Happy Birthday James

FINALLY!!  May 26 arrived.  I really don't think James knew exactly what that meant but he was all smiles getting up and realizing it was finally his birthday.  Commander Zoom came and James just grinned listening to his birthday song-thanks to Grandma and Grandpa.  He had a full day, birthday songs, church, cake and presents and we concluded the day with a trip to Drillers Stadium for a baseball game complete with fireworks.  What a crazy little three year old, such a loud guy but he made it very clear he didn't want any balloons or silly string at his party, and only survived the fireworks with ears firmly plugged.

 Our neighbors let us use their pool while they were out of town...a bit chilly but Grandpa, Ron and the kids braved the water for lots of fun.

END OF ANOTHER SCHOOL YEAR

The year is over and we have all survived another full school year.  The kids were super excited that Grandma and Grandpa were able to be in town to see their classroom awards.  Braydens class did a little presentation with their class Bible Verses and then his teacher presented each child we a packet of awards.  Brayden was on the honor roll, and reached his AR goals for all four quarters (reading).  The word his teacher used for Brayden was Restraint...that he loved to have fun but was able to reign himself in at the inappropriate time. Each child had a book they had written that parents had typed out.  I love reading what these kids come up with....crazy stuff, aliens.....silly putty??? 

Second Grade Class Video


Becca's Classroom awards were at the same time as Brayden's so we missed a bit of both classes.  Thankfully we didn't miss Becca with her teacher.  Mrs Gregg commended Becca on her Friendliness.  It was so cute to see all the kids, Becca's class had lots of giggles.  It was fun to see her go through her packets of awards and certificates at home, although she did notice that she didn't get anything from any of her specials (Art, PE, Music)  she was a bit disappointed.  Especially since Andrea received the art award for her class.

A special day to have family in town.  James just has fun seeing all his "friends"

Yesterday was fun day.  The kids come out to the football field and he PE teacher has all different stations set up, races, tug of war, hoola hoops....snow cones!  James and I decided to drop in to watch the fun-the kids just loved playing....I love see them without a care in the world. 

This is all the loot from the kids' desks.  I don't think Brayden could even close properly!

A Visit From Family

This weekend we are enjoying a visit from Ron's parents.  It has been a while since we have had family around in Tulsa and the kids are super excited.  After a fog delay they finally arrived and the kids received their first tardy...ha, just one more week left in the year!  It has been a baseball saturated weekend-tournament time so lots of games and time spent at the field.  Brayden didn't seem to mind even when the temps got a little warm. James loved all the ball and loves showing off his catching and pitching moves.  We were even able to make a drillers game complete with the best fireworks I have seen in a long while.  The girls love having someone else around to talk endlessly to, they never run short of something to talk about!  Storms have rolled through the area but thankfully the tornadoes have skipped our part of town.  Tomorrow the kids start their last week of school-such excitement, although I think they may miss their friends and teachers, they have all had such a wonderful year.  Brayden had his year end party on Friday-full of fun and lots of candy.  Of course it was by a pond and Brayden was the one to catch a fish....which swallowed the hook and with no Ron around I was left to do my best with the fish, he didn't make it!

Awards Day K4

How I love the K4 teacher all the kids have had!  Mrs Oxenham has endless patience and always makes the kids first experience with school a very special one.  Andrea had her awards day yesterday and was super excited to have us come to her class....to see if she would get to go to Kindergarten next year, or so she thought.  I love the time/thought the teachers put into training our kids, not just their minds but their hearts.  Mrs Oxenham had picked character traits for each of the kids.  Andrea's was Friendship-because she was a great friend, always excited to see other kids, making them feel welcome.  The verse she gave was Proverbs 17:17  A friend loves at all times.  Mrs Oxenham had once again put together a packet of pictures starting from the beginning to the year.  It is amazing to see how the children grow!

 

Andrea has also been determined to read-refreshing to have at least one child trying on her own to learn read.  It does make things a little hard-not quite sure how we are going to swing three kids doing homework at the same time.  Independence is going to be learned real fast!

 

 

 

 

Oh, How We AGE!!

