School's Out For The Summer...

Maddux, The Graduate

Maddux graduated from Pre-K yesterday. Unbelievable. That little baby with a not-so-little personality is ready to start "real" school....

Lehr and I spent the morning at Maddux's school watching all three classes of preschoolers sing many songs and receive "diplomas". Maddux has been walking around our house singing all of the songs for weeks, so I'd heard them before but I was still impressed. The kids did a great job, paying attention to their awesome music teacher and doing all of the right hand motions with their lyrics.


As expected, Maddux was most excited about 'punch and cookies' after the main event. She was happy to share her cookie with Daddy, of course.

Hope (Photo Shoot)

Swim Team

Summer is here! Well, almost. But the best indicator that summer is near in our house is the start of Swim Team practice. This week kicked off the first few practices after school. Eli has gone through a season before, so even though he's going to have to work up to the level he finished at last year, he has the experience to know that the first week is hard, but it gets better after that. Poor Maddux gave me a look at yesterday's practice (her first) that said, "What have I gotten myself into?!?"

Eli is going to practice with the 7-8's this year, even though he has to compete with the 6U group. (Most of his friends and classmates are in 7-8.) Both kids are even more excited than usual because our head coach is one of their former baby-sitters, "Mr Michael". It's going to be a great summer!

Mothers' Day

The kids treated me right, each making me a cool card and showering me with love, breakfast and flowers. (Eli made me a cool book at school, as well.)

It was a very rainy day, so after church we came back home instead of hiking or biking somewhere fun. I had many organizational things that needed to be done, and as 'un-fun' as that sounds, being able to do them uninterrupted was all the gift I needed that afternoon. Lehr took the kids out front and played in the rain for an hour or so. And since he is the best dad ever, he also created a very functional, slippery slip-n-slide. He cut up some old ground cover and pulled out the soap...the rest is history. The kids ran up and down the hill time after time, slipping, sliding, and having an absolute blast.

Fun (Photo Shoot)

Maddux's Last Game

This morning was Maddux's last softball game of the season. The weather was not very compatible; it was raining when we arrived at the field. Unfortunately, the game got cancelled. Fortunately, our team was already there and the rain was minimal, so we turned it into a practice/pick-up game with adults and kids. The girls had a great time playing with dads, me and Eli, and it was a perfect way to end the season. Maddux got a trophy and a snack, so she was happy. Our schedule is now cleared up a little more, so Lehr and I are happy.

Eli's Last Game

It's been another great baseball season for Eli, but this morning it came to an end. There was a game earlier this week that got postponed due to rain. Unfortunately for the boys, it was rescheduled for Friday night. Eli's team is especially young, with the majority of the kids having their 5th birthday just this spring. That usually means that Friday games, after a week of school and whatnot, do not find the Blue Jays focusing and playing well. So we ended up losing last night. The next tournament was scheduled for this morning, just over twelve hours after their exhausted loss. They put up more of a fight, but not enough to continue in the quest for the final game. So Eli is now officially NOT in the Shetland league anymore. As excited as I am for him to move up, I am also sad to say good-bye to the younger league, where the pants never fit right and the jerseys are always way too big.

Maddux's Ballet Recital

Maddux has been participating in a short ballet class once/week after school. She's learned so much and for the past few weeks she's been dancing around our house in a somewhat organized manner, practicing for her end-of-the-year recital. This afternoon, we got to see her and her class in action. It was a glorified ballet class, complete with costumes (just borrowed - what a great idea!) and tiaras (pipe cleaners). She had a blast and Eli, Lehr and I loved watching her so focused on her performance. After she finished, Lehr gave her a special bouquet of flowers...life is good.

Maniac

Maddux is officially a biker. She doesn't ride her bike often, but when she has, it's been on training wheels. About a month ago Lehr and I stuck her on Eli's bike (sans training wheels), just to see. She kinda got it, but only rode for a few minutes. But we got busy and it got cold and rainy... Fast forward to last week when Lehr pulled out Eli's bike again and voila. The video below is from her 2nd attempt that day.

Moments (Photo Shoot)