Emotional Day

Today was an emotional day all the way around. I feel like I have been on the verge of tears (or actually having them roll down my cheeks) all day! 

First - Josie's last day of school was today and watching the teacher give one last hug as they each walked out the door made me start bawling like a baby. She wrote a very nice note in Josie's book too - queue more tears. (I bought "Oh the Places You'll Go" with the hopes of having each teacher sign it at the end of the year - thanks Pinterest!) Josie was sad too because she said Mrs. Brown talked a lot about this class would always be special to her since it was her first kindergarden class. 

A photo from this morning...

Here's a page from her end of the year journal. I think she nailed it and am so glad this is what she got out of the year - the important stuff!

Second - Our Rotary Club put on the annual Memorial Day program. We start the meeting as usual at Ponderosa and have a brief program. This year, Rick Walker talked about a young boy from Hancock County who died in Vietnam. Talk about touching. We then headed down to the Veteran's Park for a prayer, 21 Gun Salute, and taps. I'm glad we do this every year as it always renews my pride in our country. Someone said today that these men died to ensure we were a sovereign nation and ruled by no other. Also, it's always a good reminder that we need to be telling our kids the true meaning of the holiday, just as we do Christmas and Easter. Tom got some great photos here a while back. It's really a fantastic memorial. 

Finally, Andrea visited Timber Run today with Lydia and her mom. Now, we saw her last weekend at the Big May 5K, but only briefly. Seeing her talk about her customers and seeing them again just brought it all rushing back. One of our homeowners went to visit her at Methodist and cried today just talking about it. I'm so proud of how far she has come and how much strength she and her family have demonstrated. The event last weekend was a raging success and more photos can be found on our Joyner Homes Facebook Page, but here are two of my favorites of Andrea.

So, all in all, I'm exhausted. But, just like always, getting my thoughts on paper has helped immensely. I'm ready for the holiday weekend so we can just chill out as a family for a while. We have lots of fun things planned but also lots of downtime planned. My definition of a perfect long weekend!

Random May Mumblings

I have a lot to catch up on so I'm doing it all in one post. Sorry it's so random! 


1. Tessa had her first "friend" birthday party at our house. It was a great time and everyone was able to come even though it was extremely short notice. (Bad mom of the year award - right here). Funny thing - there were FOUR Josie's there! Who knew it would have been such a popular name. (I don't want to post a bunch of photos of the other kids, but here are a few from the party.)

The pink cupcakes

The gift table

Post pinata

 The birthday girl!

They ate out on the back porch - less mess!

2. It's only May 24th and we've already been swimming three times! The girls are getting really good at swimming under water and Tom was teaching Josie to tread water last year. This WILL be the year I get them in swimming lessons. :) Jack is getting more adventurous too! 

3. Tessa definitely reacts poorly to real milk. Over the last weekend, we really didn't pay too much attention to what she was eating. Four horrible fits later, I said to Tom, "Uh, she's had a lot of ice cream lately..." Turns out a little every once in a while doesn't seem to bother her, but two days in a row of ice cream and cheese sticks and she really let loose. We're back to normal now. On a similar note, I did ask the doctor about the whole thing at her five year check up and he said he certainly believes that milk can cause behavior problems even though there haven't been studies to prove it. We just need to make sure she gets enough calcium and Vitamin D. Turns out there's more of both in soy milk than in regular milk! 

4. Josie had a really nice Mother's Day Tea at school. It was actually the morning after the graduation program. I had to hand it to the teacher's for doing such a nice job on both! They were able to show us some of their work and had drawn pictures of their mothers for us to guess. I picked the right one. :) Afterward, the kids went out to recess and Josie showed me that she was able to go across all of the monkey bars - something she's been working on since the beginning of school. Pretty proud girl! 

5. Wholly Guacamole Spicy is about the best thing ever created. I can’t believe I even thought I didn’t like guacamole. One trip to Mexico as an adult changed that. This stuff is delicious and super spicy, but a good spice. I like it with Kashi’s TLC Original 7 Grain Pita Chips. I tell myself they’re not as unhealthy as regular tortilla chips, but they probably are…

Told you it was random!!! But now I feel better having it all documented!

