Gymnastics

We've finished another semester of gymnastics and the kids had yet another wonderful time! This time, Makena had the added bonus of being one of the oldest kids and the kid who had taken more previous classes than anyone so she felt very sucessful at her skill development. Reese...well...Reese did a lot of playing.

Reese and her buddy, Sophie, were more interested in playing while they waited for their turns.
The rope swing is a favorite.

Graduation/End of School

I've always been a firm believer that a "graduation" for anything other than high school and all the varying college degrees is a silly thing. Truth be told, I still think that, but Makena had her "graduation" from preschool this past week and it was really pretty cute. Whole truth be told, I cried. Although I can redeem myself a bit here...I did cry a little because of the concept of her moving onto kindergarten, but the main reason I cried was that we're no longer going to have Reese's excellent teachers anymore. Makena had Ms. Michelle and Ms. Betty last year and Reese had them this year and they are the greatest. I was literally in tears when I dropped Reese off that last morning.

Here she is during her program- I love that she wound up standing between the two other little girls who will be going to the same kindergarten she will.And a quick photo op with Grandmommy.The whole school celebrated the end of the year with the annual party at a local park. Finally, this year the park had proper warning signs on the rocky shoreline of its lake. Sounds like a great place to take 120 kids, right?Reese and one of her little best friends, Arden. Their class (of only 6) really bonded this year and the kids have become great friends.

House Update #9

So close! We're down to the last little things. Construction is complete- now we just need to pass inspections and finish up all the little fix-it items. Since the last update, we've gotten counters, a backsplash, ceilings scraped & painted (holy nightmare, batman), electrical/plumbing completed, gutters up, steps up to the laundry room door....etc. We are literally waiting on the electrical inspector as we speak. I'm ready to fight him on code issues- he'd better not make us cut a hole for an extra outlet in our shineynewpretty cabinets. Grrrrr.

Here are the most recent pictures. I even managed to clear out almost all of the construction junk from the new room AND...I uncovered the dining room table this weekend. We had missed it so!

House Update #8

It has been a while since the last set of pictures and a LOT has been accomplished! We have cabinets, drywall, paint, floors, a functioning laundry room, finished siding all across the back of the house, a bench along the back wall of the deck, a widened driveway and lights! Woohoo!!

We are scheduled to get countertops next Wednesday. That translates to plumbing (sink and dishwasher) on Thursday, so we're (I'm) still doing dishes in the kids' bathroom sink. The ceilings are getting scraped in the rest of the house next Monday-Wednesday so we're camping out at John and Linda's for a while. There are still some big ticket items to finish, like the counters and backsplash...but the little ticky-tack items are proving to be more annoying. Like painting the baseboards in the dining room. That won't happen until last-minute, but it's keeping us from relocating all the dining room stuff out of the living room. And the one can light in the kitchen that got cut in the wrong place- that will require a patch, mud, sand, paint job before the hole can be re-cut. Annoying, but liveable.

This is standing in the hallway looking into/through the kitchen (please note Makena's outfit includes knit tights on a day that's slated to be 88 degrees).

Standing in the dining roomKitchen- like my makeshift countertops? That's leftover flooring boards locked together. Came up with that one all by me onesie.

Laundry room- the old fridge will go in that corner on the right.And this is how we've been living. Although we were able to relocate most of the kitchen stuff back into the new cabinets...and now most of the laundry/cleaning stuff is back into the laundry room cabinets...the dining room still resides in the living room. Soon...soon...soon...

Soooo...it's too early for this

I get to preschool today to pick up the kids as usual. The first step of which is to consolidate all of Makena's random half-filled-in coloring pages into a pile to go into her backpack. Today I notice there is a Disney Store bag in her cubby. I assume, for good reason, that she has made a deal with one of her friends to "keep" some oddball toy for a certain number of days. Between her and Reese, it's nearly impossible to figure out which friends' toys we are to care for for which number of days.

Back to the story...inside the Disney bag is a Belle sippy cup and this. It reads "Samuel/I [love] you/I will give you a present/[picture of boy and girl holding hands]". It is a present from her classmate, Samuel...AND A LOVE NOTE! Hello!!! I'm mentally prepared for this to start during middle school, but not now. Not at "four and three quarters"! Her teacher about lost it when I showed the note to her and then said "well...now it makes sense that Korey said today that "Samuel didn't give ME anything special". Oh...the drama!

Suddenly, I'm 5 years older than I was when I woke up this morning.