Schools Out For Summer!!!

We now have a third grader, first grader and a Young 4 in the house! This year has flown by!!! Sad to say good-bye to such good teachers, but so thankful the kids had such a good year!

1st Day of Second Grade....

Last Day of Second Grade....

 1st Day of Kindergarten (kind of rough!!!).

 Last Day of Kindergarten....

 First Day of Pre-School....

 Last Day of Pre-School (lunch time with friends!).

Now it's time for sleeping late (or atleast a little bit later!), camps, trips and lots of time at the pool!!

Memorial Day Weekend....

 We headed to the ranch for the long weekend. Always fun to spend time there...especially when we have an extra day to relax. But...at the same time...hard to relax when you know HUGE black widows are around! Mike found this one in the shed.

Good times in the river! It was shallow and the kids had a blast playing. Brad played alligator with them.

 Grant and Sophia were the explorers who wandered way off!

 And...always the sign of a good weekend when this happens on the drive home!!! It's a rare thing for the Wee Wille's to sleep in the car!!!

Bear Cub...

Jake moved up from a Wolf to a Bear last night! They did thier bridging ceremony where the boys get to waalk through the tunnel of neckerchiefs. Parents are waiting on teh other side with thier new ones. Jake and Mike have both had a lot of fun in Cub Scouts. There are some fun family events coming up during the summer!

Swimming Lesons....Day 1

The kids are taking swim lessons from a lady who comes highly recommended. She teaches out of her backyard pool. She is very firm and pushes the kids (crying and screaming don't bother her at all!). Joshua was not happy and cried most of the first lesson. I took this video from the cabana. Parents aren't allowed out on the patio until the kids stop crying. She says usually day 3 is the turning point. He was crying the whole time, and when he came up out of the water...started crying again. I think today is going to be another rough day. After lessons yesterday he was very upset "Ms. Diana made me go underwater!!!".

Pre-School...

Joshua has had SUCH a great first year at pre-school. Ms. Laura and Ms. Silvia are wonderful teachers. It's been fun to watch him make new friends and learn so much!



Boxes

Our neighbor saved some big boxes for the kids to play in. They've had lots of fun playing restaurants and other games. They also make a pretty nice place for a nap!

One more wall....

We decided that one more wall needed to come down (or at least part of it!). I think this really opens up the kitchen!! Hopefully the drywall guy will be out soon to patch everything. And really hoping the cabinet guy has something ready for us soon. I'm starting to see a small light at the end of the tunnel for all this house work. It's hard to believe how much the house has changed since the beginning of the year!!!

School Pictures...

End of Second Grade...

 End of Kindergarten....

Band of Pirates...

How would you like to come across this band of pirates on the high seas?? Not sure how the fireman fits into the picture, but I guess they are thinking of safety first! What a funny group of kids!!

Mother's Day

Lots of art work this Mother's Day! So many special things to hang around the house.

 I am one lucky Mommy!!

Muddy Buddy #2

Another Muddy Buddy in the books! What a fun weekend!! There were 6 Northwood families that were competing in Muddy Buddy. We stayed at the Exotic Resort Zoo again. 6 families in 5 different cabins with a total of 14 kids!! Mike and I are so lucky to have such great friends. Everyone looks out for everyone else's kids....feed them, take care of them...it's awesome. And we all have such a good time together.

The kids found a huge dirt pile to play in as they were waiting for the Mini Muddy.

 Some of the kids in their "super hero" poses.

 Mike and I were buddies this year. Longer and harder course...but I think we did really well!!

 The start of the Mini.

 There he is....going by himself and doing an awesome job!!!

 Crawling through the mud...

 A race to the finish line!!

 He was so proud...and he should be!!!

 6 of the kids who did the Mini. 10 out of the 14 kids in our group went though. I think we represented Northwood Elem. very well!!!

 The muddy family!

 We went on the safari ride 2 times while we were there. So many animals to feed and look at!

 On Saturday night, we noticed Joshua and Brynn were  missing. Found them in our cabin eating a leftover Blizzard from Friday night when we picked up food from DQ. It was in the little freezer and I guess they found it and decided it would be a good treat for the 2 of them. So funny!!!

We managed to keep all the animals in the petting zoo out of harms way this year. But, there was one duck bite (it got Sophia's finger!), one deer trampling (knocked Rylie down and stepped on her!) and one lama chase (Jake was the victim).

Overall a great great weekend. It feels good to have done a harder race like that. It was fun to do with Mike...next year we hope to be a bit better. The kids had a blast and we all made some great memories!!

How Does Your Garden Grow??

The Kinder performance at the last PTA meeting is always a big deal! Sophia has been excited about this for over a month. She had a line to read...we practiced and practiced. I heard all the lines and songs and saw all the moves!!! The day of the show she got hit in the mouth with a tennis racket at PE. She was upset because it hurt and she thought it looked bad. BUT, she did a great job!! Stood up and said her line loud and clear!! We were so proud!