Summer Fun Begins

Well, it's not actually summer yet; it is still spring. However, today was the first day of summer break from school. The kids and I made the most of it! We spent part of the day at the fruit and berry patch. As we entered the farm area, I rolled down the windows so the kids could smell the honeysuckle. They were so excited it was comical! When I parked the van beside the strawberry fields, the kids walked right up to the honeysuckle growing on the fence nearby instead! Mackenzie showed Josiah how to suck the "honey" from the honeysuckle. After learning, he immediately began filling his strawberry bucket with honeysuckle! The above picture captures the look of surprise on Mackenzie's face as he began "picking" the honeysuckle! Those kids just crack me up.
The really funny thing is that, after being totally surprised by Josiah putting honeysuckle in his bucket, Mackenzie joined right in! So, there's my two kiddos, side-by-side, picking the honeysuckle. :)

Next Josiah was eager to learn how to pick the strawberries. (Notice all the honeysuckle in his bucket!) So, I taught him which ones to search for and off he went into the fields!

Here's Mackenzie, ready to begin. (Notice her honeysuckle, too!) :)

My two berry pickers, hard at work.

Proudly displaying a nice strawberry that she found.

After we were finished picking berries, we spent some time with the goats and sheep. (And, just in case you're wondering...Mackenzie dressed herself, without input from me today. He, he. She insists that her shirt and shorts DO match. Since we were heading to the farm, I decided that would be just fine and she could certainly have the liberty to choose her attire for the day.)

Josiah began feeding them the grass without hesitation.

Mackenzie, on the other hand, was much more timid at first. She quickly warmed up to feeding them, too, but her favorite was the baby!

My sweet babies.

Our summer time out of school is off to a great start! I'm looking forward to many more days ahead with my two precious children.

Our Graduate!

It's official! Mackenzie is finished with her Kindergarten year. Sigh. It went too fast. Sigh again. Actually, her whole first 5 3/4 years of life have zoomed by so quickly. We are very proud of her, and we enjoyed celebrating her most recent accomplishment last night. Here's our little graduate walking toward the school hand in hand with her Z-pa. (Granna and Josiah are just ahead to the right.)
This was our attempt at a picture of all four of us. Ha. Graduation was at 6:30pm. We had to be there at 6:00pm. Our kids usually go to bed at 7:00pm or slightly thereafter. Needless to say, they were exhausted by the end of the evening!

I love this one of David, Mackenzie, and me together. Zearl took it for us. Thanks, Zearl!

I like this one, too, so I posted them both!

Excited and ready for graduation to begin!

Mackenzie and Avery.

Audrianna, Bonnie, Mackenzie, and Avery.

David and his dad sat in a different section of the auditorium so they could get a good angle on the video. The rest of us sat in the middle area. The above picture is of our group. From left to right: Betty (Granna), Geri (our wonderful neighbor who is originally from Bulgaria and has "adopted" us as family here in the States), Metodi (He's visiting from Bulgaria for the first time this week and enjoyed seeing the school.), and Trifon (Geri's husband who lives across the street from us.) I was so glad they could come with us to the graduation. I do believe they all enjoyed it!

Mackenzie lined up with her class, ready to receive her diploma.

Mrs. Haluska on the left, Mackenzie in the middle, and the elementary principle on the right.

A proud Mackenzie standing center stage with her diploma! I just love this picture!

After receiving diplomas, all four kindergarten classes lined up on stage to perform. They counted to 100 by 5's. Quoted scriptures in Spanish and using Sign Language. Stated several math equations, both addition and subtration. Talked about how they like to read, and sang two wonderful songs (Counting on God and I am Yours) with sign language. GREAT performance! Yep, we're proud parents. ;)

Afterwards, we were able to snap a picture of Mackenzie with Geri and Trifon before she decided she was too tired for any more pictures! :)

End of the Year Breakfast

Mackenzie's Kindergarten Graduation is tonight! I'm guessing that will be a whole separate blog posting, so I'm posting some pics from yesterday and today right now. Mackenzie received a Willow Tree Angel, Courage, as a part of her graduation present from Nona (my mom). She is extremely proud of her special gift!
This morning we (David, Mackenzie, Josiah, Granna, Z-pa, and myself) attended a breakfast at school for Mackenzie's class from 8:00am to 9:00am, and then one for Josiah's class from 9:00am to 10:00am! What a memorable morning! Above is a picture of Mackenzie with her friend, Avery. All the kids signed each other's year books today.

Here's a picture of Mackenzie receiving her award from Mrs. Haluska. She was presented with an Almond Joy as she is always joyful. She comes into the classroom in the mornings with a smile on her face and seems to always be smiling. Neat award! I am proud of her.

Mackenzie with Mrs. Haluska, her wonderful teacher. This was the last day of Kindergarten. Actually, yesterday was the last full day. Today is simply the breakfast (out of dress code!) and graduation tonight. Big day, indeed. We presented the Shutterfly book I made for Mrs. Haluska today, too. I think she likes it. :) Each child has a page in it, full of pictures from the year. The last few pages of the book are quotes directly from the children. Kinda like interviews with them. I have a copy for Mackenzie, too. All the kids signed the inside page of the book. They were proud of that!

