Memorial Day Parade

This year's Memorial Day Parade was very different for me....I had no kids to watch the parade with.  Ella and Laney were walking with their Brownie and Daisy troops and Jason was riding in the fire truck. Matthew spent the night at the Willetts so was spending the morning out there. It was an odd feeling to not have a child with me to help grab the candy (so I just grabbed it for myself) ;)

Laney and most of her Daisy Troop (getting them all in one picture is impossible!).

Laney didn't want to bring a bag with her candy so she stuffed her smock with candy.

Easy access to throw it to the parade watchers.

Ella's Brownie Troop

So the Becks adopted me for parade watching

And here comes the girls!

And there is our favorite candy throwing fireman!!

Laney was so excited to see her dad on the truck (or was she more excited he threw candy at her???).

What a wonderful Memorial Day!

Caught this great one of the Seicter Family

What a wonderful Memorial Day!!

Open House

Tonight we visited the school for their Open House. The girls proudly showed us their artwork, their classrooms, their reading charts, their seats, etc. It was a lot of fun.

Laney and her self portrait entitled "Happy Day"

Love it, Lane!

On the stage were the second graders robots.

They used glow in the dark paint and the black lights were on.

The only criteria was to make a robot but they could use their imaginations to make whatever kind of robot they wanted. 

Ella made one of Gabby. It even had an on/off switch :)

The waterlilies

 

One place that Laney has gotten her money's worth this year is the nurses office. She goes at least once a week (often once a day) for band-aids, belly aches (where a magic mint makes it go away), an ice pack, to get her temperature, etc...really anything :) When I told Mrs. Concannon about this picture, she had a chuckle...lol.

Wow is Ella's class busy!

She wrote a letter about second grade for us all to see. 

So check out this!

Ella's toughest subject is reading yet look how determined she is...she has read the most books...by far!

I am so proud of her determination even though it is rather challenging. I will be able to help her read better but I can't teach her the desire....that's my little lady!

Thanks for coming, Nana and Pappy!!

Laney was so excited to show her Grandparents all of her writings throughout the year (wow!!) and the books she will be bringing home this summer. I was shocked how well her journaling has come in such a short amount of time.......we are so proud of you, Laney!!

Found our family brick!

I was telling Jason the other day that I was mad that I didn't buy a brick for our family. He said, "I think you did." I then got really excited...see, I really do forget everything! ;)

I have to admit though, I think Ella was more excited to use her money for the buy one book, get one free book sale in the library. She used her own money, $15, and bought a poster, a pointer thing, a bookmark and even 2 books ;)

We visited the first grade and third grade classrooms...getting them all ready for the next year!
What a great year it has been!!

Butterfly exhibit

I called my dad on Wednesday morning asking him to go to the Butterfly exhibit at Krohn's Conservatory and an hour later, we were off!

We both thought Matthew would try and step on the butterflies and want to leave in about 10 minutes but boy were we wrong!

He tried to carefully catch them on the paper as he was told and he lasted over an hour! While we were sweating and ready to leave, Matthew was running around having a blast. Who would have thought? It was a great exhibit with hundreds of butterflies but still....not much keeps his attention for over 10 minutes :)

Great picture of the 2 boys

Trying so hard to catch one

I got it!!

But then he screamed, "I got it" and off flew the butterfly :)

 

On my leg

On my arm

What a beautiful butterfly

Thanks for a great morning, Dad & Matthew. It was a wonderful time!!

Smores

Jason has been wanting to build a fire pit for quite a while but after thinking about it, we decided we wanted a portable one to take to the circle. After buying one on Saturday, Sunday evening we had the neighborhood for over for our first of many Smores sessions. The kids roasted marshmallows  road bikes, played teatherball and ran around while the adults actually got to sit and talk. It was lovely!

This is how she plays soccer.....

WITH A SMILE!

Laney runs around the soccer field always smiling, waving and even throwing in some kicking :) What a great season Laney....we are so proud of you!!

The talent show

This year, the talent show brought about a new act...baton twirling! The sign up came home in Ella's backpack and she was all over it! Once I saw the other girls who decided to do it, I was excited for her to be involved. Plus, throw in sequins, gloves and a tiara and we are IN.

They practiced twice a week for 4 weeks. The night came for the talent show and I knew they would rock the costumes. They looked great and although I was thinking Ella would concentrate too hard and not smile, she turned it on!! Her smile lit up the stage....way to go, Ella :)

Don't they look great?

Reagan, Sarah and Ella

Warming up 

 

Saluting the crowd. Ella is second from the right.

When the curtain opened the crowded "oohed" just seeing their costumes.

We clapped along to the beat and cheered the girls on.

Ella said the clapping distracted her :)

Nana and Pappy brought her flowers...how cute!!

Great job, Ella!

Kindermusik

In February, we were at a Kindervelt function and I bid (and won!) a kids' activity basket. There was puzzles, crafts and games but my favorite items was a month of Kindermusik classes, a month at The Little Gym and a free session of swimming lessons.

Matthew and I enjoyed the month at Kindermusik and enrolled for the rest of the session. He learned about his singing voice vs the usual yelling voice we hear and learned how to play various instruments. It was also a great group of moms so we had a lovely time chatting each week :) He can match pitch and if he wants, can sing very sweetly.

Not sure if we will join next year but for this past semester, it was a wonderful thing to do with my little man.

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day couldn't have been ANY better! I always know I have it good but wow, did Jason and the kids go above and beyond.

I woke up around 7:30 am to Ella saying, "Mom are you up?". She came in with roses, cards, gifts and then Jason brought up breakfast in bread. Omelet, juice, bacon and fruit. Delicious!

The roses were so pretty and to eat breakfast in bed was so peaceful. Ella would even come up and ask if I needed anything else :)

The kids worked so hard on their gifts....Matthew gave me a clay handprint (that I hung in the kitchen), Laney made a book about me which included.......what do you like to do with your mom (go to Kings Island) and what does mom do when you are at school (She cleans). A drawing of me with a vacuum cleaner made the page complete :) Ella made a recipe of what makes Mom special.....adorable!

After that amazing morning, little did I know that the day of fun was just beginning.

Jason and the kids headed over to the Mills house at 8:30. I had the whole house to myself until 11!! At that time, I headed over to the Mills house where the guys greeted us with this amazing shirts! Yes, I want Jason to wear the I love Leslie shirt daily. Dirty or not.

They cooked us a made to order breakfast. Thank goodness Jason was there because he cooked basically all of the hot food including the most amazing French Toast! The guys rented tables for us and the kids, they were in charge of the kids while the ladies drank and had muffins, they bought flowers for everyone, and had the best table service around.

What a great morning!!

A toast from the ladies!

That night, we had both sets of parents over for dinner to pamper our moms. Dinner, which Jason cooked, was amazing and thanks to my mom, Bettye, flowers from Jason and flowers from the morning, our table looked like this. Beautiful, right? 

Thank you for the best mother's day a mom could have asked for, Jason!!!

Relaxing, fun, best food, flowers, gifts....yes, it was awesome :)