Shelby, The Kindergarten Graduate

A week ago today we all gathered together to celebrate and recognize the MRM 2011 Kindergarten graduates. It was a perfect evening for the event. The rain held off and the church was a beautiful setting for the ceremony.

All the children looked gorgeous all dressed up and they did a great job singing all their cute little songs. And, I am not gonna lie, I could hardly hold back the tears!!!




Shelby, we are so proud of you and can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for you. You are our precious gift and we love you so much!!

Last Day of School 2011

Today is the last day of school for the 2010-2011 school year. I really can't believe how fast it came and I have a sneaky suspicion that the summer is going to get even faster. It is amazing how time seems to go by faster and faster the older you get. Anyway, not only is this the last day of school for the 2010-2011 school year, it is also the very last day ever that Shelby will be in Ms. Diane and Ms. Lori's classroom:( I am excited about her moving on to 1st grade, but I am also a little sad because she is growing up way to fast. So, here is a walk down memory lane....

Shelby started in the Jasmine Room in 2008. I really couldn't even imagine the possibilities for her at that point. It is amazing how much she has grown and all that she has learned and accomplished since this day....her first day in the Jasmine Room....



Now fast forward to this year. Here is a picture of her and JP at the beginning of the year. This is just 9 months ago and it is amazing how much both of them have changed....

Shelby all excited and looking forward to starting her kindergarten year.



JP and Shelby ready to go their first day of school...



While they both learned a ton and grew so much one thing remained the same for JP; even today when I put him in the car I had to give him great encouragement and almost bride the boy to go to school. I really thought by now it would be easier, but alas, he still doesn't want to go. Oh, no, don't get me wrong, once he gets there he has a blast and always tells me about all the fun he had; it is just the getting there that is the hard part for him....oh well, maybe next year (hopefully!!!)

Shelby on her last day of kindergarten. Tonight is graduation and I am sure that my eyes might get a speck of dust in them or some other foreign body that will cause them to get a little wet.






She started barely knowing her numbers and letters and she finished knowing how to read and doing multiplication,division, numbers squared and all kinds of other things, and that doesn't include all that she learned about composers, the earth, and everything else. It is just amazing and I can't wait to watch her grow some more. Thank you Ms. Diane and Ms. Lori for all that you have done for our sweet, not so little, little girl!

The Rest of April in a Nutshell in Reverse

Everytime anyone says anything that ends "in a nutshell" I always laugh because of that scene from the Austin Powers movie where he pretends like he is in a nutshell.

Anyway, here is the rest of April in a nutshell (figuratively, not literally)....starting from the end and moving our way back to the middle (why, you might ask; and the answer is that I uploaded them that way on accident and I am too lazy to correct it)

We love Easter in this house!!! It is the best celebration because our Lord and Savior rose from the dead on Easter morning. Now we are free from the bondage of sin and are declared pure and justified before God. There are countless activities surrounding Easter that we part take in and we have the tradition of ending Easter Sunday with a picnic and egg hunt at Meme's house.



My mom and sister joined us at church on Sunday to watch Shelby and the children's choir sing. After that we all went to Hampton Lake (long before the Easter bunny was scheduled to be there) for lunch. My dad and brother met us up there and we had a truly wonderful time!





The Friday before Easter my neighbor had a super fun egg hunt at her house. It was great fun!! They had egg races, potato sack races, pin the tail on the bunny and tons of other fun things. The children had so much fun.

This picture is post egg hunt...it is amazing how much they have grown over the years. We have a picture of Shelby and Neely propped up on the couch when Shelby was about 2-4 weeks old and Neely was around 5 months.



And this picture is pre-egg hunt...oh my son, you are going to turn me grey so much faster than I want to; but I love you with all my heart:) Katie announced the egg hunt and JP took off running so we had to call him back to the start where we were getting all the children lined up. Well, I think JP got a little embarrassed and thought he was in trouble even though he wasn't and this is where the tantrum took him....it was really hard to not laugh, but I knew if I did it would only make things worse.



The day before the neighborhood egg hunt was the Shakespeare Festival at the school. This is the first year that both of our children would be participating and also the first year it rained (boo). So we made the best of it and Pratt went to JP's room and I went to Shelby's room. Usually it is outside, but they had to go to plan "b" this year. Here are my two Shakespearean actors all ready for the show.



The Tuesday before that we dyed eggs...this is always a fun event in our house and now that the children really, really love eating hard boiled eggs it makes it even more fun because it is kind of like playing with your food.



