Kindergarten is Over?!?!

Last day as a Kindergartener

I can't believe today is the last day of Kindergarten for Coleman! He was pretty sad this morning. He's worried about missing his friends. I'm sure he'll have a great summer though! Click here to see a picture from the first day of Kindergarten.

Coleman before the end-of-year program

Getting a certificate from his awesome teacher!

I've been really busy the last few weeks! Spence and Allie have been at my parents' house for a few days and are coming home today. I've gotten a lot done, but I think it would take the entire summer to declutter as much as I'd like to! Oh well, some is better than none. I'm really looking forward to seeing those little sweeties!

Last Day of Mother's Day Out

Thursday was the last day of MDO for Spence and Allie. They were so blessed with wonderful teachers and friends and had a great year! I love their school!

Last day of MDO!

Remember the first day of MDO?

One of the supplies that the school asks for at the first of the year is a disposable camera. The teachers take pictures all throughout the year, then put an album together for each child and give it to us on the last day. Yesterday while the kids were at school I remembered that I would be getting the photo albums and could hardly wait! I had to flip through them both before we left the parking lot. I love getting to see what all they did at school and pictures with their little friends. We're looking forward to a great summer, then after awhile we'll be looking forward to a new school year!

It's Pool Time!

Today was our first trip to the neighborhood pool. So much fun! And Coleman even gave Allie her hat back when we got there.

Candice has some great pictures from our trip to the zoo. Check them out here!

Fun at the Fun Run

Wednesday Coleman participated in his school's Boosterthon Fun Run. It was a fundraiser for the school where the kids got pledges for running laps. They had a set amount of time and were supposed to run between 25 and 35 laps (each lap being 1/16 mile). A course was set up with cones and inflatable arches to run through. Coleman did awesome! He ran 35 laps and could have kept going. On the back of their shirts was a place for volunteers to mark their laps, so at the end of each lap they had to stop briefly to get a mark on their backs. I thought that would make it chaotic, but it really didn't. It went pretty smoothly. There was also a water station set up so the runners could get a drink when they needed. Fun music was played and everyone cheered the runners on! I loved it! The kids raised over $23,000!

Getting pumped up to run!

Coleman's cheering squad

Coming around the corner

Stopping to get a mark - gotta keep up with those laps to get all your pledges

One day they'll get to run too

Coleman and his best buddy from his class

A little monkey at the park

I've been a slacker this week, then blogger was down last night. So I have three posts today. Keep reading to find out what fell from our sky yesterday, and where we went today!

Cover Your Heads!!!

We got rain yesterday! I can't even remember the last time it rained. What a wonderful blessing, which led to Allie wanting to wear a rain coat, which led to this adorable picture!

Perfect Day To...

...meet up with friends

...take a train ride

...crawl through an underwater tunnel

...wave to a scuba diver

...pose with an elephant

...go to the zoo!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love Mother's Day! I am blessed with the most wonderful mom. She is an amazing woman! And not only do I have an awesome mom, I have the best mother-in-law in the world! They are both there for me always to listen or offer advice and laugh at the crazy things their grandkids have done. They are truly a blessing in my life and teach me so much about motherhood. I couldn't ask for more.

And then there are my three little stinkers (see picture below). I look at them and can't believe how abundantly God has blessed me. Being a mom is my job. It's also my passion. Again, I couldn't ask for more.

Stinkers!

Silly faces

Three of my favorite people

Blessed to have my mom with me this Mother's Day!

Sweet and Sour

If I had to assign a dipping sauce to motherhood, I would choose Sweet and Sour. That seems to describe being a mommy pretty well. There are moments of sweetness where I can't imagine loving these little people anymore than I do. They do and say the most precious things. Then the moment turns sour. Quite sour at times and I'm ready to find a wall and bang my head against it repeatedly. I'm pretty sure I need the sour though to fully appreciate the sweet. And honestly, I never fully understood how God could love me, with all my flaws and failures, until I became a mom. It doesn't matter what my kids do or don't do, become or achieve, I love them. And oh do I get frustrated and flustered and flabbergasted at times, but I love them. It's like no other love in the world.

This week was a little crazy, and so I guess I was going a little crazy. I found things hilarious that normally I might have chuckled at but not given a second thought. One of these instances involved a granola bar and Allie's hiney. I had let the kids eat granola bars in the car, and the next day when Allie was getting out of the car I noticed this:

It was stuck pretty good and I eventually had to peel it off. After, of course, I found the camera and chased her around!

Here's a more flattering picture of the princess:

Her first pony tail!

The older classes at Mother's Day Out have a Mother's Day Tea. It was Tuesday and I had such a fun time! I got to do this twice with Coleman, and this year I got to do it with Spence.

