He's Got the BLUE!

Luke swam in his first swim meet this morning. Practice started last Tuesday, and he swims every single morning from 8:45-9:15 all summer long. Quite a commitment! Luke is enjoying it, eating much more than he usually does and even napped yesterday, so it is great!

This morning three teams met at the pool at 7am. There were lots of crowds and comotion and Luke was pretty quiet. It was all a lot to take in. He is swimming in the 5/6 year old boys heat and today was freestyle.

Short story short, my boy took first in his race!! He truly is a talented and natural little swimmer, it is so fun to watch him! Tyler and I were smiling as they gave him his blue ribbon. But the best part was when we got over to congratulate him, he was thrilled with his BLUE one... but told us that he wants to collect one of every color this summer! It was cute.

Last day of Kindergarten

This is Luke Dictating a message:
This is a picture of my school performance. The songs I sang were "The Kindergarten Class" (to the tune of the Adams Family) and A Kindergarten Poem. This is my class. Mrs. Cady was a great teacher.

Busy Boy

Typically this title would be best for a post about little Jake. This time though, it's Luke. One afternoon last week he was a very busy boy and found himself getting into a little bit of mischief!

In the first picture he is showing us the result of his efforts to shave with daddy's razor in the shower... luckily it wasn't too bad, he knicked the top corner of his lip a little bit, but he definately learned his lesson! When he came out of the shower to me with blood all over his mouth I freaked out and said "Luke! What happened!?" And he whimpered "Mommy...I did what you said never to do!"

The second picture is of some wall art he left me that same afternoon! I still have not said anything to him about it... my initial reaction was to be upset because he definately knows better than to do that.. but when I stopped to read it I sort-of appreciated it and the sweetness of his message to me. People always say kids grow up too fast so I guess I'm lucky to have a permanent little love note in the kitchen to enjoy for years to come.

Busy, busy Blogger

I have found a way to make my blog into a BOOK! Tyler's been wanting me to figure this out for a few months so that we can have a copy as a scrapbook/journal and I was surfing around some friends' blogs the other night when I went to Lizzies and found pictures of the Blog Book she just made. I linked over to BLURB.COM and downloaded their software and have been busy making my book ever since! I have completed last years...which was from August when I started my blog thru December. It takes some time to format it the way I want, but I am happy with the outcome. I still don't know what they are going to charge me when I go to order it, but I imagine it is about a dollar per page (mine is 54 pages long). That is worth it to me, not having to develop the pictures, etc... So, I will show you guys what it looks like on here when I get it. Hopefully in a few weeks. Talk to you later!

Ashley's Gymnastics Recital

Last Saturday Ashley participated in her first big on-stage performance. She was so cute in her costume and did a great job! Her class did a dance to the song "Don't wake the ladybug...sh..sh...sh!" and then showed off some of their tumbling skills. She was such a happy girl and Luke, Tyler and I had a fun night watching her! When we picked her up backstage after the show we found that our our little ladybug was very sleepy... but she was still up for ice- cream!

My Sweet Dad's Birthday

May 18 is my dad's birthday. He passed away just over three years ago now which is hard to believe. Today I have him on my mind and want to post a few of pictures of him. He was honestly one of the kindest, most friendly people I know; Always engaged in service to others and making people smile. I often tell my children how much they would have loved their grandpa and share stories of the many talents he had... magic tricks, juggling, writing in cursive backwards, hitting a golf ball straight up and catching it in his hat. He was always up for a hot bath and a popcorn party and he loved "canny" .... all of my kids' favorites!

He was also a great friend and father to me. Some of my fondest memories with him are during my high school years when we used to go running together at night. He always had interesting things to talk about and was a good listener too. I am lucky to have him as my father and also my amazingly strong, faithful and beautiful mother! Happy Birthday, Dad. We love & miss you!

Pregnant with Luke, his first grandson
His 49th Birthday party

Ashley's Preschool Graduation

Today Ashley graduated from Mrs. Daniel's fabulous preschool! What a year she had learning all about the alphabet and doing fun arts and crafts to go along with every letter! She loved taking her turn for show-and-tell and bringing snack, and especially loved when she got to take the class pet "Clifford the Big Red Dog" home! Mrs. Daniel is a very kind woman whom Ashley adores. A big Thank You goes out to her! And look at these cute graduation photos, it was very sweet.