It is never too late to celebrate a birthday, right??? Just agree with me:) I finally got my act together and brought in a snack for Shelby's birthday (only about 2 months late). It was so bitter sweet!!! This is Shelby's last year in the Jasmine Room. We are going to miss Ms. Diane and Ms. Lori sooo much!!! They were wonderful teachers!



This really doesn't have much to do with April except that we started getting some beautiful roses from our rose bushes, but I had to put this one in here...can you see a little friend hiding among the petals?



The men just chillin on Master's Sunday watching the match...



We are almost to the end so just bear with me:)

Our annual church Easter Egg Hunt was held very early this year due to all the activity in April. Shelby and JP had sooo much fun and really raked in on the eggs; their baskets were literally overflowing!



At the beginning of April we decided we had waited long enough to get on the river, and while the weather still needed to warm up about 10-15 degrees, we had a great afternoon. We went to two different sandbars to explore and Shelby had a great time looking for sharks' teeth. She and Pratt probably found about 20 little teeth!!! JP was the master snail finder as he found about 10 snails. It was a great day and we had so much fun!

JP loving on Gracie



Shelby and JP with their Papa John



So that is April in a rather large nutshell. Hope you all had as much fun as we did!!!

MRM Fun Run and 5k

Several weeks ago Shelby and JP's school had a 5k and Fun Run fundraiser. It was a great time for several reasons...

1. All the children that live on our little street participated



On your marks, get set, GO!!! Wait, what...who is that crazy adult trying to sneak in on the children's race????



2.-Watching Shelby jog around the little course with the biggest smile on her face.



3.-Pratt and I ran the race...not quite together, but I had him in my sights the whole time:) You better watch out babe because next time I just might catch you;)



4.-Because the race was so small I won 2nd place for my division!!!!



5.-We got to run with our fun neighbors (that makes 6 of us in all) and it was so much fun to spend the morning with them in that manner....just wish I had an adult group shot:(

Two Wheelin'!

Friday was an exciting evening in our household because Shelby learned to ride a two wheeler (and in record time)!!! Truthfully, I wasn't sure how, when or if this day would ever come. Shelby isn't known for willingly and excitedly trying new things, especially when that something new involves anything that can be perceived as dangerous or a situation that she doesn't have total and complete control over.

But, as we were all outside enjoying the beautiful Friday afternoon Shelby decided that she wanted to give it a try. I said that I didn't think now was a good time; and just as the last words were coming out of my mouth, Pratt was removing the training wheels on Shelby's old bike. Okay then, here we go.....I had no choice but to go along with it and get my camera ready.

Well, we were all completely shocked and thrilled when after two runs up and down the driveway with Pratt holding her and one run up and down the street with me helping her, she 100% got it on her own! It was amazing and has to be some sort of record!! When I was going down the street with her I literally had one finger on the back of her bike for moral support for her (and me). She was definitely riding on her own.



Since then she has been all about riding her bike. She loves it and I can't wait to take bike rides with her!!

Wacky Wednesday

As I just mentioned in the previous blog, last week was spring break and it might go down as one of the coldest and wettest in history. At any rate, Shelby woke up Wednesday morning and declared that it was Wacky Wednesday and I said, "Shelby, what do you mean by Wacky Wednesday?" She replied, "It is were you dress up really wacky." Well, okay then. So here is the outfit she put together....




The funny thing to me about this whole thing is that what she put together really isn't all that different from all the other outfits she puts together.

The "Worm"

Last week we went to Target on one of our rainy and cold spring break days. I was looking for things to do and remembered that the children had received $5 from their great-grandmother for Valentine's Day so we spent it...what else is there to do on a rainy cold spring break day?!?!? Shelby and JP both got to pick out 5 things from the dollar section of Target. Shelby picked out some girly things and JP picked out two bug catchers, a pin wheel, and some other junk. It was great and killed about an hour!

So now that we have these two bug catchers JP's main goal is to find things, and by that I mean bugs (sometimes lizards) to put in them. And yesterday we found a caterpillar that is referred to as worm. He loves this little "worm" and has been playing with the little guy since he found him. Thankfully we have come a long way from stomping on poor little snails to handling God's creatures with gentleness and tenderness.

I tried to get a picture of JP holding the "worm" as he loves to feel the little legs of that thing crawling all over him, but I wasn't quick enough. It is hard to see, but the "worm" is sitting on the lid of the bug catcher. For the most part he (I am assuming it is a he as I have no idea how to tell) stays in his bug box on the porch. I was quite surprised that he was still alive this morning.



Right before JP was about the leave for school he asked me, "Do you want to see my worm's under stuff?" I politely declined because I knew that Ms. Jessie's bus would be here any second and then JP said, "Yeah, there isn't much there because it doesn't go potty or poop." Okay, if you say so buddy:)