Summer Has "Officially" Started Here...

This past Wednesday was the last day of pre-school!!! I have mixed feelings about it. First, I'm SOOOO excited...I get my sweetie-pie all day every day for 3 whole months!! But then, it makes me remember that there is only ONE more year of pre-school & that means she's growing up WAY too fast!! She is actually very sad that school is over!! She's been fretting about it for a few days now...when she saw her teachers taking things down off the walls a few days earlier she started getting upset. (Her teachers told me about it one day when I came to pick her up) But after she asked what they would do this summer (she wasn't sure if they would be ok w/out her this summer...haaa) and the fact that we would still see her teachers & some of her friends @ Church this summer, she seemed ok. Her last day of school was a "beach party" everyone got to wear their bathing suits. I took a picture in front of the pre-school sign the last day - just as I did the 1st day - and it made me notice a few things. #1 - How scared she looked that 1st day - but now she's just SOOOOO happy to be there. #2 - How tall she's grown. I don't know if part of it was that she was standing in a different spot, but you can tell based on the sign that she's grown quite a bit!!

Last Day of 3yr-old pre-school!

1st day of pre-school in September 2009

Then, it was on to our friends house for an "end-of-the-year-party"!! Quite a few friends were able to join us at our friends house to continue the "beach theme" end of year celebration.

Some of the girls...all ready for some water fun in their suits & cover-ups.

We jumped in the pool...(check that height that Mattie got!)

We ate Popsicles!! (YUM!!)

We played in the water

We road bikes

We played in the water table

We just had a TON-O-FUN!!

Then, later.......we got our "summer hair cut"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are now READY for a fun summer vacation!!!! Thanks to all Anne Marie's teachers & friends for such a special year & end-of-school-year celebration!! We hope you enjoy your summer as well!!!

Birthday Celebration For a Special Friend!

Today was a very special day for Anne Marie and one of her "BFF's" Mattie -- it was the "other BFF" Mira's Birthday party!! They were sooo excited!! Here they are ready to head over to Mira's house to have a fun "garden" party!!

Here is the Birthday girl in her sweet little outfit that her mom made for her very special day.

All the cutie-pies at the party -- ready for a morning of fun & flowers!!

First, was snacks - cheese, crackers & fruit salad!!

Then, it was craft time. They colored & decorated flower mirrors, they made sweet little flower bead necklaces & then they got to plant their own flowers in a tiny-mini-flower-pot with each of their initials on it. The girls were SOOO excited!

It was then time for cake ... or "flower cupcakes" should I say. If you can, click on the pictures to make it big... Mira's mommy made the cutest little cupcakes in little silicone flowerpots w/ pink & yellow chocolate pedals stuck in to make a "flower"! TOOOOO Cute!!!!

Happy Birthday Mira!!! We LOVE you!!!

End of a Tuesday Night Tradition.....

My husband (and two of my very good girlfriends) are going to be sitting in front of the Tv tonight, while "face-booking" each other for something like 4 solid hours! Why you might ask? It's the series finally of "L*ST"!! My sweet husband is addicted to this show ... and it may cause withdrawals within the next week...and I'm afraid maybe even a little medication will need to be administered. Good thing it's summer & we're normally very busy!

Well, one day while learning to stencil cute little shirts, (have you ever tried the freezer-paper-stencil shirts? Oh so easy & cute!!) my friend got an idea to make shirts for the three of them (herself, my husband, and our other friend) She found a symbol we could use to represent the show....so we cut it out & I think it turned out well. When I gave it to Mike he just laughed..but you know deep down, he actually like it! Heee :)

Here is the shirt that we were actually getting together to make .... before we came up with the idea to make the shirts for Mike & the girls. How cute is this? I see an addiction coming on for me too!! I can't wait to make more!

Just a Little Bragging on 'My' Ever-So-Cute Kiddos

Ok, so they aren't all "my" kiddos.... A few weeks ago I gathered Anne Marie and her cousins together for a little "photo shoot". I had to keep these photo's top secret as I was using them for a special Mother's Day gift for my mom. I have to say that I'm not great at taking photo's, but I would love to take classes, because I have wayyyyyy too much fun doing this & when you have cuties (and handsome ones) like this, how could you not! They were great sports & I think I'm keeping a few of then for myself, because I thought they turned out pretty good, so I thought I'd share here too!!

What a pretty girl! This is my niece Stephanie -- at 14 she (of course) can't find one thing about herself that she thinks is beautiful, but I can!!

My cutie pie!


See....what did I tell ya??

A little "off" but I thought it was "artsy" ... and I thought it was sweet!

