Preschool Playdate

We went to my friend Jill's house today for a playdate with some of Evie's friends from her preschool class. The kids were all so excited to see each other. I was a little concerned about how Evie would act towards Andrew intruding on her circle of friends, but she was great and they all played so well together. Thanks Jill for opening your home to all of us!

Evie, Alaina, Ross, and Andrew having lunch

Campbell, Alaina, and Evie walking to the playground

Memorial Day Cookout

While shopping the clearance section of the dollar aisles at Target a couple of weeks ago I found a pack of water guns and just couldn't resist buying them. That is the best 25 cents I've spent in a while. The kids (big and small!) had a great time playing with them today!

Interesting morning

I had some bloodwork done this morning at the Ob/Gyn's office. Evie came with me while Andrew was at preschool, and she provided a lot of entertainment for everyone. In the waiting room she looked around and realized we were surrounded by pregnant women. Evie started patting me and asked, "Do you have a baby in your belly?" She was pretty excited when she asked, and I guess she thought that must be the reason we were there. I told her no, and she paused for a minute then asked, "Do you want a baby in your belly?" with a hopeful look on her face. I had to tell her "No" again. This wasn't exactly a private conversation either as all the pregnant women listened to us talk. When the nurse came and took us back to draw the blood, Evie asked if I was a brave girl. I said I was. She then told me that she got a shot last week and she cried a little so it was okay if I needed to cry. I told her I was very brave and promised not to cry. Everyone who walked by had to stop and talk to Evie, so she ended up with six princess stickers from all the nurses. She put all six of them on her shirt. She was pretty happy about that and on the way out she told me she was very proud of me for being a brave girl. (She was very sweet and gave away five of her princess stickers to her friends at gymnastics) Life is always more interesting with Evie!

Evie won the drawing at last week's TLG party, so Mrs. Sarah had her prize when we got to gymnastics today. Evie was so excited when she opened the backpack to find a shirt, CD, water bottle, and lunch box.

Andrew's Last Day of Preschool

Andrew's first year of preschool has come to an end. We were all a little sad to say goodbye to Mrs.Becky. She taught Evie last year in preschool and summer adventure, then had Andrew in her class at preschool this year. She has been amazing! Andrew gave hugs and cookies to Mrs.Becky and Mrs.Heather before he left today. He is definitely going to miss preschool over the summer!

Andrew looking so cute in his shirt he helped paint last week at preschool (the green fish are made from his handprints)

Sprout Playdate

Evie and Alaina in their princess dresses

Evie's last day of preschool

Evie finished up her third year of preschool today. Where has the time gone?! It doesn't seem like it has been that long since her first day this year. She loves all her friends and her teachers, and she's already excited about next year!

Mrs.Dana~Evie~Mrs.Michelle
The kids painted matching t-shirts to wear today

Mrs.Dana gave all the girls pedicures

Summer Fun

Here are a few free activities to take advantage of in the Knoxville area this summer. If you know of more, leave a comment. Have fun!

Knox County Library Summer reading program- Have your child read for 12 hours or listen to 20 books from June 1-July 31. They can turn in their reading log for a prize pack.


Smokies Baseball Summer reading program-Have your child read or listen to 10 books and take the registration form to the ticket office. They will receive one child ticket and one adult ticket for the baseball game and the next level registration form. There are 5 levels and you get free Smokies tickets with each completed level (yes, that means 10 free tickets!). When they complete all 5 levels they are eligible for a picnic at the stadium on Aug.5. The tickets are good for Sunday to Wednesday bleacher seats.


Regal Cinemas free family film festival-free family movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10 am.

Happy Anniversary

Six years, two kids, two big moves, three new jobs, a bachelor's degree, and a PE license into this marriage, and we both still agree it was the best decision we ever made.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. ~ I Corinthians 13:7-8

Summer Party @ TLG

Evie went to a summer kick off party at The Little Gym tonight. She absolutely loves going there for gymnastics!

Jumping on the air mat

Evie chatting with Mr.Steve. (she loves Mr.Steve!)

Tummy roll on the high bar with Ms.Sarah

Walking on the balance beam

Mom's salary

We all know that mothers are priceless, but salary.com has created a calculator to put a price tag on what we do. It uses the number of children you have, whether you work or stay at home, and allows you to put in your hours spent on different tasks. According to the calculator my annual compensation should be $127,312. Thank goodness I get paid in hugs and kisses because that amount doesn't even come close to the money it would take for me to accept this job if I was working for the paycheck!

MOPS

I just finished up our last MOPS meeting of the year, and I did so with mixed emotions. If you had told me a year ago that I would be coordinating one group and filling in as a coordinator for another group I would have laughed at you. Public speaking is definitely not one of my gifts, so hopefully I compensated for that with my gift of administration. I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to serve these wonderful groups of moms, but I have to admit I am also relieved to finish up leading three meetings a month. I am extremely excited about what next year is going to bring! The relationships I have formed with all of these women have been an incredible blessing. Both groups of ladies were so sweet to go out of their way to give me thank you gifts. Evie was just beside herself with excitement that we now have purple flowers at our house. The chocolate gift basket is just incredibly decadent, especially the chocolate bath soak. I can't wait to try it out!

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed ~ Proverbs 16:3

Flowers from the Central Bearden MOPS

Yummy chocolate from the Bridgewater MOPS

Little girl hair

Evie inherited my fine hair. Both of her grandmothers, her dad, and her auntie have thick curly/wavy hair, so I had hoped she would inherit those genes. It just didn't work out that way though. You would think that I would know what to do with her hair since it is just like mine, but after 25 years I am still trying to figure out how to make mine look good. I've been pretty limited in the little girl hair do area so far; a bow clipped on one side or pig tails have been the best I can manage. My efforts are hampered by hair that doesn't want to stay, a little girl who can't sit still, and that little girl's aversion to having anything clipped onto her head. Tonight after her shower we decided to try a different avenue and pull back some hair with a hair band and tie a ribbon on instead of using an alligator clip. Evie loved it! We will see if it survives preschool tomorrow, but she was so happy with her hair she didn't want to lay her head down on her pillow and mess it up.

A pretty pink ribbon

Lovin' the hair style

Pretty girl

Bowling and Bruster's

The kids had a great time bowling with Sydney and Kaitlyn tonight! Evie and Andrew just adore the girls. We went to Bruster's for ice cream afterwards, but I was too busy eating ice cream to take pictures :)

Four little cutie pies!

First Hike

We took the kids to the UT Arboretum this afternoon to try out hiking. Andrew kept wanting to run too far ahead of us (which stressed me out) and Evie fell on our way back to the car and busted her lip and cut her gums (thank goodness Nana had a napkin in her pocket for all the blood). Other than that, it was a good time!