Lucky for great friends

Recently, our good friends, the Nelson's moved to Washington State.  We had so much fun with them, as the girls each had a friend their exact age.  Seriously, Ruthie is one day younger than Andie.  The others are just 2 or 3 months different. 

 Andie and Ruthie were in the same Kindergarten class and became best friends. 

 Sadie and Ali.  Yes - Sadie is on the "small side" of the scale and Ali is on the "tall side" of the scale.  They are only 3 months apart.  I love this picture!

 Adalyn and May.  They beat us this time and May is one month older than Adalyn.  We didn't get a picture of Clara and Caleb.  They got a girl for # 4 and we finally got a boy! 

We held a small surprise goodbye party for them a week before they left.  Here is a group of good friends from our ward - it will be sad when the times comes that we move.  We have loved our time here in Georgia!

 Us, Hannah and the Clark's

 All the kids enjoyed a ride on the car....literally, all of the kids at one time.  You can't see Chris, but he is back there somewhere pushing them all around.

 All the girls.  Racheal, Lena, Ali, Stacey, Sara, Lindsey, Chelsea, Andrea, Beckie, me and Hannah.

We miss you Nelson's!  Andrea was such a great support and example for me over the last few years, but this last year in particular.  She is such a happy person, ALL OF THE TIME, and full of encouragement and friendship.  We definitely took advantage of living by each other - and I always bought an extra sour cream when I went to the store, waiting for her call to borrow it.  :)  We are so blessed with so many great friends.  I've had a great time having girls' night out, going to Myrtle Beach with some of them, movie nights, game nights, park days, beach play dates Bunco.  It's great because most of us are students, so we understand each others situations and have made the best of it. 

Happy Birthday Shawn

In May, we celebrated Shawn's 34th birthday. It was low key and I think the girls were disappointed that we didn't even decorate the how with balloons, birthday signs and streamers. Shawn doesn't like being the center of attention - so we was fine with it.

Of course - we had to be a little goofy on his special day

Shawn loves Cherry Pie and Cheesecake.  So, I decided to make a cherry cheese cake for his birthday dessert.

It was delicious!

Happy Birthday Shawn.  Thank you for being a wonderful husband, father and friend.  We feel so lucky to have you at the head of our family.  You work hard to support us and we enjoy spending time with you!

End of School Celebrations

Ali and Andie had a wonderful year of school and we are so proud of their hard work and dedication to going to school full-time.  They both progressed so much - we are so happy they've each had such a great experience so far!  Here we are at Ali's moving on ceremony!  She did a great job this year - going to Pre-K full-time.  Some mornings, it was really hard to wake up at 6:45am to be to school by 7:30 and then ride the bus home at 2:30pm.  It was a LONG day - but she was so excited to go and be like Andie.  I also found out near the end of the year that Ali was not only eating breakfast at home before school - but she ate it again when she got to school.  haha - Love you Al Gal. 

 She got a certificate of achievement for completeing Pre-K and also "The Happiest Personality!" award.  She received quiet a few rewards over the year, including TWO Student of the Month's (Andie was a little jealous of that!) and a certificate for outstanding behavior.  We were really, really proud of her for being such a good student and example to those around her.

We found out that she LOVES to create art pieces.  Give that girl art supplies and a stapler and you will get something amazing.  :)  Here is an example of her creations. 

 I wish this picture could do justice to the '3D' part of this project.  It was heavy for a valentine.  I also loved the MANY projects that came home with hundreds of staples on them.  Honestly, I think Ali probably went through a hole box of staples by herself.  (and I'm not exaggerating!)

 Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Converse.  Andie also had Mrs. Converse for Pre-K and we LOVE HER!  She was so great with the girls and really connected with both of them on different levels.  They have such different personalities, that at first I was a little nervous for Ali to have to same teacher, because I didn't want to have the expectation that Ali was going to learn just like Andie.  Mrs. Converse did an excellent job at accommodating to each of their individual learning curves.  Andie and Ali both had a GREAT start to their education because of her.  Thank You Mrs. Converse!

