Bowlin Beige

Last week Ainsley participated in a gymnastics and cheer camp. She loved spending the whole week (8am - 5pm every day!) doing gymnastics, practicing jumps, and learning a cheer routine. She also made lots of friends with the 'big girls'. On the last day the parents were invited to come watch their routine. They also each got to show off some of the skills they learned. Ainsley did three very perfect forward rolls. She's still working on her cartwheel.  Here is the video of the routine. She got to be one of the girls on top of the pyramid (although she was too scared to fall backwards for them to catch her). She's excited to take up gymnastics again later this year! (she's in the back left wearing a pink and blue leotard)

Last weekend Nana and Papa came for a quick visit before the start of various summer vacations. We hadn't been strawberry picking yet so, even though we knew it was the end of the season, we found a small local farm that still had some berries available. The kids had a great time collecting berries, and they got a trip on the tractor hay ride. After the farm we headed to the Virginia Aviation Museum nearby. The kids had a great time learning about airplanes with Papa, a former pilot.

For your viewing pleasure, here's a little photo show of Ainsley's year in kindergarten. So hard to believe she's going in to 1st Grade!!!

To celebrate our little girl's sixth birthday, we invited her friends over for a summer BBQ and playtime. We had a bounce house, bubbles, and games for everyone to enjoy. She had a great time with her friends and we enjoyed visiting with friends and school families. 

Each spring Ainsley's school has a program for grandparents. None of ours could make it this year, but one of m y co-workers 'adopted' her for the day and attended as her grandmother. The kids put on a musical play and afterwards they have a reception in their classroom and do an art project with their grandparents. This year's play was 'Won't You Let Me Take You on a Sea Cruise' - the kids all went on a cruise that featured stories and songs about healthy living - exercising, eating healthy, and unplugging from electronic devices. The kindergarteners sang two songs - F.I.T, and Body Boogie, and then later joined the whole lower school to sing Move It or Lose It, and Sea Cruise. For your morning laugh, here are the videos of Ainsley and her kindergarten friends singing and dancing their way to health. Enjoy! F.I.T. Body Boogie Move It or Lose It (she's on the end) Sea Cruise

This week's educational video is conducted in Spanish. Ainsley has Spanish class twice a week with Senora Blanco and absolutely loves it. She especially loves all the songs they learn (you know how much she loves to sing).  This week they made puppets to represent a whole family and sang a version of 'Where is Thumbkin.'

Do you see this??  This is how many miles I've put on my 4Runner. Almost 200,000 (now at 199,457).  I bought her new in September 2006, which means I've driven an average of 1,936 miles per month for the past 103 months. Kinda crazy when you think about it. I'd like to take a few moments to show my appreciation for this vehicle, which has driven me safely around the East Coast for the past 8 1/2 years.  When I bought her she was just transporting me, my DH, and our 110 lb dog, Duke.  When it was time for my Jeep Grand Cherokee to go into retirement, we decided we needed more space for our big furry baby. A few years later we added a car seat in the back for Ainsley, and a few years after that we added another car seat for Parker. Dixie, being half the size of Duke, has all sorts of room to stretch out in the back.  Do you know what makes this car great?  This. Everything in this picture came out of my center console. I've posted before abo...