Training wheels are GONE!

I'm not sure how there was time for this major event in our lives this week, yet it happened right in the hustle and bustle of all the end of the school year activities....Ty Ty learned to ride his bike WITHOUT training wheels!  GO TY!  He literally learned in about 1 minutes time....it was unbelievable!  He was so excited and the first thing he said when he got up this morning was that he wanted to go ride his bike.  So pretty much all day he's been out there perfecting his skills and I have to say...its IMPRESSIVE!

Comin' atcha Mom!

Flyin' by ya Mom!

See you later alligator!

I mean....really?  1 day?  What a little stud!

Ty is so proud of himself!  He was even more proud when we told him that his siblings didn't learn till they were almost 5 and he is only 4...that's a big deal!~

Seriously THE cutest 4 year old ALIVE!

Other End of the year activities!

It is unbelievable to me how many activities have gone on this week just to wrap things up!  All fun...but I'm wiped...and I even skipped the school picnic today and sent Jax on his own!  Here is what happened:


Ty finished his 6 week golf camp at Banbury....He loved it:

What 4 year old doesn't LOVE to ride around in a golf cart....next to the trophy that he got this was the highlight!  Oh yeah- and about the trophy....he informed me that "its not real gold...just real gold plastic"! Ha!

It was surreal to watch my baby walk out onto the course when only a short time ago I was watching Jax do the same.  Here he is being walked out by his proud daddy to his "GOLFER LESSONS".  =)

Kenna's End of the Year Party:

Always excited about a party!

Mrs. Liimakka said something sweet about each of her 2nd graders.  This is what she said about Kenna:

" Kenna-Our Big Sister!  Your kind leadership and confident contributions give others a sense of security.  You are the reliable "sister" who others can go to feeling accepted and understood.  May you continue to show the compassion and understanding that our Lord has gifted you with as you grow in His grace and understanding."

Teacher gifts!

I just have to point out Kenna's shirt...it so fits her its funny!  I LIKE DOING FUN STUFF!  Yes you do, my dear!

Since Kenna's birthday is in June she didn't have a birthday celebration during the school year so Mrs. Liimakka made sure she got her birthday spankings!  Too funny!

On to the 3rd grade she goes!  You had an AMAZING year Moo....Daddy & I are SO proud of all your hard work!

Jaxon's End of the Year Party:

It had rained all morning and I was beginning to wonder WHAT was I going to do with 20 fifth graders in my house on a rainy day when it was supposed to be a fun end of the year SWIM party!  But Praise the Lord he cleared the skies 1/2 hour before the party started and the kids swam for a few hours! 

Class picture!  They all jumped in and came out SCREAMIN'!  The water was only 64 degrees!  Brrrrr!

The boys in the  hot tub.

A little lemonade for the man of the hour.

This is what happens when 20 fifth graders invade your house! HA!  The good thing is they all leave and take their stuff with em'! They really were great kids and they had a ton of fun...that's all that matters!

Epilogos:

Epilogos is the end of the year awards ceremony.  I just love how they first preface the event with the reminder that all of the awards we receive in this life are to be set at the feet of the one true King who deserves all the glory!  Without him these accomplishments are not possible! The kids were also reminded that they are called to rejoice with those who rejoice, so they should be happy for those kids who receive awards for their excellence and that it should cause them to work hard and do their best for the glory of God! 

Jaxon made the Headmaster's List by achieving a G.P.A between 3.5 & 3.74...we aren't sure yet what his exact scores were but since he got the award we know he was somewhere in there!  Way to go Jax...my diligent fella!

Jaxon & his outstanding teacher Mrs. Rallens.  Jaxon grew as a student and as a person because of the influence of this terrific lady!  Thanks for a great year Mrs. R!

I'm just tired blogging the events! 

Kindergarten Graduation!

Yesterday was packed with end of the year events and one of those events was Kindergarten Graduation!  To say that Hudson loves school is an understatement...Hudson is PASSIONATE about school and he loves every minute of learning...he gets that from me....HA!  Hudson's class was the first Kindergarten class to graduate from the Ambrose School and the first to have a graduation ceremony in the new school.  The setting was very ivy league!  He smiled the ENTIRE time...in fact Jay and I were talking about how we have never seen him smile that much and for that long in one setting.  The only time he stopped smiling was when he had to blow on his recorder!  And if Hudson is smiling we are all smiling! My cheeks were tired by the end!  Here are some pictures from this happy day!  Oh yeah- we were also informed that Hudson class will be graduating in the year 2022 (GASP!)....how is that even possible?

