Fun weekend

This past weekend was a lot of fun!  We didn't have much planned... we're all recovering from a variety of illnesses, including a bad cold/cough virus and the stomach bug, so we wanted to have a chill weekend.

Friday evening, we enjoyed a dinner at at Moe's.  After the kiddos went to bed, Stephen and I watched the Hawks win and then crashed hard.

Saturday AM, we headed over to the nearby town of Monroe to attend their opening weekend of their Farmer's Market.  They had a bunch of kid-friendly activities, so we decided to take a visit.  Man, it was awesome!  The kids got to ride on a Chick-fil-a owned cow ride; play on bouncy houses; see a police car and a fire truck; make sand art; get their hair spray painted and fixed; play little carnival games; and more.  Parker loved the police car and fire truck.  He talks about them non-stop.  He even got to sit in the police car and do the siren!

I went to the park later to run, the kiddos played outside, and we made dinner and literally just chilled and played around the rest of the night.

Today, we went to church in the morning.  We had an open house today for our house, so after cleaning like a mad woman, we all went to the park and then walked around our neighborhood to kill the 3 hours we had to be gone.  We ate leftovers and played together until all the kiddos crashed.  I don't think I'm far behind them!

It was a great weekend... now, this last week of school needs to fly by so we can officially celebrate SUMMER!  (oh yeah, and retirement!)

End of School!

Not for me.  Man, I wish!  But Sydney had her last day of Kindergarten this past Friday!  And since the daycare follows the local school schedule, that means Parker and Taylor are both done with the curriculum part of their class.  Now, they just get to play!  (For another 2 weeks, at least, until I'm done!)

On Thursday, the whole Kindergarten class put on a special program.  I used one of my personal days and took the day off to go see it.  It was adorable!  The whole grade marched in, class by class, and sang a cute song together.  Then, each class did a song separately.  They all came together again at the end to sing one more song together.  Finally, each student walked across the stage to get their Kindergarten certificate.

After the program, I went back to Sydney's room and she asked me to eat lunch with her.  She wanted to pick her "friend" Mercer to eat with us, and he happily came along.  It was so cute watching them converse!

On Friday, I took some before-school pictures of the girls.  Sydney was not quite in the mood, so it was hard to capture a happy smile.  Taylor, on the other hand, was all smiles.  Here are some first day (August 2014) to last day (May 2015) comparisons.

Later that morning, Sydney's KG class had its own awards ceremony.  My school had field day that day that I couldn't miss, so I had to miss out on the awards fun.  Luckily, Stephen was in town to go see it!  Sydney and her friend both won the "Best Reader" awards!  I am so very proud of how well she can now read.  She reads AR books between 2.3 and 3.2 grade level and almost always gets 100s!

Sydney and Izzy with their reading awards.  They've known each other since they were babies!

Sydney and Kathryn.

Carsyn, Sydney, and Kathryn.

Now Mariella joins in!

The girls with Mrs. Hince!

I can't believe Sydney is now going into 1st grade!  That automatically sounds so much older.  And my sweet Taylor will be in pre-K!  And Parker will be... with me!  gulp!  Don't know how my middle school math degree will translate to 2/3 year old curriculum... but thank heavens for Pinterest.  Pinterest gives me some feelings of hope!

Mother's Day!

I was spoiled rotten on Mother's Day!  The little handmade gifts and cards were given to me right after school on Friday... they couldn't wait to show me.  Here are some of the goodies:

From Sydney.  I just realized the tile painting is upside down in this pic.  Did you know that fish actually blow bubbles downward? :)

From Taylor!

Taylor was SO cute.  When I picked her up on Friday, she said, "Mommy, how old are you?!" I told her I was 34, and tears started welling up.  She said, "I said you were 45!"  lol!  I told her it was totally okay, and then went home and applied some de-wrinkling cream. ;)  I also love that the best thing I cook is pizza (ahem, frozen pizza) and I am good at teaching her cartwheels.  I tried to do a cartwheel after Sydney laughed at what Taylor wrote, and it was pretty sad. 

From my buddy!

Sunday morning, Stephen let me sleep in a bit and breakfast was made!  And so were more cards from the girls.

I love Taylor's traced hand. ;)

My hearts!  He went to... Etsy. ;)

After church, we headed to Stone Mountain!  The weather was gorgeous, if not almost too hot.  We went to the lawn and played, walked a little hiking trail, saw the bubble man a few times (that has to be the best job ever!), and just hung out.

I love their faces!

Stephen made this for us.  It didn't last long!

Grumpy Sydney wanted nothing to do with a picture!

This was Parker's favorite part!

Mid popping of the bubble.

Some of them were huge!

I think we all felt this way!

We went and got ice cream on the way home, then Stephen cooked dinner, and we all crashed pretty early.  It was a wonderful day.  

I know this every day, but Mother's Day really allows me to reflect on how absolutely blessed I am.  I am so happy to have my 3 babies.  They are so much fun, they take everything out of you while filling you up with everything you need.  Many people I know and love aren't able to have babies, or have even lost babies or older children.  I want to cherish these crazy days. because you just never know what tomorrow will bring.  I love my family, and I thank God every single day for them!

Spring Pics

We got the kiddos' spring pics back today.  On the day they were scheduled to be taken, Sydney was home sick on day 2 of having strep.  But, they said I could bring her in to join her bro and sis!  Here are the folded/a bit crinkled proofs: