Evan's Kindergarten Graduation

Well, he did it!! Evan is officially a kindergarten graduate! They had their ceremony on Friday and he was soooo thrilled to walk out that door after graduation knowing he had the whole summer off from school!

I can't believe this year is already done. It flew by! Evan did well and is looking forward to 1st grade next year. He did especially well in reading, he reads WAY above his grade level and received an award at graduation for his reading ability. He is still working on settling down and learning to focus on his work but we expect that will come with time. Overall he had a great year--he learned a lot, loved his teacher, and made a lot of new friends!

Enjoy some of the pics I took at graduation. The first is his "official" graduation portrait! (We didn't have these when *I* graduated from kindergarten!!)

The Graduation Portrait

All of the kindergarteners

Receiving his award for reading

With his proud Grandmas!

With the school principal

Evan and Mommy

Spring Pic

Just wanted to share the boys spring pic they had taken together. This was taken at school recently. They do spring portraits at their school as well as the fall ones and I couldn't resist asking the photographer to take a picture of them together!

Cuteness alert!!

Bounce House Fun!!

Evan and N'yonna

Cameron, Connor and Ryan

Evan enjoying himself!

Today we (the school PTO) rented a bounce house for all of the kids as a reward for doing so well on their fall fundraiser. The kids had a blast with it and it was fun to watch them enjoying themselves. The only bad part was that about an hour and a half it before it was to end it started pouring rain and I was stuck outside watching the bounce house as we still had kids yet to go in. I'm still drying out! LOL

Today the letter D was brought to you by....EVAN!!

Today the kindergarteners had their annual Alphabet Parade. The kids each get to pick their own letter and then create a costume to go with it. Evan picked the letter "D". I think he picked it because he wanted to be a dog but we found Connor's old dinosaur Halloween costume in the attic so we used that and he just carried a stuffed dog. And a friend suggested "Dunkin Donuts" which we though was a genius idea (Hi Brenda!!) so we had to incorporate that into his costume!

So, here are some pics of my little "D" boy...

Pool's Open!!

The boys have been waiting since last October for the chance to open up our pool again. Finally this past week they have gotten their wish. And now they will be shriveled up little prune-like things until fall! There is almost nothing they like as much as swimming. And mom and dad quite enjoy it too! A few years ago we weren't sure if we'd ever put in a pool but now that we've had it for 3 years we can't imagine spending a summer without it. We even splurged for a pool heater this year so we can lengthen the pool season. A pool in NY is such a terrible investment, we might as well get as much use out of it as we can.

So, here are the first pool pics of the season.....there will undoubtedly be LOTS more to follow over the next 3 months!

Evan & Connor

Connor

Evan jumping in!

Riley & Evan

My New Pool Boy, Ayden! Connor and the shark

Evan & Jacob

Isn't this cute??

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

"When I grow up I want to be an animal breeder..."

Huh? An animal breeder? Does he know what animal breeders DO?? Yep, in my son's kindergarten class play last week his big line was "When I grow up I want to be an animal breeder!" And yes, he wrote that line himself. His teacher asked him what he wants to be when he grows up and that was his response. He did have a couple other lines but when I read his script and saw that one I couldn't help what the other parents would think we do at our house. I knew he had written it himself, he talks about it all the time. Usually it's a "chihuahua breeder" but this was close enough that I knew it came from him. His teacher's response..."that's what makes kindergarten plays fun!" Oh well, he did get a chuckle from the parents....all the other kids wanted to be boring things--firefighters, helicopter pilots, chefs, teachers. I am so proud of my boy, the animal breeder!

Oh, and after the play the principal came over and asked him, "Evan, what does an animal breeder do?" I was a little nervous about what he would say....and then he said "They put a boy animal and a girl animal together"...and then he pauses...."and then they lay an egg." Phew! And then he looked at her with this look of "duh!" Gotta love that boy!

The play went great though! The kids were all so cute and had a lot of fun. Nana, Grandpa, and Grandma were able to come and watch the play and then join us in Evan's classroom for cookies and punch.

I can't believe kindergarten is almost over. Sniff, sniff...

First Place!!!

This morning was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Connor was soooo looking forward to it, he loves making the car with his dad and has a lot of fun the day of the derby. And for the second year in a row he won first place in his den and first place in the pack overall!! He was so psyched!! Here is a picture of him with his car and his trophy after he got home.