Mama's Little Graduate!  It really is hard for me to believe that he will be a first grader next year! sniff sniff.

The smiles were constant!

One of the mom's made these adorable caps for the kids!

Playing the recorder and showing the parents all that they learned in music this year!

Hudson getting is certificate of completion of Kindergarten!  Way to go Huddy!

We love Mrs. Merkle!  This is what she had to say about Huddy:

"Hudson's parents almost did not send Hudson to school this year, they were going to wait a year, but are we ever glad they didn't wait!  Oh what would our class have done without him!  Hudson is quiet, but doesn't go unnoticed.  He is attentive and focused in class, accurate and neat on his work and he is never reluctant to work hard.  He says his favorite thing that we did this year was to play the recorders."

The Class of 2022! 

Hudson throwing his cap in the air!  You  know this one will be on his high school graduation video one day!

Enjoying snacks afterwards in the beautiful Providence room!  We love The Ambrose School!

Kenna & Anna Joy

Last night our dear friends the Timmons came over for dinner, which is not usually something I would share except for the fact that they have been in the hospital or confined to their homes since September 2009.  This picture tugs at my heart in a big way.... for one Anna Joy is a miracle baby.  When she was born she was only 1lb 13oz and today she weighs 12 pounds!  It was such a blessing to get to see her, hold her and marvel at God's great love for Angie & Noah, Anna's mom & dad.  Their lives have been....hard....and yet they both shine with the love of Jesus!  It leaves me in awe every time I see them.

The other reason I love this picture so much is because Kenna is holding Anna.  When I first told Kenna that Anna had been born and was so very small, she immediately wanted to pray for Anna.  But it didn't stop there.  Kenna prayed for Anna every day while she was in the hospital and even when she was able to come home Kenna continued to pray for her.  Every few days Kenna would check the Timmons blog to see if there were any updates on Anna and she would run to tell me if there were new pictures or updates.  I deeply admire my daughters love for other people.  Her heart of compassion amazes me daily.  She never forgets the faint hearted, the sick or those who are in need and she always acts out of compassion by praying for them.  That she didn't eventually become distracted by other things and forget about Anna and her struggles was impressive...especially for an 8 year old.  Kenna is this way because this is the gift that the Lord has given her....a compassionate heart.  I praise God for this attribute in Kenna because He has used it to show me that I desperately need to grow in this area...and who better to learn from than my sweet daughter.

Kenna SO hoped that she would get to hold Anna last night so when Angie asked her if she wanted to hold her she smiled from ear to ear and I thanked the Lord for this sweet moment that my faithful daughter was able to experience.  Kenna's other hope is that one day she will get to babysit Anna when she is older! =)

Thanks Ang & Noah for letting us be a part of your lives!

Good Friend, Rest, Relaxing & Sunshine make the heart glad!

Jami and I have been friends for 18 years!  Its hard to believe and yet its the truth.  My relationship with Jami has always been an encouraging one.  From the beginning of our friendship the Lord has always been the center of our conversations.  We've talked about a lot of things over the last 18 years but talking is what we do best!  We have not always lived near each other, although at one point we were roommates, but despite the distance between our homes our friendship has always remained strong.  I thought for a while that the Lord was going to allow us to live in the same town when she moved to Boise with her family in about 5 years ago, but that didn't last as long as I had hoped.  A year and a half ago they moved to Portland.  As sad as this was I had great confidence in our ability to have a long distance friendship!  Our family visited Jami & her family in January but in order for us girls to get all of our words out we needed a whole weekend to our selves!  So to the sunshine we went!  Phoenix to be exact! 

This was our cute little hacienda!

We had 8 wonderful meals together!

The food was fabulous!!! And what a cute presentation!

Poolside

Massages!

This is Camelback Mountain in the background.  We had really good intentions on climbing this but we would have had to be up at 5:00 am to get a good start before it got to hot!  Plus...there are snakes & lizards and creepy things all over the desert...so we changed our minds and went for a 4 mile Power walk up through some of the most amazing neighborhoods!

Our last night together!  We ate at the hotel restaurant and listened to live music for hours. We took advantage of happy hour for drinks and appetizers... Made fun of the guy singing (you would have too), ate WAY too much food, and of course.....talked!

Jami- I adore you and I am so thankful for your friendship!  Until next time!

Hudson Killdeer!

