Father's Day and Madeline's Birthday

Over Father's Day we were lucky enough to spend the weekend at the beach attending Lily's good friend Madeline's birthday and hanging out with all our beach friends.  Despite the fact that our beach house was rented, we just shacked up with our neighbors.  Can't tell you how lucky we feel to have such great beach friends that you can just pop in and crash with them anytime.

Lily as a mermaid (like the shells)

Sam & Lily

Sam, Lily & Madeline

Sam is definitely a lucky guy (the girls even push him)

Did I mention we are hosting interns this summer?

We are so fortunate to be hosting not one, but two summer interns for 10 weeks.  These amazing girls (Stefany and Ilda) are from Mexico originally and both are from migrant farm working families.  They both attended Migrant and Seasonal Head Starts and have since gone on to college.  Stefany is working to become an Environmental lawyer and Ilda (who is also a Gates millenial scholar) will likely go into Education and Public Policy.  They are busy beavers working jobs and in their spare time hob knobbing with all the Washington elite.  They even got to meet the head of HUD who is assumed to be Hillary Clinton's running mate in the upcoming elections.  Not only are they brilliant, but they are also so kind and humble.  It really has been our pleasure having them.  When we finally got a free weekend with them we headed to the beach to enjoy some R&R and we had a side trip to Annapolis on the way home.  What a fun summer.

Kim, Lily, Ilda & Stefany (Annapolis Naval Academy in the background)

Ilda, Stefany, Kim & Lily enjoying the surf in Rehoboth

Lily and Gianna

Lily and Gianna remain as good as friends as when they started school together three years ago.  It is so fun to see the girls grow up together.  We've had a number of play dates already both outside in the pool and indoor with lots of girl dress up time.  They really are great girls.

Gianna, Mary Grace & Lily

Lily's End of School Year

Lily really had a fantastic end to the school year.  After the amazing singing she did at the talent show, she proved herself time and time again at the end of year festivities.  She participated in a play "Hercules" in her after school program.  She won both reading and math awards at school.  Not only did she start ahead of the class but she also showed very above average improvement.  When her report card came we learned that she is reading at the end of 2nd grade/beginning of 3rd grade level.  We couldn't be more proud.

Lily at her award ceremony

Lily in the play Hercules

Lily's First Talent Show

I didn't think this is a topic I would hit until maybe 8-10 years old, but our little 5 year old decided she wanted to be in the all school talent show.  Bless her heart, decided to try out.  And she was so logical about the whole thing... telling us that if she didn't make the try outs that she would still attend the talent show so she could watch and learn for next year.  But she did make it.  The only kindergartener.  I think I was more nervous for her than she was.  She really did an amazing job and I couldn't have been more proud of her courage.  Amazing.

 Julie, Lily & Mom

Lily and her friend Root

Memorial Day

Welcome to summer!  Memorial Day at our beach house community is the official start of kids summer and this year wasn't to disappoint.  We were joined by Lily's friend Sarah and met our friends/neighbors Don, Holly, Sam and Chloe for the weekend.  It was a fun filled weekend with lots of activities (swimming, beach, shopping, kayaking, nature walks, bike riding, etc.).  Although we didn't have a chance to get to Funland.  I guess it will give us a reason to go back.

Sarah and Lily at Rehoboth Beach

Lily and Sam riding their bikes through the community sprinklers

Wave pool is open for business

Some interesting you tube videos I'm sure

And some relaxing after a long hard day at the pool

Sam and Lily

Riding bicycles through the sprinklers (fun for hours)

International Dinner

We went to our first ever International Dinner at Lily's new grade school, Glenallen Elementary.  We weren't sure what to expect but it turned out to be a fantastic night.  They had food that parents had brought from over 20 of their home countries.  Everything was very yummy and fun to try.  Then they had a full show where children's showed off their native heritage, including a fashion show with their native dress.  It really was awesome to be part of but reminded us how little culture we have in our house.

Lily (on left in blue dress) even got up to dance with the other kids

Chance's Birthday

The one weekend we finally stayed home in May, we got to spend the weekend enjoying Chance's birthday party.  And what a party it was.  There was definitely an entire construction crew.

Chance, Lily & Gianna (Chance wanted Lily to feel his muscles)

Gianna & Lily

Chance's own personal train