More Kinder Stuff

Good Bye Mrs. Navajas (full time assistant)! "I joost lub Dedek. He ees soo cute!"
Good bye Mrs. Blakley, best kindergarten teacher in the entire world!!Derek's Young Author presentation in front of a 2nd grade class. He was trying not to smile in front of everyone.

The amazing scrapbooks put painstakingly together by Mrs. Navajas and other parents. What an amazing year he had!

Adios Kindergarten(that's irish for Good-bye)

Derek's end of the year program was last week and totally cute!! Their theme was "Be Our Guest", hence the chef attire. They sang some songs, did some dances, and allowed the parents a moment of adoration and picture/video taking. I'm really, really, really glad they didn't don caps and gowns for and call it "graduation".
Then it was back to the kinder yard for a feast of finger foods! Here is Derek and Jimmy (don't call him Ho), Alex and Eric.

Great Day for a Hike

On Memorial Day, we met up with the Baileys and went on a beautiful hike along Gerle Loop Trail.

We stopped at a picnic table and ate lunch while Ben explored the area.

The kids did a great job.  Wesley was a little champ and slept in the Moby wrap the whole hike (except lunch).

Ben was the ever enthusiastic explorer.

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Paige enjoyed the hike up until about lunch time.

Before lunch:

After lunch (notice her feather bouquet):

It was so much fun to get out on the trail and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  Afterward, we all headed to Mom and Dad's house for a delicious rib dinner.  Yum!  It was a perfect Memorial Day!

Remodel Done!

Not bad, eh? Mom did a great job making new cusions out of the old ones. We kept most of our seating and gained a good deal of floorspace.

The other need was counter top prep area. The raised cabinet at left gives us a good prep area and added shelf and storage space as you can see below.

We also added storage in the tomb bedroom.

Last but not least - more storage. This is for CD's and DVD's.

We are ready to go and try out all of this new stuff.

Dad

6 years Already???

We had a birthday boy on May 2! Derek was so excited to wear the special crown and bring cupcakes for his classmates, even though it was a couple of days before the big event. This is Jimmy, who is Derek's best buddy at school. His Mom told me that before they became BFF's, Jimmy would cry almost every day. But now he looks forward to seeing Derek. From what I gather, their relationship is based primarily on Pokemon.
Part of the kindergarten posse.
On Saturday, for his birthday activity, Derek chose to go to the park for "...baseball, hiking, and climbing trees."

Then it was onto Islands for his choice of birthday dinner. He chose an adult-size cheeseburger with a basket of fries and bottomless Sprite. And yes, he polished it all off.
On Sunday, for his actual birthday, we enjoyed cake and ice cream with friends. He decorated the cake and enjoyed all the attention very much!

Turning 6 was never so much fun!!

And This Makes 5

Broken windows, that is. A fly-killing fist, a golf club, a flying spoon, a hammer (I accidentally hit the window with a hammer!), and now a wild softball pitch have all given Lee a new skill to add to his handyman business card: Window Pane Installation and Glazing. The only repeat offender? Grayson, of course (flying spoon and hammer).
When questioned as to what occurred, Carissa replied that she was using the front brick flower bed as a target for her pitching practice. Hmmmm. "Did you consider that a mere 2 feet above the planter are many glass windows?" (Dumb question, of course she didn't.) Luckily, glass is cheap, and Lee is a pro now. But note to self- lock up all softballs, golf clubs, baseball bats, hammers, spoons, and don't punch flies out if they're on a window.

S†rawberry Pickin'

We have been to this farm to pick strawberries many times now, and it just never gets old! The tractor ride out to the fields is always fun, and I personally like how all the tractor drivers are young-ish girls who can pull these massive wagons into tiny little spaces! Grayson and James, his BFF at class, enjoyed it, too!
But the best part about picking strawberries here, besides the delicious berries we take home, is that you can eat as many as you want while you're picking them. For Grayson, that means one in the basket and 3 in the mouth.
Or he just sat down in the rows and chowed.
Unfortunately, Grayson's entire basket of strawberries (except for 3) was consumed during the tractor ride back to the main farm- about a 3-5 minute ride. However, mine survived, and we all enjoyed delicious berries with dinner. Now I'm ready for cherry season!