The Barnhurst's: June

The end of the school year was a bit of a blur. We were super busy and I'm really behind in my blogging. So here's an update by kid.

Jacob

Puppet Show: The 4th grade put on a fantastic puppet show. The kids had puppeteers come and show them how to make and use real puppets. Jake class did Pecos Bill. Jacob was excited telling about everything during the days they worked on it. I wish I could have volunteered to help. All the effort showed, Dan and I were really impressed. Dan, Clara and I were at the show and Clara absolutely loved it, a little too loudly.

Piano Recital: Jacob loves to just sit and play the piano. Not always the lesson songs, most of the time he's just making up his own thing. So, for the recital Jacob played the theme song to Charlie Brown and a piece he composed himself that he named "Waterfall". I was totally impressed! It was about 4 minutes long. At the end another younger student told Jake he should post it on youtube. I think that made him feel pretty proud. He was also presented with an award. Out of 12 students he ranked the highest on going over and beyond expectations for each lesson. He really pays attention to dynamics and timing changes.

Love this boy!

Cub Scout Day Camp: This was his last year, and man was it the best. The theme was aviation and he got to spend the week at the Frederick Airport. There were flight simulators, lessons on physics, a zip-line, lots of air plane making, toured a military helicopter and on and on. He loved it! It has made him determined to earn enough money to buy his own remote controlled airplane.

Tractor: Last week Dan hollered at me to come take a look outside on the deck. Jacob was mowing the lawn on the John Deer tractor! He is finally heavy enough to drive it on his own. When he saw me watching he grinned a cute, proud grin! Wow, when did that happen?

Jacob helped to care for the Warner's guinea-pig, fish, and mow the lawn while they were away for their 3 week trip out west. He and Tess are taking care of our neighbors pets for the next 10 days. Jake will have earned enough to buy his remote control airplane which he is super excited about. He has calculated out tithing, savings, and then tax.

Tess

School: Tess has been in tears for weeks leading up to the last day of school...sad to be leaving Ms.Dlugos. I am sad for her too--I have loved how positive her teaching is and how much she adores Tess!

Tess got a new bike. After going moutain biking through Little Bennett with Dan and Jake her daddy decided she needed a big kid bike with gears and shocks. Dan found it on Craigslist and cleaned it up really well. Jake was in on it and decided on how we would surprise Tess. As an early birthday present Tess came walking into the garage after getting off the bus to see her new bike with her name and a big bow on it. Tess loves it!

Another first for Tess is this...

Spent a week 13 days with her Grandma, all by herself! Man did we miss her! She had a great time making new friends, learning to embroider, and swimming. We talked to her every day
Abby didn't want to sleep in a room by herself so this was the set up for the week-

Saturday I had to ask Dan and the kids to our Relief Society activity so we'd have priesthood in the building...we decided to wear the kids out with Chuck-e-Cheese first.

Talking to Tess

Abby

School: Abby published a book and had an author celebration at school. Her animal to write about was a dog. I loved how excited she was and how brave she was to read a page in front of her class.

I love Abby's self portrait from art.

Hair cut: Dan cut Jake's hair and Abby decided she wanted him to cut hers too. Dan started on one side and made his way across to the other side. Having made the same mistakes I warned him that it's hard to cut even, that the hair shrinks when it dries. One side started at her chin and the other side ended at her cheek. Then the back was longer than the front. Though Dan may not admit it now he was happy to have me take her to the salon the next morning to get it fixed. I didn't want to spend the outrageous prices here and took her to a cheap salon that didn't do a much better job....and I paid for it. Thanks a lot expensive Maryland. Its a cute short bob and I think I'm the only one that can see or is bothered by the uneven hairs.

Abby is such a Girlie Girl! She only wears skirts, dresses, and frills. She spent the last month of school wearing her pearls every single day. She even wore a princess tiara one day! I love it.
She had her friend Sarah over and they did nails.

She is always happy. Always SINGING. And makes me laugh.

Clara

Clara is finally at an age that Abby can play pretty well with her. Don't get me wrong, she is the feistiest of all 4 kids which is a struggle at times. But I love how she adores her older siblings and loves to play with them.
She is still wearing a diaper, though she only pee's in it.
She still uses a pacifier and carries her blankie everywhere.
She's still our BABY!
She is out of the crib.
She won't stay in bed. PErIOd! It is a frustrating battle every day. The other night Dan and I came up to bed at 11pm to find Clara awake. She had been playing with my jewelry case. All my jewelry was out and placed around our room and hers. I found my glasses with a lens missing.
She now has a child door handle cover on the inside of her room...poor Jake.
She NEEDS HER OWN ROOM!

Abby reading to Clara

CLARA TURNED THREE

We had two celebrations since Tess was in South Carolina on her birthday. She did not get breakfast in bed on her birthday because she woke up at 5a.m. after a struggle to get her to bed I just wasn't up to it. Plus it was a Sunday. She choose her birthday cakes both times. We tried to facetime with Tess during her birthday cake time but it didn't work so well and Tess was in tears.