The most wonderful time of the year

The school year is wrapping up - lots of last concerts, and field trips!  Shawn and Abram accompanied Nolan on his class field trip to the zoo per Nolan's request:

and school projects; all interspersed with fun events like Father and Sons outing:

These two little boys had been counting down the days and half days and hours for a week in advance. It was a very anticipated event!!

And yard work- you can't go wrong with a helper like this! He quickly discovered that this wasn't a very efficient shovel for the job!:

What would you say this fashion statement is?  Sporting the spring beach bum look?  Idk.... but it's pretty cute and it's always fun to have some entertainment while you dig Morning Glory weed:)

And bee inspections:

I promise not to report on this every week all year long...but we are LOVING this new hobby!  We still hadn't received any bee clothes in the mail at this first check-up (I guess it's time to check on that!) and only had one veil - and nothing else.  So... I invented another veil by putting some netting that I had over a straw hat.  I don't know if it would have worked if the bees were determined to sting.  Luckily they weren't- we didn't get one sting!  The bees are happily drawing out comb, beginning to store honey and pollen, and the queen was released and is beginning to lay eggs! Just look at all of those bees - they cover all the cells so much that it's hard to see into them.

Yes, I am holding a feather!  We don't have a bee brush, but Caden read that a feather could work just the same.  It did:

Caden even spotted one of the queens!:

Last night I spent some time determining how I want summer vacation to go - the fun things I want to do with the kids; what I want to teach them, what I want us to accomplish.  Now I need to share with Shawn when he gets home and make sure we are on the same page, and ask the kids for their ideas and put them all together.  After all, there are only four more full days of school! I can't wait!!!