Summer!

Summer has officially begun here in our house.  I won't lie, the first few days were kinda rough.  Joel gently reminded me that there is an "adjustment phase" for me and for the kids each summer.  But, we're starting to get into our groove & had a really fun, laid back day today.  We spent the afternoon in the backyard.  It was just what we needed and so, so fun!  It not being 100+ degrees yet didn't hurt either. 

 Inspired by Facebook & Mr. Jim: a bucket, some water, paintbrushes & instant fun "painting" the fence.  They actually did this longer than any other activity this afternoon - almost an hour.  We'll be repeating this again later.  :)

 Water + hopscotch = good times

 A timeless classic - the sprinkler!

 

 Snack time on the porch.  Smoothies & pretzels - tasted extra yummy out in the sunshine.

Kindergarten Graduation Take Two

Jonathan just graduated Kindergarten last week.  Hard to believe the year is already over and that we've already done this with our second kid, but here we are.  He looked very handsome all dressed up with his cap on.  Now time for summer! 

Jon with his teacher Ms. Guertler.

 Emily with her beloved 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Chandler

3 Generations & Star Wars

For a 6 year old boy having his dad let him start to watch the original Star Wars movies is pretty much epic.  They watched A New Hope together a few weeks back.  Jon was mesmerized by the whole thing.  Then just this past weekend Jonathan was introduced to The Empire Strikes Back by his dad, uncle & Grandpa Pappy.  He was BEYOND excited and could hardly sit still until it started.  He got to stay up late and just the "boys" watched it together.  Apparently the famous line "Luke, I am your father" totally blew his mind and his jaw dropped open.  Here's a photo they took right before they started the flick.  Jonathan is pretending to hold a light saber. 

And here's one more photo from this last weekend.  Jonathan loves to bring me little flowers he finds here or there when we are out together.  It's really sweet and means a lot to this momma.  This particular one was unique and one I had not seen before.  It's just a reminder for me in years to come of the days when he was little and still liked to bring me flowers just because I'm his mom & he loves me.  :-)

Hammock!

I have wanted a hammock for a long, long time.  I think they are one of the greatest things.  If memory serves me right the first time I sat in one was when I was a kid on some kind of family trip with my cousins.  It was my grandparents' hammock & I was in immediate love.  So I've always thought I'd have one as an adult.  But, you know how life goes...always something else needed and it becomes a "someday" thing. 

So I am very happy to announce that I finally have my hammock and....it rocks!!  I love, love it.  It is probably the most relaxing place in the world for me right now.  It's a belated mother's day/anniversary gift that was made possible thanks to the very generous donation of a friend.  My sweet hubby researched them & found the best one for the budget.  It's even got fun multi-colored stripes.  He set it up under the big tree in our backyard.  I love trees too (second to the hammock, of course) so I can relax, swaying in the breeze & look up at that big beautiful tree.  There is even a squirrel that lives in our yard that comes out and stares at me every time I'm relaxing there.    

Here's a photo of my very relaxed feet hanging out in my new favorite place.

When Joel got it home & out of the box, Jonathan immediately wanted the box to play with (because big boxes are awesome).  He quickly discovered that it was the perfect "Jonathan-sized" box.

Character Kid

Emily was selected as the character kid for her class for the 5th six weeks at her school.  This is a really big deal because only one kid is chosen per class each six weeks who exemplifies the character quality they have been learning about.  This particular six weeks the character trait they were focusing on was acceptance.  Emily was so thrilled to have been picked.  Here are pictures from the assembly the character kids were honored at.  Way to go, Miss Em!

 

Lunches with Kat

Being the youngest of 3 with big brother and sister away at school most days can be kinda crummy at times...mainly when you want a playmate & mom is busy at the moment.  But, it does has its perks too.  We don't do it often, but occasionally Kat & I will go grab a lunch out together.  As I sit opposite her watching her eat I can't help but smile at how cute she is & be inwardly grateful for these moments we get to share, just she & I.  It's on those occasions I've grabbed my phone out of my purse & snapped a photo so I can remember what she looked like on those days, sitting across from me. Looking so cute at just 3 years old...because I know I'm going to want to remember what that looked like. 

This one was on a cold, rainy day back when she was so in love with soup she would eat it at any meal.  So we went to Panera & it was gooooood.

 Burger at Mooyah.  She ate the whole thing.

Sack lunches at the zoo...

and ice cream after.

And I snapped this picture during one of our weekly trips to the grocery store.  I always bring along a little container of Goldfish for her to snack on to help the experience go a little smoother.  :-)

Legos

Jonathan loves Legos.  He has some of the sets you can make things with, but he prefers to just create out of his own imagination.  He had a small amount of them from a while back.  But he got more for Christmas and even more for his birthday.  Now he has over 1,000 pieces.  These photos were from a family evening of Lego creating.