Lots of fun this week after school got out

School got out on Thursday and we're so excited about summer. It's kind of funny because it doesn't feel like summer. The weather has been in the 60s all week. Hard to imagine swimming much at those temps. We've already had three birthday parties and gotten ice cream and such, so summer is off to a great start. Our friend had a party on Saturday and some girls that went to it brought a bunch of garter snakes they caught by their house. My kids were entranced, especially Spencer. They all had a great time holding them and I even got in on the fun. 

Aaron and Chloe like to swing in this swing together.

 Chloe turned three yesterday! We had a low key and very enjoyable Sunday with her. We were going to go to the park but it was rainy and chilly so we stayed in. But she got a batgirl costume and a batgirl cake and some dolls and generally had a lovely day. We love her and it's so fun to watch her grow. No babies in the house here anymore. She's so capable.

 She picked bacon and quesadillas for dinner. It was surprsingly tasty. Haha!

 And it turns out I don't have anything but a slow motion video of her blowing out her candles, so I'll stick with a picture of the video here. She had to blow them out three times. Three times for three years I guess. We'll take it.

This week in pictures

We checked out osme of the lake beaches this week. It was super fun. There's one just a mile or two from us on Lake Washington that we enjoyed. 

 And another one at Lake Sammamish maybe six or seven miles from our house the other direction. Also super fun.

 Aaron has gotten into selfies using my phone.

 We coccooned our kids this weekend in this awesome king-sized fleece blanket we have. It was more funny than any of us expected.

 More photography by Aaron.

 And we treid out a cool new park and splash pad yesterday as part of our Father's Day celebration. Yay Bill! We love you!

 I went to Genevieve's end of first grade school party today. We're one of those super late ending districts and we don't get out until Thursday. The weather is only in the 60s and 70s at the moment so it totally feels okay to not be done as opposed to if it were hot summer already. Fun times! She's growing up so fast. This has been a good second half of the school year here in Washington. There were some hiccups along the way, but they two odlest finished strong and they love it. We still occasionally get comments about wanting to go back to South Carolina tough. Friends are still missed there and even our old house and such. Clemson will forever own a piece of the Ashmans' hearts. Now on to what I expect to be a fantastic summer.

A few projects

After seeing some my sister made, I decided to make some of these marble necklaces for teacher gifts. I love how they turned out.

 I finally put a wasitband into these PJ pants I made with an old sheet I had to use as a muslin. They're pretty comfy. Waist is a littel low, but that's easy to fix on the next pair. I'm slowly trying out the patterns I've bought over the years. This is a keeper.

 Another child gets the reading bug. That makes my heart happy. She's reading Frog and Toad. Who doesn't like that series? She'd be happy to let us read to her for hours.

Feeling productive

Hmm, this has been a low-key week. Bill and I did have a super prodcutive weekend though. We got our two new window AC units installed. A lady from church was giving them away. Score for us! They work great. I want to install a few ceiling fans in our house and I think between the two we'll do all right sans AC here this summer.  

 I got an urge to bake yesterday and Spencer and Genevieve helped me make these delightfully pleasant sugar cookies as well as some cinnamon rolls. I even made these cookies gluten free and they are tasty as can be.

 Bill sent me a picture of he and Chloe while we were out making cookie deliveries. It's basically my favorite thing that she smiles big for the camera now.

 I trimed back my bushes this week so they're not trying to take over my back porch anymore.

 Oh, and Chloe has the most interesting taste in clothes. Dress shirt, pj shorts, and fluffy socks of Genevieve's.

This year is just flying by for me. I can't believe it's already June. We get out of school super late, so we still have three weeks left, and I'm pretty sure the summer is going to fly by too. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, we have fun things planned, and I'm generally just really excited for a good first month of summer, even though my kids don't actually get out of school until the third week of it.