Summer is here!  You successfully completed 2nd grade and you enjoyed it a lot.  Some of your closest friends from this school year were Piper, Charlie, Eliot, and Maya, to name a few (that I can remember from birthday parties and such).  Mr. Huettig said you were a great student and very helpful in class.  The project about rivers was probably one of your favorites this year.  It was fun for me to go to DaVinci Days when you guys displayed all of the artwork you had made.  I think you enjoyed showing me all of your hard work and creativity.  Mr. Huettig rarely sent home any of your schoolwork for me to see, not sure if that's because you guys did more group work and projects and such, but you seemed to be very engaged that way and almost never complained about going to school (last year you complained a few times that you were bored and did the same thing every day).

You got to take a fun cooking class this summer, which I think you enjoyed, despite the fact that the menu wasn't just desserts, but a whole meal each day for three days.  You also did a fun art camp this last week and seemed to be in your element trying out different kinds of art.  You came home with some pretty cute stuff, including a ceramic bug and leaf that you can use to hide something small under the bug.

You also wanted to learn how to make macarons, so we have done that twice.  The first time, you didn't want to do just a simple recipe, but a banana split version, so one cookie was chocolate, the other cookie was vanilla, and inside was a banana flavored cream, a dab of strawberry jam, and chocolate ganache.  The strawberry jam was the only thing that wasn't made from scratch. Whew.  They turned out pretty good for it being our first time. Many of the cookies were varying in size, so sandwiching them together was fun. Then we made pistachio flavored macarons for Papi on Día de Padre.  I think he liked them.

One last adventure that should be mentioning - Matías, Belén, you, and I went hiking on the Three Bears trail one day.  I enticed you with the prospect of getting an açaí bowl afterward at Boise Juice Co. and bringing several snacks that I knew you liked.  It was a solid 8 mile hike, so I knew it wasn't your favorite thing to do, but I wasn't expecting you to whine the entire time.  But you did.  I tried to stay positive and patient the whole time, but I admit I did finally snap about a half mile from finishing the hike.  Later that day, Papi took your temperature and you had a fever of 104 degrees.  On the hike you complained about being cold (it was breezy that day), and that your legs hurt.  I didn't make any connections between those things and you possibly being sick.  I'm so sorry.  Papi told me that his legs often hurt when he is sick.  I've never heard of that until now.  But now I know!