More May Days

Here's SA in true form...a lovie and a train in his hands. For months now he has been hooked on carrying around Thomas and friends, usually one in each hand, and he makes a cute little (ooh ooh) sound to say train. Lots of times it's the first thing he says when he wakes up and the trains go everywhere with us! SJ had her CC year-end celebration on May 10. She learned a lot and had tons of fun this year! Blessed to be mom to these sweeties! And this one! Still had about a month to go at this point! RL on his final day of swim lessons... And SJ, who had "moments of greatness" on her freestyle, according to her teacher! :) We enjoyed Memorial Day all together and had lunch at Cracker Barrel after visiting the nursing home with a group from our church. We were glad to have all grandparents with us for dinner before AG's music program graduation on May 31. This was a celebration of her completing 5 years of music/piano lessons, and we are so proud of her and thankful for all she's learned and her great attitude and hard work! Another baby belly shot on June 2. It's really pretty shocking to see myself from this angle...even though I feel huge, it doesn't look this big from above! I'll wrap up with a series of photos we'll call "brothers." RL and SA are starting to have lots of fun together and plenty of competitive moments, too. We are awed that, Lord willing, we'll soon have a third added to this dynamic duo!

Special Days

Seizing a window of opportunity to update a little more with just a day or so more til baby arrives! T took the girls to a father/daughter picnic with our homeschool group back at the end of April. They had fun exploring the beautiful grounds where it was held! SJ marked finishing her Kindergarten year with a very special graduation ceremony with that same organization on May 4. Didn't know I'd seen one of ours in a cap and gown so soon! She was all smiles as she sang songs, said Prov. 3:5-6, and received her diploma! May 5 was another very special day...not just cinco de mayo but Mimi and PawPaw's 65th wedding anniversary! We all went to visit after church. SA with his PawPaw, Grandpa, and Daddy... RL taking a swing before we left...

More April Celebrations

With 2 birthdays and 2 half-birthdays, April is a fun and busy month for our family! We celebrated T's birthday on April 13... Ready for a birthday breakfast..."Happy Birthday, Daddy!" T took RL to a car show near our house that day...here's the little racer! LL and T went out to celebrate her 7.5 birthday just a few days later... The next weekend we went to Gran and PopPop's house for a visit and the kids enjoyed lots of time outside. The girls liked picking and arranging flowers... Future bulldog? The next week we celebrated RL's 3.5 birthday with a half-birthday dinner date: the first I've ever gone on! We went to Jason's Deli and RL gobbled up a hot dog and fruit and ice cream cone. This is a super sweet and fun little boy! Two little bulldogs? We'll see... SA was so funny...he started anticipating the flash and squinting beforehand each time I took a pic! Love SJ and SA's great grins!

AG's 9th Birthday!

On April 2, our eldest turned 9! We are so thankful for this sweet, bright girl and her thoughtfulness, dependability, and fun ways. We love her from her freckled nose down to her toes! The timing this year was really nice: we got to start the celebration with family when all her grandparents came for the open house the previous Thursday, then on Good Friday the girls were out of school so we all got to have a birthday breakfast before going strawberry picking. Then on Sunday we enjoyed our Easter worship service and lunch with a few friends...here are a few pics. (I am trying to find the good ones of all 5 of our kids on the swing after church, but they are hiding in some unknown folder, I guess!) Then the girls were out of school all that week after Easter, and AG's birthday was on Tuesday, so we got to just enjoy being home and taking it easier than usual! Here's the birthday girl surrounded by her brothers and sisters on the big day! Then on Friday of that week (April 5), we took a few of AG's friends to the zoo and then came back to our house for pizza, cake and ice cream, and a movie. It was a super fun day with a really sweet group of girls! Check out the peacock in the background! AG requested and helped decorate her butterfly cake... Happy 9th, AG!

A Few Things in March

March was filled with fun from start to finish, as was April, which probably explains why I am just getting around to posting about it! The first weekend in March T's parents came to stay with the kids for a night so we could celebrate our 12th anniversary, which was on Feb. 24. We are so grateful for that gift of time and care, but ended up with no pics to record it...we couldn't have been in that much of a hurry to get away, could we? :) However, here's one to remember the visit some of us made earlier that Friday to see Mimi and PawPaw. I love this one of PawPaw and the boys: Our neighborhood had an egg hunt the weekend before Easter and our kids had a good time... T built a great garden box and had some good little helpers... The girls planned and put on a "Hobbit show" outside using legos and an elaborate set. AG was the main one to tell the story and enact it, but everyone helped out somehow. Here are the characters outside the hobbit holes. And AG telling some of the very detailed story as she worked her way around the set from scene to scene...(she was so into this! And I should mention this was even before she received the real Hobbit lego set for her birthday a few weeks later.) and during a break we enjoyed entertainment from SJ with her ribbon stick and LL with her hula hoop! We were thankful to have all the grandparents come join us on March 28 for AG and LL's school's open house. Beforehand we had a quick supper and little egg hunt in the front yard. Here's LL in her Egyptian collar and cuffs showing off some of what she's learned this year. The next day was Good Friday, and our family plus all four grandparents celebrated AG's upcoming 9th birthday with a breakfast and trip to the strawberry patch, which I'll post on soon! Also, Easter photos yet to come! A final March event: SJ's 5 1/2 birthday and date to celebrate with T. A special occasion for sure.