Poker Hill Graduate

This girl is a graduate of Poker Hill School!  We can't even believe it.  It has been such an unbelievable place for her to grow as a little person.  Two years ago, she was a three-year old who had a reputation for being bossy at her daycare and whom we thought might have gotten our non-musical genes.  Now, she is a compassionate, social, musical, confident, inquisitive, independent person.  She marches to the beat of her own drum and I can thank Poker Hill for much of that.

Poker Hill doesn't believe in a formal graduation, but they do have an end of the year hike up the teepee and sing-a-long/ice cream social for the families.  It was so fun to see Cal show Hazen around and explain the "ins and outs" of Poker Hill to him.  We are so excited to have our next chapter there with him.

We aren't really sure what inspired her, maybe it was moving on from preschool or the hot weather, but the week after Poker Hill got out, Cal asked to get her hair chopped.  We decided this was a job for the professionals, so we brought her down to Bridge Street Hair, where one of my first biology students gave her a "bob".  

My end of the year was kind of crazy.  The weekend guests and traveling, combined with taking an online class, hosting the Mt. Mansfield Union High School "Ladies Luncheon" for ~50 colleagues, and the regular hustle of grading and wrapping things up at school made things rather hectic -hence the lack of blog posts for about six weeks.  When it was finally all over, on June 19th we celebrated at our friend's Marcia and Tim's house. 

  

Yeah Summer!

Father's Day Weekend at Ricker Pond

The kids have been asking to go camping for months.  We hadn't been since September.  So, weeks ago, I coordinated with a few families and reserved a few campsites at Ricker Pond (in Groton State Forest)  for Father's Day Weekend.  I didn't factor into the equation that I would be in the middle of exams at school, hosting the "Ladies Luncheon" for my faculty at my house, needing to grade 60 final projects, and taking an online class.  But you only live once, so I got my ducks in a row and we made it happen.

And it was so, so worth it.  Camping is the best.  Especially when you are with a fun crew.  It strips life down to the basics.  I'm not going to lie, it's a pain in the neck to get the gear together and pack it up and set it up and unpack it, but so, so worth it.  I'm so glad that we made it all work out. 

And the father's felt loved and appreciated with a big fat brunch and the green light to go for an epic mountain bike ride in Stowe.

This family loves to camp and we love the guy that the kids call Dad, but we realized that a group camping trip was no way to really show our appreciation for all that he does and is for us.  So, we got a waiver and decided to celebrate father's day for the entire week after the actual day!  He deserves it!