the weekly update [Bentonville Film Festival fun]

We have had a fun week during our May intercession from school!

On Sunday, we returned from staying with family and got back in time for the GA's mother/daughter tea and awards. C Girl earned a new charm for her bracelet through all of her completed GA Journey projects! 

That night, our church hosted an evening with the Duggars. 

I admire this family so much. Their children are super talented and very respectful. 

It was great to hear Michelle and Jim Bob's testimonies and stories from their life and marriage. 

On Monday, I took the kids to Orchard's Park to run around some and get some energy out!

They have some neat red fish in the pond.

Monday night, we had team baseball pictures for B Boy.

Tuesday was the opening day for our local strawberry patch. 

We had a fun time and picked 6 quarts of strawberries!

We have eaten a lot, made a strawberry cake, strawberry shortcakes and 7 containers of freezer jam!

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to explore the inaugural Bentonville Film Festival.

This is such a cool thing to come to our little town.

It was co-founded by Geena Davis and focuses on women and diversity in media.

We even had other A-list celebrities in town during the festival.

We hopped down to "sponsor village" to check out everything going on.

We had free hot dogs, drinks, and all sorts of things from the sponsors.

There were so many freebies and even a VIB (Very Important Beauty) lounge. You could go there and get your hair styled, get your nails done and your makeup!

Wednesday night, we had planned to take B Boy to High Rise for him winning our family bracket challenge back in February.

As we were leaving, C Girl started having an upset tummy. I decided to stay home with her and let the boys go have fun.

About a half hour later, I get a call from Tim- he didn't have his debit card and had no way to pay.

C Girl was feeling better, so her and I loaded up to go and meet them there.

Both kids ended up having a blast!

B Boy had a soccer game on Thursday night. His season is almost over. It's been fun watching him play!

Friday afternoon, C Girl had tennis lessons. B Boy had a baseball game at 8 pm. I haven't been feeling great the last half of the week, so C Girl and I decided to stay home and relax.

B Boy was supposed to have a baseball and soccer game this morning, but they were rained out.

We decided to make a trip to the farmer's market and one more visit to the film festival.

It was a beautiful morning!

Tim had me go in some boutiques to find something new, but I couldn't find anything I loved.

We came home and hung out and I finished decorating my Mother's Day/birthday cake.

I can't wait to eat some of it tomorrow!

Weekly catch-up time!

My blog has become a time capsule of my life. I love the feeling I have after I post and know that those memories are somewhere that I can look back on them. It kind of clears my head out! Weird, I know, but I'm also the person who sent her husband out with the kids to the splash park for a couple of hours today so I could clean the house! They had a fantastic time and even splashed while it rained for a bit and I now have a clean house!

Earlier this week, I had lunch at Cracker Barrel with my friends April, Jen, and Jen's daugher, Lyla. We had a great time! 

Wednesday evening while I took B Boy to baseball practice, Tim and C Girl worked on our lawn mower. We bought it last year and were disappointed when it didn't start this year. They replaced the gas and cleaned the carburetor and it was good to go!

I visited the local school that I read with kiddos at on Thursday morning for the final time this school year. It's amazing to see how far they have grown with their reading!

On Thursday evening, we attended our school district's annual Technology Showcase. Every year, teachers can apply for a 21st century technology grant that the district awards to about 25 teachers each year. The teacher is awarded a classroom set of iPads for grades K-2 and a classroom set of laptops for 3-12. B Boy was in a 21C classroom during his kindergarten year. It was really neat checking out what projects that teachers and students are doing with awesome technology. There were two 3-D printers there and it was the first time I had seen one up close. If you do not know much about 3-D printing, you should check it out. They were actually printing objects during the showcase.

 3-D Printer

Another 3-D printer

 an object printed by a 3-D printer

The kids testing out a Lego car that is controlled by code that students input.

We were out of school Friday! We had a relaxing morning and then met up with some friends at a strawberry patch to pick strawberries!

We visited last year as well.

We picked 4 quarts and are very much enjoying eating them!

 We played Dominoes with the kids on Friday night. It's so fun now that they can play lots of games. We are past the Candyland/Chutes and ladders phase! This is one milestone that I am not sad about!

 After our lunch at Cracker Barrel where my friend April ordered pancakes, crispy pancakes were all I could think about. I made them on Friday and Saturday mornings! So good!

We saw Batman at the farmer's market on Saturday morning! B Boy loved this!

We also visited some local antique/junk stores. That is one of my favorite pastimes!

 We had a little Mexican fiesta Saturday night- I made enchiladas and homemade guacamole. Yum!

 We played Phase 10 after dinner outside on the patio!

We went to Sunday morning service for the first time in May this morning. That sounds so bad, but we have had things going on and just haven't made it on Sunday mornings. 

They showed a video during service about remembering what Memorial Day is about. Firstly, I cannot watch anything remotely patriotic without getting emotional. 

Secondly, I feel like it is my personal job to help everyone remember what Memorial Day means. It bothers me when people go on and on thanking people currently serving (nothing is wrong with this), but don't really mention those who have died in service. Those soldiers are why Memorial Day or Remembrance Day was enacted.

This is a great little article about Memorial Day.

So many men and women have sacrificed their lives for our great nation. 

Tomorrow, just for a minute, stop and remember those who have died in the line of service.

Our Memorial Day plans changed today. We are now going to go to my parents house.

We had planned to spend the day here and just hang out, but my brother Kevin is leaving next weekend to train for his new military job and he won't be back until November. 

He is a geo-spacial imagery analyst. The 188th fighter wing, where he works, is transitioning for A-10's to drones. 

So, we grilled burgers tonight and they were good :-) I just love the start of summer!