School trips, end of school, starting off summer right!

So a lot has gone on with our wee family this past few weeks!! Hmm, I wish I knew how to do bullet points! LOL!

Anyway... field trips galore abounded in the Beaudry household the last week or two of school! I already spoke of Zachary's trip to Avondale. Next on the agenda was a trip to the Carousel in Port Dalhousie. It was the last day of school for Zachary's M/T class. Lots of fun - riding the carousel, doing some crafts, playing organized games, playground time, and a snack! Even Sophia joined in the fun, sticking very close to Mrs. Foley (Z's teacher).

The next day was the pre-school's 'family fun fair' evening. A nice spread of food (fried chicken from Superstore, salads and desserts donated by all the families), two air bouncers (one bouncer, one filled with floating balloons, both a hit!), and gifts for the teacher... and the school year was over! Hard to believe my wee boy is already done his first year of 'formal' style schooling. He's not thrilled about Kindergarten! He wants all his friends to go with him, and he wants Mrs. Foley to move on too! LOL!

Thursday was JA's school field trip. The entire primary division went to Zooz!! Oh the fun we had! I had JA and two other little girls in my group. We walked the park, rode the tram, saw LOADS of animals, played a wee bit in the park, had a great lunch, and a great time! So glad it wasn't a total scorcher for sure! Not sure Zooz is somewhere I would buy a season's pass to unless we lived about 15-20 mins away (it's more like 45 for me!). BUT it was a great place to go with the kids! We saw giraffe's, hippos, many monkeys, lots of birds (some even talked!), lions, tigers, bears, kangaroos, prairie dogs, deer, buffalo, and more!! JA still talks about it!

Friday was hot dog day at Port Weller school. We went to school to visit JA, drop her bike off and whatnot. The kids and I ended up scoring free hotdogs! LOL! That led us to a trip to a local 'market' to get two flats of strawberries (made into jam, and a bunch frozen for smoothies in the winter!!).

We had JA's last days of school the following week. Very emotional for me. Camp day was Monday. Lots of fun there! Games, water, you name it. It was also REPORT CARD DAY!! I am thrilled to report that JA got all A's and B's, G's and E's on her report! not too surprising her A's were in Drama and Music! LOL! That's my girl!! :) The last day was emotional for me... JA's teacher retired this year. She was EXCELLENT!! Definitely happy that we were able to experience her teaching. I made a beautiful scrapbook of the class, and the school for her. Many of the students wrote her little notes I tucked into a pocket in the back. It nearly brought her to tears. It certainly brought me to tears to see Mrs. R. tearful as she bid her last class a final good bye! She will be surely missed. As a side note, she showed around the book I made to all the other teachers and the principal. They were all impressed... the principal so much impressed that she has asked me to make a scrapbook up for the ENTIRE SCHOOL!! It will consist of all the newspaper clippings, staff photos and things, and they'll pay for it!! WHOOOHOOO!! I will start in September! :)

Our first full week off from school has been a busy on!! We have ridden our bikes a couple days (really REALLY hot days!!), played with the neighbour boy, and eagerly awaited the local park pool to open!!

We got ourselves a 12'x30" Dolfino pool for the front yard. It's a bit off kilter, but whatever suits our needs for this summer! :) As long as it doesn't roll over, we're good to go!! The Arthur St. pool opened on Friday, so we took the kids and JA's friend down to the pool for an hour. We zipped in on Saturday as well. I won a family pool pass for a year at JA's school fundraiser! So our swimming this year is all FREE!!! :D

We had our 2nd annual Canada Day BBQ yesterday. A few families came, our 'not so new anymore' neighbours came as well! I think we were 18 adults, and 8 kids. We had bacon wrapped turkey on the bbq, hot dogs, salads, veggies, and some AWESOME desserts!! After the kids swam in the pool, the guys played catch in the street (LOVE the dead end street for that!), kids played soccer, we ate, and then some of us headed to the fireworks in Port Dalhousie. LOTS of fun... COLD and WINDY but fun! I think the fireworks were the best yet!! Here's to next year!! :D

Today (Monday, the 'official' day off!) we decided to go to
Marineland, and we purchased season's passes. We went for a few hours, saw the dolphin/sea lion/walrus show, caught the splash and dive show with the killer whales, and did a bunch of the kiddie rides. I have photos... and I hate to admit but I laughed REALLY HARD when Sophia freaked on the lady bug roller coaster! LOL! Oh she did NOT like that at all!!! She did get on one other ride though, so we may have her trust back! The kids had so much fun! Really no whining, which is EXCELLENT, and it wasn't hot! We'll be going often I think!! Def. worth the money. Mike and I are planning to go back for a 'date night' one evening, without the kids... just so we can enjoy the big kid rides too!! Our next trip we'll see the other animals, the beluga whales, and the rest of the rides :)

Phew... if you read this far, CONGRATULATIONS!! LOL! I'll be posting photos tomorrow, when I get the camera out of the van!! :D