Grateful...

Grateful on this Memorial Day for all the men and women who have served our country....and that we get to enjoy moments like these. Ready for bed after a long beautiful weekend but wanted to share a few of our pictures. 

11 More Days...

School Days that is...




11 more times to disturb this...

and this...

at least for this school year...praying they want to sleep in during the summer as much as they want to on a school day (not that I ever thought I would call 7 or 8 sleeping in!)

Meanwhile we are practicing for our summer every day after school...it's very important to be prepared on these matters!

 Monkey See...

 Monkey Do!

Our new toy...the balance bike ( a bike with no pedals that people make money off of...and seems to work)

T-ball will be coming to an end soon.

Not sure if Tinley will be happy or sad...here she is entertaining the crowds.

Parker was excited to be catcher and get to wear the cool mask:)

11 days!

Looking forward...

To looking back...I'm not exactly sure how this phrase popped into my head today. It was actually the theme of our yearbook when I was a Senior in High School...and yes I was on the yearbook committee. Perhaps that was my first form of blogging. My job was to come up with themes and captions for the pictures. I have decided this blog is just my "yearbook" for now. And so many times I look forward to looking back on these memories of special times and hoping I can remember the sweet moments of life that I want to hold on to and certainly look forward to more to come. 

This weekend Tinley and I hit the road again...it has been a very busy season for Parker with t-ball and trying to learn to ride his bike with out training wheels...and defeating the bad guys on Star Wars and all the other challenges of being a 5 year old boy. It was great for he and Brandon to have a chance to work on their "boy time" as Parker likes to call it. 

I was super excited to go home to Sheryl's shower.  It was a precious and joyful occasion...

With some gifts that were A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!!

Some fun surprises...

And a big dose of HOPE... for good things to come (quickly please)!

Tinley had her share of fun too...She was excited to see her friend Lydia again!

And no road trip can make just one stop...Saturday night we spent the night in the big town of Bear Creek.

Went to a reunion at the farm house on Sunday...

These two amigos were missing Parker to complete their trio.

And made it back home in time to have a little water fun. This is Parker posing while telling me about The Avengers...which Brandon said he fell asleep during...and he says he didn't. Glad to see his silly face:)

Fun Fact for the weekend: This is a picture of the 2nd largest Cedar Tree in North Carolina. If you're dying to know where it is, I can let you in on the secret sometime.

So many special occasions last week...I couldn't keep up...

Happy Birthday Ed!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday Bonnie!!

Happy Anniversary Brandon!!

Feeling Appreciated

Two of the most difficult and most wonderful things I've done in my life...being a teacher and being a mother.  It seems ironic that the days that are made to appreciate these two roles come back to back every year. Last week was teacher appreciation and then of course Sunday was Mother's Day. Of course the big time rewards become in every day life with my students and my children...but I do believe I was starting to get a little spoiled!! It definitely got me thinking that I need to make sure I'm showing appreciation for all the big and small roles in my life.

Here are some beautiful flowers I got from one of my students. They look so cute carrying little flowers down the hall...looks like they are going to pick someone up for a date:)

In addition to lots of sweet treats (apparently my students do not care about the size of my clothes), my class made me this flower pot with fingerprints turned into bees and gift card flowers...I guess that's where we've been confused...money doesn't grow on trees, it grows in flower pots.

I loved my Mother's Day coupon book from Parker. This is one of the pages...I will scratch your back. That's right...my boy knows what I like...and I've already used this coupon.

Footprint butterfly from Tinley!

Mother's Day pictures...

This year we made garden stones with Tinley's handprint for our Moms. We had done one with Parkers when he was about 2...how the time flies!

Posing with Ganny..

We headed out to Cedar Rock Park for a Mother's Day Picnic

 A cousin walk to the waterfall

When we got there...there wasn't much water falling...

But it was still very pretty and they were just as happy with the rocks and company.

 Appreciating my Mother...

Some fun on the playground!

Meanwhile Grandaddy had a surprise retirement party Saturday night. 

Happy Retirement!!

Some other random pictures of us preparing for summer...we can't wait till you get here!!!

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just

as in fact you are doing.”