It's official....

Summer

HAS

ARRIVED!!

Graduation

It's that time of year... graduation time!

I remember being a senior and on top of the world at the end of May!

Now, while I'm happy of my Puddin and the little girl she is becoming, so much of me wants to keep her "as is". She has a personality that is priceless and a smile to go right along with it!

I love this little girl so much it makes my heart hurt!

While getting her ready for her last day of preschool I stopped to wonder at how quickly these days, weeks and years have passed!

Some might say, "She's only graduating from preschool". Yes, but that's still a big deal! She leaving those sweet precious baby years behind and is becoming a school aged kid. wow!

Before her visiting day at kindergarten, she was not looking forward to making the change. That day was very special for us because it got her excited about kindergarten. And even though I would LOVE to keep her in preschool forever, I wanted her to be happy about kindergarten.

I thought the fear of moving on had left us.

Until I picked her up from school on Wednesday... in tears! She cried for an hour after school- just sad that it was ending. :( poor baby!

Then on Thursday night, graduation night, her sweet teacher shared these pictures with me.

Apparently, the last day of school was hard for all of these little ones! These girls are just precious and my Puddin loves each of them so much! She was afraid she'd never see them again since they are all going to different schools.

We made our way through the tears with the help of a much needed nap and we were finally ready to put on a happy face for graduation that evening!

We went to our favorite Italian restaurant and had a special dinner with the grandparents and cousin G. It was really nice.

Finally we headed over to the preschool (Which I LOVE and am so happy my boys will be attending next year!)





Here are a few pictures to commemorate the event.... Puddin and mommy before the ceremony.

My sweet girl making her way down the aisle.

Puddin with her fellow graduating preschool friends.

The gangs all here!!

Something looks to be going awry here.... things are starting to unravel.... poor thing!

Many, many tears were shed at the end of the ceremony.

Finally, here is Puddin and her besty. She loves this little girl and we are hoping to get some playdates scheduled so they can spend more fun times together.

So, all in all, a great night, full of smiles and tears too.

Kind of like life.

I love you Puddin! Happy graduation!

Easter Rewind

We had an absolutely fabulous Easter this year.

Easter is probably my favorite holiday and it's so fun watching children understand the meaning behind it.

I also get to host our Easter dinner so that's super fun for me too!

I'm so far behind in updating everyone with what's going on, and since I was unable to get a family Easter photo (it's pretty much impossible these days....mostly because of this little guy) I thought I'd share some outtakes instead.
He's cute alright, but don't let that sweet face fool you! He's quick and he's determined!

Case in point... the family photo. Should be easy right, line up, look at mommy, say cheese. NOPE.

Not going to happen. He makes us work for it!

checking to see if anyone is in pursuit...

gotcha!

cheese!

Next we went around tot he backyard to see if our "Magic Jellybeans" had grown anything over night.

Sure enough, they had! Each of the children had a giant lollipop grow right where they planted their jellybeans the night before!

*grin*
They were thrilled!

Since Sunday mornings are so crazy in our house (getting everyone up, fed, dressed and out the door in a good mood to make it to church on time) we have agreement with the Easter Bunny... he can come to our house, as long as he comes while we are at church so that the kids can have their baskets after church instead of before. We would never get out the door if we didn't do it that way!

here they are checking out their goodies!

*adorable!*

Very happy kiddos!

getting ready for the egg hunt!

The haul!

Competition was so fierce Puddin had to trade her basket in for a bag and she

nearly lost her bow this year!

Gotta love Daisy's snarl! She just wants the candy at this point!

All Quacked up!

Whew... what a whirlwind!

But, I'm back and ready to share the story behind this little photo....

I'll try to give you the short version...

Way back in my former life, when I was a teacher, I had an incubator and every spring my class would hatch eggs. We hatched mostly chickens but occasionally we would be lucky enough to get a duck or goose egg. It was a wonderful experience every year and truly a highlight of the school year for my children.
Now, not to be partial or anything but duckling are just too cute for words so, naturally, I have a soft spot for them.

Fast forward to present day and my new/real/current life of mommy to the fabulous five. Many times I have walked past that incubator on the top shelf of my garage, and thought, I should really hatch some eggs with my sweet little darlings. But, I wonder what the neighbors would think when we all waddled outside for our afternoon walk... me... 5 little ones... and a gaggle of ducklings??? Probably goes against the neighborhood bylaws.
hmmm.

