Pure Sweetness

When I went to check on Savannah the other night this is what I found.  She had sweetly wrapped up her little stuffed rabbit with her blanket (look to the left of the picture).  It was so precious I had to take a picture.  

Benjamin's PreK Graduation

Benjamin had his PreK graduation on May 17th.  With tears in my eyes I realized that one chapter has ended and a new one begins.  Goodness, if I'm this upset about a PreK graduation I'm going to be a basket case for his High School graduation.  We're proud of you Ben! 

First they sang us some songs.

May 13th

We had quite a celebration on Mother's Day this year.  In one day we celebrated 6 moms, Ben's 5th birthday, Abby's 11th birthday, and Uncle Abraham's graduation.  It was great!  We were so happy to have the whole family here to join the fun. 

Family picture.

Thanks to Grandma Nancy, Benjamin got his Spiderman cake!

 Birthday girl, Abby.

Congrats to Uncle (Doc) Abraham!

Introducing our most recent doctor in the family.  Congrats to Uncle Abraham for receiving his degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Dallas Theological Seminary last Saturday.  We are so very proud of you! 


Abraham with Abby, Andrew, and Aunt Laura.

Benjamin Turns FIVE!!!!!

On May 11th our little boy turned five!  Hard to believe.  So little man, what are some things you're doing right now?

1.  Reading.....yes, you're reading!  It amazes me when you see a sign or pull out a book and you know what some of the words are.  I catch you sounding out words when you think you're by yourself and my heart is so incredibly warmed as I listen to you figure it out!

2.  You love love love Super Heros, Legos, computer games, and your Playstation 3.  Your favorite Super Hero is Spiderman, you say your favorite Legos is Ninjago (although you don't have any....yet), and your favorite Playstation 3 game is Kung Fu Panda.

3.  You're doing simple math.  Addition and subtraction, you've got it figured out and you love to be quizzed on it while we're sitting down at the table eating a meal.

4.  Your favorite color is green and favorite animal is a T-Rex.

5.  Several times a week you tell your sister you love her just out of the blue - yes, you really do although 5 years from now you might disagree with me!

6.  You don't like brushing your teeth, trying new foods, coloring, or most things that are girly (typical boy)!

7.  You've told me recently you want 10 more brothers and sisters.......(excuse me as a gasp)!

8.  You ask a lot of questions, constantly.  About half of them don't make sense and I have no idea how to answer them but I try my best because I know this is one of the ways you learn about your environment.  My fall back answer for questions that I don't understand is "Because God made it that way".  But then you always come back with "But why did God make it that way?".   Oh dear, try answering that in a way that you find acceptable!  Sheesh!

9.  You love snacks, especially cheetos.

10.  And finally, you love "collections".  You have 4 of them so far: a rock collection, a shell collection, a money collection, and a stick collection.  As long as you stay away from spider collections we're in good shape!

So your big day was great!  We started off with birthday donuts at the donut shop, went to the gym, came home and you played in the backyard with your new duck fishing game and got soaking wet in the process, and then to Chuck E Cheese.  We came home to dry off because we got drenched in the rain leaving Chuck E Cheese's, then had Abby and Andrew come over to play.  Later that night Uncle Abraham's family, along with Grandma Nancy and Granddaddy came over.  You had a blast.....until.....3am you woke up throwing up and continued to do so for 3 1/2 hours.  Poor guy.  You, Savannah, and I had to miss Uncle Abraham's graduation which was a bummer but you got some rest and was ready to play some more later that day.   Tomorrow is another celebration.....we'll celebrate your birthday again with family and we'll also be celebrating Abby's birthday, Uncle Abraham's graduation, Mother's Day for 5 mom's, and Granddaddy's birthday.  Whew! Isn't it lovely?  Special times are happening right now....very special.

I love you very much Benjamin.  You make me laugh, warm my heart, and you light up my life!  I'm having so much fun being your mother.  P.S..... you're my favorite son!  :)

Thumbs up for birthday donuts!

