Zoo with Friends

Today we went to the zoo with one of Emily's classmates - Isabella and her brother Garrett.  The kids had a fun time:

 We introduced them to the bird show that we have enjoyed seeing before:

 The girls also had fun finding rolly polly's all over the zoo:

Haircut and Bracelets

Last week Emily asked me each morning if she could get bangs.  After discussing it with her and mentally preparing myself, I took her on Friday to get bangs.  Here is before and after:

 

We think it turned out super cute!  She loves them!

She has also been busy working on making bracelets.  So on Sunday we watched a few tutorials online to learn how to make different ones.

 

She did a great job!  She got a little frustrated but it's teaching her that sometimes you have to fix mistakes and that learning something new isn't going to always go right the first time.

DeeDee also made these dresses for the girls and they wore them on Sunday:

Abigail has been a big story teller lately.  She has been talking about all the things she does at her Grandfather's house. She has a dog named Early and a sister named Kayla (sometimes Hayley) and sometimes she talks about a brother Jack.  They have all kinds of adventures at her grandfather's house.  When we go shopping she points to drinks and food that she has eaten before at her grandfather's house.  Yesterday afternoon she told me that on Monday she died at her grandfather's house and then Jesus jumped out of her heart and raised her from the dead.  Must have been her wild imagination after her Bible lesson Sunday.  She is too funny!

First week of summer vacation!

After school was out last Wednesday we spent Thursday afternoon at the new swim park near our house.  It's a new facility where the girls took their swim lessons.  Thursday was their last swim lesson and the first day the outside was open so we stayed afterward and broke in the new park until dinner time!

We had a snack with friends before their lesson:

 

The park  has two slides, a playground area, and a lazy river with another pool area for swimming.  The older girls enjoyed going down the blue slide that ends in a small water shoot and not into a pool.  The yellow slide is enclosed and goes down into a pool so Rachel and I went down that one : )  Abigail loved the playground area:

 

Afterwards we went to Sonic to eat dinner together.

On Tuesday we went to our neighborhood pool for the first time this season:

 

After the pool we went to Harper and Hayden's house for dinner.  Joe met us there after work and the adults enjoyed some yummy food and the kids enjoyed playing together:

 This week Abigail has also started sleeping without her bed rails!  Yippee!!!!

 

 Emily received a summer packet from her teacher that gave her math games to play.  She has enjoyed working on those and has also started reading chapter books at bed time.  Joe got her a book light so she can read:

 It has started off as a wonderful summer of sleeping in and playing in the sun!

Wedding

This past weekend we went to my cousin's wedding in Auburn. 

It was great to see my mom's family.  Here is a picture of some of the girl cousins in attendance:

On the way to the wedding Joe and I drove by our very first home that we lived in when we were first married.  It was a duplex in Opelika:

At the reception they had a photo booth where you could wear crazy wigs, hats and glasses and get a picture to put in a scrapbook that you signed for Meredith and Brendon.  They printed two copies so you could keep one for yourself.  We all had so much fun doing this!

My brother and sister did one together too and so did my mom and her brothers which was hilarious!

We also spent the night at Grandma's house and visited with her.  She is recovering from back surgery and doing much better:

Last day of school!

Emily finished kindergarten today!  It flew by so fast!  Here she is on her first day of kindergarten and her last day of kindergarten:

 

So hard to believe.  She got off the bus this afternoon in tears because she will miss Mrs. Reynolds so much.  She asked when she could see her again.  What a wonderful start to her school career!  I'm so thankful that her first year was so wonderful because I think that is crucial to school success.  We are praying for a wonderful First Grade teacher for next year!

While Emily finished up her week at school, Abigail stayed with Rachel while I worked.  She enjoyed getting her face painted:

She also got to go to the aquarium with them.  That morning before they left she told Rachel that she had been petting their fish Rainbow.  Rachel went to check on the fish and he didn't look so good.  When they got home from the aquarium he was dead : (  So we had to tell Abigail the importance of only looking at fish and not trying to pet them.

End of School Year Activities

Last Wednesday Abigail had her end of year school program.  Joe was able to go this year which was a treat for him:

 

 

We sure will miss Mrs. Ginger as Abigail's teacher!

On Friday I went to Emily's awards day program.  It was so sweet.  The teachers got choked up talking about the kids and passing out awards.  Mrs. Whelan made a slideshow CD for all the parents to take home.  One of the mom's helped put a scrapbook together for each child to remember the activities of the year.

Emily's awards included:
Certificate of completion of Kindergarten
Achievement in Homework
She was 1 of 2 students in her class to get an art award from Mrs. Bagwell (art teacher)
Behavior sticker
Bucket Filler Award
Merit Award for less than 3 absences for the school year
Math Superstars award which was 8 weeks of additonal math work from PTA
Book It Reading program for reading 12 books a month
She earned a free Six Flags ticket for logging 360 minutes of reading in March

Mrs. Reynolds had the room decorated like the Hollywood walk of fame and each child had their picture on the wall:

 

So proud of both girls and I can't believe the year is over for Abigail and Emily only has 3 more days!

This past Saturday the girls enjoyed 2 Birthday Parties.  The first one was one of Emily's classmates and it was at the park:

Emily braved the tire swing for the first time!

The second party was for our neighbor and it was at a gymnastics facility.  Abigail was the youngest to attend and she kept up with all the big kids.  I was so proud of her!  Both girls got to go on the zip line:

And they had relay races.  Abigail was so cute running right along beside the big kids and did great!  They lifted the birthday girl up high while everyone sang Happy Birthday:

Dee Dee finished these outfits for the girls and I embroidered their shirts.  They wore these to school last week.  Thanks DeeDee!:

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day:

 

After church we went to pick strawberries:

 It was a gorgeous day to go!  We also bought some fried pies and the girls tried a caramel apple for the first time!  What a wonderful weekend together!