Goodbye Preschool!

Today was John's last day of preschool! I wasn't sad until I saw him hug his teachers goodbye. They've been unbelievable. We went to his party and Eve was so excited to play at his school, which will soon be her school too. Clockwise around the table starting at bottom left: Aubrielle, Charlie (I think behind the bucket), Hayes, John, Emma, Jacob.

Likewise: Riley, Aiden, Isabella, Austin, Brooklyn, Patrick, and Lauren (Joseph Ethan was out today).

I made a CD for John with fun songs, including "School's Out for Summer". We played it loud as we drove away with the windows down. We went to Moe's at his request, then decided to surprise Daddy with a summer haircut.

Before...my sweet little boy

In between. We tried a mohawk, but his hair was too light to be able to see it, and I cut it a little crooked by mistake. We took some fun air guitar pictures, but this is the only one where you can kind of see the mohawk. We both decided he should go all short.........

What have I done?!?! It's cute, but I miss that little boy hair already! I think he likes it alright, but he says it's scratchy. It ought to keep him cooler for the summer, though. He's got quite a head of hair that always seems so hot and sweaty. Summer, here we come!

Our Bountiful Harvest

Here are the first fruits of our labor. I'm trying to figure out how to serve 7 peas before they go bad. We have more on the way, but these may not last until they're ready, and they may not make it through the aphid infestation. We'll enjoy them one way or another.

A Year of Growth

All I can say is "WOW".

And I just had to add this one (even though it's blurry) because it's great.

The Graduate

He did it! John graduated preschool and has a "diploma" to prove it. Here he is with his teacher Mrs. Dean. She and Mrs. Medlen were FABULOUS! John's graduation was crazy long, but it was fun to hear him sing his songs. I guess it's fortunate for me that he'll be continuing in kindergarten at the pre-school this year and not at public school. I think that'll ease me through the transition. He's done so well in school, though. While I think "graduation" from preschool is a bit silly, I'm still really proud of how much he's learned and how well he's done. Way to go, buddy!

Middle School?

I didn't realize middle school started so soon. Last year on the way home from school when I asked John what he did in school, he'd say, "I don't want to talk about it" with a bit of an attitude. That was our earliest taste of the middle school attitude. Recently it's reared it's ugly head again. We've had some discipline problems and I finally figured out the root (I think). Every time I asked John to do something he'd ask in an exasperated tone, "why?" Obviously it's a problem with authority, which we've discussed repeatedly. Some of John's comments recently, though, helped me figure it out on a different level. Lately he's said numerous times, "I know everything about..." or even "I know everything." I thought that stage didn't come until middle school! At any rate, I feel my job is to prove otherwise :) In an effort to do so one day I replied, "You don't really know everything. In fact, you don't even know as much as I do, and I don't know everything." To which he replied, "I know how electricity works and you don't." Well, he was half right, but I was too amused to correct him. I'll continue to try to help him understand that he doesn't know everything, and more importantly, he doesn't need to know or understand everything to obey. I'm afraid it's just one of those lessons we have to keep teaching ourselves even as adults.

Man Project

Buck and John worked on a man project this weekend for me. Everything from math to hammering took longer than Buck wanted, but it was some good special man time together and John really enjoyed "helping".

This time I was the one that suggested the safety glasses.

So the project was building an arbor to go over the bench in our rose garden. I got a rose from each of the kids for mother's day, so some rearranging was necessary. G.G.'s rose (which is now also Eve's rose) has grown out of control, so we were thinking it could easily fill an arbor in a short period of time. Since it has bloomed early this year, I got a picture with Eve to show its size. You can't really tell because the trees in the back, but there's a shoot that goes beyond the top of the picture! All this from a few sprigs G.G. sent 4 or 5 years ago. I'll have to post a picture of the arbor once the rose is moved.

Sprinkler Fun

Mom (Grandma) got Ellie a new sprinkler for her birthday. It's been hot, so we had to try it out. It's been a big hit. I was wondering if Ellie would like it or not. We went to a fountain downtown to play Mother's Day and she wasn't a fan. I think she's changed her mind here, though...

Eve got herself ready to come outside and play. You can't tell, but on top of the goofy goggles, she's got her bathing suit on backwards. I could be mean and post the funny pictures I took of her from behind, but I'll hold on to those until she gets to middle school.

The new game is collect all you can in a bucket and dump on somebody else's head.

It's good sneaky fun. Fortunately it's warm enough that nobody seems to mind the waterfall...not even Ellie.

Ellie was the first to have the idea to drink from the sprinkler (then spit it out in her case). For her it was right at mouth level when she was sitting. The others were quick to follow.

