May 2013

May is always a busy month with all of the school year activities ending.  It was an even busier month for us because I was offered a job teaching kindergarten in the fall and we finally got a good offer on our house!  The only catch was that the couple couldn't close until the beginning of August, so much for the convenience of moving during summer break!

Last PRE class for the year.  These buddies had a good time together:)  Nathan and I are sad that this will be our last night teaching PRE for a few years.  Now that I am going back to work, it's not going to be possible for us to teach next year:(

Madeline went to Miriam and Hope's birthday party at the Painter's cottage and had a great time!

Madeline continued to do well in gym.  So well in fact, that she was asked to perform in the gym recital performance this year!  The girls have to be performing their back hand spring and round off back hand spring well enough to be asked.  Madeline almost made it last year, but it was a piece of cake this year!

Mallory discovered Will's toys and loves them!  Will, however, is not enjoying this new phase, lol!

She also discovered Go-go Squeeze applesauce and is a big fan!  This mom is happy for a convenient and healthy snack:)

Madeline's last Northwest Choir performance of the year:

Will has the amazing ability to make just about anything out of paper.  He made a basketball goal complete with the metal structure to attach it to the ceiling of a gym.  I think we have a future engineer on our hands for sure!

Field Day!  It was pretty drizzly in the morning, but luckily it cleared up and they had a great time.

Dance Recital weekend!  Madeline spent lots of time over those 2 days with her hair in rollers:)

Her gym performance outfit.  She did so well in this.  Her tumbling looked so good up there with the big girls and she was just thrilled to be a part of it:)

Hip hop outfit.  This was a cute dance that she enjoyed.  All of the hip hop classes got to perform the finale this year, so she got to do some extra performing.

Posing with friends:

Jazz:  this was my favorite dance of hers this year.  She really danced well and I was so impressed with her skill level and how well she performs!

Ballet:  This was a beautiful dance to an operatic version of a night time prayer and I loved it!  I really appreciate how much her dance teachers use Christian music in the recital.

Two of Madeline's best friends were in her class this year and that made it even more fun for her.  She sure loves Miriam and Sydney!

Last day of 2nd grade!  

Last day for Will too!  We have decided to hold Will back next year.  He has done very well academically but his maturity has lagged both socially and emotionally behind his peers and we feel that he is not quite ready for 1st grade just yet.  He was the youngest in his class by far and we felt that the extra year would give him a chance to mature and become more comfortable at school.  We are so proud of him!

End of year awards assembly.  Madeline with her GT teacher, Mrs. Woods:

With her buddy Miriam:

Now it is officially summer and we have time to do fun things like experiment with new hair styles,

Paint cute baby toenails,

build Lego firetrucks with no help from a grownup,

play in the wading pools,

 be a sweet big sister who shares Frigid Frog snow cones with her baby sister,

and play around with Instagram by taking great pictures of this handsome boy!

We hated that we couldn't close on our house, and thereby couldn't move into our new house, until summer was over.  But, we were excited that we could just settle in and enjoy our summer together!

April 2013

April started with Madeline making her First Communion.  She had worked for so long to prepare for this Sacrament and was so excited!  She looked beautiful in her dress and veil.

 Mrs. Judy, one of her teachers:

 Mrs. Nancy, her other teacher:

 These 4 girls have been in PRE together since they were 3:)

 My brother, Robbie, is Madeline's godfather.  We were so grateful he could be there but sure missed her godmother, Kym's presence.  Virginia is a long way away though:(

 Madeline was also super excited her cousin, Emma could be there.

 Nana flew in for the occasion too!

 Sweet siblings!  Can you tell the sun was a bit bright, lol!

 Our family of 5:

 A beautiful cake:

 Later that month, Madeline's ballet class was asked to perform at the Health Fair in town.  She had a good time!

 Then, Nathan was able to go with her on her first out of town GT field trip to Memphis.  They rode the charter bus with her friend, Haylee.

 One of their stops was the Memphis Zoo where Madeline fell in love with the pandas.

 The start of Spring, meant the start of t-ball for Will!  This year he was on the Oakland A's.

Mallory seemed to enjoy hanging out at the ball field too:)

 This is her 10 month picture.  We completely gave up on the sign in the crib:)  She was not having it anymore.

 She also discovered a love for the i pad.

 And the swings at the park:)

 Will discovered that he loves Monopoly Jr.and we have had many Family Game Nights playing his new favorite game!

 Mallory became quite the cruising machine during this time.

We did get an offer on our house but it was a really low one so we decided to pass and just continue the waiting game.  To make matters more stressful, we had a bad storm with hail damage right around Easter and had to replace our roof, ugh!   We hoped that May would bring us a better offer and the chance to move while Nathan was on summer break.