Mother's Day - The Kids & Me

My Love is 30!

Today is Tyler's 30th Birthday! Wow! We've had a great weekend celebrating...
Friday night I had a party for him and all his friends and their families at a nearby park. We had lots of good BBQ catered in and my friend Jill made a delicious cake. Tyler loved it! He was able to reconnect with several old friends from PwC and just felt very loved, as he should!





Today, being Mother's Day and his actual birthday we had ourselves a quandary. Who gets breakfast in bed?! We had agreed upon getting some good breakfast food and making it for ourselves together, but he of course snuck out this morning and surprised me with the kids. Waffles, strawberries and whipped cream... homemade cards and wet kisses from Jakey (who also dumped the dirt from Ashley's potted flower all over in our sheets, how sweet...) Tonight we did presents and cake. It was a wonderful day!!



P.S. The reason I have "It's a Wonderful World" playing on the blog is because Tyler can do an amazing impersonation of Louis Armstrong! If you haven't heard it, ask him to do it for you next time you see him. Everytime I hear this on the radio I smile!

Dunked

Todd was in town again this weekend for work and got to spend a little time with us on Friday night and Saturday. Man I had some great laughs watching him and Tyler play pool basketball against each other! Whenever Ty and I play it, either one on one or against friends it turns into the funnest thing! Grabbing at any and all body parts you can find under the water, holding people back from the ball by their foot, it is always a good time. This time it was more fun to watch though! And, I did get in the water that day for the first time this season. Got tired of sitting in the heat so I surprised the kids with a "cannon ball!" They were thrilled!

The CiRcuS Family

I often think of my family as a circus family, with my children as the three rings of entertainment. Anyone who has sat behind us in church knows that we can be very amusing to watch, and I do try to keep a sense of humor by calling my kids "clowns" whenever I want to call them something worse!
Last night I was tired as usual when bedtime came and was doing the bath and jammies and teeth brush routine with the kids. I finshed Jakey up and went in to dress Ashley when all of a sudden I heard laughter from the bathroom. I knew instantly what had happened. I went for my camera before even looking in the bathtub, because I knew Jake was back in, fully clothed!
And that he was, happy as could be.

Once I started scolding him he looked down and realized what he had forgotten to do and climbed out. I really was frustrated but had to laugh when I skinned off his wet p.j.s and saw the fully loaded diaper. The fun never ends around here!

My Two Daughters (for 30 seconds)

Ashley caught Luke in a RARE and lucky moment willing to play something 'girly' with her! Usually she is the one always having to play boy stuff. And look at her face - she adores him!

My Sweet Boys

I love this picture from the Fathers and Sons campout -
how precious it will be as Luke gets older

Confessions of a Garage Saler

Since the kids were up bright and early this morning (6am) I decided to load them in the car and hit some garage sales. This is not something I do often, but we had a good time doing it! I spent only $27 and got a new wagon ($10 score), a cool toy for Jake ($5) and a doll house for Ashley ($2). My last find was the best, a Dora Talking Kitchen! This is exactly Ashley wants as a reward for not sucking her finger for ten days (we're on day five). They normally cost about $80 which would have been painful to pay since she already has a kitchen and plenty of play food, but we were going to do it in our effort to curb the habit. So I have been thinking about needing to buy that, and when I pulled up there the kitchen was. I did notice the Hispanic couple that was looking at it, seeming like they were going to get it so I got ugly. (and now I feel bad, and this is why I am writing about it...) I quickly saw that the sticker on it said $10, so I hurried to my wallet and right up to the owner and said "This is for the Dora kitchen". As she was getting my change I saw the couple pull a $5 sticker off another toy and switch it with the $10 sticker on the kitchen. I got my change. The transaction was done. Right at that moment the lady came up and said "I'd like the Dora kitchen" ... things unraveled and the lady got mad a me and said her husband had been standing by it and I just said "I didn't know", got it in the car and left.

Have I robbed the poor?? In hindsight I don't know if I would have done the same thing... I'll probably think of that couple every time Ashley plays with the dumb thing. I'm not sure it was worth it. Any thoughts?