Week 24

Well, school is OUT for the summer.  Like every year, it feels sort of bittersweet.  It's always hard for me to send my kids back to school at the end of the summer, but then they have these fabulous experiences with teachers and friends and it's sad to see that end.  Once again, my kids had AMAZING teachers.  Hurley had Mrs. McGee (Brooklen had her two years ago).  Jackie is such a sweetheart.  She is kind and gentle, but she pushes the kids to their potential.  I felt bad because I only volunteered one day this whole year in her class.  I was room mom, however, and I planned all of the parties.  At the class party, I presented her with our class gift (gift cards to her favorite places).  The following day, she sent me a card with a gift card to the Eastman Party store to thank me for all of my work.  She also came to watch Hurley's last baseball game that evening.  I'm telling you, she is a gem.  She really loves her students.

Brooklen had Ms. Stanton this year.  Aspen is a first year teacher; she is only like 21 or 22 years old.  She beat out 200 other applicants for the job as 3rd grade teacher at Woodcrest.  She is such a sweetheart; she has so much energy, her class is adorable, and she is really amazing with those kids.  On the last day of school, she also gave me a gift (I was room mom in her class too), wrote me a sweet card, and she pulled me aside and told me that she was so grateful to have Brooklen in her class.  She got teary-eyed and said that she appreciated how respectful that he is and that he is one of her favorites.  She thanked me for doing such a good job with him and told me that I am a sort of super mom.  The reason I am recording this is because I really, really appreciated her comments.  Of course, I know that I am waaaay far from being any sort of super mom, but I appreciate that she loves my child and that she recognizes that Rob and I are doing something right!

On Friday evening, Brooklen had his last baseball game.  The boys played great and they won their last game.  Once again, Brooklen has played with a great group of boys and had some really good coaches.  It was so fun to see him develop this year.  After the game, we had a fun bbq with the other families.

On Saturday, we went to West Branch to watch Rob sky dive.  He did AFF skydiving; two instructors held on to him until he pulled his shoot and then they let go and he came down alone.  It was a long, hot day and we waited for about 5 hours before he jumped, but it was so cool to watch.  Rob wasn't feeling good, but of course, he did amazing and he even landed on his feet.

Today was father's day.  I'm so grateful that I was raised by a dad that "cares."  His family is his number one priority and he has spent every day of his life teaching his kids what is important.  I'm blessed to have married someone, who although he is very different than my dad, he also firmly believes in putting family first.  Rob is so good at taking time out for our kids and recognizing opportunities for impactful teaching moments.  He isn't pushy and he makes sure our kids know that he loves them.  I am so grateful for him.

Week 23

This week as I've tried to knock some more big things off of my cleaning and organizing list AND try to get some photo editing done, I've tried really hard to make sure that I do something fun with the kids each day. I want to make sure that when they go to bed at night, they have something fun to remember about the day. This has also helped to keep me on track and ensure that I'm spending some quality time with my kids. This week we did several fun things like we went to the library one day, caught TONS of frogs at the Chippewa Nature Center, biked to Cook Elementary to meet friends at the park, biked to the Tridge to play at the splash pad.

Friday was one of my favorite days. We woke up early and headed out to a quick physical therapist appt for Brooklen. Then, by 10:00am we were home and started packing a lunch. We headed off on our bike to the Tridge. When we got there we ate and then played in the splash pad. On our bike ride home, we stopped at Thrune Park to play and to try out their splash pad. When we got closer to home, we stopped and picked some gorgeous wildflowers for a centerpiece on our kitchen table. Zaya and I call ed the flowers "jackpot" flowers because they were so pretty that we felt like we hit the jackpot! When we were almost home, I saw something on the sidewalk up ahead. As we got closer, I realized that it was a turtle! We picked it up and took it home with us so that we could show Brooklen and Hurley when they got home. We put the turtle in the bathtub for a couple of hours until the kids got home. Brooklen and Hurley were so excited when they saw it. I let them play with it for a couple of hours and then they took it down to the river in our backyard and let it go.

Yesterday, Rob went to Saginaw for skydiving training. While he was there, I took the kids to Birch Run to get the boys some new shoes. In the afternoon, we rode as a family to the Tridge and then we came back and made tacos for dinner. It was a pretty chill day, but I think we all needed a day like that!

Week 22

If I were to pick one word to describe the past week, it would for sure be "stress."  With the school year coming to an end, I have a ton of stuff that I feel like I need to get done.  This week, however, I babysat a friend's kids for an entire day, threw a birthday party for Zaya, and shot a wedding.  Phew, I made it though; and I feel great knowing that I made it through such a hectic week.

Monday was Memorial Day.  In the morning, we woke up early and got ready and headed downtown for the Memorial Day Parade.  Rob and Brooklen walked and rollerbladed (Brooklen) in the parade with MAHL.  Zaya, Hurley, Kaiton, and I were spectators.  After the parade, we went home and ate lunch, packed up some food and headed to Sanford Beach.  The beach was busier than I've ever seen it and Rob and Brooklen were not excited about the idea of being there on a busy day, but it was Zaya's birthday weekend and she wanted to go, so we did it anyway.  We all had a fabulous time! Beach days are some of my favorites with my little family.

On Tuesday morning, I threw a birthday party to celebrate Zaya's 5th birthday. We invited 9 of her friends for a party at Plymouth Park.  We had a bit of a surprise when we arrived and saw that there were four 1st grade classes there for a field trip.  I took a deep breath, realized that there was nothing I could do and decided to be brave and deal with it.  Luckily, I had picked Brooklen and Hurley up from school to come to the party.  They were a BIG help to me as I tried to keep track of all of the little kids.  The kids played for the first hour.  Then, Rob brought pizza.  We had pizza, watermelon, and root beer for lunch and then the kids hit a pinata open.  Zaya's friend, Nev, was the one who finally cracked it open!  After the pinata, we opened presents and had beach-themed cupcakes that I had made.  It ended up being a really great party.  And since I didn't have to clean up my house afterwards, it was fairly low-key!

On Wednesday, I watched my friend, Tiffany's, kids from 8:30-3:00pm.  At night, we had gymnastics and baseball games.  On Thursday, I think we had more games.  I know I had a busy day, but I can't quite remember what we had going on!

Friday, I took Zaya and Kaiton to Dow Gardens.  We walked around for a while looking at photo spots and then we played in the children's garden.  The kids had a BLAST!  I can't wait to take all of them after school gets out.

On Saturday, I shot a wedding at the Great Hall in Midland.  I was soooo nervous.  Rob came with me and stayed until the reception.  Abby Carn watched the kids and they loved her.  At 4:00pm, Rob came home and relieved Abby and I went to shoot the reception.  I've been looking through the photos today.  It was a really stressful experience, as it always is, but I think I learned some things and got some pretty decent photos.

To close, here is a "data dump" of some photos that I finally had a chance to upload.  I have many more to look at, so hopefully next week, I will have a bunch more to post.