Happenings

Just some random happenings from our every day life...

Abby and I are almost eye to eye...it's crazy.  She borrows my shoes all the time and I think to myself, "where did this young woman come from?"

Gavin and Claire still have the twice a week play dates...lunch time turns into silly time.  Gavin gets very wound up and completely goofy, and Claire giggles and giggles which only eggs him on the more. We're going to have to figure out a new play schedule once preschool is over for these buddies.

McKenna was on the Discovery Dash relay team again for her school a few weeks back.  This will be her last year eligible because of age for the relay.  She did AMAZING and her team came in second place (winning $250 for their school).  But was was so great about her anchor leg of the relay was that she gained about 1/4 of the length of the track on the boy in front of her and almost was able to over take him.  Not to mention that her school's girl team beat the boy team...pretty cool!

It was so fun cheering her on as she ran her little heart out.  She ran 1/4 mile in 1 minute 22 seconds...a new personal best for her!  I love her long stride.

Last weekend Gavin was so tired this is how I found him when tucking all the kids in at night...too tired to even make it all the way up to his pillow.

Zachary had a play at school...it was darling and I loved all the speaking lines that he had.

McKenna cleaned out her backpack which included: 4 books, earmuffs, 2 huge hand fulls of crinkled up papers, a jacket, a scare, a pair of underwear (don't know where that came from...she says it accidentally got in there when she was putting a sweatshirt in her backpack), seashells, a t-shirt, her binder, and her camera.  If I didn't think this girl needed to learn a little organization skills before this event, I do now!

Abby lost a tooth.  The tooth fairy was a couple of days late.

Zachary lost a tooth.  The tooth fairy was a couple of days late again!  And now I LOVE his toothless smile.  The days of pictures like these don't last long enough!

I asked Gavin and Claire the other day what they like about each other and this was the response I got:

Claire and Gavin together: "Because we LOVE each other."

Clarie: "Because we're going to marry each other."

Gavin: "Because we're going to kiss each other."

We went Raspberry and Blueberry picking at the Berry Patch.  And then we came home and had homemade bread and jam for dinner followed up by Raspberry milkshakes!

I'm finding that I'm having to change a lot of my parenting style when it comes to Abby.  She's so much more grown up then she was even 4 months ago.  She has also been such a blessing with Bret being gone.  That girl has gone above and beyond with helping me in any way she can, and she does so so willingly and with such a cheerful disposition.  I'm so grateful for her.

Grayson is sleeping 10 hours at night now, but still taking cat naps during the day.

I went to Zachary's Author Share at school.  He wrote about friendly ninjas that help him kill Lord Garmadon.  Man, are boys ever so different from girls!  His book was so well written with great vocabulary, wonderful detail and exciting action.  His teacher told him someday she was going to walk into a book store and find a book with his name on it.

Abby had her spring ballet showing.  She has become such a beautiful and graceful dancer.  It's incredible how far she has come in the three years she's been taking dance.  Everyone comments to us on her poise, her beauty and her natural grace.

A conversation with Gavin the other day went like this:
Gavin: "Oh, I'm so sad girls live longer then boys!  It's no fair that McKenna gets to play the wii more! Well, the happy thing is that I get to see Jesus first!"

Zachary is always to be found with his nose in a book, whether he's sitting on the swing or the couch, or even upside down in a chair.  It took him three days to read the first book of Harry Potter and four days to read the second.  So far we're on day two of the third book so we'll see how long this one takes.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  Bret was home and he and the kids really spoiled me.  Bret even treated me by taking a picture of me and the kids before church!

Grayson loves to play with things with his hands, espcially blankets.

We went strawberry picking and got strawberry milkshakes.

Gavin likes to wear his fireman hat while running errands, but he doesn't like people to talk to him about it...he hasn't realized that's it's definitely a conversation starter!

Only one more week with the three big kids at the same school...and then I've got one in middle school, one in fourth and one in second!  CRAZY!!!!  This next week will be the last time that Abby and Zachary ever go to the same school together.  That makes me a little sad!

We had a great Memorial Day weekend with a visit from Bret and soccer tournament in Virginia Beach...but more on that on another post.

McKenna had soccer tryouts for next year.  There is a special jamboree team where they take the top 20 players and have an extra practice a week with the organizations top coaches.  It really is their future travel team that they start grooming.  It was one of McKenna's New Year Resolutions to make this jamboree team and we just got word that she did!  It'll mean she'll have soccer four days a week: two practices with her league team, the jamboree team practice, and then her weekly game.  But man a live is she ever over the moon excited about it.