't have to worry about her hair flying in her face.
Joanie has also had a loose tooth for about a month now. Ryan has continued to play with it and try and get it out. I refuse to touch her teeth (I think teeth are disgusting). Anyway, the same day as her haircut she was showing one of our friends her loose tooth and it popped out. She was so excited. Again, below is a picture of her without her tooth.
We had to bribe her to get her to go to sleep that night. She really didn't want to. When she woke up the next morning the tooth fairy had brought her six quarters. She was really excited and we had to run out to Wal-Mart to let Ryan know.
Last night we received a free ticket to go to the Drive-In out here and watch "Monsters Versus Aliens" and "Hotel for Dogs". The kids had a blast. We didn't get home until 1 a.m. and they were both still awake. I was putting Hunter into bed after we got home and he said, "Mom, what about reading scriptures?" I had to explain to him that we would read tonight. We were so exhausted and Ryan had to be to work at 7 this morning. Though we were pretty squished in the front of our car we had a great time.
Our summer has been busy so far, and I expect it to remain busy over the next few weeks. We meet with the director of Excelsior-Academy June 18. He will visit with us and the kids. This is the charter school the kids will be attending this fall. I'm really excited for them.