Today's Memories

Ava had her graduation ceremony today at school.  I'm pleased to say that the K teachers fully underwhelmed us with the ceremony, which kept me from crying out of sadness at Ava growing up.  I don't blame those teachers...they're tired....tomorrow's the last day and they are hanging on by a thread!  But there was not a shred of sentimentality to the whole thing.  It was just more matter of fact and thankyouverymuch.  A little anticlimactic, but it got the job done either way....and she looked so cute :) 

Certificate of completion

 

Ava and Mrs. Grimes (who missed the last 6 weeks of school because her hip replacement was recalled...big fiasco...lots of subs and one student teacher turned full time teacher for the last few weeks!)

 

My "baby" is a first grader....my mind can't grasp that.

So, I now am the proud owner of a 4th grader who got all A's and B's for the year, and a 1st grader who got all E's for the year!  We celebrated by going to Cherry Berry after dinner...our bill came out to $20....we really celebrated! (and maybe this was mainly a selfish ploy to eat my favorite frozen yogurt, but I felt like I deserved ice cream too, for helping them pass their respective grades!)

I also completed a wreath that I've been wanting to do for about a month now.  I just never sat down and took the time to work on it, but yesterday and today, I finally just dug in...and I really like how it looks.  Super cute and totally my style.

 Thursday night is family meeting night in our house.  This is a fairly new concept that everyone is loving.  We talk one at a time about the issues we are having with one another, or something in the house, and ways to solve the problem.  We also compliment each other on things we see that are going great.  It's so interesting to see what they are going to say in both categories...you never know.  Even Levi got in on it tonight and his issue was that the girls were jumping on the couch when he was on it and he didn't like that.  It was very hard to keep a straight face as he explained the problem to his sisters, with a very serious look on his face.  I also use this meeting as a time to tell the kids what is coming up on the calendar.  Tonight I unveiled our daily summer activity sheet and our Bucket List for the summer.  It was hilarious.  I read them each thing on the list and they cheered loudly and wildly after every single thing I wrote. 

I had to make them stop cheering so loud, just to finish the list.  I think it made all of us excited for the next few months!  Here's to no more alarm clocks, tan lines, and fewer baths!  Summer 2013; Bring it on!

Memorial Day Camping

I took lots of pictures because every time we go camping, I want proof that we did it, and we survived.  So we have another family camp out under out belts and everyone had a great time!  Oh for the day we can afford a pop-up though.....

Campsite sweet Campsite

We had a few friends from church join us for the evening...all but one headed home after dark...I might have been a tiny bit envious.

Dinner!  We decided to try to the "meal in tin-foil" approach to cooking this time.  We LOVED it!  Sunday night we ate chicken breasts, corn, carrots, and potatoes.

Ahhh...my favorite part.

Yes, my creamer even comes camping with us.  And that coffee was sooo good.  Now we just need to purchase a coffee pot for camping...it took three tries to heat water in a frying pan before we got it right.

Early morning stroll; let the record show that all of our kids wanted to go on a walk and yet all of them complained incessantly about every single thing on this walk.

What it looked like inside our tent...I actually love our tent.  I think it's a 40 person tent which is just right for a family of 5.

Walking down by the river with the giggin' pole.  They actually gigged a water moccasin the night before down here, but saw nothing the next morning...thank goodness!

I told the kids to pose however they wanted and this is what we got.  Pretty good!

This is what I get for telling Shawn an hour or so earlier to please, of his own free will, take the camera and get a few shots with me in them, so my children will know that I was at these events with them.  I will say, I'm the only one that pulled out my toothbrush and used it so Ha!

A brunch treat...roasted marshmallows....4 to be exact...just for me.  This is the first time my family has eaten the whole bag of marshmallows...I do think we had a little help, but not much!

And this is what it takes for our family to camp...6 pillows, 5 sleeping bags, four air mattresses (sorry Levi), 4 flashlights, and 3 overnight bags...plus all the food stuff!

 

Wouldn't trade our memories for anything! (well...a soft bed would be nice....maybe some A/C???) 



