Sad Goodbye's

It sadly came. The last day of school. Mrs. Garrido had a program for all the students' families. They sang a song and said their poems and served us doughnuts. It was really fun and I really wanted to cry with Brooklyn when we left. We get to see Mrs. Garrido one more time, but then I'm afraid we won't get to see her again. Unless of course, we're still unemployed in August (heaven help us if we are....).

This is Mrs. Garrido, Brooklyn and her partner/friend, Kayla. They did such a good job!! I'm continually amazed at how well Brooklyn can read.
This is the apron I made for Mrs. Garrido as a good-bye gift. Brooklyn chose the fabric, I did the sewing. It turned out pretty cute, I think.
And, here are the infamous cake balls. They didn't turn out as cute as I'd envisioned (when do they ever??), but they were tasty and that's all that matters.
Finally, here's Brooklyn bringing us a doughnut. They were also tasty and it was fun to see her with her classmates. I thoroughly enjoyed helping out in her classroom the few times I did. So, here's to a successful year in Kindergarten and to continued success at school for Brooklyn!

Birthday Bashes

This may be a bit of a picture overload, but what can you do when it's birthday time? I missed posting a 'special' blog for Jon yesterday, his birthday, but if you make it to the bottom of the post you can see our fun activities for the day.

As promised, here's the recap of Brooklyn's day. We have made a tradition of taking the kids out to lunch on their birthdays. Unfortunately, this tradition is going to have to be tweaked somehow, seeing as Brooklyn's next birthday she'll be at school.... Anywho, they get to choose their restaurant and unsurprisingly we ended up at McDonalds.


And, they had Shrek toys which made it even better!! After lunch, it was off to school for Brooklyn. She loves school so that wasn't a huge deal. While she was gone, Jon got to work on her cake. Her choice this year? Strawberry Shortcake. There are several versions of good old Strawberry these days, but Jon just went with the retro classic. And, it turned out awesome!

Next came a dinner of Brooklyn's choice just with our little family and Grandparents. We had "steak, potatoes and peas...oh and gravy for those who want it" as per Brooklyn. If you can't tell, she hasn't discovered the tastiness of gravy, yet.

After dinner we did candles and cake and presents. She got lots of fun things, seems we've moved into the "girly" stage of life. She got lots of sundresses this year. I really think they're perfect, too. She'll love wearing them if it ever gets warm outside....
This is one that I made. It's that fabric that has elastic at the top...all I had to do was sew it together, hem the bottom and make some straps. Easy peasy.
That was her actual birthday in a nutshell. Nothing terribly exciting but we tried to make it all about her. It was pretty fun!

Yesterday was Jon's birthday and it was pretty much a normal day, too... Funny how birthdays get less exciting as you get older, eh? However, we did have a birthday party for Jon's side of the family for Jon and Brooklyn. Yesterday was all about Jon's picks (much to his dismay :) he hates making these kinds of choices :)). We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, and then he couldn't decide on a cake so we had Pineapple upside down cake and oatmeal cake. Tasty, for sure.
Brooklyn blew out candles on the pineapple cake....
Then, Jon blew out candles on the oatmeal cake.
And then the kids enjoyed Popsicles while the rest of us had cake :). It worked out great for everyone involved.
I had to get at least one picture with Jon on his birthday, again...not his most favorite past-time.
Good thing he loves me :).
He enjoyed his cake, even if the kids weren't interested :)
Finally, it was present time!! Thanks to his parents, he'll be taking me out to dinner and a movie for his birthday! WOohoo!
And, Brooklyn got some presents, too. Can't go wrong with presents!!!

Happy Birthday to my to birthdays!! They both make my life much better and lighten the load!

On a side note, it wouldn't be Jon's birthday if I didn't mess something up. I was letting his mom make the cakes to be safe, but she ended up needing help (since there were two....). Remember the coconut cream pie incident.... Well, I was mixing up the Pineapple cake and accidentally dropped half of an eggshell into the batter...while the mixer was going... Oopsies! I think I got out all the pieces. Nobody complained about getting one. Oh well. At least it wasn't a disaster like the pie was....

Guess who's 6!

Yeah, I can't believe it either. She is such a joy and SOOOO excited that it's finally her birthday! So far, we've been to McDonald's for lunch and she gets to give out Rice Krispies to her classmates after school. Turns out, another munchkin in her class has a birthday today, too!! That makes two kids besides herself who we know that were born on a day just like today! Whoa. (luckily this kid's name isn't Brooklyn (he's a boy), that would just be weird...3 Brooklyn's born on 5/19!?? too crazy!).
More about our day later, when I can accompany it with pics.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!! We sure LOVE you!

yet another....

..."catch up" post. I have been slacking in my quest to blog often. I hope this will make me (and you, if you care) feel better. In preparation for some big days coming up (holy cow, she is going to be 6!!), I felt that a little picture-catch-up-post was in order.

I took this pic at the end of April. I painted my toes. Mason saw and couldn't be left out (no, I don't feel this will damage him in anyway). Brooklyn found out and had to be included. Julianne saw and absolutely, in no way, could not be left out. So, here we are, 20 toes all ready for summer. P.S. Julianne actually did sit still and let me paint. For 7 of her 10. Then she wandered around a little and then let me finish.


Again, this is at the beginning of the month, Mason finally got to fly his Buzz kite. The Easter bunny brought him one and he'd been dying to fly it since. Finally we got the wind to cooperate and he had a blast. Lucky for Jon, he got a buzz kite (Jon's notorious for flying the princess kite).



I was trying to be included in the photos, since I was there, and I thought this one was cute.... until I got inside where I could see the screen on the camera. Oh well. It IS a funny picture.

Besides emptying my purse, Julianne's other favorite toy is empty milk jugs. She will carry them around for hours and hours, all over the house. Goofy, eh?

This is cousin Bradley. He plays with us two days a week and according to Brooklyn and Mason, it's the best two days out of the week. Mason has huge withdrawls if Bradley doesn't come....


Lastly, the first of the birthday festivities. Living around family makes for MANY birthday parties. Brooklyn's first party was on Sunday in Corinne. Family, spaghetti, cake, ice cream and presents. What fun!



Tomorrow is her actual birthday and it's hard to process that she will be 6. How did that happen? She only has 2 more weeks of kindergarten....how did that happen? And, she's way too smart for her (or my) own good. I'll post more about her tomorrow, but I can't stop thinking about it right now! :)