 Great Job indeed! Ali!  For having a wonderful year!  It will be interesting to possibly move back out west and only have half-day Kindergarten - which is really more like 2 1/2 hour Kindergarten!  But - I think Ali will LOVE that.  If anything, she will miss being able to eat breakfast and lunch at school.  :)

Now on to our Kindergartener!  Miss Andie!  I was really excited for Andie because she progressed so much in Pre-K, I wanted to see if she would continue on that same learning curve...and boy oh boy - did she ever!  Here is Andie with her teacher Ms. Smith.  It was Ms. Smith's first year and she did a good job.  She also had a great connection with Andie and Andie LOVED her.  Anytime she saw her teacher, Andie would jump on her and give her a BIG hug, wrapping her legs around her.  Andie said, "I just love Ms. Smith and she is skinny for me to give her BIG hugs!"  haha - I thought that was so funny.

 Andie also had a great assistant teacher, Mrs. Mac!  She always gave really nice, thoughtful homework reviews and compliments - Thank you Mrs. Mac.

 Andie received the Principal's award in her class for the end of the year.  That award was given to "The Best of the Best" students, meaning they were helpful and progressed on every level.  Mrs. Haney is retiring this year and that school will miss her.  I think she had a very positive influence on the children, and we're grateful for that. 

 As you can see, Andie raked in the awards, once again for the end of the year.  She had perfect attendance during the last quarter!  I thought that was cool, I always wanted to get the perfect attendance award, but don't think I ever did.  She also got a diploma of completion of Kindergarten.  She again, the only one in her class to receive the High Honor Roll, meaning she had all E's all year (exceeds expectation) and finally she got the award for the highest reader in the class, she ended on a 2nd grade reading level.  Ms. Smith mentioned that she was debating to give her the high math in class too - but we're glad she found someone else to give it too!  Andie gets a little *too excited* because "she is so smart!"  We are trying to teach her humility as well.  :)

With that being said, and I'll say it again in a positive way - but we are SO PROUD of our daughters for their outstanding behavior and work this year in school.  We are glad they are making the best of their education, trying their hardest and succeeding.  Hopefully they will continue to do so and have a full and enriched life of learning.  My only question is (as we are on our third week of summer break) - When does school start again?  ;)  Just kidding - I love my girls and I love having them home!  They deserve a break!

Barnyard Moosical

I was so excited this year when the Kindergarten announced they were going to have a "Moosical!"  Andie was chosen for a speaking part and everyone did so well.  We loved it.

 Andie was a "funky chicken".  She was so excited that they got to wear their sun glasses because they were funky.  The girls loved the program so much, that the following day they each made their own funky chicken costumes and hats.  They were singing all afternoon!

The best is the videos which will give you a sampling of the performance.  Way to go Andie - you sure make a cute chicken!

Enjoy!

Atlanta Zoo Field Trip

At the beginning of May, the Kindergarten Classes had a field trip to the Atlanta Zoo. Of course, I couldn't send my 6 year old to Atlanta for the day without going with her. We had a great time together, and with some of our best friends - the Nelson's!

Caleb's stocking up on the bottle and Clara was ready to give us directions. 

Andie and Ruthie being pink flamingos

Of course, we had to pose for every statue....

and picture board.  (not all shown!)

Caleb and Mom in the bird house

Feeding the birds

GORILLA! 

Our cute little nest of chicks!

This foot massage machine was running for free, and the girls LOVED having their feet tickled.  

Family Photo in the petting zoo.

Have you ever pet a goat?  Andie has.

Riding the carousel.  Had had just finished a "research project" on jaguars and found this one to ride on.  She was SO excited, of course, because they are the fastest animal!

Riding on the caboose of the train.  The girls thought it was so fun driving backwards!

Here we are, at the end of the day.  We had a great time and it was especially great to spend one-on-one time with Andie.  Yes, I had Caleb, but he is very low maintenance for the time being :)

Below are some pictures of just the animals.  We felt fortunate that every time we got to a new exhibit, the animals were active and moving around.  Yahoo!

 If you look closely at the Gorilla, she is holding a TINY little new born.  It was so neat to watch her just stare into it's eyes.  Andrea may or may not have gotten a little teary eyed. 

 how would it be to be a panda?  lounge around all day and eat bamboo.  ha!