Summer is here!

School is out for summer!

We are in full swing of summer break now that we are 1 month into it.  Jayden is half way finished with summer school, which he loves. This year he is taking an Arts and Crafts class, Reading and Computer lab.  Thinking back, I'm pretty sure we didn't have these options when we were growing up.  So glad that he loves school so much.  3rd grade will be here before we know it.

This month has brought us on some new adventures and we hope that you all enjoy the ones we share.  Towards the end, you will find our very happy surprise that should put a smile on your face.
Enjoy!
 

Before the school year ended, Jayden's Teacher had an award ceremony for the kids.  It was so cute!

Jayden received the Gobstoppers Award...For always having "gobs" of great work and ideas!

Jayden getting his award from the kiddos for being a "Super Scientist".

What better than to make hand prints on the red carpet.  Such a great idea!

Our Annual cottage trip with my family took place the 2nd week in June and it was a fun week away.  Jeff wasn't able to join us with starting a new job, so we made the most without him.  This deer in the picture, as you can tell, came up real close to the cottage.  Sometimes the deer brought her fawn too and they took time to enjoy the grass and sometimes a drink from the creek.

My good looking fishing buddy!

Jayden was so proud that he learned this vacation to take his own fish off the line.  He mastered it!

Grant and Jayden having a little sugar to get them through the day.  These kids are attached to each other.  Pretty sure they are best buds for life.

Jayden was all about rescuing nature.  This turtle was crossing the road, so he coaxed it into the bucket so he could release it into the creek.

Our attempt to take a selfie at 10pm after walleye fishing.  We did have an exciting ride to the walleye fishing spot; we seen a black bear on the side of the road. After we were done fishing I was mad that I didn't make my dad stop so I could take a picture of it.  Oh well, at least there was 5 of us that seen it and it wasn't a "bear" story.

Uncle Ronnie enjoying his nice bass on a pan fishing pole.  We decided to let it grow up a little and released it.

The almost Claffey Family.  Don't think I even got a picture of poor Claudia the whole vacation.  Pretty sure she was snuggling with Grandma when we took this.

The snuggle buddies.

Fishing with Grandpa with the "lucky pole".  Pretty sure any pole the kid touched turned lucky.

Jayden's attempt to take a picture of my big catch of the day.  Wish we would've found more of these guys. Pretty sure my pole was "lucky too".

Getting set up for night 2 of walleye fishing.  Another late night for us.

Jayden's lucky night.  16 in Walleye!  Pretty proud of his catch.

Pretty sure the smallest fish we caught.  Jayden actually snagged this one in the top fin.  Don't know how he did that, but guess that is his new talent.

What do you do on a cold and rainy morning?  Check out the creek where it goes under the road.  It was a successful fishing spot.  Jayden hoped to catch one of the large mouth bass that was swimming around, but caught tons of pan fish and 8 rock bass.

It stopped raining, but continued to be pretty windy.  We headed into Eagle River for some fun riding the go carts and hitting a round of mini golf.  Uncle Ronnie had a blast since it was his first time.

We finally put our pool up that Jayden got as a birthday gift.  I'm sure you guessed that he couldn't wait to swim in it.  He is in his clothes swimming as it was filling up because he just couldn't wait. It was freezing cold, but that didn't stop him.

Gabbi stopped by for some swimming fun and the kids had a blast.

Nicole and Mike brought Grant over to swim and he was more interested in the snack I had for him.  He ate half of a bag of puffy popcorn and laughed as we swam in the pool.

The kids being goofy on swim day 2.  Jayden swam for 6 hours straight and didn't want to get out.  When he finally gave into me having him get out, he was starving.  Nothing homemade strawberry pancakes can't fix.

So our month of June has been so wonderful with family.  Now we have a picture to share with you that Jayden made that hopefully will put a smile on your face.

Are you smiling?
Every time I look at this picture, it makes me smile and giggle at the same time.
Jayden is so proud that he is going to be a big brother.  Pretty sure Jayden wears the big brother glow.  Our lives will change in January as the baby should arrive early that month, but we look forward to our growing family.  The joy we get from being parents is wonderful with our amazing son, but can only get more wonderful sharing it with another bundle of joy.

We hope to see or hear from everyone soon.
Enjoy the 4th of July!
Until next time,
Jeff, Heather, Jayden and Baby
 

"Eight!"

Our little boy is now 8, can you believe it?  Crazy how fast the little ones grow.  This makes me think back to when I was in second grade and thought "is this school year ever going to end?"  Well, the school year is ending soon and soon our 8 year old will be a 3rd grader.  You will see that we have done a lot this past month and hope that you enjoy the pictures of our adventures. I do want to share a conversation that I had with Jayden that made me just smile.

Me:  So Jayden, now that you are 8, what do you think you will do while you are 8?

Jayden:  Spend time with Grant and Claudia, Claudia will turn 1, I will go into 3rd grade, I get to play flag football, I get to do Karate, I'm swimming this summer...

Me:  Do you think you will get to do anything fun this year or try anything new?

Jayden:  I don't think so, but maybe!

So I guess we will have to change his mind and let him have tons of fun and try some new things, since summer is almost here!

Teacher appreciation week was the first week in May so the kids and I treated Mrs. Cust to some fun, homemade gifts.

We feel so blessed to have Mrs. Cust  teach Jayden this year.  She has pushed him to achieve anything he set his heart to and made him believe!  How awesome!

 
We decided to have the two neighbor boys over for a sleep over for Jayden's birthday.  The kids had a blast having tons of fun and staying up until 11:30 at night.

The boys ate us out of home of a whole box of pancakes for breakfast!

Jayden chalked me a picture of what I look like to him.

 

Jayden's birthday cake or should I say birthday pale?

Blowing out the candles

One of my favorite pictures of Grant!

 

This year we headed to Chula Vista in Wisconsin Dells for a little water fun.  Jayden loved this slide and wanted to race Jeff multiple times.

 

Sunset from our room.

Playing such a fun game of air hockey.  Crazy shaped table, but way fun.

Oops, Jayden wanted to ride the cart so we took advantage of it.

 

Tired after two big days at the water parks.

Grant's first sucker!  What am I suppose to do with this?

Playing outside at the Claffey house and where do you find Jayden?  In the tree!

 

Grant loves to play by the tree too.

 

Almost as tall as Auntie!

 

For all the years we have lived in our house (7 years), I never took a picture of our flowering trees.  They are so pretty, but the flowers don't last very long.  Usually the rain and wind take them away quickly.

What a better day that having a half day and spending it at the farm.  We even brought a friend this year (Beck) to plant the garden.

The boys found some time to go Froggin'.

Going for a ride in the Ranger!

Jayden and I!  Love this kid!

 

Claudia was baptised and it was a beautiful day.

Sprinkler fun.

Water balloon fun!

Well, I think that is enough for this month, I'm sure I will have a lot to blog about next month.  Enjoy the beginning of summer and we will see you again next month.

Until next time,

Jeff, Heather and Jayden