Some fun videos I took of the kids tonight:

We walked outside to find our sweet guy hard at work this afternoon.

What a nice suprise!



Busy Girl...

The last two weeks

have been crazy busy....lots of activities and lots of fun.  Caroline participated in Daisy's Planting Daisy's at school. 

Melanie, Caroline and Sienna

The Kindergarten classes all went on their very first field trip to Upland Hills Farm for the day....

We started out in the barn and the goats running around in the loft were the highlight of the trip!



My little group :) 

Caroline and Melanie

We ended the day with a hayride.  Very fun... thanks to our driver who thought speeding downhill was a super great idea.  



And here is a picture just for my Democrat Mother In Law.(Hi Lori!!)  My little artist drew Mr. Rawck Obawma in sidewalk chalk for Memorial Day. 

A gold medal for Caroline!  She has been waiting for this for a very long time. 

Dad and I are so proud of you sweetheart!  You were determined to earn this medal and you did it! 

Way to go!

XOXO 

And a picture that warms my heart.  "Dad want to go on a walk with me?" This has been

their after dinner ritual for the past few weeks. 



Of course I couldn't leave out a snippet about my Connor.  He continues to make me laugh with these funny ideas and experiments :)  His latest find...making a candle from an orange and olive oil.  Holy cow it works!!  (It burns for hours~good to know for the next time the power goes out!)

Only 7 more days until school lets out!  Can't wait!



It's beginning to look like.....

SUMMER!

The kids had a blast putting on their swim suits and spending the afternoon

at the Longo's pool yesterday!

A quick video of Connor...not too shabby after having only one day of practice!  

We had another whirlwind type of weekend.  Caroline and I, along with our friends Mia and Jaclyn went to the ballet to see The Wizard of OZ.  Once again the girls loved the  performance and are already planning another "Girls Day Out" to go back and see The Nutcracker.  I love being able to do these fun days with my special girl!  

Connor got some brand new wheels!  He has been asking for rollerblades for a few weeks now so Chris took him to pick out a pair (and some knee pads!)...he practiced in the garage all day yesterday and today he was out playing street hockey with the neighborhood crew :)  I LOVE that we have active boys on the street!  And, I love that these boys let anyone play (even kids that just got skates yesterday) and that they can be overheard encouraging each other and cheering for one another.  Thank God for good sportsmanship.

Caroline convinced Dad the she really needed a hula hoop.  She also convinced him that she needed the expensive one that lights up...

The other day my pretty little love asked me to take some pictures of her because Nana and Papa probably needed a new one.  She was also pretty sure that Papa would like something new for on his desk at work.  We had fun doing this "photoshoot"; the "posing" made me laugh!

 Just something that I want to remember.  I wrote Caroline a note and drew a little picture for her first day of kindergarten.  I didn't realise that it would then be expected that she get a note/picture EVERY DAY....here is one from last week and one of her favorite doodles :)

I've already dropped some hints that come first grade it might only be a little love note each day~it's kind of hard to come up with a new doodle every day! 

Happy Birthday Connor!

11 years ago today our lives changed forever....we were no longer just Ali and Chris...we were blessed to receive our new names...Mom and Dad.  I remember the first time I looked down upon this sweet face and when I remember how much I loved this child in that instant it still amazes me. What I didn't know is that I would continue to love him more and more each day.

I was telling Connor about his first birthday this morning and confessed that I cried while buying him balloons for his party. I was so sad that I didn't have a baby anymore!  Can you believe that I also cried (a bit) this morning watching him walk out the door with his boxes of donuts?  It hit me that this will be the last time that we do the birthday treat ritual for school.  How did 11 years go by so fast? 

Happy Birthday Connor!

We love you so much and hope you have a wonderful, joyful and healthy year ahead.

xoxo

I spent the day trying to make today special.  (This is about the extent of my cake decorating skills; thank goodness he appreciated the effort!)

I also treated him to a batch of his favorite cookies.  "Nana cookies!" 

Caroline was my big helper and placed the candles in the cake.  

"Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday Dear Connor, Happy Birthday to YOU!!"

And this is what he bought with Dad tonight at Best Buy! It took all his birthday money, but he was

thrilled when he came home!



 An unrelated picture but one I wanted to share nevertheless. This is how Caroline has been spending

most of her free time....with her nose buried in books!  Makes my heart flutter~I love that she is a bookworm like her mama :)