Then we headed to Josiah's breakfast. I like this picture of him with his best buddy, Kameron. Brady is the girl on the other side of Josiah. They, too, are buddies.

Mrs. Missi with Josiah.

Mrs. Missi with her whole class full of kids! Aren't they cuties?! Back row from left to right: Brooke, Kenley, Ava, Mrs. Missi, Lexi, Josiah. Front row from left to right: Brady and Kameron.

They have a great class and have had a wonderful year in the 3's MDO.

Mother's Day and Grandparents

We are enjoying a visit from David's parents this week. It was convenient to get some updated pictures of us all together at church this morning! I was pleased with how they turned out. The six of us together.
Z-Pa and Granna with Mackenzie and Josiah. I love how this one turned out of all four of them!

Here's a picture of David and me that Mackenzie took for us today! Not bad for a 5 1/2 year old! She didn't even have it set up on the tripod or anything. :)

Thanks, Mackenzie, for a great picture.

Here's my two boys. Aren't they handsome?! We have to "catch" Josiah for pictures these days. He's always on the go and seldom stops long enough to pose. :) David scooped him up and we snapped the picture of the two of them laughing. I like it!

And, since this past week was the last full week of Kindergarten, Mackenzie invited some friends over to play. (We'd been meaning to have them over for quite a while, but the year nearly got away from us!) Above is a picture of Mackenzie and Savannah. Sweet girls!

They enjoyed decorating their own shirts.

On Mother's Day (yeah, I'm behind on my blogging) we ate lunch at Sam's Club after church and then went swimming! The evening before David and the kids took me to eat at The Butcher Shop. We figured it would be too crowded to eat out on Mother's Day! Anyways, we had a wonderful day.

And since I had not had any recent pictures with my two precious kiddos, David snapped some for me...in the parking lot at Sam's Club! We forgot while we were still at church with all the nice greenery around us. :)

I like how the quick ones at Sam's turned out, though. :)

David made a collage picture for me, gave me a picture frame that says "Mom" and has the scriptures from Proverbs 31 about her children and husband praising and blessing her. I cried. I love those verses and am so humbled that he found a frame like that and bought it for me! He also gave me some new (really nice!) flip flops and pajamas, too. It was truly a wonderful day. I feel incredibly blessed and loved. (Josiah was too busy playing to come join us for the above picture.)

I suppose my next post will be about Mackenzie's Kindergarten Graduation, which is this coming Tuesday night...followed by Josiah's 4th Birthday later this month! Busy times, but wonderful.

Mother's Day Tea

Here's a quick update of our garden. We even have some tiny green tomatoes growing out there! Another view of the garden.
Green beans, okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and peppers.


Today was the "Mother's Day Tea" for Josiah's 3 year old Mother's Day Out class.

When I arrived, Josiah was sitting at his table with two pieces of paper made especially for me!

Here's Josiah and his best buddy, Kameron. These boys are just a little over 2 months apart. As hard as it is to believe, Josiah will be 4 years old on May 24!

Here's Josiah with his WONDERFUL teacher, Mrs. Missi. She has done an amazing job of setting a positive tone for Josiah's whole educational career! We love Mrs. Missi!

Sweet pic of Josiah and Mrs. Missi.

Here is one of the two papers Josiah made for me. You may have to click on the picture to make it big enough to read. It is priceless!!! They were told to draw a picture of their mom. The one in the middle is me as a baby. The one on the left is me as a little girl. The one on the right is me all grown up! That's how Josiah explained the picture to me today. I love it!!!

Above is a hand print flower of Josiah's hand with a sweet poem, too. My favorite part is that I now have a laminated copy of Josiah's signature! He's been writing his own name, all by himself, for quite some time now (at least since last semester). Pretty impressive for a little guy who's still 3 (for a few more weeks)!

I loved the interview so much that I typed up one with Mackenzie after school today. The above sheet of paper is hers. Her answers were precious, and you can see her signature and her drawing of me, too!

This is a picture that Mrs. Missi had saved from August 2009. Josiah drew it himself. He told her that it was him with his soccer ball. (The assignment was to draw a self portrait.) Well done! He was 3 yr 3 mo at the time!

This picture (above) is of Josiah "all growed up." He drew this self portrait this week (May 2010)! Kids are hilarious and totally priceless. I have had a wonderful Mother's Day already!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day, too! :)

Tiki Pineapples

Several years ago, when David and I were in Cancun, we enjoyed some type of fruit drink out of a "tiki pineapple." Today, a grocery store was selling pineapples for .99 cents each! We were excited about the price, and David surprised us by buying four of them! Mackenzie, our crafty kid, LOVED getting to help her daddy build the tiki pineapples!
And since the price on pineapples was SO good, David and Mackenzie made one for each of us!

Then David let the kids choose between chocolate or vanilla milkshake. Josiah chose vanilla, and Mackenzie chose chocolate. The kids loved drinking their milkshakes from the pineapple head!

Two very busy kids. :)
What fun for all of us! Thanks, David, for taking the time and energy to do something special like that for us. Love ya!