End of the Year Picnic

Last week was full of many fun activities all gearing up for the end of preschool.

First, we had a picnic at the park, and all the kids got to feed bread to the ducks in the pond.

Except there were no ducks!  That didn't stop them from having a blast throwing wads of bread into the water.  It's so funny sometimes to see which activities appeal to five year olds.  :-)

The kids in Emma's class have been together for two years now.  The bonds of friendship are strong; there is great chemistry between these ten squirts.  I'm really going to miss this class!!!

Mostly I will miss this woman.  Ms Jerry has been directing preschool for 27 years.  She is a preschool mastermind.  Her creativity and extensive knowledge have been a DAILY blessing and encouragement to me, and I will miss being constantly amazed and entertained by her clever leadership and extraordinary teaching skills.  She truly, truly has a heart for kids.

At the end of park day each child was given a balloon.

Then we sang a little song about going off to kindergarten that ends with, "Let's GO!"

At those words, all the children released their balloons to Jesus.

.....and all the Mommies cried BUCKETS of tears.

It was incredibly sweet and sentimental, and a great send-off to kindergarten!

Emma's teacher, Mrs. Alice Ann, was a perfect match for her.  Oh, how I loved her ability to lovingly yet firmly direct Miss Highly Spirited Emma!  :-)

And now........

Holy Jelly Beans!  WE'RE OFF TO KINDERGARTEN!!!!!!

I couldn't bear to go straight home after the park because I didn't have anything on my afternoon agenda but crying, so I drug the kids through TWO different Home Depots looking for flowers to plant in the yard.  I wanted to come home and completely surprise my Buzzard by having the back flower beds weeded, tilled, planted, and mulched by the time he got home from work.

I surprised him alright!!

That sprinkler line that I busted right through with my shovel was definitely NOT what he was expecting when he got home that night.  :-)

What can I say?  Graduation did me in.

Grace's Tea

On Saturday I hosted a graduation tea for one of our Bible Bowl players who moved to Tennessee this year.  Her family was back in town for a visit, and it was the perfect opportunity to reunite with them and honor a beautiful young lady who is very special to us.

Her favorite color is blue, so blue and white was the theme for the tea.

These cute girls showed up and immediately my house felt like home.  I have great memories of the Bible Bowlers congregating here for a variety of events through the years.

Our guest of honor, with her mother, sister, and Nana.

Grace got a picture that made me laugh.  It was from a road trip we took to St. Louis several years ago. I made the kids wade into the Mississippi River and retrieve a piece of driftwood for me to bring home to my garden.  They had to haul that driftwood all through the museum under the St. Louis arch.

Good (and patient) kids!!  :-)

Coach Beverly hosted the tea with me.

It was a sweet time to reconnect and visit.  I miss these friendly faces very much.

I'm proud of you, Grace.  Congratulations.

May God direct your path and bless your future!

Preschool Graduation

On Thursday, the Little LuLu graduated from preschool.

And I spent the entire day in a puddle of tears.

I don't know why this particular milestone stuck in my heart ... and mind ... and overactive heightened emotional state....but it did.  She's the last baby.  I'll never get to do preschool again.

A letter of the week with coordinated snacks, silly sock days, letter buckets, special stickers for learning Bible verses, WOW stickers for saying something spectacularly mature, and tons of construction paper crafts...I could live in this season of life indefinitely, and leaving it behind brings me sorrow.

BUT, it's time to head to kindergarten.............and that requires good hair.  :-)

Ems asked me to use hot rollers in her hair for the very first time, and she even came downstairs at an alarmingly early hour of the morning excited to get started.

Cute.

Lucky for me, we live in a "dry climate" where the humidity levels climb to 97% hardly ever.

Hardly ever, and also on preschool graduation curly hair day.  Naturally.

So, the beautiful hair lasted all of seven minutes, which was precisely enough time for me to get this amazing photo which I will treasure in my heart forever and ever and ever.

Because, as I mentioned, we are leaving preschool behind.  Forever.

I love this photo.  She is sitting in a little chair that a PRECIOUS family hand painted and gave to me at Emma's baby shower.

Caps and gowns on five years olds.  Adorable times a million.  Tears from every Mommy in the room.

Emma and her teacher, receiving her diploma.  The first of hopefully many that will be delivered into those little hands over the years!  :-)

The graduating class of 2013.  I want to pack up all ten of these kids and make them be in the same class together for the next thirteen years.  That would be my idea of the perfect school.

Emma may have been slightly uninterested in the Pastor's little "charge to the graduates".  He was a fine keynote speaker, but she looked a bit disconnected from the message.  Ha!!!

She was selected to do TWO solos during graduation.  First, she got to sing a verse of Thank You Lord.

"The bears in the woods say thank you Lord."

"Thank you, Lord!"

"Grrr!  Grrr! Grrr!!!"

She went to the microphone and MOUTHED the words.  Not a peep.  But then she returned to the microphone later on to recite a Bible verse, and she did it perfectly!!

"Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good!"

Psalm 118:1

After the ceremony all the moms were invited back to the classrooms for a Mother's Day Lunch.

There were fresh flowers on the table, and they served a salad trio and muffins.

Each child had drawn a portrait of their Mommy, and we had to guess which drawing was us.

Here's me.

I don't know where the green eyes came from, but I'm very relieved that I have gray earrings instead of gray hair.

It was a very sweet day, and even though emotions ran a little high, I had a wonderful time.

There was a huge storm during graduation....thunder clapping and rain beating down on the roof.

One of the most fun parts was running to the van afterwards with our yellow balloon, jumping in a puddle on purpose, just for fun.

We still have three more days of school, but they are all fun days and field trips.

She was completely exhausted when we got home, so she took a little rest.

(With a pillow.)

Earlier in the week, we delivered a flower fairy garden to Mrs. Alice Ann to thank her for a wonderful year.  Emma had a sweet relationship with her teacher this year.  It was most definitely a year of growing, maturing, learning, and preparing for all the exciting things God has in store for us next.

Oh, we give THANKS to the LORD,

for He is indeed so very, very GOOD!

Mother's Day

Friday's Top Ten

1.

The chicks are staying through the weekend!  Landlord Buzzard graciously extended their lease.  :-) Emma and I read to them, so we've spent loooooots of time cuddled up next to the bucket with a stack of library books.

2.

Speaking of reading, I've started a new reading program with Emma.  She was all of the sudden READY to learn....full of questions about letters, sounds, and words.  So, off we went!  This week, she read her very first "chapter" out of her little reader.  It's about a yak eating jam.  :-)  More on our reading program (and why it's one of my favorite curriculum choices EVER) in a later post.  Here she is feeding bones to a monster.  As soon as you read the word on the bone, you get to feed it to the monster.

Also, matching rhyming ice cream scoops to make ice cream cones.

3.

I have 2,500 pounds of rocks on my driveway.  (Thank you, Calvin!!!)  I unexpectedly found some gorgeous boulders at an outrageous price, and we are giddy to finally address a landscape issue on the front of the house that has plagued us for years.  We weren't really looking for a project, but sometimes projects just have a way of finding you!  I'll be excited to share more about what we have planned.

4.

My girl and I on a date to spend a little gift card we were given.  (Thank you, Aunt Marci!).  Love this photo.  Emma has been in preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays this year, and both of those mornings the boys have co-op classes that are quite a distance away, especially in morning traffic.  So, that sweet girl has eaten her breakfast out of a zip lock baggie while sitting in her seat for 90 minutes very early before preschool twice a week all year.  Sometimes we stop at Starbucks if traffic is moving well and we have extra time to kill before preschool carpool drop off.  I treat her to a vanilla scone, her favorite.  This photo is a cute reminder to me of the visits we have spent there this year, and how sometimes being flexible can have its own rewards!  :-)

5.

Last night was "Bark at the Park" at Texas Rangers Ballpark.  Oh, I wish I would have known!!!  It would have been a blast to take Penny.  689 dogs showed up, despite some really off weather.  Owners and their dogs were allowed on the field a few hours before game time.  Hayden got Penny all dressed up this morning, just to "practice" her ensemble for next year's bark at the park.  We definitely want to go!

6.  "New cowgirl hat" has been on our wish list for a long, long time.  DONE!!  :-)

7.  I found this cute panel of nursing fabric at the quilt show this year.  Wendy and I each bought one.  I turned it into a bag to send to Hannah.  Duh.......she called me when it arrived in the mail.  I completely forgot to sew a HUGE hole in the lining closed, so the bag is unusable.  Phooey.  I'm so forgetful lately!

8.  I have a box of dissected animals in my garage.  Hayden's life science class ended this week and he brought all the animals from the year home with him.  He was extraordinarily interested in this class, and he really, really wanted the opportunity to show me these animals (and all their various parts) before disposing of them.  They have been in the garage for three days now.  I am working so, so hard to try to find the motivation to go out there and look at dissected brains, eyeballs, and hearts.  Nope, haven't found it yet!!!!!!  Ha!

9.  In other wildlife news, our new caterpillars came in the mail yesterday!!!  We're doing a butterfly garden this year.  This was my HUGE, exciting surprise that I've been building toward for weeks.  Then Kenny showed up and completely upstaged me in a massive way!!!  Ha!  Maybe not quite as awesome as chickens, but we're still happy to have caterpillars living on our piano.  (Are there any other empty corners of this house that I need to fill with nature???)  Marci and Nichole were giving me a REALLY hard time last week when I mentioned that when something happens to Mindy I'm not going to replace her.  I was casually talking about how we didn't really need any more pets.  They totally called my bluff.......and accused me of all manner of obsessive pet collecting.  I may need a special program.  Whatever am I going to do when I don't have little ones in this house to use as an excuse for housing all these critters???

10.  Don't you think I need this garden statue?  You know, just to remember my week??