The Start of Summer!

 

Memorial Day Weekend, for all intents, is the unofficial start to summer and we made the most of it! We started with an awesome pool day on Sunday with our great friends the Walfords followed by a family picnic on Monday.

  

After Memorial Day comes the kids favorite day of summer...THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

  

 

This year we made some cute teachers gifts like monogrammed coffee cups with homemade cookies and cute little candy filled cups with a poem.

 

While the girls and I worked on that, Elijah had an art project of his own in mind with permanent marker + my laptop!

 

 

Just days later...GRADUATION!

 

My baby is "graduating".  Where did the time go?  She was just placed in my arms and now she is graduating from elementary school.  I feel like I am going to blink and she will be graduating high school.

 

She has matured so much over the last year and I know she will do great in middle school.  The most important thing that puts my mind at ease is her love of Christ.  She has a heart for reaching others with the saving knowledge of our Savior and I owe so much of that education to our wonderful church, Calvary.

 

 

Each year our pastor takes the time to recognize the kids that routinely fill out there worship folders.  It was an honor to see all of those young hearts being cultivated.

 

 

We also celebrated a very special birthday!  Elijah turned 2. 

 

Elijah is always hungry, not unlike a certain caterpillar we enjoy reading about:)

 

So for his birthday we had tons of "Hungry Caterpillar" themed food like apples and oranges, plums and berries...

 

 

and lollipops...

 

and little cherry pies!

 

I think we even managed to reach the younger crowd:)

 

 

 

 

 

Soon it was time for cake and presents.

 

SCORE!

 

Eli wasn't the only one to get gifts, Aunt Wendy and Uncle Jason FINALLY got their Christmas gifts:)

 

Family photo op.

 

Hummmm, pretty good but let's try again...

 

Uhhhhh, maybe one more time...

 

Yikes!  Oh well, I think each kid had a good smile in one of the pictures so just imagine it like that:)

 

Happy Birthday ELIJAH!

Spring Wrap-up

When it comes to Spring, many people are already looking ahead to summer...like what vacations they might have in store when the kids are out of school, the excitement of warmer weather and much anticipated summer camps. 

But here we believe every season deserves its own celebration.  And while our spring wasn't jam-packed (aside from Spring Break that is) we still found plenty to do without leaving our house!

 

 

With an unseasonably cold and rainy Spring, we had to make due with the few warm sunny days we were given and no one takes advantage of being outside on a sunny day more than grandma!  On this particular day she came over at 6:40am and started washing the small van...by herself:)

 

Notice both the long clothes (for the freezing cold morning) and the state of the rest of our household...

 

My thoughts exactly at 6:40am!

 

Once the sun rose and it warmed up a bit outside, we all pitched in to wash the big van:)

 

Later that week Jeff gave the boys a little lesson in, what else, basketball.

 

 

 

We tested out some new family fun snacks like fondue...

 

 

Big Hit!

 

And popcorn in a new "old-fashion" popper. 

Complete with a movie of course.

 

 

If you notice in the picture above, Nehemiah had a run-in (literally) with the kitchen counter which resulted in a super-fun trip to the new Waxhaw ER and 3 stitches in his lip:(  He was quite a trooper though and never cried once at the hospital.  Ironically, it just so happened that our family portrait was the NEXT day!

 

 

Everyone had great smiles though and one little girl always has a smile for the camera, especially when she is showing off mommy's craft projects...

Butterfly Headband

 

 

Pom Pom Sandals

 

 

Embroidered Hat

 

 

But it wasn't all sunny blue skies, as a matter of fact most of April/May/June looked like this...

 

 

Can't keep those boys away from the ball!  (Notice the camera angle is from the dry front porch)

Happy Mother's Day!  Breakfast with my girls.

 

 

Finally a sunny day for the Hershey Games (a track meet for kids ages 9-13).  This year was Noah's first year of eligibility and he signed up for the softball throw, the 50m dash and the 100m dash.  He got second place in the softball throw and did really well in the running events as well. 

 

 

Calla also did the softball throw as well as the 200m and the 800m.  She tore it up in the 800m almost beating the two boys that ran it and taking a full minute off her best time as well as getting first place!

 

 

I attribute it all to the fantastic cheering section:)

 

 

Go Calla, Go Noah!

 

With all this fun we can hardly wait till summer, just ask Lyla!