mason's last day of school

mason had one more day of school.  madelyn might be on "summer" time now, but we still had to hustle to get out the door and get mason to school.  he was excited that he got to have one more day of show-and-tell (fridays are his day to bring something) but he was most excited that madelyn got to come drop him off and pick him up on his last day.

i forgot to look at where we took his first day of school picture but i thought i remembered it was by the classroom door.  luckily, i was right.  i would say that he has grown a few inches this year!  look how much bigger he is!  and the angle in today's picture makes him look shorter than the angle of the first day picture.

madelyn and maddux had to try out the balance beam before we left.

so i walk with another mom once a week.  we usually have two to three stroller riders with us so we can control the pace.  the plan is to keep walking over the summer with all of the kids - 6 total.  the problem is that she has one son in a wheel chair who if he doesn't want to go any more can just pull the brake or put his hands on the wheels and stop her from pushing him and any of the other three could decide not to ride their bikes any more or whine the entire time.  today was our first attempt with some bigs.  one of her sons rode his bike, she pushed the other's wheelchair, i pushed the double stroller and had madelyn walk/jog with us (there is no way madelyn could have ridden her bike without whining).  we were able to do it, but there was crying by one or all of the kids the entire time!!  oh my goodness.   it was almost comical - wait, it was comical.  someone we passed on the trail said that we were our own parade.  it was an interesting part of the trail.  we saw a few snakes, some bulls, a vineyard and there was a great breeze and some shade.  hopefully, it will get better as the kids get used to the arrangement. i told her that we could walk the trail by our house and end at the pool too.

now that i was nice and sweaty, it was back to the preschool to pick up mason on his last day.  he has known so much love in this room and learned a lot too.  it was such a blessing for him and us.  we will miss his teachers.

even though i was disgusting, the idea of going home and then loading everyone back up was too painful and we stopped by bjs on the way home to pick up a few necessities.  the kids were fantastic (i was worried).  i think it helps that there are a ton of samples.  we left there a little before 1, so i picked up some lunch for the kids at wendy's.  the kids' meal 'toy' was awesome!  it is a book of activities for in the car.  we will get a lot of use out of these this summer.   their favorite activity was a thumb wrestling ring and costumes.  each one came with four thumb wrestler stickers that were sort of like bandaids with faces on them - maddux is modeling a ninja in the picture.  

once everyone had lunch and manning went down for his nap, i finally got to take a shower.  i had to get cleaned up so that i could make and take dinner to a friend from mops who had just had a baby.  the funny part was that i made them dinner, but we were eating dinner out - never a night off.

we thought that we would eat dinner out to celebrate the end of the school year.  the kids' chose friendly's because of the desserts.

it was a very nice family outing to end the school year and a very busy day.  love.

last day of school - madelyn

they don't do a kindergarten graduation around here so to try and make today a little more special, i made sure to get up and make her favorite pancakes (oatmeal).  amazingly, she let me fix her hair again too!  she would only let me give her a ponytail, but for madelyn, this is a big deal.  she accessorized her ponytail with three headbands of varying styles.  as a last minute thought (we were a little rushed to get out the door), i snapped a few pictures before she got into the car for her last day.

last day of school - "i am a first grader now!"

first day of school

first day of school

she has grown and changed so much this year.  matt said that he can't believe we have a first grader now!  we are going to go out to celebrate the end of the school year tomorrow night when both kids are done (nothing fancy - maybe ice cream or something).  madelyn and mason are both excited that madelyn is done first because then she will be there to pick mason up from his last day of school tomorrow.  isn't that sweet?  love.

mason's teacher gifts - done

and i made it (ha, ha literally).  we made bags for mason's teacher and aide and brought cookies for them and the director of the school and their secretary.  a much lighter load after madelyn's yesterday.  mason (and maddux) made thank you cards for each teacher that we put in the bags.  (oh, man, i should have taken pictures.  mason did a great job with lots of writing.)  mason was quite particular about the fabric and loved that he got to pick it out.  they aren't perfect, but they are done and delivered.  the finished bags were like 15 x 10 x 2 with a pocket on each side.

now summer starts for mommy!

mason's official last day is tomorrow.  love.

park reward

to reward myself, and thank the boys for being inside yesterday, i took the boys to a park for the morning.  the forecast called for rain in the afternoon so i thought we should get out while we could since we spent all day yesterday inside.

we went to a park that we haven't been to since last summer.  we got there early enough that there weren't many people and almost no bigger kids.  they boys loved it!

i think the biggest hit were the zip lines.  there are two and there were no other kids using them so the boys got to 'zip' to their hearts' content!  and they were quite self-sufficient.  i was pretty impressed.  here are a few videos.

mason said that we needed a swing like this at home and that sounded like something daddy would agree with too.

when the bigger kids showed up the boys had to wait in line for the zip lines.  they were both very patient about waiting their turn and then bringing the line back for the next person.  i think mason would have stayed all day if he could.

manning was getting a little fussy from being strapped in (i did let him swing for a bit but this is a pretty large playground and i couldn't keep a sight-line on everyone when he was swinging so he spent most of two hours we were there in the stroller.) so we were heading out.  maddux suggested that we walk down to a smaller playground down the hill a little and it was so nice out that i agreed.  we really were the only ones at this playground so i let manning check things out for a bit - including the slide.  he didn't really know what to think about it.  but as you can see, he decided that coming down was fun.