30, a second time

This past Friday we got the girls out of school a little early and made a quick trip to Tyler to surprise Gramme for her 60th birthday.  She didn't know that any of us were coming in, except Emily and her girls so it was wonderful to all have a weekend available and to be able to help celebrate 60 years of the world being a better place!  :)  Here's a few pictures I snapped...and I happened to be outside trading kid clothes with Lesley when they sang Happy Birthday to her, so I missed taking pictures of that!  Seeing all the cousins and in-laws made me that much more excited about being at camp in July!

Caught this picture as Riley was getting ready to leave.  I love to watch the bond between Elle and Riley.

Blackberries

I'm pretty sure I've written a post about our blackberry bush before, but it deserves another post!  I usually don't really have a green thumb but maybe blackberry vines are fool proof.  Ours is doing amazing!!!  My goal is to collect enough blackberries to make blackberry jelly this summer.  Today was only the second time we've picked it this spring and I got a lot today, with the promise of MANY more to come in the next few weeks!  What's so amazing is that these vines literally looked like tiny dead limbs from a tree and now...WOWZER!

These vines are producing some of the biggest blackberries I've ever seen!

 Today's haul....this weather has been PERFECT for blackberries and next week is suppose to be in the 90's which is great for them!  I better remember to pick every day before birds and insects get to them!

Cinco (plus six) de Mayo

Last night we had a MASH event at our house with the theme of Cinco de Mayo.  We had such a great time as usual.  The food was centered around the idea of a taco bar and it was delicious!  We played mexican themed games like Musical Sombrero, Amigo Bingo(where everyone got to hear my E. Texas accent really come out), lawn Mexican Train, and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  Of course there was lots of just talking and laughing too!  The weather was wonderful and the company was great!

My new favorite of all time picture of myself.

Levi was not interested in having his picture taken...so here's our family of four!

Elle and Kimmy winning at Mexican Train!

Girl Scout Adventure

Elle's girl scout troop was working on a first aid patch this past week so we headed to a firehouse to take a tour.  We were able to take Levi and Ava along also and everyone loved it.  I don't know how firefighters are in other cities but the ones in our city are SO kind and patient with children.  That makes me have even more warm fuzzies for this city!  Anyway after the firehouse tour, our troop headed to a local park where our goal was to do some natural hiking and learning about first aid ...Mother Nature had other plans.  Within about 2 minutes of getting to the park and setting our stuff down under a semi-covered pavilion, it started raining.  And by raining I mean hurricane rain.  As in blowing sideways...which makes a covered pavilion pretty much useless.  And the pavilion wasn't exactly close to our car.  We all tried to wait out the extreme rain to no avail.  We were going to have to get more wet than we already were, and by wet I mean, leave all your clothes on and turn on the shower and get in for about 5 minutes. It took about 30 seconds of FAST running to get to the car.  Sopping wet.  But laughing hysterically and having a great memory to boot...saving that nature hike for another NONrainy day.....

See how sunny and pretty it was at the firehouse?...no indication of rain whatsoever!

The girls asked the firemen to turn the fan on that they use to flush smoke out of a house....it was hilarious!

Towards the end of the tour, they actually got a call and dropped everything and headed to an emergency.  All the girls covered their ears as the firetruck zoomed through the garage and headed out!

And my favorite picture of the night...the girls trying to stay semi-drive during our failed attempt at a nature hike!

Tough Brother Party

My friend Valerie has two boys with birthday only a few weeks apart.  This year for their combined party, she decided on a Tough Mudder spin-off and did a Tough Brother Party for her boys.  It was such a cute party and had all the elements of the Tough Mudder, but in child form!  My kids had the best time at the party!

 So we started with a pep talk and singing the National Anthem...just like at the real deal.

And they're off!

 

A great use for old pews...use them in an obstacle course!

 

It was the cutest thing to see Levi earnestly running the obstacle course.  He felt so big and strong!

 

And most of the kids ran it again and again and again.  This was Levi's second lap and he was much more confident this time around.

 

Ava and Joel

 

Elle and Kimmy

 

Little Levi legs and Big Daddy legs

 

Levi and his best friend Uriah.  Those two crack me up.  I only hope that can always be friends, no matter the distance.

 

It's hard to be taken as seriously tough when you have cupcake icing on the side of your mouth and on your shirt sleeve.