Spring Recital 2012

Its that time again...

I love recitals. I love my students. I love music.

This year my own little Olivia joined in on the piano fun.

We even played a duet. I'm not gonna lie, it was precious:)

The Good Earth

Anyone else read that lovely book in HS?

Its harvest season down south and we've been enjoying all sorts of produce this week from our garden and a local berry farm.

Here's our zuccini, tomatoes and green beans.

We also grew basil.

Why are some tomatos still green you ask? Those darn birds keep eating them before I can pick them! So it's ripen on the window sill or fried green tomatoes for me:)

I use all the above (except for green beans) to make this scruptous meal...

grilled stuffed zuccini,

recipe and photo courtesty of Our Best Bites- seriously best cook book i've ever owned!

On Tuesday our play group went blackberry picking.

It was dang hot but oh so fun:)

 My friend Abby even spotted this awesome chrysalis

and tonight we turned that bucket of berries into this slice of heaven:)

mmmmmm gotta love fresh produce!



Family Festival

Last Saturday was a Family Festival at Kolby's school.

The theme was Hawaiian.

We dressed up, ate cotton candy and snow cones, got balloons, face painting, bouncy houses and carnival games. We ended the night with a bucket of chicken at the duck pond.

Ahhhh I love family time!

Aloha

My Brave Brave

Such a great season!

Kolby really came out of his shell this year.

He was hitting awesome as usual but this year he also played "pitcher" (remember its tball) and rocked it! He got all 3 outs several times. He and the first baseman were unstoppable.

So proud of my boy!

Unofficially they won every game but one, they tied.

Can't wait til next year!

Especially after 3 yrs of t-ball we are ready for coach-pitch and an actual score:)

Go Braves!

End of the year party.

The deadly duo- Chris and Kolby:)

Why did the chicken* cross the road?

...to get Kolby to paint her portrait:)

* I'm not sure what's with all the poultry references lately...but now that i think of it some fried chicken sounds mighty fine:)

Here's Kolbs at the school art show last week.

His piece is titled:

"The Rooster Went on His Walk"

What can I say, my kid is a creative genius:)

We're so proud of you Kolby!

I hear on a weekly basis how great you are in school.

Your art teacher, PE teacher, and music teacher tell me how talented you are.

Your kindergarten teacher says she wishes she could clone you:)

So much talent and goodness all wrapped up in to one adorable boy.

I'm so blessed to call you mine!

Spring Chickens

Here's my 2 spring babies sport'n their birthday dresses from the neighbors-grandparents.

Since they had birthdays recently we got to go for the 2 yr and 5yr well check, yipee skippy:)

The stats:

Naomi-

height: 33 3/4in(42%)

weight: 25 lbs (46%)

FOC: 20 (100%)

BMI: 15

Olivia-

height: 39in (3%)

weight: 31 lbs (2%)

Blood Pressure: 97/56

BMI: 14.33

poor thing has lost a lot of weight since her surgery:(

Last time we checked she was 34 lbs, still a tiny little thing:)

I was just thinkn, wow I'm really glad my mother doesn't post my BMI for all the world to see. Haha

Mother's Day Cards

Kolby: "You are the best mom in the world because you give the best hugs ever!
 I love you around the earth and all around space and back around the earth and back on earth"

Olivia: "I want to be like mom because: She always makes me feel better, she always makes me good, she reads me good stories, she teaches me about Jesus, she loves me very much."

Naomi: "Knock knock, who's there? Poopy-head.

Eat your heart out Hallmark, you've got nothin on my kiddos:)

Its the little things

After a particularly trying day I found a few simple things to dry my tears and lift my spirits.

The weather was enchanting. I adore a good ol' rain storm especially if it includes some little cheating sun rays that try to make appearances between the grayness.

Kolby surprised me with an early Mother's Day gift, this red carnation which he bought with his very own money:) and this bean plant which he grew.

After dinner we snuck into the raspberries (which are really supposed to be for a mother's day treat the kids and I will make tomorrow) and felt like royalty dropping the plump berries in our mouths one by one.

We finished the night by vacuuming the rugs with febreeze (yum!) moving the furniture outta the way and having a dance party!

As a bonus my fabulous sis-in-law dropped off a ginormous bag of pb M&Ms which I will now enjoy as I sit back on the sofa and view, The Vow.

Grateful for family, friends, my munchkins, and knowing that even God has a sense of humor.

Preschool Graduation

Remember how Olivia just had surgery on Monday...

well, after missing out on the last day of preschool, field day, and a pool party we realized we didn't wanna miss graduation too.

I promise Olivia really did want to go, the trouble was she felt aweful and she didn't exactly want to sing and the entire program was singing! She was a trooper and did the hand actions but didn't sing a single word. Poor little sore throat:(

Preschool was awesome! Olivia absolutely loved going! She cried on the days she didn't have school! I'm thinkin' that's mostly because of this loverly lady here: her "Miss Buddie" Ms Sarah.

Preschool made her feel so special and so loved which was exactly what every middle child needs:)

Can't believe she's off to kindergarten in the fall!!!

Way to go Olivia. I'm so proud of you!

 We carpooled with friends from church, Eliza (2nd from left) and Ashlyn (2nd from right)

And... here's my stud-of-a-nephew, Levi in the suit.

Cutest little man ever!!!!

 Ms Sarah gave Olivia not 1 but 2 HUGE scrapbooks of all their preschool memories!

Olivia has cherished these esp. with all her down time still recovering.

Congrats Olivia!

Can't wait for your smile to find its way back to your cute little face:)

Pony Party

Thinkn of better days...

Saturday was Olivia's birthday party.

She asked for a "My Little Pony Party" and this is what I came up with:)

The party bags:

1 for friends, 1 for boys, 1 for babies, and 1 for my older nieces:)

The cake:

strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese and strawberry koolaid frosting....yum!!!

Olivia helped me makes these and put all the stickers on top:)

The Entertainment:

We loaded up our van and had 5 other cars caravan and put on a "My Little Pony" DVD while we drove to the farm.

The Location:

My amazing friend Claudia allowed us to come tour her gorgeous property.

Its seriously magical out there.

We saw the barn, the pastures, and each kid got to ride a horse!

the horses even signed a birthday card for Olivia:)

Here's the momma horse. She actually gave birth the very next morning at 12:30am!

I gotta admit I was kinda hoping to get to witness a foal being born:)
some day...some day...

Congrats!!!

The Riders:

My big 5 year old!!!

Ellie

Ashlyn

Brynlee

Aidyn

Levi

Whittney

Mia

Kolby

I snuck in a quick pic so my children will remember that I was actually at their birthday parties:)

yeeehaw!!!

A billion thanks to our gracious hosts Claudia and Scott!!!

Thanks for letting us into your magical world:)

We sure love ya!!