i let him check out a few more things but the equipment seemed a little rusty so i didn't let him on the stairs to climb up.  he was very happy to be moving around but would not look at me for anything.  no matter where i stood he would look in the other direction.

we all agreed that we would have to come back with madelyn and daddy.  love.

kindergarten teacher gifts - done

hi, my name is michelle and i am a procrastinator.  i am also an overachiever and recovering perfectionist.  and here in lines my problem...  this is also why i was baking dozens and dozens of cookies around midnight!  but madelyn's teachers are now done.  she took everything to school with her today - before her last day tomorrow (just in case i was wrong like at christmas).

for all of her 'specials' teachers (gym, library, art, music, spanish), the two class aides, bus driver, principal and school secretary, we sent peppermint chocolate chip cookies with a card that said, "it 'mint' a lot to have you..." (i just love a good - or bad - pun!  and it made the cookies feel less christmas-y.)  madelyn also made them a picture of what she liked to do with them.  she was drawing them at breakfast this morning so i wasn't really able to take any pictures - we were just trying to get stuff done!

and for her teacher, we picked out some fabric together with the school colors (orange and black) to make a tote.  we put some cookies and notes in the tote too.  madelyn's teacher has been so wonderful this year.  she really knows madelyn and has made madelyn feel quite comfortable and confident in the classroom.  we are really thankful for such a wonderful kindergarten experience!

it occurred to me that some of these teachers (like the 'specials') might be receiving gifts from us for the next 8 years!  i had better pace myself and take some notes so that it doesn't get too repetitive.

now on to mason's teacher gifts!  thankfully, he doesn't have quite as many to bring.  love.

pirate booty!

madelyn could hardly wait to tell us that "if you try to steal my treasure, i'll make you walk the plank!"- like she was yelling it as she got off the bus.  she yelled, "arrrg" too.

she quickly opened her backpack to show us her pirate hat (with a teddy bear instead of a skull), a picture of herself as a pirate, her treasure bag (filled with chocolate gold coins, a necklace, stamp ring, compass and silly nose glasses), her ocean in a bottle (food coloring, oil, water, glitter, a plastic fish and a plastic gold coin) and a bottle of cheese whale crackers she won for correctly guessing how many were inside - 150.

her class also had a pizza party in the afternoon for winning the box tops for education drive over the past two months.

maddux was the best model for the glasses, but they all tried them on.  love.

pirate day

today is "pirate day" for madelyn's class.  they have been doing an ocean unit and are ending with "pirate day".  all of the kids were asked to wear striped shirts and madelyn has some lobster print shorts that we thought would go along with the theme.  she even let me fix her hair!  i told her she looked like a pirate princess.  then she selected some red kneehighs which seemed like a good choice to me.  i can't wait to hear all about her special day.  love.

the no picture stuff

here is a note on each of the bigs that i wanted to capture but there just aren't pictures.

maddux - maddux and i were reading books while the bigs were at school and manning was sleeping.  i knew it was getting close to when we needed to leave to pick up mason so i asked him to get up so that i could check the time.  he said, "okay.  i will be right back," and headed down the stairs.  i wasn't sure what he was doing and went to check the time.  when he came back up he said "ten, mom.  the clock said ten."  it was 10:37.  i was way impressed that he thought to check the clock hanging on the wall downstairs and that he had read the hour correctly!

mason - mason has never met a stranger.  not to say that he isn't careful about people he doesn't know, he just loves to say "hi" to everyone!  it is hysterical.  and not just "hi", he talks to everyone too.  we were in bjs and he said hi to the man next to us and then commented that "you have a lot of stuff in your cart!"  the man laughed and agreed.  he also tries to greet and talk with everyone who walks, runs, bikes on the trail past our house.  i had to stop him from greeting people when he was sitting inside at the kitchen table!  he is just a big sweetie.

madelyn - madelyn has been in a phase for a few days now where she can't get enough of me.  she cries about how she never gets to be with me because of school, soccer, church, etc.  i gave her a small picture of me to sleep with and she carried it in her purse during the parade so that i can be with her always.  she is ready for summer.

love.

memorial day parade

sometime last week madelyn brought home a note saying that the ymca was inviting the "character champions" to walk in the memorial day parade.  matt and i thought it would be fun for madelyn to do it.  so yesterday on the way home from thomas we asked if she wanted to and she was super excited!  she was so excited that she didn't even ask if one of us would be walking with her.  i told her that daddy would walk and that i would bring the boys and wave to her.

so matt and madelyn headed down the trail around 7:30am and the boys and i headed out around 8:15.  it was pretty cool out so we bundled up but i was peeling off the layers as we walked because that stroller is heavy and a few of the hills are steep.  but we managed to get there in time!  last year we missed most of the parade - including the marching band.

it is nice to be able to walk there and we stood/sat with most of our neighbors.  i thought that it was a nice little parade and the boys got a heaping bag of candy too!  they were excited to get a few bags of kettle corn and a flag too.

the flag was as wide as the street and the carriers were tripping over little kids still trying to pick up candy from the gutters.  oops.

and then it was madelyn's turn!  they gave the first 100 kids t-shirts.  matt said that they were the first ones there but they didn't hand out shirts until everyone was lined up, they almost didn't get one.

madelyn is in the middle wearing a purple shirt next to matt.

the ymca had an organ playing in front of the kids walking.

since we had walked over, we stopped to play on a playground on the way back.  funny enough, we have never stopped at this playground before.  i think it will be a destination for our walks in the future.

and here is our "character champion" and first time parade walker!  she was so excited to have gotten to do something so special.  love.