Church Baby Shower

On our last night of Parish Religious Education, our fellow teachers threw us a baby shower.  Here is the cute cake that was also really delicious!

 This is Jane, she is such a wonderful and sweet woman.  She put the shower together.  Sadly, we did not get a shot of the sweet gifts or any opening as we had many, many children "helping" us:)

 After the shower was over, all of the kids got to run and play games outside.  Nathan and I enjoyed watching our preschoolers run free:)

We are so blessed to have such a great church family!  We have really enjoyed teaching the preschool class this year as well!

Will's Preschool Graduation

Will ended his preschool career this May with a cute end of year program and a graduation ceremony.

They began by all reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  I guess he forgot to put his hand over his heart, but he said the Pledge very well.

 Then, each child had a Bible verse they had to memorize and recite.  Will's was, "God is our protector.   Psalm 84:11."  He said it perfectly and we have it on video but I did not quite catch the picture in time:)  You would never know that he is a shy child!  He said it loudly and with a big smile on his face.  He may be shy around people but is quite the performer.

 Finally, they sang a song about having the love of Jesus in their hearts.  It was very cute and had a part that made them giggle at the end.  They were just having the time of their lives singing up there!

 After all of the age groups performed, it was time for graduation!  Here is Will getting ready to walk down the aisle.  He walked so fast that my camera couldn't focus fast enough to catch him!  I guess I should have used the "sports" setting:)  We did get his walk on video, though.

 Getting his diploma and a little help with his sash from his teacher.

 Checking out that diploma!

Watching his friends get their diplomas

 A quick picture with Ms. Tori who has been an amazing teacher for him this year!  He has learned so much and she was such a big part of that.  We were blessed that both of our children had a chance to have her as a teacher.  I hope she is still teaching when Mallory is in preschool!!!

We are so proud of everything Will has done this year.  We were apprehensive about putting him in 4K and almost had him moved back to 3K in the beginning because we feared he was not ready.  Boy did he prove us wrong!  We can't wait to see what all he will do in Kindergarten next year!!!

I didn't really get a picture of his last day, so refer to the above pictures taken close to his last day.
Here is him on his first day of 4K:

He has grown up so much!  I think I will try to make sure to take first and last day pictures in the same spot next year so that the comparison is easier to see.  I also plan to start doing a first day interview too.  I love looking back to see how they have changed:)

Wrapping up the school year for Madeline

In the last few weeks of school, Madeline had several fun activities to wrap up her year of 1st grade.
One of those was Field Day!  I was able to stay with her class for the morning and they had such a good time.  The weather was perfect.  It was overcast, so it was not too hot.  They played the usual kind of games and I was so proud at how well Madeline participated and what a good, enthusiastic response she had to everything they did.

 I also took some time to catch a few pictures of Madeline with some of her good friends from her class this year.  Here she is with her buddy, Macy.

 Her sweet friend, Miriam

 and a new friend this year, Lily Claire

 Here are all the little girls in her class.  She didn't really want a picture with the boys:)

 She also finished regular dance and gymnastics classes.  She finished in a big way by mastering her back hand spring and round off back hand spring all by herself!!!

 She has enjoyed her first year singing in the school choir.  Their director put together a very cute performance for the families of the students.

 They sang some pretty tough songs with lots of parts and I was very impressed!  This is the first musical type activity she has done and it has been great for her.  She plans to join the choir again next year.

Finally, we went to her last 1st grade academic awards ceremony.  She received awards for getting all A's, Perfect Attendance for the 4th quarter, a choir award, and a trophy for getting the most Accelerated Reader points for her grade. She earned 166 points!  The next closest student, her good friend Andrew, had 112.  She was so excited that her Nana was in town to be there too!

The above picture was her last day of 1st grade and here is her first day:

She had grown so much, both in size and ability!!!  This has been a busy year for her with her first surgery, pair of glasses, out of town field trip, and participation in the Gifted Program.  We are amazed by her progress and proud of all of her hard work.  She has made many new friends and developed an amazing work ethic.  I can't wait to see what 2nd grade has in store for her!

Toad Suck Daze

In early May, Conway always hosts the annual Toad Suck Daze Festival.  We have missed it for the last few years, but made plans to attend this year.  Nathan had planned to run the 10k while our niece, Carly planned to run the 5 k race.  Unfortunately, Nathan injured his hip and was not able to run:(  So we all got up early on Saturday to cheer on Carly.  She runs cross country for Fayetteville High and is a great runner.  She ended up finishing 3rd overall for women and 1st in her age group!  Here she is with her plaque.  We were all so proud of her!

 Madeline and Will are always so happy to see their Granny!  I caught a rare picture of the 3 of them, although Will was not being too cooperative:)

 After the race, we headed down to the festival.  First, a magician made both kids fun balloon hats.

Unfortunately, they were so large that we ended up having to throw them away because it was crowded and they kept accidentally hitting other people when they walked by!
We told the kids they could each pick 2 rides (that was all that was in the budget, tickets were really expensive).  They chose a fun car ride that was faster than we expected and both really had fun!

 Then they went on an airplane ride that was pretty high and fast.  Will looked terrified the first two times around but was laughing and smiling for the rest of the ride.  I am so glad they both love rides since I do too!  I think we will have a lot of fun at amusement parks in the future:)

 It was so hot and crowded that day!  We ended up only staying for about an hour and a half.  My feet were swelling quickly.  At one point, we took refuge at the Conway Corp. tent which had fun video games and (thank goodness) big fans.  They had a big "Just Dance" floor set up and Madeline and Will surprised us by volunteering to go up there and perform a song.  They did such a good job!  I hope the video uploads here!

Sadly, I did not take anymore pictures that weekend.  We had a graduation celebration for our oldest niece, Katelyn on Saturday night and then a baby shower for our baby on Sunday morning.  It was so nice to see all of Nathan's side of the family and we really enjoyed ourselves!

Spring means it's T-ball time!

This month, Will started playing T-ball for the first time.  He has never played a team sport and we were excited to see how things went. 
He is on the Red Sox with quite a few familiar faces from his preschool class.  There are 17 kids on his team and they put them all on the field at one time, which has lead to some chaos!  I'm not sure he has learned a whole lot about the fielding process, but he has picked up a few basics like kicking up a little grass:)

 There is not much that is cuter than a little boy with dirty knees in a baseball uniform!

 When you ask Will what his favorite part of T-ball is, he always says it is wearing the helmet and hitting the ball.  His batting coach was trying to fix that helmet here.

 I would say it is just a little too small for him!  He has that big head that runs in the Pesek Family:)

 I love how intense he looks here!  He ended up hitting the ball pretty well.  We were a little worried about how well he would be able to do because he does still have some definite low muscle tone in his arms, but you would never know!  He may not hit it as far as some, but he does really well.

 He made it to first base!  I love how he has to stand right on top of the base and how his shirt is only half tucked in:)

Overall, it has been a good experience for him.  He is a good team player and always seems to really enjoy himself, even when it is hot and chaotic in the outfield:)  I am proud of how well he has done and think we will have him play again next year if he is still interested.