End of the year

Ella was tickled....and surprised (like mom) to win the citizenship award. This was a pretty big deal as it is only given to one person in each class. Had I known, I would have invited Scott, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends.....such a proud mom, I am! Here she is receiving the award from our principal and her teacher, Mrs. Galer. It is hard to believe, Ella completed her first year of school last week (June 5). We couldn't be more proud of her. She made so much progress socially, emotionally, relationally, and academically. Who knew she would learn so much in kindergarten? Most importantly, she loves school and adores her teacher(who will forever live in her heart as "My Mrs. Galer"). As many of you know, it was our intention all along that Ella would do kdg this year with me at East for half days and then go to Caledonia next year on full day alternate days. Ella tried to "negotiate" her way into first grade after we shared how everything was going to work next fall. She gave it her best pitch one afternoon while I was prepping dinner. The conversation is a little fuzzy at the moment but I distinctly remember her having a specific plan with reasons to back it up as to why she should go to first grade.

She seems to be taking it all in stride now and tells everyone who asks, that she is going to a "different kindergarten" next year....all with her little smile. Here is a picture of the class.
With her favorite teacher!

At the school picnic (which had to be held indoors due to rain) Ella and Mrs. Galer dance in front of a large crowd to the music provided by the very talented band.

Just a few of her favorite friends hamming it up after a lunch of hot dogs and ice cream!

People always told me how quickly life goes by. I never believed them until I had kids. The kids are all at such fun stages and I want to soak it ALL up and enjoy it ALL. I feel like there is never enough time in the day to have all the fun we want and manage to get all the necessary work done. Our life is so full of blessing. Being a teacher can be tough but I am so grateful for June, July, and August. I am thrilled to be filling my days with fun at the park, reading a good book with Elle, splashing in the lake, taking fish off Carter's hook, and listening to Christian babble on and on. I dread how much time my thesis project will take away from this but thanks to naps and early bedtimes, I think I might squeak it out. I am overwhelmed right now since the most writing I've done the last 5 years has been for email, blogging, or modeling for my students at the first grade level. The task of writing in a highly specialized format that requires LOTS of thinking and research is daunting to me. As my good friend Kirsten says, "let's just stay positive about all this!" I am trying to take a cue from her. And so it will be!

More pictures to come...I promise Grandma! :)

Just about summer

I have this "love-hate" relationship with Memorial weekend.
Love it because:

• It is warm...reminding me summer is just around the corner
• we usually go to the lake, again-summer. is. CLOSE.
• It is a four day weekend for me! YIpee!

Hate it because:

• School is almost out and I am in scramble mode to wrap it all up...especially the past three years between maternity leaves ('03 &'08) and this year packing up all my "stuff"
• Carter is really senstive to the pollen in the air and he is congested, cranky, and snotty
• This year, I have "THE THESIS" chapter one, due..next week which equates to LOTS of extra curricular reading (not the trashy magazine type)
• The mosquitoes are terrible...note Christian's gigantic welt on his face!

We ended up having a great weekend. We mulched, landscaped, planted flowers, went to the lake (so much fun but there aren't any pictures, all hands were needed on deck), played in the yard, played in the water, blew bubbles and ate ice cream at least once a day. It was great. Of course, there was no sleeping in or any craziness of that sort! But it was a relaxing and productive weekend.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Christian wasn't a fan of the pool at first. So I didn't put his suit on but before we knew it, he plopped in and was so tickled! Look at that face!
Christian's language is booming. He now "sings" E-I-E-O", a short version of hickory dickory dock, Baa, baa, black sheep and itsy bitsy. Loves to ask for,"bubbles!" and hands you everything with a "he-wa (translation=here). So cute!

Carter got a great idea to "smash" the bubbles with the bocce ball mallet. Hey, it kept him busy and no one was hurt in the process.

Lots and lots of BIG bubbles, on this beautiful weekend.

Trouble

More trouble....getting into mom's plants. Not so gentle, yet.

The bubble factory

Helping me blow bubbles

Fun in the driveway. Ahhh, the simple things in life!

On Thursday, Ella had field day at school. So much fun! The batteries died in the camera so I didn't get too many shots but here are a few. Missing are the pics of her enjoying a refreshing sno-cone with friends and her team winning the shoe relay! I feel so blessed I was able to be there intermittently to root her on! I am really going to miss having her at school with me next year. Wow, time flies!
Bounce land with the girls
The "wiffle ball torch race"
Ella and her teamates putting their shoes back on after winning the shoe relay!
After running the "mini marathon course"

Well, now we are off for another 9 days of school. Whew! It will go back FAST! We sure have our sights set on having a FUN summer.

updates

For those who are follow our blog you probably noticed I have not been keeping up my posts as well. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the end of the school year rapidly approaching, packing up my classroom as I will be teaching in a different building next fall, writing chapter one of my thesis, and trying to maintain sanity and stability in a household of 5 1/2. Ahh. Only about 12 more days of school and so much to fit into those days. But I thought I would post some pictures and give a few updates. So here is a quick attempt to fill you in since my last post awhile ago.
The Garden:

All those who know me, know I can NOT keep a house plant alive. So when I made the New YEar's resolution to have a garden...it seemed a bit lofty. Since we live in the woods, there are too many creatures that would devour a traditional style garden- so we have opted for the container garden. Our deck is so full of our plants, but it has been so fun. The kids are TOTALLY into it. Watering, weeding, and finding oodles of worms to "help our plants grow". Elle and Carter enjoyed their first juicy strawberries last night. Wasn't it fun that Grandma & Grandpa Moorlag could witness all this via the video conferencing?? How trendy are we? Here are some shots of the things we have planted.