Savannah was scared of Chuck E Cheese and stayed under the table for an entire hour.  Thankfully after an hour she had a dirty diaper and was ready to come out and get cleaned up!

Ben and Andrew having fun at Chuck E Cheese.














Duck fishing!

Silly faces with Abby.

 

Mother's Day Tea

The kids' preschool had a "Mother's Day Tea" for all of the moms.  It was so sweet.  The kids presented us with presents they had made, muffins, doughnut holes, juice, and fruit.  They even answered a list of questions about us.  Here's how they responded.  Too cute!

Savannah:
What's your mom's name?
Momma

What does she do?
Pick up the table.

How old is she?
2

What is her favorite color?
Orange

What is her favorite food?
Strawberries

What does she do while you're at school?
Drive in the car.

What message do you want to send her for Mother's day?
I like to hug her and carry me.

Sweet girl, but wait a minute....she thinks I'm two?????  

Benjamin:
What do you love about your mom?
She makes me snacks when I say I want a snack.

What does Mom do while you're at school?
Working....

What is Mom's favorite...
Color:
    Orange
Food:
    I don't know.....
Thing to play with you:
    I don't know....chase?

Why is your mom special?
I don't know....oh I forgot, she gives me snacks and that makes her special.

What a cutie!  So it's nice to know his favorite thing about his day (and me) is snacks........I guess Momma is synonymous with snacks now?!?!?!?!?!

Seriously, it was a lovely time and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that their school does this every year.  Thanks Miss Nicole, Miss Jessica, and Miss Chelsea!  My early Mother's Day was P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

 

Class Pictures 2012

Why Homeschool?

I found these top 13 reasons to home school in my Homeschool magazine. Love it!

1. Studies show that home-schooled children average between the 80th and 90th percentile, regardless of the socio-economic background, or education level of the parents.

2. Great student teacher ratio.

3. Very good communication between the student, teacher and parents.

4. The student can't lie about their homework.

5. With a class size of one, they can't copy anybody else's work.

6. The curriculum is in perfect agreement with the values of the parents.

 7. The children will not bring bad habits home from school.

8. The pace of learning will be geared to the ability of each child, not the lowest common denominator.

9. You don't have to fix lunch in the morning.

10. Children will be better adjusted socially if they don't learn social skills from their peers.

11. Without peer pressure, they learn to think for themselves, not just parrot what the "group wants to hear".

12. Every educator agrees that parental involvement is the key to success in a child's education. How could one be more involved?

13. Your child will never be "just a number" in the classroom.

Friday the 13th.....A Perfect Day in the Life of Kelly

Today was amazing. I mean that. Ahhhh, the sweet feeling of contentment. Here's how it went.

David got up with the kids and let me sleep in until 8:37am. It was the first time I've slept in in weeks.

The kids didn't put up much of a fight getting ready this morning. Hair got combed, teeth got brushed, and clothes put on with hardly any arguing. They even ate their breakfast without any badgering from me.

Stopped by McDonald's to get an iced coffee and since the kids were being so sweet I bought them one each.

Went by Mardel. The kids played with the puppets while I shopped around the store for a bit, they even played quietly and nicely with each other AND even helped picked up the puppets when they were done (well, Benjamin did).

When it was time to leave, Benjamin helped me corral Savannah and there was minimal resistance when I said it was time to go.

For lunch they ate all of their lunch with almost no nagging from me.

They've enjoyed playing with shaving cream, whipped cream, the water hose, and a caterpillar (all outside of course) for a very lengthy amount of time. Which allowed me to surf the web and read my homeschooling book. They are very wet and stinky now but it has been every bit worth it.

The icing on the cake....Benjamin has told me a couple of times today just out of the blue that he loves me.....warm fuzzies.

Now, we're just waiting on Daddy to get home so we can eat at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

Yay for a GREAT day! :)

Hope it continues because it's not over yet!

Soooo, to be continued...........