Graduation Open House for Niece, Kindergarten Camp for L, VBS, Church Camp and lots of summer fun!

Whew, we have had a very busy summer so far and it's just beginning!

The first two weeks of the summer, Lauren had what is called "Kindergarten Camp" at her school. It's a great program to get them ready for kindergarten in the fall. She was in the same classroom with the same teacher that she will have starting in August. She loved it. They only went 1/2 days so it was just enough to get her excited for school not too much that she was ready to come home when it was done!

After that, we helped our niece, Morgan Renee, celebrate her high school graduation down in Louisville, KY. That next week, we had VBS at our church...well actually this year, we called it BOBS (Big Ol' Bible Study!)...it was so much fun. We had it setup like a museum where the kids got to visit many different and really neat exhibits. I helped out by running the dramas in the theater exhibit area. Even Jason joined in on the fun as he helped me out by playing the part of "Adam" on the first day. We modeled our dramas and daily skits after the "Night at the Museum" movies so I think the kids really enjoyed it. BOBS ended on Friday, 6/11 and then on last Monday, the 14th, I left for church camp at Versailles State Park. Then Allie came down on the church bus w/ the other kiddos on Tuesday. This is the 2nd year that I have gone as a counselor and Allie has been as a camper. This particular camp is for those kids that are going to be in the 4th, 5th or 6th grade in the fall. It is, no joke, one of my all-time favorite weeks of the year. I cannot even begin to describe how much fun it is. The kids are amazing and of course, God always shows up in BIG ways so we LOVE it! There are several photos from our week at camp. Even one of our childrens' pastor dresssed up like a lady.....the girl cabins did this as a prank to him since he forgot to wear his nametag all week and that is a camp rule for EVERYONE! Of course, the kids loved seeing him do this! : ) As a camp, we all also learn memory 'work' each year....this year, we all memorized the 10 commandments, the 6 days of creation and 1 John 3:16-18. So incredible to see all of those kids put forth so much time and effort to make sure they got all of that down!

As for the rest of our summer so far.....we've been trying to keep cool with the use of the baby pool in our baby pool. You'll have to notice in one of the photos, Katelyn has a bit bigger "caboose" than normal....I had been busy and didn't realize that I put a 'regular' diaper on her instead of a swimmie diaper and we ended up with a baby with a booty! ; ) Made for some afternoon laughs! Now, I am busy unpacking and repacking as we are heading out tomorrow for our family vacation with us and G'ma and G'pa to Mackinac Island, MI for a week. Whew, busy times but so full of fun and some awesome memories being made too.....summer is wonderful and life is good!

Allie finishes 4th grade!

Well, we now officially have a 5th grader in our house....where does the time go??!!! Amazing how our kiddos get older but Mama and Dad don't seem to, right?!! : ) haha!

Allie had a great year and came home with five awards from her awards day at school. We are so proud of her and all of her hard work this year. And, we are praising God for His continued hand of protection and love for her! We are also very thankful for another great year at our school and are so appreciative of the staff and teachers....a huge hug goes out to Mrs. Cooper for all of her awesome teaching this year! : ) We surprised her with a flower pot full of "flowers", which were filled with gift cards from the students' in her class and the pot was signed by all of the class as well. She was very surprised and loved it! Allie couldn't wait to give it to her!

Now, we are all ready for the start of another great summer, bring on the sunshine, lazy days and lots of family time together!

Fun in the Massey house....

Just finishing up the school year and having fun around the Massey house! Here are a few pictures from my world recently.....

I started a new exercise program (got burned out from my old one....I need to be entertained constantly...I think my girlies got that trait from me!) called The Wave...it's kind of like the old step-aerobics routines only this "step" is shaped like a U so the trick is to constantly be rocking it back & forth. It makes for a great workout! My younger two are hilarious when I get the video and Wave out, they run to their bathroom and get their step stools out and start the workout with Mama! Here are a couple of pictures showing off their skills! : )

And, Allie has found out how fun it is to take photos with our digital camera now so I'm including a few pictures from recently that she has taken! ; )

Enjoy.....

Another season of Allie's volleyball....

Allie kicked off another season of volleyball recently and she is doing great again and loving it. We are proud of her determination and enthusiasm. She started off a bit unsure since this year all of her friends and her weren't able to be on the same team and she questioned how she was supposed to play and try and beat her friends but after a few practices and a couple of games, she's doing awesome! Here's a few photos to share....

Kentucky Derby and Mother's Day!

We always head down to Jason's hometown (Louisville, KY!) to celebrate the running of the Kentucky Derby....it's become a tradition for us! One of his parents' very best friends' throw a get-together that weekend and we always have such a good time going! The girls always look forward to going! : ) We have lots of great food, fun watching the races and lots of kiddos for them to play with. I always tease Jason that one of these days, he's going to take me to the Oaks (the race the day before the Derby) so I can wear a fancy hat and dress and walk around the track grounds for fun!

Some other news around the Massey house....recently, I've started a new exercise program....I kind of got burned out on my P90 program that I did most of last year. It worked great but I guess I'm the kind of person that needs constant entertaining (sort of like my kids...wonder where they get it from??!!!) so I am now doing the "Wave" workout and love it! It's fun so I don't feel like I'm just exercising but enjoying it too! The girls (the little two, Allie is usually at school when I work out) like to get out their step stool so they can mimic what I'm doing with my "wave" step so they join in on the fun with me! I'm posting a couple of pictures of their "workout"! ; )

The other fun event around here recently was Mother's Day! The girls did a great job (as always!) of making me beautiful cards and they had breakfast waiting for me when I woke up, along with some really pretty flowers! We headed to church in the morning and then spent the afternoon with family at my parent's house, where we decided to have none of the mommies work that day but instead enjoyed fried chicken out of the famous "bucket" -- yummy! A great and relaxing day to celebrate being a mommy and having a mom too!

Our Kids' Program at Church....

This year, our children's choir at church put on a spring program titled "Let's Do Church"....it was based off of the early church and how the believers modeled their entire lives daily around what Jesus told them to do....they ate together, worshipped together, shared their possessions with one another, encouraged one another and loved unconditionally. What an awesome message! The kids did an absolutely wonderful job and our choir directors are beyond fantastic.....in fact, the ladies actually wrote the drama and all of the songs for the program...incredible! We really enjoyed watching Allie get into this program this year. She had a great time and really liked learning the songs. She also a small part in the drama as she memorized part of a Psalm to recite...she did great and spoke slowly and loudly just like her Mama taught her! : ) After the program, we had a "church picnic" inside to celebrate the night....that meant lots of yummy food and time for the kiddos to run around like crazy and for the parents to spend time together chatting and laughing! That night after the festivities, we reminded ourselves how blessed we are with our church family and how much we love it...God is so good!

Allie's Religious Education Program and her first SOLO!!

We are blessed to have an elementary school that still offers a weekday religious education class during the school year for our kiddos! You don't have to participate but most of the kids in the class do. They also very fortunate that the little country church right next to the school is where they take the class so the kids are able to just walk next door for their class, works out great! Allie has always enjoyed the class and even though she has learned alot from our own church, she seems to always learn something new there too! Each year in the springtime, they have a program to show the parents what they have learned during the year. This year, Allie was chosen to not only recite scripture but also to perform a solo, a song about the baby Moses and the story of his life. She was really nervous but did a wonderful job....we were so proud of her! And, while driving home that night, we talked about how blessed we are to have her, to have her school and how thankful we are that we are able to have her learn more about Jesus even at her public school! God is so very good!