Kindergarten Celebration

Friday morning Gabriel's kindergarten celebration was heldat his school. 

The classes walked in a procession into the gymnasium.  I was standing at the door so I could get Gabriel's picture.  He saw me, but would only look straight ahead.  He would not make eye contact with me, wave, smile, or even turn his head to look at me.  He was all business.

The kids gathered on the stage.

Then they performed several songs.  This one was the Months of the Year Macarena.  It was super-cute!

All of the kindergarten kiddos did a great job performing.  The looked so cute.

Gabriel received his certificate from his principal Ms. Korphage.

Introducing . . .

Evie Ann Holdaway

 Evie Ann was born at 2:34 p.m.  She weighs 6 lbs. 12 oz. and is 21 inches.  Mommy and Baby are both doing well.

Evie was bright-eyed when we met her.  She has been nursing like a little champ, and she already loves to suck her fingers and thumb.

Evie, we are already so in love with you!  Happy Birthday, Little Girl!  Eddie and Stacey, congratulations!  You have created a perfect little baby girl!

Turtle

 I found a turtle in the driveway this evening, and I brought it in the house so the kids could see it.

 This little guy was on the run, looking for any way to get away from kids and dogs.

 Hershey was especially interested in the turtle.

 Say, "Cheese, Mr. Turtle!"

After a few minutes of playing with the turtle in the house, we took it back outside to let it go.

Jewelry Model

 Sunday Grace, Grandma, and I attended a jewelry party at Jaime McAfee's house.  Grace got to model the jewelry that a hostess could receive for having a party.  It was so cute to see her modeling for Jaime.  She was a little hesitant to give the jewelry back too . . . I don't blame her.

Getting to Jaime's house is quite a little drive for us.  Grace was so quiet in the backseat of Grandma's car on the way home.  After a while I looked back to see this.

Legos

 Friday Dan got home from five days in Virginia for work.  He brought each of the kids a little present.  Gabriel got a set of Legos.

 He started following the directions and putting the vehicle together by himself, but Daddy and Grace couldn't wait to help.

 Since Daddy got home later on Friday evening, Gabriel had to finish putting his vehicles together Saturday morning.

Here's a close-up of his Lego firetruck and trailer.

Dancing Machine

Uncle Jim and Linda in Texas, send my mom and dad a video each year of our family pictures set to music. It doesn't matter when we receive it, we always love this wonderful gift. Mom received the video yesterday in the mail as a Mother's Day gift. Grandma and Papaw came over last night, and we watched the video together.

One of the songs on the video was It's a Great Day by the Fresh Beat Band.

Grace was SO excited!

She danced and shook her little booty to the music.

It was hilarious!  We were cracking up as we watched her dance to the music.  We had to watch the video a second time because we were so preoccupied by watching her dance during the first viewing of the video.

Preschool Celebration

Thursday evening was Grace's preschool celebration. It is so fun seeing the kids show off all the things they have been learning in their preschool class.

They sang the Alphabet Song, sang the days of the week, said the months of the year, and counted.

Grace was one of the loudest singers in the group.  It is always so fun to watch preschoolers perform.

(Darn Blogger!  I don't know why it keeps turning pictures sideways.)  Grace received her certificate from Mrs. Wilson.

Grace best friend in her preschool class is Chloe. Chloe is Mrs. Wilson's granddaughter.  Several times this school year, Mrs. Wilson took Grace out to lunch with her and Chloe after class.  Grace will miss Mrs. Wilson this summer.

School Work for Mom

I've seen a progression in Grace's school work lately. I just think it's so neat to see how kids' work matures and change.

She drew this picture for me this week.  It's a garden of flowers, a rainbow, and another flower.

This is a Mother's Day card Gabriel made for me at school this week.  He said, "Mom, I hope you love it."  And I do!  I think it's wonderful!

Grace drew this picture inside a Mother's Day card for me.  It's a picture of her (on the left) and me (on the right).  When she started school this year, her drawings of people were giant heads with arms and legs.  Now she has added bodies and sometimes certain features of the people are very large.  For example, she drew Daddy one day recently, and he had giant feet in the picture.  I think it's funny that her picture of me shows super-long hair, but only eyes on the face.  I love seeing my kids grow and change.  I just wish they wouldn't do it so fast.

Graduation Pictures

Gabriel got his graduation pictures back from school Thursday.  He is such a handsome boy, and he looks so big in his cap and gown.  It brings tears to my eyes to think it, but in a very short 12 years, he'll be wearing his high school cap and gown.  Oh, my!  How time flies!

Feeding Geese & Ducks

Wednesday evening, the kids and I were out running some errand.  It was a beautiful evening, so we decided to stop and feed the ducks and geese at the town hall.

The white ducks were the first to approach us.  Grace was pretty excited to feed them, and she forgot that she wasn't supposed to chase them.

It wasn't long before the masses were upon us.

A mama goose came over with her two baby geese.  The babies didn't get much bread because the mama was eating it all.

This mama duck was sitting on a nest, and she was not about to leave it to get some bread.  At first she was pretty angry at us for getting close to her.  After a little time, she relaxed and let Gabriel feed her.

As we left this goose decided it wanted to go with us.

Then we looked behind us and saw that we had a whole parade of ducks and geese following us.  We had so much fun feeding the ducks and geese that we went back last night too.

Slip-N-Slide

 While I went to the grocery Sunday, Dan got the Slip and Slide out for the kids.

 They had a blast getting wet and sliding through the yard.

 Sometimes Dan tossed them down the Slip and Slide.  Other times, they ran and slid on their own.

 Dan told me that I needed to join the fun with the kids.  At first, I was a little shocked by the cold water, and I forgot to slide.

 The second time, I tried sliding on my bum, but didn't get very far.

The third time, I slid on my belly.  I didn't slide nearly as well as the kids did, but it was still fun.

Derby Day

Steve and Carly invited us over for their Derby party Saturday.  The weather can be so unpredictable this time of year.  We've seen snow on Derby Day before, but this year we had temperatures in the mid-80's.  The kids had a ball swimming in Steve and Carly's pool.

This is was Grace's first time jumping off a diving board.  She is such a daredevil, and this was right up her alley.

When she popped up, she said, "That was fun!"

I love how well Riley and Grace get along together.

Momma's little bathing beauty

Gabriel is not the risk-taker that Grace is.  He doesn't have the added protection of the floatie either, so he stayed at the shallow end of the pool.

He still had plenty of fun jumping off the edge of the pool though.

My baby and me

Grace also discovered that she enjoyed going down the slide.  She got out of the pool at one point to eat and go inside to play with the big girls, and she took her floatie off.  When she came outside, she forgot that she wasn't wearing her floatie, and she went down the slide without it.  Steve ended up going in the pool, fully clothed, after her.  Oh my!  What a scare for Mom, Dad, and her.

The only thing she ate all day was chips.  I'm sure she ate half a bag by herself.

Riley and Robbie have this cool little teeter-totter in their backyard.  I found another little girl at the party who was close to Grace in size to teeter-totter with.  The other little girl was a little scared, and this didn't last long.

It was a really fun day.  I found out that my mother-in-law especially likes Mint Juleps, or Kentucky Derby Drinks, as she called them.  Ha!  Dan bet on the horse that won the Derby, and left the party with about $50 in his pocket.  Not bad . . . not bad at all.