june is almost over, and though henry's been out of school just under three weeks, it feels like summer is in full swing.

he ended the year really well, and was sad to leave his teacher and friends. mrs geisler has been phenomenal for henry, and i'm so glad we switched schools last year. it was totally worth the stress and hassle that we endured last summer. and it turns out we were right on the money about how a more progressive school would help henry: at the end of kindergarten, he was reading at a second grade level. now he's knocking on the door of fifth grade reading. he's currently plowing through the lemony snicket series at warp speed. makes his english-major mommy very proud, indeed.

the night before school was out i realized i hadn't made a teacher gift for mrs g, so i gathered together a couple of patterns of paper, a couple types of hambly, some scenic route chipboard, light blue doodlebug paper frills, and a few other tidbtits. what resulted was actually fairly sweet, i think, even though the pix of it sort of stink because i was in a major hurry to not be late on the last day of school ... :

she loved it, which is all that really counts.

since then, marc went to california for a week to take his first class/test in a series of five for his red hat architect certification. (a fairly stringent series ... there are only about 70 people who hold this certification in the world, and my man passed with a 94% ... yay, marc!!) then we had a week of semi-normalcy ... the kids swam in the blow-up pool, we went to the park, we hung out. and last week marc went fishing in the boundary waters with my dad, uncle, and brother-in-law, while my mom and sister and i, along with the kiddos, headed to the north shore for three days of relaxing and hiking and seeing the sights. neither mom nor becca had ever been up there so it was a huge joy to show them one of my favorite places. ironically, my last technique layout as a master features a photo of the north shore. keep an eye out for it in the november/december issue!

i'll leave you with a few photos (and a few more, if you're interest in gorgeous scenery has been piqued!!) of the loveliness that is northern minnesota. i need to get my scrap on soon ... there are some shots i can't wait to play with!!