Memorial Day Rewind

In anticipation of our local Memorial Day parade tomorrow...I remembered a video I posted a couple years ago.

Not gonna lie...I have watched this over and over...

Cried each time.

How did he get so BIG?!?!


Thank you to all the men and women who have fought and are fighting to maintain our freedoms. We are grateful.

Camp Kevin

On our First Official Day of Summer, Kevin knocked it out of the park by offering to watch C and E and the Moore kids for a few hours while Stephanie and I went to lunch.

I. Know.
He. Is. Amazing.

If you are a husband and you are reading this...take some pointers.
Steal his ideas if you have to.
But bless your wife by doing this.
You may even have some fun while you are at it.

The Moores pulled up in their van and out of nowhere, Kevin shows up in a hula skirt (or table skirt...same diff) and leis shouting, 'ALOOOOOHA!'

The kids knew they were in for a good time.

First things first:
Lunch.

After lunch:

Craft.

(insert picture of kids making paper leis here...oops.)

Then:

Outside for ice cold watermelon.

(Keep your eye on that tooth on Chloe...it was the last day it was in her mouth...and let's just say...revisit my post about her other tooth and double the disgusting factor.)

These kids can eat A LOT of watermelon.

Hammock time.
Abi, Ali and Chloe

Eli and Nate

Amelia's view from the upstairs window.

(It must be noted that Kevin also wore a baby monitor for the majority of Camp Kevin so that he could hear Amelia when she woke up from her nap. Jamey, Amelia's Daddy, will be relieved to read this.)

Kevin was surprised by how long they stayed busy in this mud pit.

Eli squatted in that position for 30 minutes, easy.

Another show of patience.

Chloe and Abi were trying to fill the water hop-scotch with a tiny stream of water.

Kevin and Pirate Nate

with the 'treasure map'

The beginning of the treasure hunt.

They were trying to find a secret snack.

still at it....

The Whole Gang

Kevin and the girls.

The treasure aka Secret Snack.

Which was found inside one of our kayaks.

Buy cotton candy and Sprite.

Pour Sprite into a cup, drop a clump of cotton candy into the Sprite.

Watch it change colors.

This is really fun for kids.

And who couldn't use a little more sugar in Sprite, right??

End of the day...

Sporting the paper leis and the treasure map.

Super fun beginning to the summer!

Thank you, Kevin.

We will take you up on this offer as often as you offer it...

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Last Days of Kindergarten

The end of the school year what a flurry of activities...

Chloe received a certificate for being 'Nature Smart'

An end of the year slide show was shown...

as soon as Justin Beaver (I know...Beiber...shhh...don't tell Chloe)

started singing, the ENTIRE gym erupted in "Baby,Baby,Baby...Ohhh!"

It was really funny.

For the end of the year party, Chloe's class walked from the school to Pizza Hut...

from Pizza Hut to the park...

and from the park back to the school.

It was a lot of walking, but the kids were good sports and I am sure every single one of them napped that afternoon. :)

Yes...that IS a lot of Kindergartners.

:)
Yohana, Chloe and Ella at Pizza Hut

Iliana, Yohana, Chloe, Ella, Adler and Mayshia at the park.

Granna was in town for the celebration and

The Yard Sale of the Year!!

May say more about that at another time...but it is safe to say:

"Hi, my name is Sarah and I am a stroller hoarder."

Blue Belle Ice Cream at the park!

Chloe, Ella, Yohana, and Adler

Chloe's Completion of Kindergarten Certificate

(following her receipt of the certificate, she had a mini-meltdown...sad to be leaving Ms. Todd...sad to not be in Kindergarten anymore...just sad. Goodbyes have always been hard for our tender hearted girl. Love her spirit...but we hurt when she hurts.)

Pulled ourselves together for a hug and a picture.

Kevin and I lead an art time on the last day of school.

We got our idea here.

That is an amazing blog and resource.

You are welcome.

Chloe's Giant Squid

We were pleased with every one's interpretations.

One last picture with Ms. Todd.

We even ran into our friend Mary-Carter

from PreK at Corner Drug when we stopped for 50 cent ice cream cone!

Then and Now...

First Day of Kindergarten

August 9, 2010

Last Day of Kindergarten

May 24, 2011

I would say you grew a few inches.

You lost 3 teeth.

You learned over 90 site words.

You started to read.

You made new friends.

You had a great year!

Your highlights:

(per you)

All of it.

Everything.

Ella.

Louba.

Adler.

Iliana.

Creative Movement.

P.E.

Music.

Science.

Recess.

Pizza lunches.

Mommy coming in once a week.

Everything.

Any thing you say about it...I liked it.
:)

Walruth.

It was weeks in the making.
A looooong drawn out affair...
C wanted her top tooth to come out 'all on it's own.'
We were happy to oblige, honestly.
Pulling teeth makes me want to vomit.
My whole body shivers and convulses when she moves a loose tooth with her tongue.
At first I was feeling a little nostalgic...the last days of the baby-teeth-smile...sigh...

And then she started doing this...

Why, Yes. Yes it is turned completely around. Yes. A backwards front tooth.

Uhhh. (insert shivers and disgusted face here.)

Vampire tooth...COME OUT...in the name of JES-US!!

(insert Pentecostal preacher voice here.)

All sentimentality went out the window when the dangling tooth would move back and forth as she breathed. I was ready to end the suffering. (mine...) and pull that dang tooth.

But she insisted that it come out on it's own.

So I resisted.

FINALLY...

in the parking lot of a Panera on the way home from church, and with the cheers and encouragement of her Mimi...

Chloe pulled her own tooth!!

sighs of relief were breathed by all in attendance.

and now we (C) say things like 'walruth.' Not because we can't say 'walrus' but because we want to believe that words can no longer be pronounced correctly with a missing tooth and all.

*Baby Girl...if you are reading this...we totally knew you were faking the lisp...but played along because it brought you so much joy...you are too. stinkin'. cute.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

What?? You say Mother's Day was two weeks ago??
Well...don't tell Eli.
He has been giving me sweet kisses and tender "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy"s every day for those two weeks straight...and I am in no hurry for them to stop.
So zip it.

Just yesterday, he conspired a plan at Walmart with his Daddy and sister to buy these flowers for me. He pulled them both aside as we arrived and in a whisper told them,

"This is the plan. We are going to surprise Mama and get her flowers for Mother's Day. But, Shhh. Don't tell her. It is a secret."

Of course I did not hear this plan...he held his little secret for a good 45 minutes and then at check out...he tugged on Daddy's shirt and said, "it's time."

So, as I stood in line, he and Daddy went out into the garden section and he picked these flowers out for me. They are perfect.

Sister joined in on the plan and followed suit. Yellow Gerber daisies...also perfect.

Feeling loved and thought of.
Happy Mother's Day. Everyday.

Random Monday Cuteness...

I am so far behind in my blogging, I am not sure how I will ever catch up.
Blogger throwing a hissy-fit for the majority of last week did not help matters much.

So today you get random cuteness from two separate weeks:

Eli and Liv doing what they do best

for all of 5 minutes

until they are onto doing what they do best for the next 5 minutes.

Seriously. Cute.

Chloe and some classmates on "Job Day."
Chloe wanted to go as a veterinarian...
until she found out 5 other people were going to dress up as veterinarians.
(love her sense of autonomy)
So she went as a zookeeper.
Daddy found a fer-real Australian Zoo Keeper shirt somewhere just in the nick of time...
he refuses to share his source
Regardless, she is adorable.
And wants to be Bindi Erwin when she grows up.
Which we are totally cool with.

Making Dreams Come True

(Warning...this is a very, very LONG post...but I think it is worth it!)

Well...somebody is having a birthday this week.
He wouldn't want me to reveal his age...so it's 29...again.
(or half of eighty) gasp!!!
impossible. I. know.

I wanted to do something really special and memorable.
At the risk of making my man sound a touch nerdy...
He loves dinosaurs and fossils.
In the past several years, he has gained an affection for fossilized shark's teeth. That started at Edisto Beach in South Carolina. He has caught the fever and has had a dream of finding a Megalodon tooth.

You may already know that the Megalodon is the ancestor of the Great White Shark and lived in the Miocene Epoch. It is one of the largest predators that has ever lived. Estimated to be 60 feet long. Capable of swallowing a fully grown rhinoceros in one gulp. (confession: I did not know any of this either...until this weekend...)

Kevin had done some research on the web of places to dig for fossils in the U.S. and found this man in Florida that leads Fossil Expeditions and fans the flame of hope in making Kevin's dream of finding a megalodon tooth a very real possibility.

Enter me...I contacted the guy in FL and got us on the list for an expedition. A friend gave us a couple buddy passes...we left on a jet plane last Friday set for a birthday adventure.

Saturday morning we met our guide and he lead us to the river where we would start our dig. Kevin was so. nervous. He had researched the river. Our guide and his books. He read up on people's techniques. He was on a mission to find his meg.

(That's what the cool people call Megalodon teeth.)

Of course he wasn't going to search alone. Nope.

He had his dig assistant right at his side for the entire 7 hours.
Actually, he did all the digging.

He would put a pile of mud/sand/gravel in the screen

and I would sift it and search for the fossils.

The excitement was tangible. The smiles real.

Even though our guide had just informed us that there are alligators in the river. and snakes.

Other people were in the shallows, digging and sifting where they could see their feet beneath them. Not us. We were directed to where our guide would dig if he was digging.

In the middle of the river. Shoulder deep.
Did I mention alligators and snakes??

No fashion awards were given on this expedition.

Never. Ever. thought I would own a pair of pink water shoes.
But of course we were about soooo much more than fashion...

HE FOUND ONE!!!

This moment will forever be in my memory.

I had gone to the shore to take our smaller findings to a safe place.

When I turned around to return, Kevin was speechless.

He was holding his mouth and then patting his heart.

And I knew he had found one.

I think he almost cried.

You can't really tell from this picture, but the tooth is 2 inches long.

The average size of the teeth we were finding was less than half an inch

of the Gray, Mako, and Tiger Shark varieties.

This picture gives you a good idea of how massive the tooth is.

The medium sized on next to it is a broken megalodon.

The dot at the tip is the average sized tooth we were finding.

This is what your fingers look like after 7 hours of soaking.

It took 3 hours for my fingers to return to normal.

The TREASURE!

Peace River, FL

Made a DREAM COME TRUE!

Our guide invited us to join him in another river a couple days later.

He taught Kevin some 'raccooning' techniques.

That would be sticking your bare hands in the roots and mud of the shoreline to feel for fossils.

No promises that snakes or snapping turtles won't defend the fossils.

Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig,dig, dig, dig, dig the whole day through...

(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

See the sand. Kevin had just dumped a shovel full on the screen.

After sifting...mostly gravel with an occasional sharks tooth, tortoise shell or mammoth tooth.

This was us for a total of 16 hours over 3 days.

We could have done it 16 more.

Kevin would dig in the dark with a head lamp if I would let him.

A smaller tooth

Prehistoric Gothic.

It was a fantastic trip.

I loved being a part of making one of Kevin's dreams come true.
Certainly made this year's '29th' birthday unforgettable.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KEVIN!