The Houghs: "The Cannonball's 8th," or "One Year in Michigan," or "The Last Day of School"

Seriously, folks. Take your pick.

June 16th, 2016 may go down as one of the busiest and most random days in our family's history. It at least made the Top 20.

A year ago today, our family returned to Michigan soil (Kris, the girls, Watson, Mom and John on the 15th, Kidney Stone-riddle Dad and Yours Truly on the 17th. . . so we average it to make things easier.) The 16th of June, as it is, is also the Cannonball's birthday.

And, to top it all off, it just so happened to be the last day of school for Midland Public Schools.

Go figure.

So, all in all, today was jam-packed with all kinds of craziness. Kris had to work, but I took the day off to volunteer in the girls' classrooms and help out where needed. After school, Alayna was having her BFF, Madison, over for her very first sleepover at our house (she had one earlier in the month with her girl scout troop, but that one more or less doesn't count 'cause there were, like, 40 kids there. . . and it was at a church) so I had an extra girl with me with which to run sleepover supply runs.

Anyway, allow me now to walk you through all that transpired on this very hectic and very momentous day in Hough History. . .

Alayna requested cat cupcakes for her birthday at school. Kris came through once again.

First and Last Day of School: some things never change (i.e. Michigan weather.)

Kris had tried the day before getting a picture of Abby with her teacher, but Abby wussed out. Today I was under strict orders to get this picture. Mission: Accomplished.

Mrs. Larson's room. Ground Zero of Last Day of School chaos.

Alayna and her friend, Samantha.

Mary, Maddie and the Cannonball flipping through some book instead of eating with the rest of the class. . .

Because of the crappy weather (the rain refused to let up), Chestnut Hill had to scrap their original plans for taking the entire second grade down the street a few blocks to Plymouth Park to let the kids play in the Fun Zone (like they did for the girls' combo party, if you'll remember.) Instead, the second grade teachers broke all of their classes into groups and had inside rotations lasting each about twenty minutes or so. Mostly games and activities, though after awhile they were really just trying to run out the clock. Here, Mrs. Larson gives her kids their marching orders. . .

Alayna's group's first rotation was to a neighboring classroom, where the kids had to try and see how many pasta noodles they could get on a dry piece of spaghetti without using their hands. It was pretty painful to watch.

Another rotation, in yet another room, where kids had to pick up cotton balls using only a dab of Vaseline on their nose. . .

Then there was a rotation that let kids go outside for field games, but it was still raining out (albeit lightly) so Alayna wasn't too thrilled with the idea at first.

I REALLY want to photoshop these guys being fired upon by a line of British red coats. I think it'd look amazing.

(Alayna's partnered up with one of her friends, Kyliegh, who was at her birthday party a week ago.)

I don't think SHE quite got the hang of this. . .

At this rotation, kids had to use bendy pipe cleaners in order to. . . who knows. I was on the phone for most of this rotation, handling logistics for an interview.

This rotation was pretty cool - a lot better than dry pasta and cotton balls, at any rate. As you can see here, kids had to knock over water bottles with a ball attached to their head via pantyhose.

Alayna had a difficult time with it not because she couldn't master the mechanics of the game - that was easy enough for her - but because of her height: the ball would drag on the ground, so she kept having to pull the pantyhose down farther over her face.

She was a pretty good sport about it, though.

Time for a heroin pop . .

My phone about to die, and more business calls to make, I decided to step out once Mrs. Larson's class around 2pm as the kids settled in for The Lion King.

On the way out to the car, I popped my head in and snapped a few quick pictures to see what Abby's kindergarten class was up to. . .

Ella's mom, Courtney, assists Abby and Ella with some snack-related issue.

I picked up the girls from their last day of school with Alayna's friend, Maddie, in tow: as part of her birthday celebration, Alayna was going to have her first sleepover at her house (that Girl Scout one doesn't really count.) From school, I drove the girls over to Family Video to rent a stack of DVDs/Blu Rays and a few bags of cotton candy, and Kris bought some fast food on the way home (Alayna's request.) After dinner and some TV, we busted out a few leftover cupcakes to sing Alayna "Happy Birthday". . .

More TV (Maddie looks thrilled.)

These gifts were all from us. Alayna requested the following for her birthday: a cell phone, a real drum set, Shopkins, and Playmobil (she'd end up getting a ridiculous amount of the latter two, but the first two we're holding off on until she gets a little older.)

For the girl that loves telling jokes, this series of joke books - of which she has two of the three now - is comedy gold.

This was the second Wii U game she got this year (the other being the Lego Jurassic World game she got from Dad and Cindy for her combo birthday party.) This one's a well-rated Monster High that lets the player design and customize their own Monster High character and then interact with the TV show cast in the school. This game is crack for little kids.

She had requested safety pads - for her knees, wrists, and elbows - like the ones her sister received on her own birthday. Done.

(This present was one of the leftover ones from Mom)

Anything at all that can motivate our kids to be outside and moving, honestly. They love being outdoors and playing with friends, but Alayna takes after her Hough lineage and doesn't necessarily lean towards athletic past times (her sister, on the other hand. . .)

Since Abby received a huge Playmobil set for her birthday, Kris and I knew we had to get something of similar size and value in order to level the playing field (yes, our kids are still at that age where that has to always be calculated into holidays. . .)

Since the kids like playing with their figures in house-like environments (they use their Animal Clinic as a house more often than not), we got her this rustic Germanic mountain lodge, which kinda/sorta mirrors Abby's Wilderness Treehouse. We didn't want to incur the wrath of a certain six-year-old if we had bought Alayna one of the princess-y houses Playmobil offers. . .

After all the excitement of opening up her gifts, Alayna and the other girls needed to burn off some energy (and sugar) so I took them down to the park behind our house. . .