May Randoms…

- After the first two weeks in May, I am always officially sick of myself. With my birthday, our anniversary and Mother’s Day all celebrated in a two week span it’s a lot of attention and spoiling and it’s always extremely humbling to be loved so well. We had a birthday supper at my parents’ and the kids put on a show for all of us. They made a banner and made the sweetest cards…

Oh, Belle-Belle, I have loved you since BEFORE the day you were born, and I will love you FOREVER, too.

& Momma LOVES Maybree, too!!

- Other May babies in our family are Pappy & Parker. Their birthdays are just one day apart. We celebrated Parker at his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party. Two nights later, we celebrated Pappy with birthday dinner, too. Family dinners have always been loud, but we’ve taken the chaos to a new high over the last few years with the addition of our littles loves and we wouldn’t change a thing about it. What a fun season of life this is.

- We moved Tuck up to the toddler bed! He was so excited about his big-boy bed and I hope we don’t regret it, because he LOVES being able to get in and out of it himself.

- Grandma was in town the week before Mother’s Day, so we all went out for an early Mother’s Day breakfast together.

- So they say… but maybe we should. ;)

-  Q & U always get married in Kindergarten at JBE, and this year was no exception.

I’ve made the wedding cake for the event since AB was in Kindergarten and I was thrilled to be asked again this year. Tucker and I delivered and set up the cake before all of the festivities in our jammies (HIM, not ME!) and sans make-up (ME, not him), and snuck in some selfies in the photo booth before we left.

- We were headed to the grocery store one afternoon and Mamie gets out of the car wearing this…and seriously wanted to leave it on. A few years and a couple kids ago, I would have probably made her take it off, but I’m way too seasoned for that now, and totally let her. ;)

- I wasn’t feeling well and missed “Muffins with Mom” this year. Boo. Thankfully, the girls had an even better Momma filling in for me. (& Tuck was with Nie-Nie, so he did, too).

- You never know who will be driving a tractor around here. I’ve seen Barbie, Woody, the American Girl dolls, and now even Mickey. (He was pulling Minnie in the wagon behind him, too!)

- AB LOVES having cows in front of our house. She rides her bike down the driveway and loves when they all take off running. She also like riding in the field and seeing just how close she can get to them.

- We’ve already broken in Pappy’s pool for the season. We always say having neighbors with a pool is even better than having your own! Ha.

- Church Kids…

- The Cattle Company built a new packing shed to pack and ship watermelons straight from the farm this year. Before the season began, we planned a little “barn blessing” to break it in and invited all of the family. Quite a few had other things going on or were out of town, but we still had quite a crowd and it was a really sweet night.

- We’re still having fun breaking in the boat and looking forward to lots more fun on it this summer.

~amw~

School’s Out!

The Blue Run house was open for Memorial Day weekend this year, so we planned to spend the holiday weekend down there. It worked out perfectly for an end of the school year bash because the last day of school was that Friday. We let the kids pick one friend each to invite and Mamie picked Wyatt and AB picked Emma.

Last year we did the “Walk of Fame” on the last day of school and it was such a hit, that I knew I wanted to make it an end of the school-year tradition. 

On Thursday night, we gave Mamie her end of the school-year prize. She got all purple and green on her behavior chart for the entire year! We’re so proud and she said she wanted a PINK kayak as her reward. She was so excited!

DW & I took the boat and kayaks down on Thursday night and set up, while the littles stayed with my parents.

AB’s walk of fame was one one side and Mamie’s was on the other. A few of AB’s accomplishments:

and a few of Mamie’s:

The next morning, as soon as Mamie’s Pre-K graduation was over, we headed to the Run.

I was so glad Nen, Parker & Quinn were able to go too, because an extra set of adult eyes and hands are always appreciated. ;)

We got the kids lunch at Sonic and then let them break the run-through to officially start their summer break! Parker & Tucker were glad to help, too!

It was the very best way to celebrate the end of another school year! WELCOME, SUMMER!

~amw~

Graduations…

We’ve had four graduates in our family this year.

First, our nephew, Elliot, and my cousin, Emily both graduating from high school this year.

Elliot was the one who made DW an uncle. He was born when DW was in college at UF and every year on his birthday, Uncle Devin always says how he remembers going to meet his nephew between classes. Four years later, Elliot made me an aunt. He and Taylor, both called me “Aunt Annie” almost immediately after DW and I started dating. I loved it so much and it has been such a joy to be a part of their lives and watch them grow up.

Proud Uncles & Aunts

It happened so fast and none of us can believe Elliot is officially a grown adult. I guess we’ll always see him as that precious brown eyed little boy with the sweetest smile you’ve ever seen.

My cousin, Emily, is the youngest of my first cousins. She was the baby and she was born years later than all the rest of us, so she was EVERYBODY’s baby from the get go. She is sunshine everywhere she goes and she has one of the most positive and upbeat personalities of anyone I know. I love that about her. We got to be at her baccalaureate service with some of our family, and we loved getting to be there on one of her big nights.

AB also graduated…from second grade & JBES! She moves up to the big school next year and she’s super excited. I think second grade has been the best school year for her so far. We’ve been so lucky and had wonderful teachers all of her years at JBE, but 2nd grade seemed the be the absolute best fit. Plans were changed for the 2nd grade graduation and each teacher ended up having to have it in their classrooms.  

AB had an entire cheering section, because we have always been “THOSE people.”

It’s exciting to be moving up to WES next year, but I know AB will sure miss JBE. The second grade parents can buy a yearbook page for the “graduates,” so of course we did.

After “graduation” in the classroom, we could check out our kids, so of course, we did that, too. We took Emma with us and took the girls to lunch to celebrate.

Mamie was our last graduate, who’s ceremony was on the very last morning of school. The Pre-K graduation was super cute and her class sang “Countdown to Blastoff.” Mames had a cheering section, too and we were all so proud of our Pre-K girl. 

There’s always a bittersweet-ness about graduating anything. Life goes by so fast, and the older we get the faster it seems to go.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

~amw~