How cute are these two??

The girls picked these flowers out of the Church garden (w/out asking), so, I decided we might as well use them since they were already pulled!

I just loved this one...it was not quite posed, but I thought it turned out cute.

A very handsome boy -- and he thought I was a "cooookooo" for taking all these pictures, but he was a good sport anyway!!

One of my favorite! Again, not a posed one!

I just have to say so myself, but what a cute group of kids!! And good sports for putting up w/ all these "ideas" I had about poses....so.......

I let them goof off a little bit.....again, the "un-posed" ones are some of the best!!

Small Town Saturday's

Well, I'm going to post this w/ fore-warning...we live in a small town (a VERY small town). And as most of you know Mike and I are always on the quest to find FREE & FUN things to do on the weekends. Well, this weekend was an all-time-step-outside-your-box weekend. Our local city-public-works was having a "field day". Basically this means that the city road crews were offering up their area for the whole town to see. And while they were at it, they had "fun" (and that is in quotes for a reason) for the kids & adults to do......

When we arrived, we were given a cute little tote-bag w/ draw-boards, information and stickers for the kids to take home with them. AND...a yellow hard hat. (That was not hard, but plastic, but just the same..the kids loved it!!)

Now, as for what Anne Marie is doing in the above picture.....she's standing in front of a HUGE mountain of gravel/asphalt that they made for the kids w/ tunnels to climb on & through! TRULY! And, should I mention I put Anne Marie in a CUTE (CUTE CUTE) outfit that consisted of white (WHITE WHITE WHITE I TELL YOU) shorts w/ pink ladybugs on them & a pink & WHITE shirt! Now, let me just tell you that this was one of her FAVORITE things she did all day -- and I'm praying as we speak that the spray-stain-remover is working in my washing machine right now!!

The girls were amazed at the HUGE size of the snow-plows...they could easily fit in the bucket of many of them.... Here is Anne Marie w/ our friend Mira.

Posing in front of a snow plow. She was very interested in this as she saw SOOOOOO many of them this past winter w/ the 1,000 feet of snow we got! (Can you tell I'm still unhappy about how much snow we got this winter??)

Then, the big kids were allowed to "play" with the big city equipment... here is our friend Parsen trying to work the huge digger-truck (or what ever you call it)

Then, they lifted our friends Morgan & Caeden in the bucket-truck. They were too excited. The city workers were great sports - they lifted the kids high (very high) and let them hang out there for a long (LONG) time!! Anne Marie was a little too small (and scared) to do either of these things, so we just watched in "awe"

Then, we went on a "family hay ride" --- where you might ask....

(REALLY --- ASK ME!!).................

Around the city grounds....what did we see you ask??

Well, we saw trash trucks, the water-treatment plant, the sewage plant.. (ugh, I swear I smelled something!!!!) And all the recycled parts that they keep on grounds.

FINALLY...... the "piece de resistance"......what do you think the girls might be admiring??? Please... again.... ask me!!!......

How a Potty Works!!! WhooooooHooooooooo!!!!!!

Really!! It was .... it had a potty -- and how it flows through the pipes & ends up in the "big bucket " in the end that is to simulate the city-sewer-system...and then they took them in a small trailer to show them where it goes and how they can place camera's in our local pipes under the city streets to see how the pipes are "doing". They even pulled up the street's camera right next to our street. WAYYYYYY MORE THAN I WANTED TO KNOW OR SEE!!

Ok -- so I'm being honest here -- my daughter had a GREAT time. She got to get climb a dirt pile & get dirty, get a "gift bag" w/ treats, play on huge tractors, trucks, and tires, take a hay ride, and learn how a potty works! Well -- I can only say IT WAS FREE! Haaaa!!

Sing It Again....

So, we thought, why not? Let her try it again!?! At our Church we have a Wednesday night service. Usually it starts with dinner, prayer request, and then everyone splits up into some type of small groups. The kids go into their own group as well. They sing, learn about missions and learn different Bible-stories. Well, this past Wednesday was the last Wednesday we'll meet until school is back in session & the kids had a little program. Would this be better than her school program? Would she stick her tongue out the whole time?

No!! All the stars were aligned that night! She smiled, sang, giggle, and was too cute!!

They only sang two little songs, a cute little number that was a couple songs combined and deep & wide...you can see the hand motions going on here.

What a sweet little program........Now, did it help that the teachers had packs of cookies and juice boxes waiting for them after they were done? Doh! That's the ticket! Haaaa!! We do want to say thanks so much to our friends that take their time every Wednesday night to be with our little ones....it means so much!!