Preschool Graduation

(I'm going to try to start writing the captions to pictures below them instead of above them.  Above seems natural to me, but I think below is natural to the rest of the world)

 Lily Kate's teacher gave all the parents pictures of their kiddo in a graduation hat, made it very oficial.  

Her preschool had a little ceremony on Monday.  We watched a slideshow of pictures from the school year.  The kids were all cheering and calling out the names of their classmates in the pictures.  And all the parents were discreetly wiping their eyes.  No one can believe that their babies are going to kindergarten.  I sure can't.

 After the ceremony the 4/5yr old class got to have a water day.  The clouds cleared and the kids had a blast. I was itching to go on this blowup water slide myself.  (I exercised restraint and did not, in case you are curious).  

This is Lily Kate with her great friend, Ellie.  Ellie is so sweet, her brother and Charlotte's are two peas in a pod, her mother is SO great, and she's going to Holly Tree Elementary next year (where we will be also).  So, I'm pretty much thrilled about her :)

Lily Kate has grown so much this school year.  I have always thought that I can consider my kids "little" until they are 5.  I can't believe we have a big kid on our hands.  She has made strides this year in self control and being considerate of others.  She is still wildly enthusiastic and imaginative.  She has a fantastic memory and a mind for details (often remembering much more than I do about situations).  She is wonderful with Hadley and other babies.  There is no denying her leadership abilities.  We are working with her to teach her to lead as a servant to those around her.  Her understanding of Christ has grown a lot too.  She seems to really "get" her sin and her need for a savior.  We are covering her in prayer every day.  I am excited to see what the Lord does with her life in the next year!
And, as a side note, her teacher filled out a stat sheet on her the first and last day of school and she grew  2 1/2 inches and gained 4 lbs this year.  I thought that was crazy!  The sheet has a fill in the blank and says "I gained 4.4lbs this year!".  Oh the innocent days when that is good news :)

Mother's Day

A little late posting these.  I had a great mother's day last weekend.  Kate "took me to breakfast".  She was so cute presenting the plan to me.  She told me that she was going to take me out but that I had to drive.  Sounds like the most sensible plan.  We had a good morning by ourselves talking about her upcoming preschool graduation and thoughts about kindergarten.  Pretty priceless.

Cinderella here can pull up now.  No cruising yet.  We've heard her crying in bed a few times lately (which never happens) and we've gone in to see her standing in her crib with no understanding of how to get down.  Funny little sweet girl. 

Muffins with Mom

 Our preschool hosted a Muffins for Mom morning.  It was precious.  I made a craft with each of them. Kate's teachers gave us potted flowers and some treats that Lily Kate had made in class a few days before.  After we ate they sang us some songs about being a mom.  It was adorable, even made me tear up.  Love this school!

School Pics

I'm already chuckling sitting down to write about these....  So, a couple weeks ago Lily Kate had her picture day on a Monday and Charlotte's was on the Wednesday of the same week.  Kate's went well because she loves posing for pictures (bet you didn't know that, did you??).  On Wednesday Charlotte didn't do so well.  She refused to smile at all.  They brought Lily Kate to take some pictures with her.  They had Kate stand by the camera man and make silly faces, dance, anything to get Grumpy to smile. Meanwhile, Kate mentions to the photographer that she saw that some kids took pictures standing up and asks if she can take some more like that.  The kids told me this story on our way home from preschool and I was cracking up.  I kept asking Charlotte why she wouldn't smile and she happily said (every time) that she just wanted to make a "mean face" and kept showing me this Mr T scowl.  That would make me laugh more and I never got any more info out of them.  The proofs are in.

Kate's normal picture on her picture day

 Kate's extra shots

 Straight faced

I will call this look forlorn

 my favorite, by far!

Hilarious.  This is the only smile he got out of like 20 pictures.

So, which ones should I order?

Daily Life

In keeping with the theme of documenting daily life, here's what we've been up to.  Painting bread with  colored milk.  (Pinterest taught me that you can add food coloring to milk, paint bread, toast it, and then eat your creation).  30 minutes of fun.

 Dinners on the porch (our favorite room)

 (sorry about the visible chewed up pork chop)

 The quality of this picture is really bad, but I finally captured Hadley showing us "SO BIG".  She loved the applause she gets when she's done.  

 Can you find the tiny turtle that lives in front of our house?  The water has been stagnant for a few days (no rain) so it's kind of mucky.  

Lily Kate visiting her "pet".  

And we're off....

Hadey's crawling....here we go....video soon

Nothing New...

