Papa's Retirement Party

All week long last week Gigi had been making secret trips over to our house to drop off food, drinks, and party supplies for Papa's surprise retirement party.  On Friday evening, he though he was coming to our house for family pictures, but in fact, he was showing up to his own party.  

It was so funny to see him walk in our house and be just a wee bit confused about what was going on until it all started to sink in.  

The girls and I were the bright and colorful welcoming committee and were excited to wear our new Lilly for Target finds. 

Many of his friends that he has worked with past and present were in attendance and they all told stories and reminisced about their times working together. 

We had tons of great appetizers, BBQ and delicious sides for dinner, and cupcakes and cookie cake for dessert.

It was a great night and we are happy to help with making this party go off without a hitch!  

Hudson's Last Day of School

On Friday Hudson celebrated his last day of 3 year old preschool!  I can hardly believe his school year is over.  

He's come such along way this year and has learned so much.  Not only academically, but socially as well.  He usually just get to tag along with the girls and their friends, so it is fun to see him making friends of his own now.

He has had the same teachers for the past two years because they taught the young 2's T, TH and the young 3's M,W,F.  They have been so wonderful and I can't say enough about them.  Hudson had a rough start last year, but these sweet teachers worked with me to help him learn to love school and this year that has just continued because every single day he ran into his classroom confidently and for that I will always be grateful.

On our way home after his party on Friday he said he was really going to miss his teachers and I feel the same way!

Splish Splash!

This week has been full of swimming!  Hudson started swim lessons this week and is doing so well!!! I am really surprise and impressed with just how well he is doing.  I probably shouldn't be though because he has been talking about swim lessons for weeks now and has been asking about swimming without his float for quite some time. He is doing semi-private lessons (he and another child) with a woman that teaches out of her pool at her home.  It's really close by to us, so really convenient, except for the fact that the only time she had available was right when the girls get off the bus!  Thankfully, my amazing neighbors have been so helpful in getting the girls off the bus for a few minutes until I can make it back home.

Yesterday, on day 3 of his 10 day lessons, he started swimming independently. I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked over and saw my little guy swimming like a fish!  He is so motivated and his teacher even said that with 3rd kids, they want to do it so bad to be like their older siblings, that it usually clicks much sooner.  I'm just so proud of him and can't wait for a fun summer of swimming and playing at the pool.

Hudson isn't the only one swimming this week.  The girls started swim team practice yesterday!  They were only able to attend two days this week because of other activities they have after school, but so far, so good!  I was little nervous about swim team since I never did it growing up and the daily commitment in the summer is a lot for each morning, but it only goes through June and they are really doing well so far.  It also helps that they are on a team with a lot of friends, so I'm sure it will be a ton of fun for them (and me, too!).

Mother's Day

Mother's Day celebrations started on Friday around here.  Hudson's preschool class hosted a Mother's Day Fiesta and it as so much fun.  The kids had made some cute things for us and they played in their classroom while the moms enjoyed a yummy Mexican lunch and chatted together.

I loved the sweet little survey they did for each of the kids and Hudson's answers made me laugh.

Later that afternoon the girls brought home all sorts of sweet things for me.  From letters, to poems, to a sugar scrub for the bath, I was showered with treats.

On Saturday, we had Gigi over for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day and loved spending time with her and Papa.

This morning I started my Mother's Day off great by sleeping in super late and waking up to a large sweet tea and fresh bagels.  Robby and the kids sure do know the way to my heart!  Then we got ready and made our way to the lake for the day.  It was so much fun and really made us all excited about the summer.

The kids layed like this on the boat for the longest time while we were searching for a good beach.  Hudson also kept saying it was his best day ever!

Walker had fun trying to figure out the whole lake experience and we think he will be a water dog in time.  He was a little nervous to go swimming, but he was loving the beach.

It was the perfect day and I can't imagine another way to have spent my Mother's Day.

Kindergarten Performance and Author Celebration

This morning was the Kindergarten musical performance. Harper had been so excited about this and had kept everything a complete secret! She wouldn't share any of the details about her songs or anything.  Robby and I both got to attend since he was in town and our awesome neighbors saved us front row seats so we got a great view of the kids.