BUT, I did have a friend who happened to have a duck that had laid some eggs. My friend was concerned that her little mama duck was neglecting her not yet hatched brood so she asked if she could borrow that lonesome little incubator in my garage.
I gladly agreed.

And a few short weeks later... ta-da... she had baby ducks! The were PRECIOUS!!! Just too cute for words!

Coincidentally, the 2 teachers I am mentoring (have I shared that yet?? I don't believe so but since this is the short version I'll have t come back to that in another post). Anyway, these ladies were also finishing up a unit in the classrooms that involved spring animals and mentioned how great it would be for the children to see real baby chicks or ducks.

Big smiles from me... my kind of teachers!
So I called my friend and asked if her ducks would like to go on a field trip with me. She said yes, I picked them up and away we went!
We spent the morning in the classrooms then I picked my crew up from preschool and didn't have time to return the babies in between those two stops. So I promised to have the babies home for dinner but ran home and put my children down for naps... ducklings too!

And when everyone woke up... what a surprise!! To say my kiddos were excited would be an understatement! They were thrilled and begged to keep them (if only!) They loved them! It was so precious to see the kids playing with them too. Monkey See especially loves animals so he was beside himself and didn't want to put them down. You can see in he pictures, he is sort of a "duck whisperer". Somehow, they would just lay on their backs and let him rub their bellies!

Anyway, we had lots of fun with the ducklings and I think we may be hatching a few eggs around here next spring!

In case you are wondering where the photos of Bud and Daisy with the duckling are... I didn't get any. It was impossible for me to take pictures of them holding them for several reasons:
1. Bud is also known as Baby Hulk or sometimes as Cave Baby around here. Super strong. and rough. 'nuff said.
2. Daisy was so enamored by them she just wanted to shove them in her pockets and run away and hid from us so she could have them all to herself. She is so much like Swiper the Fox it's crazy!
3. Tug of war with bby animals and two year olds is very, very ugly.
4. I'm just not that brave.

But trust me when I say, they were super cute during their supervised duckling visits!

Ups and Downs

So, April has come and gone.
Oops!
It appears I ran out of time (once again) to post.
Have I mentioned life here is busy?
Like Crazy Busy??
I'm sure I have.
like 20,000x's
I really need to get back in the rhythm of posting. It seems like after I missed a few days I start to feel like a few more won't matter, and then it just feels awkward to come back on here and post.
WEIRD.
And then my family says, "Show us some pictures!"
I guess all I can say is patience. Even though I need this little blog to document and keep up with memories for me- it has become hard to document them while I'm in the midst of living them!
There are hundreds of things I have wanted to get on here- so I don't forget- but they will never pass over this keyboard because, sadly, I have forgotten them.
**OH- just remembered one! Monkey Do says kiss the sweetest way... it sounds like "chiss". He tells me 20x a day, "momma, you da best, Let me give you a chiss!"

So since this post is titled "ups and downs" I thought I'd share a few pictures from Puddin's Egg Drop Ceremony at preschool the other day.

And when I say it was full of ups and downs, I am not eggs-agerating!

Bud, sweet little Bud, had a monstrous meltdown that had me in tears the rest of the day and feeling like the worst mom to walk the planet. A sweet friend reminded me that he is just passionate, and that is a good thing. I keep reminding myself of that too.

so proud! Her egg survived the fall!
It's hard to believe her preschool experience is coming to an end!!! Only a few days left!

In other news... I've started texting! look out!!! Sadly, I am still really slow but, I am getting there. Or mabe it's sadder that I feel like I've accomplished something by getting on the text bandwagon?

My "mother's thumb" is acting up in a bad way. Seriously aggrivating! I have avoided the steroid shots up to now but I am considering acupuncture to help it... never tried it but willing to give it a shot.

yes, that is an Elmo DVD case Bud is carrying around in the pictures above. He carries one nearly every day. Sleeps with it too and he even throws a fit if I bathe him without it in his hands. Strange? Maybe, but it makes him happy and he's not too particular about the case as long as Elmo is on it. Plus, at least it's a comfort item that want require orthodontic work down the road.

And if you want to know what's going on in this picture, come back tomorrow and I will explain!