End of First Grade…

The last few weeks of school were super busy this year.

The month started out with Teacher Appreciation Week. We did a little treat each day for AB’s two teachers. Some were original ideas, and some were Pinterest-inspired. They all turned out cute and hopefully her teachers felt appreciated.

Toward the end of the school year, we’re like most people and limping toward the finish line. AB gets harder to wake up in the mornings and most days takes a lot of pushing to get moving and motivated. One Monday morning toward the end she even started with the tears and begged me not to take her that day. Since we’d already received ‘'THE attendance letter” there were no more days to miss and I made her go. That afternoon she hopped in the car with the biggest grin and declared it the BEST DAY EVER. She had gotten notice that she’d been chosen as a Safety Ranger for the next school year. My little rule follower couldn’t have been any more excited as she showed off her “Ranger in Training” badge. There were no more morning tears for the rest of the school year, either- and she JUMPED out of bed every morning to get dressed and begged to get there early so she could do her job. Ha. A friend snapped this pic and sent it to me of her working the parent pick-up area after school. She takes it very seriously. Ha.

Donuts with Dad was another hit this year. AB loves when DW can pick her up from school (which is most early release days since he’s home for lunch), so the one day a year he gets to take her to school is a big deal, too.

Field day was also a big deal this year. I met Grammy at the school so we could watch her in her activities. I will say Field Day is not what I remember it as when I was a kid. We did real races and relays and there were ribbons at the end. But, all the kids had the best time with the water activities and of course the highlight for all of them were the two big water slides.

 

The countdown is finally getting close! School’s ALMOST OUT!!!!

~amw~

May Randoms

 

This one. There just aren’t words. He hollers for me every morning now when he wakes up and it has to be one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard. “Maaaaaaaaaammmmaaaaaa! Are you?” He also insists on bringing Mickey & Bull to do the school drop off every morning, too.

One Sunday afternoon a few weeks back, this crew went to see the new superhero movie. I can’t remember the name of it. The kids and I met them in town and picked up DW to run some errands after the movie, and I snapped this pic.

We’ve been mattress shopping. This is a HUGE deal for us. DW & I have been married 13 years and we’ve never had a new mattress. We started out on his old full size bed. We moved up to a queen a couple years later when his aunt and uncle gave us the mattress from one of their guests rooms. In all fairness, it probably hadn’t been slept on but a hand full of times, if any, so it was a great mattress, but still, was a hand-me-down. A couple years ago, we graduated to a king that we got from my parents. DW cracked me up in the mattress store when he told the salesman that he’s almost 37 years old and this will be his first ever brand new bed, that even his crib mattress had been a hand me down. Ha! We love a hand me down, don’t get me wrong, but it was exciting to go test them out and pick one out ourselves. It took us a few trips to decide and on one of the trips we had the kids with us. Not the best choice. They were hilarious laying up on all the beds and I was pretty shamed, even though the salesman totally encouraged it. Since I’ve never been mattress shopping, I totally googled how to do it, to make sure you were supposed to lay on the beds before we went. :)

You never know what is going to fly through our living room…

Elmo looks concerned, too.

Tuckey wants to do everything his daddy does. He’s got big shoes to fill. Both literally and figuratively.

~amw~

Pre-Summer Fun at the Run

Blue Run is by far one of our most favorite places.

I fell in love with it the very first time DW took me down, but 14 years later, it’s the memories we’ve made there and the way our children have all loved it, too, that makes it even more special to us, year after year.

Our family always tries to get a weekend on the calendar in May before the summertime rush, and it always leaves us itching to go back for our full week. This year was no exception. We got the weekend before Memorial Day and it was fantastic.

We picked AB up from school and her buddy, Emma. The kids were all excited to get to the river. They played and played and begged us to let Emma spend the night. We decided we’d just pick her back up the next day and she could come down again. The next day the kids were in the water from the time we got there until 15 minutes before we left.

I seriously think Mamie is part mermaid. She is the happiest when she’s in the water. Blue Run is her happy place for sure! The googles were the best $4.00 purchase I’ve made in a while. They were a huge hit. The funniest thing is she wears them upside down. They’re “The Little Mermaid” who Mamie calls, “Ariel and mermaid” I ordered the girls’ flamingo floats from Academy back in April and couldn’t wait to get them blown up. They turned out super cute.

This was the trip Tucker decided he’d walk in, out and around the water by himself! So huge. Our spot on the river is perfect for little ones because they can just go in and out and there’s lots of clear playing room for them that isn’t too deep. Next summer will be even better, I’m sure, with him being more confident.

He’s got that look we all get when we have to go passed our knees and belly button!

This was also the trip the boys were introduced to water guns. Nen hit the Target before coming down and got them each their own. They were too cute trying to get each other and everyone else.

No matter where we are, Tucker thinks there are roads to build or fields to plow

But we managed to get in some swimming, catching minnows, and playing in the yard.

On Sunday, Grammy came down with us (Pop was out of town) and spent the day. She even took a kayak ride with AB.

I’ll never forget Mamie’s sweet face when we saw this mermaid coming down the river in a kayak! It was precious! She was so excited to see a REAL mermaid! The girl was so sweet, too, to jump out and swim by on her way back up.

Everyone enjoyed Tay’s paddle board… especially these two little guys.

We ate watermelon like it was our job. This year, the farm grew some yellow melon, too. It was hard to get passed the color of it, but it tasted good.

We tried the exploding melon trick with rubber bands, but that was a fail. Instead DW just pitched it to Adam who hit it and busted it. Because of the bands, it did bust in rings in places- which the girls were excited to have melon necklaces.

The weather was great all weekend and it was the best way to get us geared up for the summertime countdown!

~amw~