Camp!

We've been DYING to know how Allie is doing. This is the first time we've been away from her without having ANY contact. I was so excited to find some pictures on their website today! Doesn't look like she's missing us.....or brushing her hair either!

May-ra-thon

May is the new December...or worse.  Every mom is scurrying about from "end of year" this to "end of year" that. I'm thinking "they" should stagger some of these events over three months.  I'm just glad it's over!! We ended the craziness with a weekend of COUSIN FUN!! But first I had to go back and post some pics. NO one should be allowed to post 26 pics and call it "blogging", but I'm going to do it for grandparent's sake of course.

Mary "graduated" as they say these days from Pre-K.  She is so ready for be dropped off at "big school" every day with Allie next year.  I can't believe it is approaching fast.

So big!

These two are so funny. One minute they are driving each other crazy, and the next they are playing school for hours at a time. One thing I can count on right now: they are always seemingly proud of each other.

These two have been in the same class since they were wee ones!  

This how we ended Allie's last softball game! Lightening started half way through, so we went out for yogurt!  

We so loved Allie's teacher this year!  She gave her the character award for "eagerness." There is a shocker. She said she is "always always excited about every task, and encourages others to be the same way." We "get" that!

I'm almost finished with the kids' school year books! This is this year's cover. 

Can't believe I'm about to have a 3rd grader!!

The last day of school, cousin Abbott came to stay for the week. Her mommy and daddy are having a very busy week doing house stuff. She's WORN out, and getting spoiled rotten.

Boot camp ended the last day of school! I hated getting up at 4:30, but I LOVED seeing these ladies every day.  I haven't gotten up before the sun since, and I don't plan to!

My big girl is painting her trunk for camp! It's her first time to go to overnight camp!!

Don't whimp out on me yet! Mandy, Abby, and sweet little Hunter came over for the weekend!  So we had 4, added 2, took away one for camp, and are now back to 3! You get all that?  We were so glad they came. The kids did GREAT!

IR-RE-SIST-A-BLE!

Ice cream poolside anyone??

Those lazy days are here.

He just said, "Really, where is my ice cream auntie??"

BOYS!!!!!

Mando was able to ride over to camp with us! Allie was a little nervous until...

....until Madyn showed up!!! I can't believe she's gone for a week!! WE miss you Al!  

Mandy thanks for making the trip to see us. We enjoyed our cousin time!!

Ballerina girl

This weekend was all about Mary. She had preschool graduation Friday, and her dance program Saturday. I'll get back to the graduation, or this would be a very long post.

This was her first year, and it was probably a good year to start since they do a recital only every other year.  I wasn't sure how she'd do since her least favorite thing is for people to be looking at her.  

She had a good year! I wouldn't say she loved it because Mary doesn't just LOVE a lot of things except for popcorn she says.

When the teacher said the kids would be walking out and introducing themselves, I thought, "yeah right:)" She surprised us! She did it confidently! 

Here are segments from the tap dance they performed.

...and segments from the ballet. It's choppy, but I couldn't post the whole thing because of the size of the file.

She loves her teacher.

There's little pumpkin! They have been great pals as long as they can remember.  Since there dance class was on Monday, and church on Sunday night, they were able to have many spend the night dates because of dance.

Mamma Lion and I have seen a lot of each other these days. We've been doing boot camp every morning at 5 am.  I'm so ready to be finished!!! I'll never be so happy not to see my friend every day! Ha.

Painted ladies

..as in butterflies.  Allie's class at school did a butterfly garden, and she couldn't quit talking about it. Poor Mary really wanted a piece of the action, so she saw one at the zoo gift shop and had to have it.  We brought the "shelter" home, and sent off for our caterpillars. After 10 days...they arrived! You would have thought it was Christmas.

Nice. They came with their own food and instructions. Everything happened just as they said...guess they are predictable creatures. 

I never thought we'd be so excited about watching this whole  process, but I noticed myself checking in on them quite a bit during the day....and hubs too.  In this pic, you can see the silk starting to form, and one of them is in the "j" shape. He's attached to the lid where he will form his chrysalis.  Once the chrysalises are all formed, you remove the lid and tape it to the top of the garden.  

About 7 days later, the beautiful painted lady butterflies emerged. Two of them emerged within what seemed like minutes. I just happened to be walking by and saw them wiggling, so we caught them hatching on FILM!!!  The first video below is of one of them coming out. The second video is of us releasing them today.

This whole process took a little less than a month. I barely caught the butterfly taking off. (I circled him) He's probably glad to be out of here!

Birthday weekend

We took the kids to the gparents for Garrett's birthday.  They wore us out!  You would never know from these pictures that Garrett had been pretty ill the whole week...I think he was glad to get out of the house. Since we've been home, he's almost fully recovered.  You've never seen two parents so excited to see a NORMAL diaper as we were tonight. Some things I read about salmonella said the diarrhea can linger for weeks and sometimes months. I was thinking..."it's summer, this is not going to be acceptable if we can't get in the pool!!!"  Our Dr. said even though he appeared to be very sick for several days (when your kid is screaming for hours because of abdominal pain among other really scary diaper symptoms, it is very scary), that because his cultures took several days to turn positive, he probably had a relatively mild ingestion. I can't even imagine a significant ingestion and am SO SO thankful that he's on the mends. He has been SO happy today!!!! At his 3 year check up, despite not eating much for a week, he was 100% in weight and 95% in height. 

We've not had this many family pictures in the last 3 years as we had this weekend!  Bunny was very intentional about getting us all in the pic!

At the zoo!

I love this pic! Garrett was screaming woo woo! Like every 3 year old, he LOVES a train ride.

Look at the birds Pappy!

Pretty girls:)

These chimps were fighting about something. They were loud and obnoxious!

We went to the baseball game that night.  We didn't last long because it was much colder than anticipated, but had a great time.

Look who I ran in to!!! I can't believe we were at the same place at the same time unplanned! Beth Ann and I have been best friends since child hood....we only visited for a minute, but it was great to snag a pic.

Allie and Laynie were shocked. Their reaction was priceless.

Garrett and I stayed home from church, but we dressed up to get a pic afterward since we hardly ever get the opportunity. He actually cooperated.

Love those sweet gparents!

What a fun weekend to celebrate our goofy boy!