Strawberries

Proud of all that we actually have growing: broccoli, strawberries, peppers, herbs, and 5 tomatoes well underway. Oh, isn't this impressive...Elle has carrots from seeds growing. What a little green thumb!

Carter has been loving his "class". Last week, he was introduced to kickball. Although, not an immediate fan. He wanted to kick and then chase his ball. The coach lovingly encouraged the crying Carter to run the bases instead of tackling the boy who caught his ball. I think we desperately needed a nap this afternoon.

Christian trying to get in on "running the bases".

The team huddling to do their TEAM cheer!

Mother's Day:

I am abundantly blessed with our healthy and happy children. Here we are before church..no chance we could get a "good picture" of all of us. But I had to post these 2. The kids were precious and made me breakfast in bed on Saturday morning. Blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit and coffee. So delicious and sweet! I had a day full of pampering and the kids went shopping with Dad to pick out my favorite things: a new coffee mug, flavored coffee, chocolate of many sorts, and hand made gifts and cards. Scott is such a terrific dad, he really took the time to put thoughtful touches on Mother's Day.

Carter loves his magnifying glasses. Here he is examining his beans before we wrapped them in wet paper towels and put them in baggies.

This whole "bean sprouting" experiment is so amazing to everyone in the family.

Catching frogs in the "pond" is another fun past time the kids have throughly enjoyed this spring.









You can't tell very well, but Carter is dumping the water out of his boots in this shot. Sheezee!

Planting a bed of wildflowers.

the frog is in the bucket

planting the strawberries

Our little athletes

"Life is short. Play hard!"

This was a popular quote written on t-shirts while I was in high school. A far cry from the high school days, however, I feel that is the quote that pretty well sums up my life these days. I couldn't be more thankful!

I have become that mini-van driving, soccer mom! I am fully embracing it and loving it. Ella and Carter are busily involved in a couple classes these days. On Tuesday's Ella has swimming and Thursday afternoon's are joyfully spent watching Carter during his "sports sampler" class. And of course Saturday mornings are spent on the soccer field.

I am a bit behind in my blogging since life has been....well......our CRAZY life! This was the day Ella had school, swimming lessons, and the Johnson Park family jog. Whew! She was exhausted. She is taking a swimming class by herself so it ends up being private swimming lessons for 45 minutes. She can swim the full length of the pool by herself, treads water in the deep, has learned the backstroke, sidestroke, and just this week she learned to dive in head first! I am more than impressed by her determination, courage and athletic abilities! What a kid!

I am busy wrangling the boys during the lessons, trying diligently to keep them out of the pool! What a job that is! Here is Carter showing off his big muscles. This week, he spent the majority of the time lining up all 30 some cars on the bleacher getting them ready for the "parade".

After swimming lessons we came home, changed clothes and headed back to Grandville for the Johnson Park Jog. This was to be a family event. However, Scott called me sometime during this whirlwind day and dropped the bomb that he wasn't going to be able to come since he had some pretty important meetings that needed to be attended. So I managed all 3 kiddos for the race. Carter was determined to run it. I figured I would have Elle's fatigue on my side, but the energizer bunny in her kicked in and she was determined to run the mile in record time. Mind you that we had Seattle-like weather the four days leading up to this event and the course was more mud filled than anything. Elle pictured with her P.E. teacher who she adores. Mrs. Brummel-Fee teaches her yoga, and all sorts of other fit activities. She is a superstar teacher for sure! Tammi is a good friend of mine and re-assured me that I was a CRAZY person if I thought I'd be able to take the stroller on the course since it was so muddy! I was a bit nervous at this point, trying to consider how I was going to manage this event. Luckily, we had another friend there who offered to keep Christian at the finish line for us. WHEW!

Ella, Carter, Anna (from Preschool) and her family...note the dad in the picture!

Ella and Carter insisted on being in the front of the race. Here they are surveying the course and listening to the instructions before they blew the start horn.

When the horn rang, we were all together.....for a minute. Elle was off like a shot, running with the big kids. Carter had fun and was caught up in the excitement until he fell in the mud TWICE! After about a 1/4 mile in he wanted me to CARRY him?!??! Ella was way ahead of us. So I scooped up the dude on my back and ran as best I could to catch Elle....no luck. Well to make a long story short. It was the longest, hottest, heaviest mile I've ever run. It was memorable, none the less. Ella finished and so did we. Christian was thrilled to see all of us.

Carter in the background checking out how muddy he got!

Elle with her official number

Us at the finish line! YEAH we did it!

Ella & Laura from her class.

Thursday we were off to Carter's class. He is over the moon about having a class to attend and taking it all so VERY seriously! What a little, aggressive, determined man we have. Christian couldn't help but get in on the action.

Carter was very focused and listened intently to Miss Carly. I had to snap a picture of this. Each time Carter scored, Elle ran out and gave him a congratulatory hug! Precious. I know it won't last forever, but I had to enjoy it for now.