Just for fun....ignore the upside down certificate, only one shot when working with a 5month old puppy and 8yr old photographer!

Happy Mother's Day

I am not quite how I feel about this day, on one hand I am so thankful to be blessed with such wonderful and special mothers, grandmothers....on the other hand I am left feeling so inadequate after today's sermon, and SS discussion.  What a huge responsibility Godly parenting is-daunting to say the least, and how lowly I am in my human state at my God given job. After the endless "Happy Mother's Day" I was not so sure what we were celebrating, somehow I really don't measure up to all the hype in all those mother's day cards!  Then I read my Devotional for the day..PERFECT!  Should have read it this morning!  This is the link-after seeing a mother struggle with a  huge lose at school Friday this puts everything in perspective.  " Give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus"  I Thess. 5:16-18.  So instead of taking the day to have other focus on me, today is a day to give thanks for the blessing that I am surrounded by, for which I am truly grateful!

http://www.karenehman.com/2013/05/mothers-day-can-wait/

Fun Festivities

With Mother's day coming up there is always something going on...this year it was in Andrea's class.  She had a little Mother's Day celebration  and was pretty excited to have me come, although I think she was more excited that it was a free dress day!  It was pretty cute, we all sat with our kids and then her teacher read off some questions and answers about us moms...such as 'What is your mom's favorite food, favorite TV show, Favorite thing to do? which the kids had answered earlier in the week.  We all had to try and guess who she was talking about, although the kids mostly gave it away.  I pretty much guessed mine because Andrea came home the other day concerned because she didn't know my favorite food.  She wanted to know if I liked soup??  because that is what she said.  Anyway, it was pretty cute-most every mom's favorite food was some sort of pasta or pancakes-all kid food. 

Today we had our Mother Daughter Tea with American Heritage Girls.  It was so much fun.  We were in charge of a table-meaning the decorations and food, tea was provided.  Andrea and Becca decided lady bugs and butterfly's would be fun...along with plenty sweets!  The girls had fun working on the placemats for everyone and decorating the table before every arrived.  After all the anticipation the girls decided tea was not for them-although the sugar cubes tasted just fine!  We had some lemonade-nectar instead.  The girls did a cute craft and we played a couple round of BINGO-it was a special morning with the moms and girls.  Our neighbor was able to step in as no Grandma's were around this time of year.  Turned out to be just as special to her as her family is all our of town.  I lost steam in taking pictures...just a couple of our fun morning-all girls!

 

 

No boys at this tea party, James wasn't too happy....I think he just wanted the food, hanging out at the ball diamond and getting donuts turned out to be just as fun!

FIRST KILL

Sounds horrible but I think Sandy was a pretty proud kitty.  She has been spending more time outside on nice days and she just loves playing, and rolling in the dirt. She is so fun to watch while she stalks all the grasshoppers she can find ...which is quite a few when the sun is shining.  The past two days she has been hiding out in some weeds in the back yard, I kind of thought she might be playing with something because she kept pouncing and jumping.  I finally took a minute to check it out today...sure enough there was her toy, a dead mouse or something.  Whatever it was-quite dead.  I am hoping she can hunt down some of the little gophers destroying my flower beds!

THESE ARE THE DAYS

I hope I can say this with every phase of our life.  Even though things seem crazy, loud, chaotic...I really am beginning to learn to just enjoy all of it.  From seeing Andrea off to school in a princess dress, endless rounds of spelling words and memory verses, to James yelling for me to watch him pitch, and Becca handing me some scraps of paper she has put together so I can use it as a grocery list. From Becca's excitement over the first time using the vault at practice or Brayden's excitement over a new book (which I am not too happy about). To all the numerous non matching socks laying in our backyard.  Brayden endlessly playing the same song on the piano over and over again...faster and faster and the catch all for any moment spent with James " I'm Hungry!"  I don't know who eats more, James or the puppy.  Lilly is downing 5 cups of food and is starving! while Ephie (95 lbs) puts away a measly 2 cups.  From the yelling over the rules for a tag game or screaming because a dog is after them, to cleaning poop off shoes. Sometimes it all drives me crazy, but more often lately it just makes me smile...and makes me hope the neighbors aren't listening!