My mom was asking about the picture drought.  I'm not sure why there has been a lack.  I have learned that I can't seem to take any pictures unless Parks is with me or I only have one or two of the kids.  Because most of my days are spent just myself with the three of them I don't have many pictures of daily life.  It's not that it's always a zoo around here I just equate picture taking with leisure and there isn't much of that :) 

My great friend Kaci got married this past month and I directed her wedding & reception.  It was a wonderful evening in her family's yard.  The kids danced and ate a ton.  Kate shadowed me most of the night.  That girl is a wedding director in the making.  Really, an anything-director.  She has more of an eye for detail and a sharper memory than I do.  And I'm not too shabby.  

 Here is a happy moment before bed.  Bible time & story time is usually chaotic, so this moment is picture worthy in my opinion.  As a side note, when I was ten I was Pinocchio in a play and I wore these red felt "cheeks" held on by spirit gum and at the end of every weekend my cheeks would look just like Hadley's do in this picture.  Couldn't help it, I think of it every time I see this picture.  She is rosy cheeked and chunky.  

 And, in other news, we (mostly Parks) made a bird mask for Kate for preschool homework.  I think it looks a little like something I imagine them men from Papua New Guinea (where Parks grew up) wearing.  

Not much else is going on.  The weather is warmer and Sunday evenings at the beach are starting up again around here.  Parks is mole hunting and we are attempting to garden.  Hadley wants to crawl so badly.  She is very close.  I went in to her bedroom this morning and she was standing in her crib, so we'll see if that was a fluke or if there is more of that to come.  She consistently says "da da' when she see Parks (her clear favorite family member) but she also says it other times so the verdict is still out on whether or not she knows that's his name.  That's all we have, folks.  Going to try to take more pictures.  

We also bought a fun table on Craigs List that we are redoing so I'll do another one of my favorite before and after pics, this time of the breakfast room, in the next month.  

Table Love

Our friend, Carrie Furr, has a furniture line called The Southern Mermaid.  She sells furniture locally and through her Etsy shop.  She and Parks have been dreaming about making this table for some time.  Carrie brought him the barn wood and these awesome hairpin legs.  Parks finally holed away in the garage for the last 4 days and cranked this beauty out.  Don't you love the chevron/herringbone pattern? Carrie is going to seal it and sell it in her line.  Who wants it?  I do!

Easter Weekend

We had a great, fun-filled family weekend.  Friday afternoon Myers, Laura, and Lillian pulled into town and 10 minutes later the men left to pick Henry up from the airport.  We lingered over a porch dinner and the little girls giggled and made leaf soup and other fancy make believe concoctions in the yard. Saturday morning we picked strawberries.  

 the "big girls" being goofy

 It seems that all the nieces (even Hadley) adore Henry.  We keep reminding him that he's allowed to stop playing with them if he wants to.  If it were up to them he would never leave. 

 Some freshly made strawberry ice cream

 ... the cone for Hadley.  Can you tell she ate a few berries?

 When the left the strawberry farm we headed to the park for some tree climbing.

 ... and some picnic-ing

* Can you see 2 tiny front teeth?

 This morning we woke up to Easter baskets filled by the bunny and a pajama egg hunt.  

 Lillian checking out her spoils

 Man, I love this face.  It is authentic excitement about whatever candy is in that egg.  Simple pleasures, right?

 We got dressed and attempted some family pictures.  

 How about this moment?  Precious.

 Brothers.  We missed you, Will!

 Then off to church for a great sermon, a potluck lunch, and an egg hunt.  Are you feeling a little exhausted? (I was!) The girls were feeling a little silly.

We had such a great weekend.  Lily Kate is going to go through withdrawal without Lillian.  I kept telling the kids we had Spring Break, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and now tomorrow is Pre-school Monday.  It's not as meaningful as Easter Sunday, but I have to say I'm pretty excited about Pre-school Monday ;)

Sweet Hadley

Our little precious is just now getting interested in crawling.  She goes after some of her toys and books.  Food really motivates her too.  She just can't do it yet.  It is so cute to see her lift up on her arms and wiggle her legs franticly.  Her little wiggle just seems to send her backward and confuse her.  She tries 3 or 4 times and then starts to wimper in frustration.  Such a sweet little lady.

Children's Museum Easter Celebration

Because it is Good Friday Parks is off work today.  We had a family morning at the children's museum.  The girls decorated glitter eggs and hunted for eggs.  Then they just played there for an hour and we went out to lunch.  Some of our family is here now.  The girls are loving life with their cousin, Lillian and uncle Henry.  More pictures to come.