Congrats Connor!!

P.S. Connor wants me to add that he thinks he won because he was wearing his lucky pants!!

P.S.S. And a special message for Miss Kim--Connor says you will never ever beat him!! And boys rule and girls drool!! He'll see you next year at the track....you're going down!

A post about nothing...

I am going to make a valiant attempt to update our blog on a regular basis. So I thought that if I make it a point to post every few days even if I don't have some event to post about it would keep me in the habit. So, here is my post about nothing...

Connor just joined the Computer Club at school. Today was the first meeting and he LOVED it! My little computer dork! Ok, so I'm just jealous of the opportunities that kids have today. I am amazed at how easily both of the boys pick up on anything that has to do with computers. The computer club will be meeting Wednesday and Fridays after school for a few weeks so he is happy about that. I, on the other hand, now have more running around to do...

We bought a Wii today!! Yes, this is exciting news. The boys are THRILLED! However, they are both currently grounded from video games until further notice. Their behavior hasn't been the best lately so we took away their 4 wheeler and video games. Sucks to have a Wii finally in stock at Walmart during your grounding, doesn't it boys?? I'm sure that eventually they'll be able to play it. Until then maybe Keith and I will enjoy it after the boys go to bed!!

And on a sad note we woke up to find one of Evan's recently aquired pets deceased. A month or two ago he got two gerbils that he named Kirby and Ricki (both females). Well (and this is gross!) it appears that Kirby didn't enjoy having company in her little part of the world and she took steps to send Ricki to gerbil heaven. Not a fun thing to wake up to first thing in the morning. And now Evan wants to get Kirby another friend.... Ummm, probably not our best move! I told him that Kirby likes her space. Apparently this isn't that uncommon, especially among female gerbils, but it still is rather disturbing. I guess it's a gerbil eat gerbil world...

That's all for now....Off to help Connor with his homework and get the boys to bed. Keith is in Philadelphia for a couple of days so Kirby isn't the only solo act in our house tonight...

The Mighty Hunter Strikes Again!

It's time for another dead animal photo. Please don't send me any anti-hunting emails, ok?? I didn't kill it. I didn't even take the photos. Feel free to email Keith though. And don't forget to mention what a HUGE turkey that is... If you're not convinced you can stop by and see the dead turkey parts in my garage drying so they can go on a plaque or something. GROSS!! (Thanks Glenn for that suggestion!)

Apparently hunting ettiquette says that after you kill something you have to pose for a photo with it. Then pose for another with your hunting buddy and the dead animal. And then you must go find your children and have them pose with it too....even if it traumatizes them for life. Phew, I am just glad that I was busy that day and not available for photos...

I know it's not Thanksgiving but... Happy Turkey Day!!

The Big 4-0!!

Yep, it happened. As much as I tried to ignore it....and deny it...it happened anyway. My birthday was a couple weeks ago and I am....gulp...40! Seriously, how did that happen? I don't feel 40....well, not mentally. Physically I feel 90 some days. I'm having a bit of a difficult time with this. Ok, it sucks! 40???

On a positive note, I have some of the best friends in the entire world. My hubby, along with a couple of my friends, organized a 40th birthday party for it. It helped to make the whole 40 thing a little bit more tolerable. We had a fun night with lots of food, drinks, and laughs. Oh and vibrating bananas... I guess if you have to be 40 at least you can do it with some great friends along for the ride!!

So, here's to the next 40...

Great Wolf Lodge

In April we were able to escape for a few days to Great Wolf Lodge. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it! We all had such a great time and it was so nice to spend a few days as a family without all of the interruptions of our everyday lives. The waterpark at Great Wolf Lodge is amazing and the kids LOVED it!! Mom and Dad quite enjoyed ourselves as well and we're already talking about planning to go again over Christmas break. The waterpark has a ton of different things to do--water slides, raft rides, pools, water slides, a wave pool....TONS of fun!! The whole place is decorated like a lodge and there are interactive animals in the lobby that talk and sing. Each morning and evening they have a storytime for the kids. There are restaurants right in the lodge so you don't even have to go out. There's an arcade, a miniature golf course, a craft place for kids. My kids wanted to sell our house and just live there!! Each night they were so exhausted they just fell into bed and right to sleep. It was expensive but soooo worth it!!

Here are just a few of the 500 pics I took!! LOL