Graduation(s)!

We had two graduations to celebrate in this house in the month of May!

First, Josie graduated from Kindergarden!  I managed to snap a bunch of photos this night too. I was amazed at the difference between Pre-K'ers and Kindergardeners. I was so impressed at the production level! They had risers and sang lots of songs and recited many poems too.

Then, a week later, Tessa graduated from Preschool! I wasn't able to get as many pictures and video as I did last year with Josie, but it was just a cute as ever.

If These Walls Could Talk - Part Two

OK - this is moving week! It's so exciting to be moving into our new house, but I wanted to take a minute and remember our house on 150 W. (Just like I did at our old house here.) Although it has had it's challenges, we also made lots of memories as well. It's been a relatively short 8 months in this home but full of activity nonetheless.

Moving in was somewhat of an adventure because it took FOREVER! This was the first time we hired professional movers so we thought it would be a breeze. I think they pretty severely underestimated the time it would take to do the full move. Anyway, we finally got in and settled.

The house has a little step down into the playroom. I remember the first time we visited with Jack, my aunt Trena was with us and she said Nicole had a little step like that too in their old house. She said Jack would have it mastered within a few short weeks and he certainly did! It's hard to believe he had just started walking when we moved into this house!

One of the first, significant event that happened in this house was on August 13th. We were actually at the lake this weekend, but returned home shortly after on Sunday. This was day of the tragic State Fair Stage Collapse. Our Sales Consultant, Andrea, was very seriously injured and in a coma for weeks. She is on her way to an awesome recovery now, but it was a life-changing event for many people. I miss her daily and the first few weeks at this house were cloaked in a range of emotions and prayer for her.

The very day after the accident, was the night before Josie's first day of kindergarden. While it was difficult to be happy and excited, I think we managed to put up a good front. Nicole was over too and we all helped Josie pick out the perfect outfit. The first day of school is always an event to be celebrated and it was extra special considering it was our first born's first day of public school. She had a great two weeks with Mrs. Hahn and then, due to scheduling changes at the school, she was moved to Mrs. Brown's class and has had a wonderful year!

Tessa's first day of school came next. Another year at Bradley! It's hard to believe that in two weeks, I'll be taking her in for Kindergarden Round-Up!

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I nursed Jack for the last time in the rocker in his room at this house too. It's always a bittersweet moment. I cherish the time I get to spend with each of my kids in those days because it always passes so quickly. But, it also brings a certain feeling of independence as well when that time is over.

Thanks to Pinterest, we've done a bunch of crafting in this house! I think I had extra free time since it was a smaller house and we didn't have as much to maintain. Either way, we surely had fun!

Josie had her first "scary" Halloween costume here too!

And, Jack learned to dance. :) He and his sisters had many dance parties in this house...

Josie also celebrated her 6th birthday in this house! She had her first true "friend" birthday party complete with goodie bags and a pinata!

On Thursday, we'll be moving on to a new chapter in our lives. We don't know how long we'll live in this house but I imagine we'll see plenty more firsts - first bus rides, more first days of school, first bike rides with no training wheels, first sleep-overs, and maybe even first boyfriends and first dates. Oh, what an adventure it will be!

Kindergarden Rocks!

Josie has had a wonderful year in kindergarden so far. I wanted to take a few minutes to just record some of her experiences.

This year, she has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown has been the reading specialist for kindergarden and 1st grade for a while at Mt. Comfort, but she has not ever taught a kindergarden class. She told me she was so excited to teach a class this year! I think that makes a perfect combination for a teacher - experienced in the classroom with five and six year olds (AKA - not fresh out of school) but with the enthusiasm of a fresh out of school teacher. She has done a fantastic job!

Josie has done well in school and is getting pretty good at making her way through the Easy Readers. She got a few level 2 easy readers for her birthday and has been enjoying those. She is also surprising me everyday with what she picks up. She'll tell me about the morning announcements and what's going on in the school along with the weather report she hears on the radio in the morning.

She really seems to like all of her classmates and was worried about inviting only a few to her birthday party because she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Delaney and Keira are two little girls she seems to talk about a lot and she invited them to her party. Luke is her friend that is a boy. She makes it very clear that she likes him but doesn't love him. He's asked her to be his boyfriend but she told him he had to ask her dad. Love it!

Back to Mrs. Brown - she really makes an effort to share the happenings of the classroom with parents. She posts a newsletter every week with photos and has sent a few emails to me with funny and cute stories about Josie. Here are two excerpts we received recently...

- Also, you should have seen her when Mrs. Whitaker (the principal) came last week!  She was so excited.  At one point during the book Mrs. Whitaker was reading, she was talking about how "No one knows everything" and Josie pops up with, "except God, right?, he knows everything."  Mrs. Whitaker was a little taken aback and had a huge smile as she looked at Josie.  So sweet.

- Hope you have a great weekend.  I am certain that Josie made the days of several Conner Prairie Volunteers when she declared, "This is the Best Day Ever!" - the kind of moment moms (and teachers:)  live for!!

And, my favorite email we've received so far was sent out to all of the parents of her class.

- Have I told you all lately how much I love being your child's teacher!?  I am so lucky.  I know it every single day.

She's been just having a wonderful year and I feel so lucky that she has a wonderful teacher. It is really reaffirming our choice to move to this district. The first year of public education can really shape a young learners thoughts about school so I'm happy she has had such a positive experience!

Random Thoughts on a Rainy Tuesday

This is a busy week for our family. Meetings, interviews at the office, house plans, parent/teacher conferences, hunting for Tom along with everything else we usually do. I'm getting a little stressed thinking about the pace of life, and with the fact that it is already October 18th! Where is fall going?

So, since life is speeding by, I wanted to take a second (and just a second - no time for more) and capture a few things.

- Josie knows all of her sight words, probably about 12 or so, and also has memorized not only how to read them but remembers them all when we're not doing flash cards. This morning, she was putting them into sentences in the car even though there's probably only one verb (see) and one noun (can - well, could be a noun anyway). She has her dad's photographic memory. I also learned that she knows all of the planets and possibly in order. She claims she saw it on a Space Bubble Guppies show. The kid is a sponge.

- The girls call Pizza Hut the Pizza Parfait, which just cracks me up. We call it the pizza buffet and I think they heard parfait. I don't correct them.

- Josie lets me pick out her outfit in the morning and has told Tom it's just easier. If anyone compliments her on her outfit, she says, "Tell my mom - she picked it out." Tessa is a totally different story.

- Jack is all over the place - climbing on the coffee table, up the bunk bed stairs and just generally getting into trouble. He's also really starting to talk more. His favorite is probably uh-oh and dog, but he also says ball, mama, dada, and a few other things. He gets more adorable every day and probably gets into more trouble everyday. He's also learned to take his pants off which scares me every time I go into get him up from a nap.

That's it for now. I've already spent too much time here. Running late...

More Fun at Tuttle!

I'm sensing a yearly tradition here...

We've already been to Tuttle once as a family - more photos and info here.

Both girls had a scheduled fall field trip to the orchard as well. Tessa was last Friday and one parent per child was required. Josie was Tuesday and I signed up to be the chaperone. I was so glad I was able to attend! (The timing ended up being not so great because Jack was sick.)

Here are some photos from Tessa's trip. We got to go on a hayride to pick pumpkins then pick four apples each from the trees. Finally, we got to go into the play area.

Picking her pumpkin - they cut it right off the vine!

Posing with the sunflowers and cornflowers...

Apples!

Got it!

 Playtime -

I think this is the standard pumpkin patch cutout - I've seen it on a few facebook friend pages...

 So cute...

 Perfect!

 Jumping pose! Caught in the act!

Josie's trip was a little more involved. First, it included a school bus ride, which was a first for Josie. Then, we not only got a hayride to pick pumpkins and picked out apples, but we got a nice tour of the factory where they prepare the cider and prep apples for the store. Then, they also received a nice lesson in bees and pollination.

She wore her I Love Apples shirt for the occasion...

 Bins upon bins of apples...

 This is Josie's friend Kiera. They're so cute together!

 Peaceful...

 Time to find some apples!

 Got em!

 I was surprised at how many apples grow in one area...

 Back at school - an apple a day!