I like to say he's carrying on the weird gene!

I'll try to get a picture of me with all three kids tomorrow on Mother's Day. I can share about my gifts today, but I haven't taken pictures yet. Brian took the boys to pick up my present this morning. It is a lovely chest for storage in the computer room. While they were gone I took Allie and Maestro on a walk. We followed the signs to a garage sale, where there was a double jogging stroller for sale. I couldn't pass it up, so I bought it for myself for Mother's Day! I'm not a jogger (I'd like to be but I'm not sure my foot can handle it) but my regular stroller doesn't handle well on the cracked sidewalks here. So this will make it so much easier to walk to Coleman's school and the park. I might have to put it in storage until next October when it's cool enough! Actually, we're still having some nice weather. I'll take advantage of it while it's here.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms! We have the hardest, but most rewarding job!

A Rare Treat

All 3 kids, in the same picture, smiling, looking at the camera, standing still, and loving on each other!

Garage Sale Find

Can you believe we got these at a garage sale around the corner from us today? I've been wanting to get rid of the rocker and ottoman and put two chairs by the fireplace. It just wasn't a high priority, since I figured it would cost quite a bit of money. And it was not even on my mind when Brian called and told me to meet him at the garage sale to check out something. They weren't quite ready for an estate sale, but the guy let me go in the house and take a look around. I saw these chairs and thought they'd be perfect! Especially when he told me how little he wanted for them! We might have them reupholstered some day, but I think the red looks good for now. The wheels on the front have to go though! The boys must not have noticed those today or we might have had some kind of roller derby going on!
And I could use some advice from all you expert designers. Should the chairs be farther apart? Turned more? The only thing is the kids need to be able to get into the cabinets because that's where a lot of their toys are stored. Here's another view:


And I don't really want to get rid of the rocker and ottoman, but I don't have any little babies left to rock and feed! Oh the memories of 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00 a.m. feedings in that chair!

Spence's Imagination

Driving past Coleman's school on our way to a park today, Spence and I had a delightful conversation!

Mommy: Coleman's in there working hard and learning all kinds of stuff.
Spence: I hope he's not learning about alligators!
Mommy: Why?
Spence: Because Esther told me if you learn about alligators, you turn into one! And that's real!
Mommy: So if Coleman comes home and he's an alligator, I guess we'll know he learned about alligators today.
Spence: The first thing to happen is he'll have alligator sharp teeth!
Mommy: Then what next?
Spence: He'll turn green!
Mommy: What next?
Spence: He'll grow a long tail!
Mommy: What next?
Spence: He'll grow two feet in front!
Mommy: What next?
Spence: His nose will be long!
Mommy: What next?
Spence: He'll have bumps all over him!
Mommy: What next?
Spence: Then he's an alligator!

In case you forgot, Esther is Spence's imaginary friend. And it sounds like Spence knows enough about alligators to turn into one himself!

Happy Easter!

He became sin, Who knew no sin

That we might become His Righteousness

He humbled himself and carried the cross

Love so amazing, Love so amazing

Jesus Messiah, Name above all names

Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel

The rescue for sinners, The ransom from Heaven

Jesus Messiah, Lord of all

Jesus Messiah, by Chris Tomlin

Easter Egg Hunts Don't Scare Me!

If you have no idea what the title of this post means, click here. Or, if you're short on time, I'll just tell you that Coleman has had some bad experiences at egg hunts. At one point, I wondered if I would ever be able to take him to an egg hunt without it being a horrific experience for both of us! Well, luckily I think that phase has passed. And now I think about all those past egg hunts and the tears and screaming and actually get a laugh from it!

Since he was out of school today, he got to tag along with his younger siblings to our MOPS Easter Egg Hunt. He actually helped me hide some of the eggs, but enjoyed finding them too.

Save some for the other kids, Allie!

Say "Cheese" then we can eat the candy!

And what's the deal with Mommies? Or maybe it's just me. I always want a cute picture of the kids together on special occasions or events. I picked out cute springy outfits for the kids, and wouldn't you know Coleman wanted no part of the outfit I picked out for him! I'm afraid mean mom had to come out and she may have made some threats about not getting toys that were supposed to be in his Easter basket, or something to that affect. I can't really control mean mom. She's just really obsessed with dressing the kids all cutesie and getting a frame-able photo. I don't know what her deal is.

After all the energy mean mom expended, these are the best pictures she got!

And then Coleman went and put the clothes of his choosing back on before we left for the egg hunt.

This One Has No Title

Hmm. Where to start? That's always the problem when I take a few days off! OK, here's something funny. I'll call it In Spence's Words.

