Sleepover

We had 4 of our kid-friends come spend the night on Saturday. The four Geertsema children came over and all 8 kids played, ate pizza, watched a movie, played some more, slept in beds and sleeping bags (eventually), ate bagels and cereal together and then we all headed to church for an encore presentation to the congregation of some VBS songs. Here are all 8 of the kids dressed in VBS shirts for church:

Here's the theme song from VBS and notice that Catherine once again joined in with some moves at the end:

Now, you are all finally caught up on the Torkelson family happenings! For the rest of this month, we hope to do more house organization/prep for our upcoming move and the kids and I will be driving up to Montana for the 4th of July to meet Tom's Dad, Rosemary, Pam, and other family to celebrate the 4th together, then Tom will return to OK for another 2 weeks before returning to CO for the pack-out. Crazy busy times!

Catch Up Post

I feel like the last month since I've posted has been a time warp! Anyway, here's the last month in a nutshell:

My parents came out to visit for two weeks and helped tremendously during a very busy time. There were many functions, a garage sale, parties, etc. and they helped us so much. Apparently we were so busy during the entire 2 weeks that none of us thought to take even a single picture - unbelievable! Anyway, we'll have to take more pictures when we travel to Maine to visit them and go to my 20-year reunion this summer before we fly to England!

School ended for the boys - many parties, activities & a continuation ceremony for Jack to celebrate the end of elementary school and the start of middle school next year - so weird to think that our oldest will be in 6th grade next year - wow! My parents and sister were able to join us for this occasion & he received a Presidential award for Academic Excellence. As an added bonus, the Air Force Academy graduation was the same day as Jack's celebration, so we had an excellent Thunderbirds show to watch when we were eating after the ceremony - very cool! Here he is after receiving his award:

My parents left on the 3rd of June, Tom & I celebrated our 16th Wedding Anniversary on the 4th - he's in OK & I'm still in CO so we celebrated over the phone and by exchanging cards/goodies through the mail. On Friday, 5 June, I went out to eat with a bunch of wonderful ladies from our church family and my dear neighbor, Tresa Flanegin. We all had a wonderful time and several ladies came back to my house after to hang out. They all chipped in money to buy a beautiful bracelet & necklace for me - I will deeply miss each of these ladies when I leave, but we all agreed not to talk about the leaving part of our upcoming move so there were no tears shed yet as we all continue to live in a certain state of denial! Here's a few photos from that night:

Monday, 8 June, we started VBS week at our church - Crocodile Dock. I volunteered there and all of the kids went and had a blast! Anna Fish, our Children's Ministry Director, does an OUTSTANDING job putting on VBS and it was excellent from start to finish - games, crafts, snacks, stories, music. Even Catherine had a blast and learned some songs and movements! Here's a video of Catherine doing some of the moves to the songs (she loved to be with Jack during song time!):