Getting Taller

The other day Millie and Levi were walking side by side and it amazed me at how tall Millie was getting.  She has already reached his shoulders. 

Happy Fathers Day

Usually for Father's Day I am out the day before trying to pick out a gift from the kiddos to give to Scott.  This year I am proud to announce that the kids and I made (yes you read that correctly we made) our gift.  Thanks to Pinterest, I saw a neat handprint craft and thought we could do that.  So off to Hobby Lobby we went.  While there Sophia got tired of picking out scrapbooking paper.  She started fussing, and of course Levi came to her rescue and picked her up.  About 5 minutes later she was sound asleep in his arms.  He was eating it up! 

 We went home and made our gifts, with enough time to get paps in the mail and delivered on the Saturday before Fathers Day!! 

Levi and Millie were very proud of thier gift and couldn't wait to give it to Daddy.  So they had him open it up on Saturday night.  Of course daddy loved it. 

Since Sophia was asleep when Levi and Millie gave daddy their present we took more pictures in Daddy's office where the picture will stay. 

No matter how big we get we will always reach for you. 

Happy Birthday Anna

Little Miss Anna is not so little anymore and has officially turned 3!  Boy does time fly.  To celebrate her birthday with her we took a day trip to their new house in Ohio and had a party.  There were lots of kids and cousins to play with, and everyone had a great time. 

 Here Gideon is teaching Anna the proper use of his light saber. 

 All the kiddos had fun "swimming."

 Levi especially enjoyed "working out" with Uncle Gabe's equipment.  He is tough stuff, pulling a total of 450 pounds. 

 What is a birthday party without cake, ice cream, and presents!  The chocolate cake and Aunt Susan made was super yummy.  I need to get the recipe from her....or maybe she will read this and send it to me.  ;-)

I think that Miss Anna liked her tea set that we got her.  I hope she has lots of tea parties with it. 

A little color

Last year for Mothers Day I got the two rockers.  Well it has taken me a year, but I have finally added some color to my front porch.

 

 I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some fabric.  I then came up with what I wanted and took it over to my sister-in-laws house for a sewing bee.  Well she sews and I watch.  I told her what I wanted and she made it happen all in about an two hours time.  That included design, sewing, and lots of talking in between. 

I also made this square wreath.  Yes that is right, I made it.  The uncrafty sister finally has got her craft on....thanks to Pinterest. 

 Also got a new entry mat. 

Summer Fun

  Every since our Spring Break trip to Aunt Sara's house and Millie saw the garden rocks with "diamonds" that Gideon and Judah made she has wanted to make one.  When I saw that our local toy store downtown was holding a class to make garden rocks I immediately signed up.   

Millie and Levi loved it so we are signing up for more classes at Imagination Station.  We are making a robot soon. 

We took a trip to Grandma and Pap's house to meet up with the cousins and ate lots of popsicles. 

Now Sara may look like she is in distress, but she is really just making fun of a song that is playing on her phone.  Good times. 

 Sophia too got in on the popsicle action too.  Grandma just couldn't say no.  Look at her eyeing it.

 We have also been spending lots of time in the pool.  Millie is turning into a regular water bug and begs to go out every day. 

A trip to the circus??

For weeks there were free tickets all around Columbus to the circus.  I thought it would be fun to go, seeing that it was on the last day of school.  A little something special.  One sign that it was a "special" circus was that it was to be inside at the armory, but we did not pay attention to the signs and went anyway.  Now when a circus comes to town and is inside the armory you have to sit on the concrete floor and watch the one ring show with a horrible female announcer. 

 

Here she is in the black and green.  The first thing they allow you to do is to come inside the ring with $2 and buy a coloring book, now if your coloring book has a special sticker in the front cover you get to pick a special toy.  Of course all $100 little children beg their parents for $2 and run to buy the lovely coloring book. 

 Then the "clown" comes out.  He randomly picks some 'dads' out of the crowd and has them perform with hispanic music.  Some people laughed. 

One of the main attractions was "spongebob"  He came out walked around the circle and when back behind the curtain.  Of course this was after the horrible female announcer again allowed the children to come back with $2 more dollars to buy the purple star baloon.  I refused the baloon, which Millie thought was abuse and fell out on the floor crying.  I won though. 

The show continued with the clown and his "elephant."  He would wind the "elephant" up and have him walk, then the "elephant" would fall over dead.  This happened about 10 times, before he revealed the "elephant" was actually a dog in a costume.

 There was also this lady who brought two horses out.  This little pony, and an "unicorn."  She was also assisted by Crocodile Dundee.

I became a little concerned when the acrobat show was going on, when these fellas were the "lift" system. 

No matter how bad the show, Millie and Levi had fun. 

Scott on the other hand was ready to go when we arrived, but endured until the end.  Next time we will stick with Barnum and Bailey.   

Schools out, schools out, teachers let the monkies out

Wow, what a year this has been!  Although it has been a somewhat fun adventure, I am so happy it is summer...If only for eight weeks.

We started the year with two spunky kiddos, but a year of changes it has been.  The bigges of all being the birth of our third little one in October. 

The last day of school is always a good photo opp. 

In the fall Millie will no longer go to CMO with me, but will be a big kindergartner.  I am a little sad about this.  She will no longer go to school with her best friends Jack, Luka, Paige, and Deacon.  She They all will attend different schools in the fall.

Here she is walking down the red room hallway on the first day of school.

And here she is with her buddies Jack and Deacon, on the last day of school heading out together. 

Millie and Deacon.

 

Sophia joined the CMO family back in February when I went back to work, and quickly feel in love with Miss Carol.  She became very attached to Miss Carol, and would only eat her.  She would fuss and cry if anyone else tried to feed her or give her a bottle.  I think Miss Carol, fell for Sophia too.  She is a widowed grandma, who just moved to Columbus.  Leaving her grandbabies in North Carolina. They made a great pair.   

Levi on his way home for the last time as a fourth grader!  This was the year of projects, he....I should really say we...completed 18 of them.  We made steam boats, Indian mounds, a Ben Franklin bobble head, a huge science project, and numerous others.  He finished the year with all As and one B.  He probably could of had straight As, but maybe a certain 10 year old decided to write in his final publication of the year, a tale of a Navy Seal team.  And maybe this 10 year old writer decided to have this seal team find a certain famous teenage boy singer and kill him. Maybe this is why he got a B in English and not that A that we were pushing for.  Maybe, just sayin'.


But it is all over with, and we are on SUMMER VACATION!  We start back at the beginning of August with our new year round schedule.