No Teeth

Ben lost another tooth last night. He is now toothless on top!!!  He looks so grown up. I am in denial. I had told him he was not allowed to pull it. No one listens to mom!

All About Kate

Today was Kate's kind of day!  She had a day full of her favorite activities.  First up was gymnastics.  Today was her last class for the summer.  She decided to take a break for a few months and decide if she wants to do ballet or gymnastics in the fall.  She has loved gymnastics.  She has made a best little buddy named Emily (she calls her Miss Emily).  Over the past few months she has gotten a lot better and it is great for working off some of her energy!

 After gymnastics it was off to swim lessons.  She has been taking lessons all this week with 3 of her friends!  They have had the best time.

 Kate has loved every minute of swim lessons.  She is getting really good at swimming.  She has no fear in the water.

The Summer of Fun!!

For the last several weeks we have been compiling what we call our "Summer List of Fun."  It is just a long list of all the fun things we want to do this summer.  It includes simple things like bubbles all the way up to our big trips.  We wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything fun!  I am excited to be only working 1 or so days a week this summer so there will be lots of time for fun activities with family and friends.  We are also following a set routine in the morning that is going really well (I will share more about that next week).  It is great to look at our list each day and decide what we would like to do!  I am sure I will be sharing lots of different things we do throughout the summer.  

 Had to take a picture of the cuties before we left for a playdate this morning!

 Yesterday we marked off making cookies.  That was fun!!!

Strawberry Picking

I had seen lots of posts on Facebook of friends who had gone strawberry picking.  It looked like so much fun.  Our first available time to go was yesterday morning.  We were sad Matt had to work but were glad my parents, Kelly and Perry could join us.  The drive out to the strawberry farm was long (we went to parts of the county I didn't even know existed).  The day was perfect.  Sunny and not too warm yet.  It was the last day of picking so we were glad we made it when we did.  The kids had so much fun and we got 3 big buckets of strawberries.  We are getting creative with ways to use them.    

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

What a fun weekend it has been!!  Lots of fun family time and time outside.  I enjoy the time to reflect on the sacrifices made by our soldiers.  Freedom is not a free it is bought with a price.  "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13.  I thin that sums it up perfectly.  

Our weekend started on Saturday when we went out to Matt's parent's house for a little family golf game.  The weather was just perfect!!

 We had a large family cookout after golf.  It was great!  It was all for Brett and Joanna who are about to move to Houston TX.  We are excited for them as they begin this new adventure but we sure will miss them.  Ben and Kate had so much fun playing with Uncle Brett.  He was a human target for them.

 Sunday night we had a cookout at my parent's house.  So glad my dad is doing better and could get up to do some grilling.  How yummy does all this food look?

 Of course we had to do some s'mores!  I am loving getting to stay up late into the night doing fun things!  I just love summer!!

 Today Matt had to work which was sad but the kids and I went on some fun adventures.  I will share one tomorrow but we did spend the afternoon at the pool.  It was way too cold for me to get in but the kids had a blast!!  They are both little fish.

First Day of Summer!!!!!

We celebrated the first day of summer in a big way!!  My friend Lisa and I had been trying to get together for several months and this was the day that finally worked out.  And it was perfect way to kick off the summer.  We headed out early and made the trip down to Birmingham.  The kids were great in the car and we made it easily to the McWane Center.  We all had such a great time!!!  

 Nothing is more fun than playing with giant bubbles.

 These are some super silly kids!

 I loved getting to see Savannah Grace, Lisa's little girl.  She is just adorable.  She did seem a little overwhelmed by my crazy kids.

 Lisa took us to the best restaurant for lunch.  It is called Little Donkey and is cantina Mexican food.  It was amazing!!!  I dreamed about my burrito bowl last night.

 Lisa talks about Steele City Pops all the time on her blog and I have been dying to go!  They did not disappoint.  Ben got blood orange which he loved.  Kate got vanilla bean and I got raspberry lemon.  They were awesome!!!!  We will be making another trip down there this summer.

 Lisa is such a special friend.  I was talking just this week about how my friends in college were some of the most influential.  I changed so much during college just establishing how I was and what I believed.  Because of that my friends during that time were amazing!  Lisa is the calmest person I have ever met (really I don't think I have ever seen her upset) and that is such blessing to be around.  She always encourages me whenever we get together so it was great to get to catch up and spend some time together.

 Lisa and Savannah Grace had to go nap but they gave us directions to a great park.  It was a beautiful day and the park was a lot of fun!!

 We couldn't go to Birmingham and not make a trip to the Lego store!  Ben was in Lego heaven.

We were are really tired at this point and decided to head home.  It was a great way to kick off the summer!  Thanks for hanging out with us Lisa and Savannah Grace.  We can't wait to do it again soon!

Last Day of School!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the big day!!!  The last day of kindergarten for Ben!!!  We were all so excited.  It seems like we were just starting the year.  It really has flown by!!!  We had to take a last day of school picture.  

 And of course there had to be a comparison to the first day of school.  He hasn't changed that much in looks (other than having lost 3 teeth).  The thing that strikes me most is how much more confident he looks in the last day of school picture.  I think that has been the biggest change in him.  He went from being a really scared, reserved little guy to a confident kid who knows who he is and is ready to face the world.  Those were skills we could not teach him.  He used to cry at the drop of a hat when he got frustrated or hurt and now he rarely cries (and if he does we know he is really hurt).  It is amazing to me to see the change in his personality and how assured he is.  I thank God daily for the changes in him!!!

 I had a few little surprises waiting on Ben and Kate for when Ben got home from school.  Lots of fun things to kick off the summer right!  (Ok it was really just stuff I got 70% off at the Target dollar spot.)

 The kids had a blast looking through their buckets and checking out all their goodies.  It was a fun last day of school tradition to start and a fun way to get excited about the summer.

 We had fun going through all of Ben's end of the year papers and seeing his work.  It was great to see his journals from the whole year.  His work has gotten so much better through the year.  He got all 3's on his report card (silly kindergarten with no A's).  We are so proud of him.

 We celebrated the end of school by going to Sonic for 50 cent corn dogs!  It was great to be able to stay up late and not worry about bedtimes!

Now it is officially time for the summer of fun to start....