"School's ... out — for — SUMMER!"

(Or at least until summer school starts on Monday.) So on Jack's last day of kindergarten, I had invited two other boys over for a couple of hours to play. Here, showing off that they're now officially first graders.

Wow. When suggesting that they try being silly for a picture ... they sure didn't need much encouragement.

I made sure to have a bunch of activities planned and we did lots of fun stuff: upstairs, downstairs, inside and outside...

This game that Jen sent us for Christmas is great. It can be played indoors or outdoors, is good for most all ages, there's nothing to write down, it keeps you moving and a new round starts about every 10 minutes.

All three ran through the silly sprinkler.

Then all three ran through the silly sprinkler together.

Brody drying off on the deck.

Andrew getting one last sip out of the hose.

Next, I made 'em cool treats with mixed fruit, pineapple juice, orange juice and crushed ice, called a Frozen Avalanche.

The Class of 2022 celebrates one year down. Only 12 more to go.

Then Grandma Nancy came from Nebraska, just to see Jack's baseball game that night! But first, playing King's Corners before dinner.

Under the lights. (Look for this ball that Jack hit — between the knees of the opposing team's two coaches, in the teal T-shirts.)

Livin' the dream.

Last day of school. Friends over to play. Baseball game at night. Getting to play catcher. And Grandma Nancy coming down to watch. If that doesn't scream "goin' out for ice cream afterward," I don't know what does.

Today's geometry lesson

4:30 p.m. — piano lesson on the square.

6:00 p.m. — baseball game on the diamond.

Kindergarten picnic

One of the special activities during Jack's last week of school was the kindergarten picnic. At 11:30 a.m., all of the kindergarten classes hiked a couple of blocks away to a big park for lunch outdoors and a full afternoon of organized games and activities.

When I got there, Jack and one of his best friends, Q, had already eaten and were in full swing.

The last picture of the year with his awesome teacher, Mrs. Benner.

To help tell them apart, each class was encouraged to wear a specific color that day and this is the shirt he chose. Guess what color his class was on field day last year and what shirt he wore?

But around 12:30, some dark clouds moved in and we could hear thunder in the distance. So the decision was made to pack everything up — the food and snacks, all of the coolers filled with ice and bottled water, the color-coded games and equipment spread throughout the park, and the inflatable "bounce house" with its multiple hundred-pound weights — and head back to school.

Back inside their classroom (waiting for directions on what to do next), I was surprised to see them playing Heads-Up 7-Up. I remember playing that game when I was in elementary!

But after unloading everything again and quickly improvising to set it all up again back at school, the "kindergarten picnic" was back on.

It was after Jackson came home from school earlier this year saying, "Do you know what Q can spell?" that I learned how to spell "sarsaparilla."

After just a few raindrops, it was nothin' but blue skies from now on.

After being first up in the bounce house in the cafeteria, their first station outside on the playground was the egg-on-a-spoon relay.

Look at that concentration!

Uh-oh.

They had a raw, chilled egg for every single kindergartener to have one. Or break one.

Next up: "Potato-sack races!"

Jack was the first one to tag Miranda's hand.

After a few tries, the other kids caught on.

Time to take a break for the ice cream man.

Then it was time for the sponge game...

...to get others the wettest.

But who ever stayed the driest got to play again another round.

And finally...

...tug-o-war!

Though the matches were over pretty quickly, they got to play again and again — trying lots of combinations like boys vs. girls and even adding in the adults.

At the end of his rope.

With Jack's competitive spirit, he soon realized that he liked being the anchor man.

Whew! By the end of the day, even I was worn out.

Happy Memorial Day

Momma's boy

Buck's BBQ

Every Friday morning at 6 a.m., I get together with a group of guys at Jason & Julie's house. But this afternoon, they opened up their new home to us, our wives and our kids. And Craig's homemade margarita machine.

This beauty shot doesn't even include the four racks of ribs in Jason's smoker. You should see what he makes us Friday mornings for breakfast!

Landon stayed in the kiddie pool for a couple of hours; practically the whole time we were there.

He LOVED going down the slide...




Then would pop back up and do it all over, and over and over again!

We figure that he went down that little slide — literally — a hundred times. At least.

Dueling cameras...

Boys of summer

Jack, Preston, Brody and Landon splashin' around in our backyard this afternoon. It was a sultry 88 degrees when the two oldest ones got off the school bus, so — for the first time this year — we dug out the swim trunks, water shoes, sunscreen, goggles, some pool toys and the wacky water sprinkler for them to play in.

Then the wind picked up, a typical Midwestern storm blew in and the temperature dropped 10 degrees in 10 minutes. "Everyone out of the pool!"

Peony for your thoughts?