Where have we been?!

 What have the Shippens been up to since we last posted almost TWO years ago!?!?  Well, let me tell you.....

Robbie graduated from 6th grade.  At our elementary school, they don't have a big graduation thing, which is kind of disappointing.  They did have a program with a guest speaker and they read the names of the kids who completed extra credit assignments to get "degrees" in different areas, but that was it.  I took a few pics of Robbie and his friends after the "graduation" and before they headed outside for the 6th Grade Celebration (aka a day of water games and fun on the fields at school).

 Goofy 6th grade boys!

 A few of Rob's good friends

 Me and my 6th grade graduate!

 I got a little teary-eyed while listening to the guest speaker and thinking about how this elementary school time is all done for my oldest.  I've had an overwhelming feeling many times in the past few months that life is moving too fast, the kids are growing up too quickly, and there's so much I'm not doing to enjoy life in-the-moment.  I have friends who are so excited to see their children grow up and become more mature and experience new things, but I'm not one of those--I just want to keep them young and freeze these moments in time.  But despite what I want, my oldest son is growing up and moving to Jr High next year.  I'm SO not ready for this, and he is SO excited!

The last day of school--Rob 6th grade, Sarah 4th grade

 Last day of school for Talia--1st grade

Summer officially started on June 1st, but dance for Sarah didn't end until this weekend.  She had her recital yesterday, and she did awesome.  She has decided she loves to dance, and is doing dance steps all over the house lately.  After watching Talia's dance team compete this past year, Sarah decided she wanted to be on a dance team, too.  So she tried out for a team at the same studio Talia has been taking at, and was excited to make a beginning level team.  She starts dance at the new studio Monday, so no break for her!!

Sarah before her dance recital

Summer brings all sorts of outdoor yardwork around the Shippen household--I tell my kids that we don't live on a farm but we do have about 1/4 acre of flower beds that have to be weeded, so that is where they will learn to do outdoor work!  This year we have an annoying problem--squirrels have taken over!  What started out as a few cute little animals running around late last summer has turned into a full-blown invasion.  They have tunneled under all the concrete (notice the hole to the side of the trap in the pic below), eaten 8 pepper plants and 3 cucumber plants along with several shrubs, and littered our yard with walnut shells from my neighbor's walnut tree.  I was fine with leaving them alone until they ate my vegetable plants--when that happened, I knew they had to go!  Enter my neighbor the falconeer--he is trapping the squirrels (notice one in the trap below) and feeding them to his hawk and falcon.  Its a win-win situation for everyone except Talia, who is heartbroken at the thought of those cute little squirrels being killed and fed to a big bird.  Anyway, the kids are always checking to see if we have caught a squirrel, and this past week we caught 7 or 8, so we're off to a good start!