Hudson has been waiting for this day for a long time! Kindergarten Exordium day! For weeks they have been memorizing information about a bird that they were assigned and the mommies spent time driving around the city looking for bird feather! Here is my little KILLDEER!

                                                

Waiting for the exordium to begin!  He LOVES school and I love that he loves it because he is smiling constantly!

The Afternoon Kindergarten Class!

Hudson reciting his Killdeer saying:

"Welcome, I'm Hudson Killdeer and I have two, yes, two black rings around my neck. I build my nest on the ground so if anyone gets too close to my eggs I use the old broken wing trick.  I cry "Killdeer, Killdeer" flap my wings and pretend to be hurt.  When I have led the intruder away from my nest I will suddenly fly off.  "See you later Mr. Fox!""

Mrs. Merkle and her Birds!

After the show he was still beaming!  He loved being on stage and he loved wearing his mask around school!

So proud of my little Killdeer!

While he was practicing this week, he would say it really fast and so I asked him if Mrs. Merkle told him to slow down so that people could understand him and this is what he tells me....

"No, she tells other people that, but I do it right so not me."

Sure enough...he gets up on stage and he says it slow and loud so everyone can hear him!  I think he was just saving the true performance for the stage!

Thanks daddy for letting me go to The Ambrose School!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is often strange to me.  I absolutely LOVE being a mom and think that it is the greatest privilege in the world and yet having a whole day to be celebrated makes me slightly uncomfortable.  I would do this "job" with no praise for sure, but I don't want my kids to feel forced to tell me something just because its "Mother's Day".  Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate the love that comes my way and as my kids get older it means more because the cards are written by them and not by daddy and they actually put thought into what they want to give me which is sweet and adorable.  But, I would take a spontaneous "I love you Mom" on any given day over being celebrated on Mother's Day in a heart beat.  So I like to think of Mother's Day as yet another day that I get to wrap my arms around the sweet and precious little people that God has given me to love and bring up in his knowledge.  That is what makes me feel honored...the privilege  being their mommy.

We did have a wonderful day together.  It was family time much needed!  I got up early to sing at church so I didn't even see anyone until they came to church...where I was showered with kisses and hugs!  My fav!  We then had lunch at Banbury Golf Club which was super fun cause the kids all got to pick from the buffet whatever they wanted to eat.  Then we went home and let the kids swim for as long as they could handle it (a good 35 minutes...impressive).  I got to take a little nap and then off to the Green Belt we went with our bikes in tow!  As I was sittin up right on my new cruiser bike watching them all peddle away in front of me I thought to myself "its official...we are parents of kids...no more babies...kids." and I smiled cause I'm really likin' this kid thing.  We ended the day with dinner at Baja Fresh and then lounged around all together in the living room and watched some basketball.  It was a great day!

My sweet sweet Kenna!  She made me the best bracelet ever and about 7 different cards.  All of them with different pictures of special things she had drawn for me.  She cant just give me one card...she has too many ideas and she must use them all and guess what....I LOVED them all!  She is so incredibly sweet and growing up so fast.

My little Ty Ty!  Hugs and Kisses ALL DAY LONG and I am not even kidding.  Just about every time he passed by me he would hug me, kiss me and tell me Happy Mother's Day...it was adorable.  He made me a card with help from his sister (no surprise...she's the card specialists) that had his feet print on it colored in with lots of rainbow colors.  The funniest thing he said all day was "I like this Mother's Day, its really fun."  He also blew lots of kisses to me while we were on our bike ride which is why I stayed in the back...to catch every single one of them!

Hudson melts my heart when he gives up these kinds of smiles and I saw this all day long!  I got homemade book marks from Huddy with special messages on the back.  One said "I will always love you" but my favorite was the one that said "You win. I promise you are the prityist. Love Hudson"....How adorable and funny is that!!!!  I will have that book mark forever!

I look at this picture and I think "How did he get so big so fast?"  But an amazing young man he is becoming.  He didn't tell me Happy Mother's Day, he told me Happy Mom's Day...apparently that's more correct since he never calls me mother....I can understand that.  I love watching him because he is so mature for his age and yet every once in a while he acts like a kid and I cherish those little moments more and more each year.

This really was a fun bike ride.  We are quite the circus but circuses are fun, right! I loved riding my new bike...I totally felt like a little kid!  Its pretty, comfy and it has a basket for heavens sake!  What more could a girl want!  Plus it is seriously effortless to ride...I kept telling Jay "I feel like I'm doin' nothin'!"  Which he would then say "You look like your doin' nothin'"  and then he would laugh at me! It was fantastic!