Ella had her preschool graduation program today. I never thought I would get teary eyed but you all know I did! I mean, really. Who doesn't tear up when they hear Pomp & Circumstance? :)
The Orca Class in profile
We tried with the pics but between balancing Laney, Matthew, the video camera and regular camera, it became rather cumbersome
They each got a bible and prayer bear
Ella with her Pre-Kindergarten certificate and her certificate for reciting all 7 of the bible versus. She was one of the few in her class who memorized them all :) I guess I am a little proud!
As I was putting Laney to bed the other night, we drew pictures on her magnadoodle. She wanted pictures of our entire family so I drew J, myself, Laney, Ella and Matthew. She then said we forgot Mr. Joel so he was drawn in as well :)
Then Laney says, "Wait Mom, I want to draw a better picture of you." So she drew a body, 2 eyes, a nose and many, many legs. Once she was done she said, "Mom, you look like a pig."
I then went downstairs and cleaned out her backpack from preschool. I saw that her crafts were all focused on the letter P with her big project being a colored pig. I guess this "kind of" makes me feel better about my 3 year old daughter calling me a pig??? :)
Taken about 3 weeks ago. Sorry about the clicking sound (I have no idea what that is??) Boy he is getting big and please, just ignore the whining girls in the background :)
The past few days have felt like Mother's Day since the celebration of this glorious day started Friday. On Friday, the girls' preschool had Muffins with Mom. The moms sat at assigned seats filled with gifts from their children. Then the kids walked in, stood in front of their moms and sang two songs. Neither Ella nor Laney really sang but they did stand there and look cute. It was a fun morning for sure! As a sidenote, it was rather funny to watch a few boys go out of their way to say "hi" to Ella. She denies that they are her boyfriends but I wasn't quite convinced.
Ella with the craft she made (it will be cute to put my jewelry on, or so Ella tells me)
Their preschool loves to make placemats! Here is another one for our fun collection. I love all the ways teachers think of using the kids' handprints.
Laney's crafts: placemat, flowers and a picture frame w/ her hand print saying "Thanks for helping me to grow."
My new jewelry stand
Laney's picture of me is the top left. They asked what Mom likes to cook and Laney's answer: Mom likes to put cereal in a bowl. I don't know how she cooks it but it's good.
Ella's picture of me is on the top left
Although it was Muffins with Mom, Laney quickly found the donuts.
Not the best video but I tried :)
After that celebration it was off to Rainbow Camp (aka Rainbow Day Care but somehow it being called camp makes it more fun) where they had a Mother's Day Tea.
Laney's class made it a spa day for mom. They painted our nails, used lotion, and combed our hair. Nothing is complete without sparkles so there were sparkles everywhere.
Laney and her favorite teacher, Miss Adrienne. When Laney turned 3, she moved up to a new classroom where Miss Adrienne was not her teacher. She had nothing against her new teacher but we could tell she missed Miss Adrienne. Well as luck would have it, Miss Adrienne moved up to the 3 year old class. Laney was incredibly excited to have Miss Adrienne back!
Although Matthew couldn't participate in the salon day, I wanted to get a picture of him sitting at the cutest table ever. Jason and I didn't believe Kenal, Matthew's favorite teacher, when she said that he sits there and feeds himself. It really is the cutest thing ever to see him at the table like a little man. It's like he is saying "where's my food?"
All the kids were nice enough to make me gifts while at Rainbow. Ella made me a flower picture frame, Laney made me a jewelry box and Matthew made me an adorable card with his handprints. How in the world Kenal got such good handprints of Matthew amazes me (ok, I really think she used a stamp because I can't get him to sit still for a second let alone let me do his handprint). I did a craft requiring his footprints the other day and the red paint got everywhere but on the paper. These teachers are good!
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I woke up this morning to my favorite breakfast: french toast, bacon and strawberries. Jason and the kids got the cutest card with each of them doing their own artwork (Jason and Matthew worked together on Matthew's). They also got me a necklace and bracelet from my new favorite store, Tangerine. What a special Mother's Day!
But enough about me! I want to wish every single mother a Happy Mother's Day but especially to my amazing mother and mother-in-law. Thank you, Mom, and Bettye for all you do for our family!
Last Thursday through Sunday, Ella and I joined my mom on a trip to Ft Myers to visit my Grandma Kay (aka, big Nana Kay since my mom is Nana Kay). Grandma lives in a very nice retirement community so we were able to bunk up with her. It ended up being a great arrangement and Ella slept very well (for those who have traveled with kids, their sleep is of utmost importance).