I have a feeling our water bill will be high this summer.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Last week we went to Stewart Farms with some friends to catch the end of strawberry season. This year everything has been a bit on the early side because of the warmer weather and more rain in the early spring. We headed out with a few friends from church and Buck was able to meet us out there (a great surprise). John picked like a seasoned pro. For the first year he was able to eat his fill and actually get quite a few in the bucket too. Eve and Ellie did their best to put the owners in the poor house. The berries were AMAZING! I was going to try jam, but after a little reasearch decided against it. With so many in the bucket we found it was a lot more fun to give them away. We've consumed plenty, though, in almost every form. Yum!

This last one definitely makes my Hall of Fame.

Chef John

John helped me with dinner the other night. He's helped me with cakes and cookies before and really enjoys it, but this was the first time he helped me at the stove. Eve has been taking longer and later naps, so I could focus attention on letting him help safely. We made spaghetti. You'll notice he's wearing his sunglasses. I have a pair of pink glasses with a foam seal around the rims that keeps my eyes dry when I'm cutting onions. He decided he needed to wear his glasses if he was cooking. He loved it and was so proud to have cooked it. It said it was the best in the world, but still only ate a bite or two. He's right, though. It was pretty darn good.

Favorite Chair

This is Ellie's favorite place to sit. This is my favorite smile. She's done this for probably 6 months or so...at least since she's been sitting, but it's hard for me to capture on camera. A lot of times when you catch her eye and smile at her, she tilts her head back and smiles so big it closes her eyes. It's precious and contageous.

She's so proud of this little chair (that Aunt Michelle got for John...still going strong)

Happy Birthday Ellie!

I can't believe my baby is one! It was a beautiful evening, so we had her party outside. Just us and Grandma. We figured the cake would be messy, so we started with dinner then presents and cards. Ellie enjoyed the pretty cards

She had lots of help with opening presents.

Clearly everyone was equally excited about the presents. This is John's favorite part of anyone's birthday party.

This pose made me laugh. It's the same dramatic pose that Daddy does sometimes...proof of where she gets it.

I couldn't get the cake on her tray and back up quickly enough to catch all three blowing out her #1 candle. John and Eve decorated her cake and the cupcakes with sprinkles and strawberries. It was surprisingly well done, and of course, they loved it. Only a few fingerprints on the cupcakes :)

First clean taste (although being the third has it's perks...Ellie is certainly not a stranger to sweets)

followed by a good handfull of ice cream

Gooey yum

Ooooh that's good (this is one of her new favorite faces)

I don't know how she managed to still look so pretty with all this mess on her face.

That's a happy birthday girl.

A year has absolutely flown by! Ellie is such a precious sweet beautiful child! At one year she is 22 lb 2 oz (82 percentile) 29 in (45 percentile) head 18 in (73 percentile). No wonder everyone that stops to speak to us, without fail, mentions her thighs. I love every bit of them and keep telling her "wear them while you can". Almost every day at least one person stops me to say I've got my hands full, and at least one person stops to tell me how beautiful she is. Actually I hear that about all three. I'm obviously biased, but I don't think they're just being nice. Ellie likes to babble a lot and is making lots of sounds, but hasn't related any of them to objects yet (at least not that I've figured out). She likes to eat and is not very patient with her food. She speaks very loudly when she wants us to know something, and is usually pretty good at making herself clear...even without words. She's a drama queen and cries like she's been hurt if someone takes a toy from her or does something she doesn't like. She cruises like a champ, stands without pulling up on anything, squats and almost bounces without support, but hasn't taken more than a pivot step yet. She's had the skills for a while, but always chooses to crawl. She's getting to be too fast for me to turn around for a second and still know where she it. She's making very cute "oooo" faces now (she also makes a similar face when she's crying for drama that's pretty funny), and is back to making lots of raspberries. One of her favorite things to do is climb into the small foam spiderman chair and look at books. She is so proud of herself. One of my favorite things is when John or Eve gets her belly laughing. She's only a little more ticklish that Eve, so she's not a big laugher. Every now and then, though, one of them gets her laughing and it's the best. Usually it's Eve. John is always trying to get her to laugh, but for some reason she thinks Eve is funnier. John is still very affectionate with her. Eve is more worried that she's going to take her princesses, but sometimes there's a sweet sister bond that I see, particularly when they're laughing. She still snuggles with me a bit, but she also enjoys her freedom. She loves being outside and cries when I let John and Eve out in the back yard and she has to stay inside. She's a good eater, but already a little picky. There isn't anything in particular that I've noticed she doesn't like (although she's not crazy about goldfish and peanut butter, so I'm in trouble), she really just likes to have lots of variety with each meal. For a while she's been eating whatever we eat that her 2 little teeth can handle (pretty much everything but steak and certain candies). She is so smiley and gets so excited about things. She dances and bounces when she's happy, which is almost all of the time. She's such a delight and I just love her to pieces! Happy Birthday little Eliza Jane!

And Then...

...I came home to this.