Proud Parents of Great Kids

May 29th was Shelby's last day of Kindergarten. She was excited and sad all at the same time. That morning she woke up and got dressed all by herself to surprise me. Wow, she told me she was trying to act like a first grader. Now don't get me wrong, she usually dresses herself, but I usually have to ask and then beg her to not whine about what she is wearing. This day was a new beginning!
This is Shelby with her best friend, who she says she misses everyday. Shelby is really going to miss Mrs. White, what a great teacher. I'm so happy Shelby had her. She doesn't believe a word John or I say now, she only believes Mrs. White.

Well, I knew we had a smart girl on our hands but wowieeeee. At her awards ceremony I kept waiting to her her name and it was all the way at the end. Her award was for Academic Excellence which encompasses all areas ( as you can she she is extremely proud) and so are we. Her other award is for competing in the Governor's Fitness Challenge. We logged her excercise habits for a few weeks and she received her award. Additionally, she received an award from the district, a ticket to the county fair, and a ticket to Six Flags Marine World! We couldn't be more proud of this precious girl!

And then we have our little buddy Brandon. He had so much fun playing tee ball. On the last day he received an award for participation and a coupon for a free Round Table personal pizza (yum)!

If you take a close look at his hair you will see John has it gooed with gel and spiked. It was crazy day on the last day, with a cute kid like Brandon, it's hard to look crazy, everything just turns out cute.

We are certainly blessed to have these gorgeous children. We wouldn't trade them for a thing and we are looking forward to all the adventured we will have together over the years. Both kids are in swimming lessons right now and are doing awesome. Shelby is so close to swimming I can't believe she was the same girl who cried about getting her face wet three weeks ago. Brandon is jumping in and smiling the whole time. I guess it's time to save up our money for a pool.

Shelby's Kindergarten Performance

Since I'm a little behind on posting I will try and catch up. In May the morning kindergarten class put on a performance and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. The sang songs about bugs and dogs, it was completely adorable.

Shelby sang her little heart out. It was fantastic that she was in the front row and right in the center we could actually hear her little voice.

I hope this video works, it's my first time trying to post one.

My Three Brothers

Recently, I have been very busy (wait I'm always busy)... but the recent activities have centered around my brothers. It's nice to have a large family, but it's very rare to have everyone in the same room.
This is Jonathan (8 years old) and absolutely adored by Brandon. Johnny is one of the funniest kids I have ever met, he's quite a character. I am so glad Brandon has him to play with. This is Benjamin (18 years old). As you can see he recently graduated high school and I was extremely proud to be able to attend this important day. I know he will go on to do great things, he's always been extremely bright.

And Christopher (30 years old). He was married yesterday and I was so happy that my Dad performed the ceremony. It was great to see them standing together.

Creative Inspiration

When you first have a child in school you want to help out in many ways. I'm one of those people that is a glutton for punishment and will always want to help out. So I joined the PTO at Shelby's school. I was the chairman for Staff and Teacher Appreciation which was a lot of work, but really turned out great. It consisted of a luncheon, breakfast, and four other various gifts.

The main project was to make thank you books for all the teachers, yes all 45 teachers. Anna luckily helped me figure out how to accomplish this project without spending a lot of money and going crazy. I took her ideas and fit them for my project.

My supplies:

-Colored paper cut in half (please use a paper cutter and do not cut all 1000 pages by hand like I did)

-Scissors, Ruler, Hole Punch (again all punched by hand, Anna recommends drilling the holes, but I was too scared to do it. I thought the pages would disintegrate).

-Twine for binding, which worked really well. (The pencil was to hold the holes open).

The finished product x 45. I used class photos for the front cover and laminated both of the covers. I was very happy with the finished product and got excellent reviews from the teachers.

The hardest part of the project was to find another parent from each class to coordinate the kids making their pages. Some of the parents did an absolute fantastic job. Although, the books turned out really great, it was a lot of work, and I will not be doing it next year.

For now, I have been elected the Secretary for the PTO and will attempt to keep the rest at a minimum. ( Really, how much can one person do?)

Thanks to Anna for all her inspiration, I will probably look to her in the future for more project ideas.

Let's Play Ball

Brandon had his first day of Pee-Wee T-Ball last Thursday and it was an absolute blast. He had so much fun, I love watching him give his all. Shelby and I cheered for him and John was his assistant. (All three-year-olds require parent participation).

I love Brandons giant smile, it is certainly contagious. We play for four weeks, so I will post more pictures later.

A Very Happy Easter

As you can see below the kids had a great Easter. I love Shelby's tulip basket, the Easter bunny brought some really great stuff this year.

So how did all the eggs get cracked? That's kind of a funny story that I don't have pictures for. I was in a rush to hide the eggs and didn't see the chicken wire in the lawn, the next thing I knew I was flat on my stomach. My arms and back were killing me for over a week. So, why the chicken wire in the lawn, apparently it keeps the turkeys from eating the freshly seeded areas, who knew? John's Aunt did apologize for the mishap. The lesson I learned: always look where you walk, and remember the easter bunny hops, not runs.

C upcakes Anyone?

This is the time of year that I start planning for the Birthday parties in July. Last year I make ice cream cone cupcakes and they turned out great, but it seemed like I could do better. I couldn't pass up this Giant Cupcake Pan made by Wilton. They retail for around $30, but if you watch sales and have coupons you can get it for around $15.
This was my trial run with the cupcake pan. The cake was great, the decorating less desirable. I'm going to need a little more practice before I can serve one of these.

And this is the ice cream cone molded cupcake pan I found at LakesideCollection.com. This magazine has all kinds of random items for really great prices. These I have to say turned out really good. It was a lot better than having a cupcake shoved into a stale baked cone.

Shelby told me I diod a great job on all the cakes. She's so sweet, or maybe she just wanted some cake :-)