At the Park!

We met Melissa and her boys a few weeks ago at a park that we used to go to when Laney and Josh were a lot littler.  It was lots of fun and nostalgic all at the same time! 

 Laney asked if she could take some pictures, and she did a great job.  Love having some pictures of me and the brothers!

 Miles is fearless when it comes to climbing.  He just goes for it with reckless abandon!

Memorial Day!!

We kicked off our Memorial Day at Arlington's Annual American Heroes race.  Todd and I have run this 5K for the past three years.  The kids were on the sidelines with my mom to cheer us on and it was so much fun!  After the race, we went to Heath and Janelle's house for some grilling and swimming.  It was so fun.  Miles was the only swimming brother for the day, but Sam was just as content to play on Ella's cool swingset!

 Sweet friends enjoying their fajitas and watermelon!

 Could not be one bit cuter!

 Miles and his hat loved the water like crazy!

 I love my friends so much!!!  I am so lucky that we still live close enough together to see each other almost as often as I want!!!

Another Caterpillar Park!

When Jess and I were little, we used to play at Foster Park and back then it had a huge caterpillar shaped ladder.  We have pictures of both of us sitting on the caterpillar's head hanging on to bot of it's antennae!  Foster Park's caterpillar is long gone, but everytime I go there with my kids (it's one of our favorite stops on our way home from the Y whenever we don't have plans for the day) I still call it "The Caterpillar Park!"

Anyway, a few weeks ago, the kids and I went in search of a park that we had driven by and wanted to try out.  The park that we were looking for had a huge dragon structure coming up and down out of the ground like a Loch Ness Monster kind of.  When I got to the spot that I thought it was, it was actually a different park that we had wanted to try, so we hopped out to test it out!  It turned out to be a Caterpillar Park!!!  There were huge mounds at the entrance of the playground all linked together making a big caterpillar and a big butterfly to climb all over!  It's the next generation Caterpillar Park!

 This random spinning globe was at the edge of the playground.  I am thinking that it was the caterpillar egg, so we got to see all the stages of life.  I didn't see a cocoon anywhere, but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough!

Last Day of Preschool!!

Laney's last day of preschool was several weeks ago and it hit me pretty hard.  I am not and never have been a big fan of change.  I just fall so in love with each stage of life that I can't imagine it ever being any better and I don't want to change.  Of course, I know that this reasoning is flawed and has, in fact, been proven wrong over and over again throughout my life, but I continue to cling to the present and be a little wary of the future. 

Needless to say, I was really emotional about Laney's last day at preschool.  She was just 2 1/2 when she started and the brothers were still warring around in my tummy.  We have had an incredible experience at her school and have watched her grow in confidence so much.  I am so proud of our little school loving Bug.  She absolutely loved school days!  Starting with riding in daddy's car all by herself, taking the golf cart from his office over to the main building, and spending the day with all of her friends; many of whom she was in class with all three years.  We are going to miss these friends and days of preschool so much.  I know that things will never be the same as these precious years have been but I am prayerful and confident that the Lord will grow a passionate love in my heart for what will be our new normal starting in August!

Mrs. Hanson!  Just about the most amazing preschool teacher you could ask for.  She has so much experience and set up such an environment for success for all of our little ones!  Laney has countless stories of all the cool things that Mrs. Hanson did and taught them in Care Bear class.

Mrs. Rivera was Laney's class room sub and also Mrs. Hanson's daughter.  She spent a lot of time in Laney's room this year because Mrs. Hanson had surgery in the fall and had a six week recovery and Mrs. Melton, Laney's other amazing teacher, had to be out now and then.  Like this last week of school when she got the opportunity to go to Israel with her husband!   Mrs. Melton was incredible with Laney, always helping her to stay comfortable during programs and parties.  Laney sang songs all the time that Mrs. Melton taught them.  She felt very special to her and I couldn't ask for more! 

Mrs. Rivera had a daughter, Annie, that Laney loved to "help" her with.  Annie is only one year younger than Laney, but Lane always talked about her in a very nurturing way.  Cute.

I didn't get many pictures of this party because i was frantically setting up my craft.  This happens to me on a regular basis - I decide to do something that ends up being way more work than I set out for, but I always realize too late and am too invested to turn back!  I signed up to bring a craft for the kids, and I really wanted it to be something special since it was their last day together after three years.  I decided that we would put each child's handprint on a pillow case for them to take home.  Sounds relatively simple!  Sheesh!  I couldn't find inexpensive pillow cases anywhere until finally I went to two Big Lots and got 20 king sized pillow cases.  The king sized were way too big which I realized at midnight the night before the party, so I cut them to standard sized and re-sewed each one.  Then I ironed on Care Bears 2010-2011 to the center of each of them.  At the actual party, I basically needed all the moms to help me help each child put the handprint on 20 different pillow cases and then follow behind to write their name under their handprint.  Poor other moms who signed up for juice boxes and then got suckered into helping me with the craft for an hour!!!!! 

My one party pic!  A game is being played, I think.  I have a cute book of pictures that her teachers sent home from all year long.  I need to scan and blog them so that they will end up in my blog book eventually!!

I made Laney's teachers these aprons for their end of the year gift.  I decided this at the last minute also, but I ended up using all fabric that I already had, so aside from time, these were pretty inexpensive gifts.  This one was for her music teacher, Mrs. Terrell, who she loves!  I love her too, she seems like just about one of the nicest people in the whole wide world!!

 I made these ones for Mrs. Hanson and Mrs. Petter, her sweet music teacher that we are lucky enough to go to church with and will hopefully still get to see in the future!!

Ice Cream Truck!!!

One evening a while ago, we got to have a visit from Bobbis while the Good girls were over at our house.  While we were all in the front yard, we started to hear that all to familiar music jingling down the road!  We decided to treat the kids to some popsicles and they couldnt' have been more thrilled!  Everyone was basically bathed in popsicle juice by the end of it, so we headed straight in to the tub!!!