We arrived on Thursday and went to go get our rental car. After we declined the car upgrade the clerk gave us the keys to a Toyota Prius. Since I typically drive a mini van this car seemed like a child's car. Well, we go to get in it--mission accomplished. Got our luggage in the car--mission accomplished. Start the car--try again. Start the car--try again. Ok, I know I am blonde but seriously, I should be able to start this car. I ask my mom (since she is not blonde) and she couldn't figure it out. So back to the desk we go saying that we can't even turn the car on (it's a push button starter which is so weird if you ask me). The nice man said, "Let me give you a new car for your trouble." He gave us a Nissan Murano (fabulous car!). Well, the Murano was still a push button so although he got me a great upgrade I still didn't know how to turn it on. Luckily he showed me how, and we were finally on our way. So just a note to anybody who rents one of these cars, put your foot on the brake, put the remote in the lit area and then hit the on button. It was hysterical but it led to a much better (and bigger!) car :) My mom and I were already cracking up after only being together 10 minutes.
So we drove to Grandma's and after we ate a quick lunch, we headed to the beach. The sky was rather dark and although it rained a few drops, it didn't stop us from enjoying the beach and building a sand castle. Although it took us a few days to master the art of sand castle building, we finally got it down!
So this is the beautiful lady we went to visit, Big Nana Kay Steigerwald. Although she has lived in Naples, Fl ever since I can remember, last year she moved to Ft. Myers to be closer to my Aunt Judy.
Two beautiful ladies
My mom is the oldest of the 5 Steigerwald children
Look how cute my Grandma Kay is! Ella took this picture....thanks El.
Lots and lots of shelling!
Imagine if our playgrounds had a backdrop like this. We spent two days at Fort Myers beach where we just relaxed, ate and shopped--doesn't get any better than that?
We had to do a little shopping, right?
4 generations! Pretty amazing :)
On Friday night, my Aunt Judy had us over for dinner with her family. I brought some toys for Ella but all she wanted to do was play with the dog, her cousin Jared and her Aunt Judy.
Ella, Grandma, Judy, my mom, Jared
I asked Grandma and Ella for silly faces and Grandma immediately growls. It was hysterical! Although Grandma gets confused much of the time, she sure knew how to make a silly face on command :)
On Saturday I wanted to go to Sanibel Island. Jason and I went there 6 years ago and had a wonderful time. If you haven't been there or Captiva Island before I highly recommend it. The island is just beautiful and there are amazing shells. It is a quiet island, unlike the beaches of Ft. Myers which is party central. The water was much clearer in Captiva and made playing in the ocean not as yucky.
My mom kept Ella well entertained as they walked up and down the beach gathering shells.
When Jason and I visited Sanibel Island we were walking along the beach and ran into a restaurant that was right on the beach. It was called the Mucky Duck and we ate there at least twice. Anytime you can have a beer delivered to you as you are sitting on the beach, well, that's a place for me. Ella, my mom and myself went to the Mucky Duck for ol' times sake. It was a beautiful day and we got a table right by the window. It was actually too hot to eat outside. Oh the tough things Floridians deal with, right?
I bought Jason a little something from the Mucky Duck but it got confiscated by our tight airport security. I put his gift in Ella's backpack, not thinking it was contraband. Well, they stopped her bag and took everything out just to confiscate a jar of mustard that was sealed! Seriously?? The attendant felt ridiculous confiscating it but I guess she just had to do it (although you know I argued that it was not a liquid...obviously lost that battle).
Our last night there we went to dinner with Grandma and her friend, Mable. Both ladies are 88! Although the dinner required a lot of repeating, it was a wonderful time. Grandma and Mable live in the same retirement community, and as we were ready to leave on Sunday we thought we would feed the ducks there. I brought down two pieces of bread and before you know it we had ~10 ducks and 1 huge turtle ready to bed fed. They are quite the domesticated creatures as they would just be right beside us ready for food.
It was a perfect visit with my Grandma Kay, and Ella, I sure hope you remember this special trip. You were a wonderful traveler, sleeper and companion on this trip showing me that 5 is such a perfect age to start taking trips. You loved playing hide and seek with Big Nana Kay and made her laugh like I have never heard Grandma laugh before. Ella even lost her second tooth on the flight home. What a memorable trip for us all.