Concerning the tag in his t-shirt:
It's distracting my back!

About misplacing his Bible:
I did put it in a special place, I just forgot where that special place is.

Hoping I won't discover his naughtiness:
Don't go in the kitchen Mommy! I accidentally stamped in there.

Yeah, on the door frame, wall, 4 cabinet doors, the island, the oven door, and the fridge. Some accident!

You can see he stamped all over his face and body too. (Too bad he'd already taken the tutu off!) And he's holding a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser in his hand, which he just used to clean up the mess he made.

Taking time out of his destructive schedule to love on his sister

One of Spence's little friends has come over a few times lately. Here are some pictures from her visits!

She asked if we had any princess costumes. When I said no, she went for the Clone Trooper!

And Allie is a knight


Aren't they adorable???

Last weekend the kids went to a birthday party at our gym. It was a rock climbing party! Poor Spence was too young to participate, but Coleman gave it a try.

Allie really wanted to do it!

So now on to Allie's latest accomplishment. For a while now, she's been saying "poo poo" and I'll put her on the toilet. She's never done anything in the toilet, until this afternoon! I caught her mid-poop, put her on the toilet, and let her finish her business. She was so proud of herself! Then after several attempts to have her pee pee on the potty, she did that this evening! Of course, as soon as we called Grandma and Grandpa to brag, she pooped on the floor. Oh well, I'm not expecting her to be potty trained any time soon. It's just exciting to see her figuring it all out! Way to go Allie!

This week I made little Easter gifts for the kids' teachers. This is the one I made for Coleman's teacher. They are flower pens! I thought they turned out pretty cute!


So I think you're all caught up on us! Hope you all have a blessed Easter.

Good night!

Story Starters

There are several ways to start this story. I could first mention that Spence is slower than slow. Hurry is not in his vocabulary. And he's very easily distracted, as I'm sure most 4 year old are. Of course, if I'm being honest, I'm pretty prone to being distracted myself. Now where was I? Oh yes, how to start off this story.

It might be best to start it by telling you that our gardenia bush by the front door serves as our outdoor toilet. Anytime we're already on our way out and Spence has forgotten to go to the bathroom, I send him behind the bush. Gross, maybe. Time-saving, for sure.

I could also choose to start the story with the fact that Spence gets overly upset if I don't take him with me when I go drop Coleman off at school in the morning. On the rare occasion that he's still asleep when we leave, I come back to him whining and crying, "Why did you leave me???" I have no idea what's so fun about this trip. I guess maybe he just doesn't want to be left out of anything!

So now you're probably really wondering if I'm ever going to actually tell you the story. Here goes. This morning Spence was up in plenty of time to eat his breakfast then get ready to go with us to drop off Coleman. Most mornings he goes in his pajamas anyway, so I really think this whole situation could have been avoided. But it wasn't. About 20 minutes before time to leave, I told Spence to go upstairs and pick out his clothes. He did! He actually had his underwear, shorts, and shirt in his hands. Then he got distracted. When it was time to leave, I said, "As soon as I get Allie out of bed, we're out the door Spence." He starts screaming, "Wait! I'm not dressed! I can be fast!" But instead of starting to put on his clothes, he kept screaming about how fast he could get dressed. I headed out the door with Coleman and Allie. Spence had just ripped off his pajama pants and pull-up, so all he was wearing was his pajama shirt. He grabbed his clothes and headed down the stairs and toward the car, first stopping at the gardenia bush to go potty. As I was buckling Allie in, I spotted his half-naked self climbing in the car, still clutching his clothes! He got dressed in the car!

I have to admit that it is easy to get annoyed with him at times, but he sure keeps life interesting. I'm sure no one else in our neighborhood ran out of their house naked this morning and got dressed in their car. Probably no one reading this did either! And the thing is, that exact same scenario will never occur again. And if I tried to think up the wildest happening I could, it wouldn't even compare to the next stunt that little guy will pull! Yes, it's an interesting life I lead.

While I'm talking about Spence, I'll go ahead and share the "compliments" he gave me today while the two of us were sitting on the couch after reading a book:

Spence: I love your legs, Mommy.
Mommy: Oh, thanks Spence.
Spence: They're so bumpy! (I guess I need to start shaving above the knee.)

Spence: I love your cheeks, too!
Mommy: (a little worried) Why do you love my cheeks?
Spence: I love all the lines!

If he would have "complimented" my butt I would've grounded him!

Boot Buddies

Only a Four Year Old Brother...

...could start out a sentence with such a compliment, and end it with such a put down.

Spence: Allie, you're such a beautiful person, (then looking up at me) but she does things wrong.