Field Trips, birthday celebrations and a graduation!

 I got to go on my first field trip ever with Taylor on Friday. Yes, she's in 3rd grade and yes, I'm being serious when I say it's my first field trip I've ever been on with her. When you are a teacher it's hard to go to your own kids field trips at the end of the year. Her teacher this year has several planned and this one was early enough to not being close to June that it all fit and worked out. My girl was beyond excited and over the moon that I sat with her on the bus and stayed by her side for every minute of the field trip. I just soaked it all in; her interacting with her friends, silently thanking the Lord that I didn't have a boy (because wow! They are a whole new level of energy!) and watching her teacher nurture and love on all her students.

 The grounds we were on were beautiful- I think it helped that it was 75 degrees outside but really, as you'll see, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures because the place was screaming with cuteness and beautiful gardens.

 The highlight for ALL the kids was that they got to have a mini lesson on worms and then got a big pile of compost chalk full of worms. They got to pick them up, measure them and hunt for baby worms. I'm half toying with the idea of bringing in some worms to my class just to keep them quiet for these last 28 days!

 I warned you earlier that I took way too many pictures of flowers so you can quickly scroll down if you don't want to see these! Spring has sprung and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

 (this one was taken by Taylor)

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 On Saturday, we went to Bothell to celebrate our adorable Trey and Sweet Emilie's birthdays! I can't get over the fact that as soon as we arrive for our visits, the four cousins are instantly connected. They are four souls that are certainly intertwined and full of love for each other.

Hey hot stuff! Cool Shades!

And this girl? Love her to the moon and back! We got to giggling on Saturday night and the sun slowing started creeping down and instead of rushing to get home you know what I did? I sat. And it was so nice. We laughed, we caught up. It was good.

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Our family was split up on Saturday. Us in Bothell and Dave in Pullman. Zack, our nephew graduated from WSU! We are so proud of his hard work and are both in shock that he's old enough to be all grown up! We love you Zack!

I loved getting this picture of Dave after graduation. It sums him up perfectly.

 

We spent our Sunday catching up with one another, running errands early so that we could enjoy the beautiful weather we've been blessed with this May! Stay tuned for an adorable and easy project to make for Teacher Appreciation! 

Making Memories

It's been a making memories kind of a week.

Taylor had a big hit (and on top of it her first one. Ever.) on Tuesday. She hit the ball H.A.R.D. into left field and had an RBI to tie up the game. Pretty sure I had tears in my eyes and was maybe screaming just a bit too loud. We celebrated with ice cream. She wore her hair tie to school with a soft ball shirt the next day. She's been pretty proud every since.

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The Procession of the Species Parade is always a big deal in Olympia. We go and watch every year. This year, Maddie's class was IN the parade. We went to a costume making party at the school and the girls picked out costumes and then they looked at me and said:" What are you going to be mom?" and I tried to play it all off like I hadn't heard them. Then, the next day, Maddie comes home with a duck hat for me to wear in the parade because yellow is my favorite color so I should definitely be a duck. At this point, I know I'm going to have to be in the parade. But I'm not going to be a duck. I quickly cruise through Pinterest and find butterfly wings that I can make and tell the girls that I'll be a yellow butterfly. Of course they want to be a butterfly, too. So, what do we do? We embrace this new idea full force and go to JoAnn's to get the materials we need to make wings and a tutu. I won't lie. I wasn't jazzed about doing this. BUT. I loved every minute of it. The girls worked so hard on their tutu's and wings...making them both expect for the outer part of the wings. We laughed, we worked hard and then we marched proudly in the parade.

The highlight for the girls was getting to put on face paint. Thank goodness Grandma Carolyn has mad skills in the painting department. She rocked it.

The parade itself was a very fun and unique experience. We were in the last group of the parade and by the time we actually got to move forward we had been waiting for over an hour. The girls walked their little hearts out. They smiled and waved at family and friends.

 Moments like these make me a happy person. I love to see my kids with their friends, love that they want to be with me and to do things like this with me and I love that at the end of the night, I have sweet sleeping butterflies like this one.
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This is one of my favorite spots in Olympia. I drive by this spot every day. Sometimes 2 or 3 times. I never stop. I finally stopped. The girls and I raced across the street, holding hands and giggling to get this picture. Olympia has my heart.

We were blessed with some beautiful weather this week which meant that we had to have a Friday night bon fire! We roasted marshmallows which turned into tasty Smores.

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Somebody had a birthday over the weekend. His request? To be with his family and to have Dirty Dave's pizza for dinner. We made him a delicious breakfast and then took him to the movies. And after the movies, we convinced him to take us to a couple of estate sales. This may or may not have been on his list of things he wanted to do on his birthday but he was a trooper and we scored a few new items for our house! We love you Daddy!

 These two....insisted on getting their pictures taken at the movies. They are being "scary".

 

This was a good week.