After the performance we were invited back to their classrooms for the author celebration.  I love that our school does this for each grade and the writing samples are put into a binder that follow the kids the entire time they are at the school.  In 5th grade we will get the binder back and have a collection of all of their writing from elementary school.

Also while we were there Harper gave me the sweetest Mother's Day gift!  I just love it and loved how excited she was to give it to me.

I have very mixed emotions as this school year comes to a close. I love summer and having the kids home with me, but this year has been so exceptional for both girls so I'm really sad about saying goodbye to their teachers.  We really lucked out this year and I could not feel more thankful for the wonderful school year.

Harper has just excelled in Kindergarten and absolutely adores her teacher.  Ms. G. tells me that Harper is such a little assistant in the class and just loves helping any chance she can get.

I had a conference with Handley's teacher yesterday and literally got all teary thanking her for all that she has done for Handley.  I prayed and prayed for excellent teachers for both my girls this year and I know my girls were in the exact classrooms that they needed to be in.  Handley is very anxious about next year because in her eyes, it will be hard for a teacher to follow in Ms. S's footsteps.  

I got to help her class out with a project today and part of that was me taking pictures of each of the students with Ms. S.  I just LOVE this one!

One thing is for sure though, these two amazing teachers will hold a very special place in our hearts for a long time to come and the kids they will teach next year are a very lucky group.

Field Day

Last Friday was one of the most anticipated days of the school year...field day!  The girls had so much fun and I'm so happy I was able to volunteer and see them with their friends.  They had relay races and then a carnival style section where they got to play all sorts of different games and activities.  

 After school some of our neighbors invited us over to their house to swim, which was such a treat!  The kids had the best time and it was our first official swim of the season.  They had us back on Sunday afternoon and it had us all wishing for summer days to get here soon!

This morning was the 2nd grade author celebration.  Every grade invites parents to come and read thought the kids writing from the year.  Handley was proud of all of her work and especially proud of the research project and book she wrote about Golden Retrievers.

Hudson took a picture of Handley and I together (hence the reason my head is cut off).  I am so proud of Handley and all that she has accomplished this year.  We are really going to miss her wonderful teacher, but we are so thankful for how well she has prepared Handley for 3rd grade next year!

Happy Friday!!!

I'm so happy it is Friday! We've had a good week, but we have hit May so the countdown to summer is officially on.  I'm so ready to have a break from our busy schedule, but not looking forward to this school year being over because we just have loved all the kids' teachers this year.

Today is field day so the girls are super excited! I can't wait to be there helping all day and see all of the fun they will have. :-)

I posted this pictures on Facebook last week, but wanted to share it here, too.  Walker sleeps like this all of the time.  It cracks us up and we call it "dead dog" and he does it all the time. So funny!  From all of the comments I got, apparently a lot of dogs sleep like this. :-)

Harper is so funny with her clothes and what she wants to wear.  She has very strong opinions so trying to get her to pick out her outfits is always a struggle. However, she is really happy with her new spring/summer clothes so she has been much more agreeable lately.

And this Lilly Pulitzer for Target romper was a lucky find. I got a few pieces on the release day and then kept checking back for more.  She had told me about her friend at school hat had "green leaf pants that are connected to a shirt" and I knew exactly what she was talking about.  She begged me to get one for her and I told her I wish it was that easy because I knew everything was sold out.  Well, I stopped by the returns desk when I was in Target picking up something else and they happened to have this, in her size!  She was SO excited and wore it the very next day!

And lastly, we love Thursday's around here. Not only is the anticipation of the weekend really exciting, but it is also our afternoon with NOTHING on our schedule except playtime. We almost always have playdates on Thursdays so yesterday was no exception.  Harper went over to her friends house and Handley's friend came over here.  The weather was gorgeous and they played outside the whole time. These two girls are the sweetest of friends and I am so thankful for her.

Hudson tags along with the girls and they are sweet enough to include him in their games.  They didn't want to play football though so when he asked me to play with him I couldn't say no. I had a million other things to be doing, but playing with my future QB won out as top priority. I'm so glad I said no to the to-do list and yes to playing with my little guy. We had so much fun and it was the best afternoon.