Saturday, May 24, 2014

Flower girl!

Aubrey was a precious flower girl for her preschool teacher today.  What a trooper!  After dancing in the morning and then standing in the hot sun for several hours, she earned her cake!  The wedding was actually on a baseball diamond and Aubrey had a flower baseball attached to her basket.  It was a cute idea and Aubrey was the perfect flower girl.  The music stopped working right before her song but she waited patiently like the good girl she is.  Go Aubrey!  I'm sure she'll sleep well tonight!


Aubrey and Ms. Julie ready to rehearse/


The basket with the flower baseball.


Walking out onto the field for the first time.


Pretending to throw petals.


Waiting for her song.


Walking in.


The day of the wedding.


My beautiful girl!


Waiting patiently.


Sitting in front of the fan.  It was so hot!


All the girls.  They were so sweet to Aubrey.


Walking onto the field.


The ceremony.


Davis with his preschool teacher, Mrs. Boyd.


Andrew, Mrs. Wilson, Ms. Lisa, Davis, & Mrs. Boyd.  These ladies were the best preschool teachers for all 3 of my children.


Aubrey's preschool friends, Katelyn & Rebecca.

Waiting patiently for cake.


Aubrey with the new Mrs. Watson.


Finally... CAKE!


Worn out.

Dance recital!

This was one huge day for Aubrey today!  Not only was she a flower girl, she also had her Dance Dept. recital at 10 this morning.  She did great!  She was in two dances, one for tap and one for jazz.  Next year she'll be in three because she's adding ballet again.  She is definitely our busy one!  So proud of you, sweet girl!


Sweet, supportive brothers.  They hung in there all day long.


I love my dancer!


Flowers AND a trophy!


They still wanted to love on her even after sitting for over an hour and watching tons of girls (and a few boys) dance.

The Mystery Reader was...

...a bride to be!  Aubrey's preschool teacher, Julie Clamp, came to be the Mystery Reader in Aubrey's classroom on Friday.  What's even more special is that Ms. Julie got married today and Aubrey was her flower girl. Thank you, Ms. Julie, for taking time out on the day before your wedding to come spend time with Aubrey!


Aubrey was so surprised!


We love you, Ms. Julie!

Coffee House Poetry Reading

We are really going to miss Kindergarten, especially Mrs. Cook & Mrs. Sample.  They do so many fun activities!  Yesterday was the Coffee House Poetry Reading where the students all dressed in black and read a poem each had written.  Aubrey's poem was about soccer.


Hard to believe my baby is headed to first grade soon.


Daddy's girl.


Reading her poem.


Daddy's girl again!


Enjoying her cupcake.


Love these ladies!  Mrs. Sample and Mrs. Cook.


Best friend, Lyla Kate.


Aubrey, Lyla Kate, & Jill


We all wish we could just move up this whole class together.


Monday, May 5, 2014

Strawberry Picking

It's my favorite time of the year- my birthday!!! Just kidding (sort of).  It's strawberry season!  There is nothing better than the taste of fresh strawberries.  We have an awesome patch here and we try to go at least twice a season.  This past Saturday we made our first visit of the year and even dragged Rick along with us (he doesn't like strawberries which completely boggles our minds).  The strawberries didn't disappoint and we even dipped some in chocolate last night.  Yum!  Happy Spring, everyone!


They love strawberries!


Yum!


I lost count of how many Andrew ate.


Notice Davis' bucket is nearly empty.


Rick and Aubrey were serious about filling their bucket.  Don't worry, she ate plenty when it was full.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Pelting the Principals

In case I haven't mentioned it, we absolutely LOVE Davis' school this year. It's an all 6th grade school and it's run incredibly well. We're going to miss it.  We are so proud of Davis, he will be taking Honors History when he heads to Dutch Fork Middle School in the fall.  Today, as a reward for having such an awesome fund raiser, the students were able to throw water balloons at the principal and 3 assistant principals.  It was hilarious and so much fun!  Davis got the assistant principal he wanted, Mrs. Vogel.  She's the one in charge of all the discipline.  All the students went after her.  The principals were great sports and wore water wings, floaties, and life jackets as part of the fun.  We will miss you, Crossroads Middle School!


Mrs. Vogel and Mr. Hutchinson (he's the Principal).


Ready for action!


Taunting the students.


Ready...


...aim...


...fire!

Spring Break 2014

Our kids are travelers and museum lovers so we go on those type of vacations for Spring Break and fall Break and even in the summer.  We are completely amazed they haven't even asked to go to Disney World.  Andrew has been dying to go see Sue, the first complete T-Rex skeleton ever found.  Sue is at the Field Museum in Chicago so that's where we went.  Andrew & Aubrey took their first plane ride, and since Davis was only about 2 when he rode on a plane, it was kind of like his first time, too.   They were all troopers and amazing little travelers.  They were perfectly behaved in the airports, on the plane, in the big city, and rode all the subways, trains, and taxis like pros.  The weather was cold and snowy but it didn't slow us down.  We toured the Field Museum, Aquarium, and Museum of Science and Industry.  It was an awesome Spring Break with some pretty awesome kids!


Ready for take off!


The boys were excited!


Aubrey's stuffed animals apparently liked riding on the tray table.


Enjoying the ride.


Best burgers ever at M Burger!


It was a teeny tiny place but we didn't care, we were starving!


First stop- Sue!!!


He was completely in awe!


Sue is pretty big.


Sue's real head, it's too heavy to fit on the actual skeleton.


Making music together.


Aubrey found a friend just her size.


The walls with the eyes were a little creepy.


The eyes were watching us!


Building Sue.


Checking out an exhibit on music.


Pumping blood to a giraffe's brain.


She was mesmerized.


Snow...


... LOTS of snow!


So pretty!


More of the city.


Davis loved looking at the lake.


Bundled up!


Riding the subway.


Lots of tall buildings.  They were fascinated.  I didn't think Columbia was that small!


Looking for the aquarium.


They weren't used to having to cross the street so quickly, either.


Ready for a 4D movie.  


Aubrey thought this corral was beautiful.


We loved the teeny tiny blue fish.


Museum of Science & Industry: Lots of being silly...


...Rick & I even got in on it...


...haha...


...last one!


Andrew actually asked to have his picture taken in front of the leopard.


It took about 50 tries to get this action shot of Davis "jumping" onto the train.


Working on the submarine.


Davis in the Navy.


Andrew fell in love with the U 505.


Reading the cartoons to Aubrey.


Driving the tractor- Grandpa should be proud!


More of these...


...they LOVED these...


...see?


Aubrey on the periscope.


Relaxing in one of the bunks on the submarine.


Making the balloons float.


Creating a vortex.


Aubrey's turn.


The tornado was a little too real for me.


Creating an avalanche.


Not sure what they're doing.


It was so cold, but pretty!


My little climber.


You can't really tell, but that's Aubrey's face projected on the mannequin's head.


Checking out the train.


So cool!