Emmy's 7th Birthday...

Saturday night we celebrated Emmy's 7th birthday...she had a family (thankfully they consider us family) swim party at her Granna and Granddaddy's house.  We ALWAYS have a fun time hanging out and this time we enjoyed celebrating with Emmy!

From time to time Anna Lauren will tell me she wants a sister...I tell her she has two "adopted" sisters...Rileigh and Emmy.  They really are the sweetest friends and considering it is 3 (super hard number for girls), they do great together and fuss very very little.

Anna Lauren knew exactly what Emmy needed for her birthday...in case you don't know, every girl needs "bling bling" goggles.

Anna Lauren used her own money and bought hers a couple months ago so she was thrilled I let her get them for Emmy too so they could match.  

Doesn't get much cuter than this birthday girl...

Cooper and his "scuba diving" goggles...yes, they are almost as big as his face...so funny!

If we could all love life and have as much fun as this little kid...he is so much fun!  Love, love, love him and all his sweetness! 

If you cannot tell by their faces, all 5 of our kids love the water...for sure their happy place!

This slide never gets old...they have so much fun sliding, sliding, and sliding some more.

Happy, happy 7th birthday, Emmy!  And just wow...where have our little ones gone?

These two little ones...I hope they will be as close as the girls...they had a big time Saturday and were loving them some cake pops!

And we ended the night by bringing Emmy and Rileigh home for a sleep over...Cooper wants Elliot to spend the night, but he hasn't come home with us yet...maybe one day soon!

VBS Family Night...

Anna Lauren ended a fun week of VBS at Ridgecrest with "family night" tonight.  There was a very kid friendly service and then a brown bag supper and inflatables in the gym afterwards.  Anna Lauren's most favorite part...singing all the songs she learned all week...something about a stage...just makes her happy!

My favorite 1st grade girls...Anna Lauren, Emmy, and Holli Grace

This little smile assures me all is "right" in her little world, and she enjoyed her VBS week!

1st Swim Lesson...

Cooper had his first swim lesson Tuesday night.  We are taking at a lady's house with my friend Leah's daughter, Hadley.  Cooper has no fear of water (or really anything for that matter) so for his safety, we knew he needed some lessons sooner rather than later.

He was so excited and couldn't wait to get to the pool.  We walked in, and he immediately wanted to jump off the diving board.  Ms. Ann told him he could in a few weeks when he could swim to the side.  He didn't love that, but he agreed so hopefully after a few lessons, he can jump off the diving board.  Hadley is not as comfortable in the water as Cooper, but they both did so good, and I cannot wait to see them at the end of 6 weeks!

He was READY to go...Hadley on the other hand, was thinking about it for a minute...

Love Hadley's face...she was cheering for him...

I took this picture because I just bet in 6 weeks we will not see this face.  Bless her heart...she was scared!

Jumping in to Ms. Ann...

At the end, they were playing with a rocket, and they both had the sweetest smiles!

We will go every Tuesday for 6 weeks, and I have a feeling we'll have some little fish and Hadley loving the water by the end!

From "Young" 3s to "Old" 3s...

Cooper started going to St. Paul Learning Center in March of 2013 so he's been there a little over a year, and we could not be more pleased.  He LOVES going to school there and very very few mornings do I leave him unhappy, which makes this working mommy very happy!  

St. Paul "promotes" the first of June, which is nice because we are all settled before Anna Lauren starts school in August.  I like not having to be doing "new" with both of them at the same time.

They were closed Monday for staff development and Cooper was super excited to go to his new class Tuesday morning.  At home he even said, come on Mommy...let's go to school!  Some of that probably had to do with him spending the past week in Brookhaven with Nanna unexpectedly (she will NOT tell them they cannot stay with her if they ask) so he had not played with his friends in a long time, and he was missing those little boys!

Miss Rachel and Cooper...his "young" 3 teacher...

Ms. Tonya and Cooper...his "young" 3 afternoon teacher...

Cooper and his new "old" 3 teacher, Ms. Debra...

Cooper and his new "old" 3 afternoon teacher, Miss Kaitlyn...

He had a really good year with Miss Rachel last year, and we look forward to watching him grow and learn with Ms. Debra this year!

Splashing Into Summer...

Anna Lauren was out of school last Thursday/Friday, and her summer care didn't start until Tuesday.  So...Nanna came to keep her for two days and she brought along Ashton.  To say my kids were excited to have him here would be an understatement.  They loved, loved, loved, having him at our house for a few days.  And let me just say...I laughed harder than I have laughed in a long time...he is the funniest kid!

Joey and Bently came to get Ashton Friday night so we had dinner at Genghis Grill (Ashton's pick) and then took the kids to the splash pad.  We ended the night with a cookie from the cookie store and said our sad good-byes to Ashton and Bently.

Last Day of First Grade...

Last Wednesday was Anna Lauren's last day of first grade.  Hard to believe the year is gone...it flew by, and I was a little sad to see it come to an end.  Because...it was such a good year!  She had a teacher/assistant that she loved, she made some new friends, her reading "clicked", and she got all Ss on her report card for the entire year.  I'm sure there are many more "good" things about this past year but those are the few that come to mind quickly...

First day of 1st grade (left) and last day of first grade (right)...

Think it is safe to say she turned into a "big" girl this school year...

Waiting on the bus...she LOVES to ride the bus, but we don't let her ride it often because it comes at 6:20 AM...that is 40 minutes earlier than she has to leave if I take her.  I mean she is still sound asleep at 6:20 AM.  She did beg to ride it her last day, and we agreed.   Come to find out, she only wanted to ride the bus so she could get to school early and save her friend McKenna a seat so they could sit by each other (they could sit anywhere they wanted the last two days of school).  Let's just say she has her "social" priorities straight!

Good-bye 1st grade!  Report card came in the mail today...grade assigned for next school year...2nd!  If only 2nd grade as is good as kindergarten and 1st, we'll be happy, happy, happy!

Mother's Day...

When I downloaded the most recent pictures off my camera, I realized that I was obviously behind...I never posted Mother's Day.

I told Matt that I didn't want him and the kids to make a big deal out of Mother's Day because honestly, it's just not that big of a deal to me.  All I asked was that I could take a Sunday afternoon nap, which really isn't asking for anything special because we all take a nap EVERY Sunday.  It's just what we do!  

But...while I was getting ready for church, Matt and the kids did a little something for me, which was a super fun surprise...

The kids actually wanted to paint canvases the Saturday before Mother's Day so I agreed to that and then Anna Lauren decided to make them "Mother's Day".  I knew what Cooper brought home from school (I'm as pretty as my shirt...ha ha), but Anna Lauren hid hers until Mother's Day.  And the plates were my big surprise...oh...and the robots Cooper/Matt painted.  Cannot help but love having a little boy!

Surprising Mommy...

Checking out all my goodies...they were so proud!

Headed to church...

One of the many hats I wear...being their mom!  Not going to say it is always easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!