Last day of Kindergarten!

Today is Michael's last day of kindergarten!  I took a picture this morning to commemorate the day!  We now have a 1st grader!  How did that happen???

First Day of Kindergarten:

Last Day of Kindergarten

A fun comparison

Looking forward to a fun summer!  We have a full bucket list to tackle!

Happy Mother's Day!

(I may go out of order with my posts, in my efforts to catch up here.  So please bear with me.)

A week ago we celebrated moms!  It was a wonderful day, and I hope all of the moms out there had a great day and received the appreciation they deserve.  As moms, we don't always get the recoginition for the things we do throughout the year, so it is nice to have one day just for that.  I am fortunate to have a family that shows me love and gratitude fairly often, but it is still lovely to have this day.

On my side of the family we have one tradition for Mother's Day that we have been doing every year for, gosh, how many years now?  Definitely more than 10.  Maybe even 15 years?  Anyway, every Mother's Day my sister and I take my mommy to breakfast.  Now, the downside to this is that I never get that Mother's Day breakfast in bed that you see in the commercials all the time.  But even if we didn't do this annual breakfast, I probably still wouldn't get breakfast in bed!  I am usually the first one up, thanks to Miss Allison, and Mike is usually the last (on the weekends).  But maybe as the kids get older, I may one day get that breakfast in bed.  But I digress...

This year we went to a great place called "Stacks" for breakfast.  Afterwards, we took a commemorative photo:

Sis, Mom, and me

Following breakfast, we headed over to the nearest garden center to pick out some plants for mom.  This particular garden center also has playhouses and a petting zoo, so we were able to keep the kids occupied while we looked around.

We then headed over to Lowe's to pick out my mother's day gift.  You see, we have one big tree in our backyard that provides excellent shade.  But it is in desparate need of landscaping around the base.  It has been a mess since the day we moved in, and I have been asking for it to be improved on for quite some time.  As a landscaper's wife, I do not usually have to lift a finger in the yard.  It is Mike's domain, we are both in agreement on that, and I have become quite accustomed to that.  But this tree has been a pet peeve of mine for years.  I even offered my labor to help complete it, but was given the stink eye at that suggestion.  So all I wanted for Mother's Day was for this tree to finally be landscaped. This tree:

 So I chose the blocks that will be going around it on Sunday, and I have been told that they will be purchased and picked up by the end of this week.  We will see....we will see....We will also see when it actually gets completed!

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around the house.  I decided to finally get the manual for my camera out of hiding to figure out how to change some settings, and started to fall in love with photography again.  I have been missing it, and hope to keep that alive this summer!   I am very rusty, but ended up taking a few pictures that I was happy with, so I will share a couple with you.

In between snapping away, I had a chance to hang out with Michael for a while (Mike and Allison were taking their Sunday afternoon naps!).  We jumped on the trampoline, hung out in the clubhouse (top level of the playset), and did some swinging.  I love when we have peaceful moments together, where we can just chat about stuff.  I feel like the usual communication between us lately has been me scolding him for one thing or another, and him giving me excuses for why his behavior isn't his fault.  So it was nice to have some tension-free conversation, and lots of laughing together.
The other two finally woke from their slumbers, and we headed over to Mike's parents' house.  I proceeded to snap some more photos before heading off to dinner.  Mike's parents have so many flowers in bloom right now, and their yard really looked great.

Mike and his mom

My Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law

Smooches

I must say that I had a really great day.  It was a shame that it had to end.  It was relaxing and fun!  I hope we can keep this momentum up for every weekend from now until the end of summer.  The kids are only young for a short time, and I want to help make lots of fun memories with them before they fly the coop.  I know I am silly to be thinking that way already, but "they" say that time flies and the kids are grown and gone before you know it.  So let's make the most of it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Is anyone still out there?

For those of you that visit here often, in hopes that one day I may post again...today is your lucky day!  Yes, it's true!  I'm back!   I know I have been MIA for quite some time, but I am hoping I can get back into the swing of things, and continue to share tidbits of our life again.  So many things have been happening, and I can't wait to share them with you! 

I know I don't have many followers, but that is fine with me.  I mainly use this blog to help me remember what we did (and when), and to help me keep track of how my children have developed over the years.  It has come in handy many times in that regard!  I also use it to share things with people that may not be avid users of Facebook.  I tend to post more over there, but I know some people don't use it often, or at all.  There are also friends and family that have moved away from us, or we do not see them on a regular basis, and I know they visit here too.  So I vow to do better for those of you that fall into those categories!

Stay tuned, and I will be updating in the very neat future.  I still intend on posting about our trip to Disney that we took back in November - it seems so long ago now!  But I still have the fond memories and many photos to share! I would also like to update on what the kiddos have been up to, as well as recent photos of them.

Stay tuned!