Awards Ceremony and Last Day of Kindergarten at Oakhill Academy

Today was the Awards Ceremony at Oakhill. Brant was recognized for excellence in Mathematics and a talent for computation. Obviously, he does not get this from his mother. It was a fun morning and school dismissed for the summer at 10:30 am directly after the awards. The atmosphere was a little overwhelming, so it was so hard to get a good picture.

Brant and Mrs. Royall before the awards. She is so sweet and we really love her.
Brant receiving his award from the director, Pam Quarterman.

He was proud and excited to get his award.

Afterwards, we went back to the classroom to say goodbye to friends for the summer. This is Brant and Jackson.

Brant with Mrs. Royall and Mrs. Randall (she was his teacher the first part of the year before she had her baby and left to stay home).

The Core K class for 2008-2009.

Daddy and Brant outside the school after dismissal.

On a side note----Brant has decided that he like to use the digital camera to take pictures. Unfortunately, I think the Fisher Price digital camera has already died so he wants to use my camera. He is chasing Gracie around the house trying to get her picture. I remember chasing Cricket (the beagle) around the yard trying to take a picture of her when I was just a little older than Brant. This is the first shot that he has taken that was promising.

Last Day of Sonshine School

The girls on their last day of Sonshine School with Mrs. Kimbrough and Mrs. Lowry. For some reason I was feeling a little sad. I can hardly believe that their first year of preschool is over and my babies are getting so big. They gave us a little memory book of the year and Claire had hair barely at her shoulders in the fall and now it is over half way down her back. It is fun that they are talking so much, but I know it is going to fly by before I know it.

Cate, Mrs. Kimbrough, Claire and Mrs. Lowry with their end of the year teacher gifts. Claire wanted to know where her popcorn was . . .

Memorial Day

We had a low key Memorial Day at home with the Millers and the kids. We just swam, did a little grilling and had fun. It was just nice to relax and hang with the family.

Mitzi and sweet Reese.
Jeff and Mitzi

Brian and the B-ster.

My little Cate ready for a swim.

Reese and Collin swimming with their goggles.

Brant with one of the floats.

Claire is a little fish and a dare-devil. She loves the water and daddy tossing her in the air.

Cate with her Aunt ZiZi.

We love bubbles!

Claire and Reese with the sidewalk chalk. Claire loves to color--unfortunately this includes the walls. :(

Who could end a holiday without a cupcake?

And now for the last week of school.

Girl's Weekend in Houston

Laurie and I decided to head to Houston to visit Liz and the only weekend that ended up working for everyone was Memorial Day weekend. We got there early on Saturday and headed to Sam's Boat for a little nostalgia, crawfish and beer. It was a fun afternoon and then we headed back to the hotel to get dressed and meet Amy Sundberg. She brought the album from her bachelorette party and it was so fun catching up and laughing about the "old days".

Liz gave us a little driving tour of the Memorial Park area. Brian and I built our first house together in the Rice Military neighborhood and it was fun to drive by and see the old casa. We loved the location when we lived in Houston, but now Washington has so many bars and restaurants it is crazy. We at dinner just down the street from the old house. It now has so much bamboo and other vegetation that it looks totally different. After dinner we headed over to the Pearl Bar to meet up with Heather Blocker and Lori McCall. Fun night out . . . not a fun morning after. We managed to hit La Madeline and then headed back home.

Liz, Laurie and I at Sam's Boat.
The old house . . . it's a jungle.

When I showed Brian this picture of the old house he didn't even know what it was with all the bamboo. It looked so different.

Laurie and Liz at El Tiempo

Amy and I at El Tiempo

Lori Oliver at the Pearl Bar.

Owens Spring Creek Farm Field Trip with Oakhill

Today Brant's class visited Owens Spring Creek Farm. It was a fairly short field trip, but it was fun taking a peek at the farm. The first thing we all did was feed the goats. Brant was really not to hip about getting close to the goats, but I think in the end he was sad when he ran out of feed. Then we took a short hayride. In the fall, Brant had been nervous about doing the hayride at the pumpkin patch, so I was pleasantly surprised that he hopped right on the trailer today and was ready to go. It was a cool, beautiful morning to be outside. Then we got to view some of the animals and plant a pumpkin seed. We finished up by enjoying a snack outside before all the kids headed back to school.

Feeding the goats with a little encouragement from Mrs. Royall.
Our hayride. We loved seeing the galloping ponies.

The boys checking out some of the equipment. Brant, Austen and Jackson

Everyone lined up to see the pony and her new baby--7 weeks old.

Planting our pumpkin seeds. Mrs. Randall helping out.

Brant and Anna in the flower cut outs.

Snack time with Celia.

Main Street Days-Grapevine

Brian loves to go to festivals, so today we took the kid's out to Main Street Days in Grapevine. They had a lot of little booths, shops, a midway, kid zone and live music so it ended up being a fun afternoon. It has been so rainy lately that is was just nice to get out of the house and enjoy some nice weather. The kids rode a couple of rides, ate some junk and did a little exploring. I asked Cate on the way home what her favorite part of the day was and she said "walking with daddy".

My sweet family walking and holding hands.
Cate and Claire exploring the Rainbow Playsystems display.

Claire with her puppy ears.

The girls and I rode the teacups.

Cate-Cat.

Daddy and Brant rode the bumper cars.

All the kids took a turn in the bounce house.Before we left Brant really wanted to play miniature golf. He would not let me help him learn how to hold the putter, but he did stick with it the entire course.

Sweet Moments in the Car

With three car seat all side by side in the backseat of the car you can imagine that we have some high and low moments everyday. Taking toys, touching, arguing over which movie to watch does happen, however, there are also some sweet moments that aren't very easy to photograph. When I hear those sweet peels of laughter coming from the girls or Brant saying something really nice to his sisters I just want to capture those moments forever but it's really hard to take a picture while you are trying to drive. With this in mind I tried to be prepared lately and managed to capture a couple of shots.

The seating in the car is almost always the same. Brant has a larger carseat, so he always sits in his seat and then the girls just get used to their usual positions. It is like the dinner table where everyone has "my chair". Cate is almost always in the middle and Claire sits behind mommy. It can be so frustrating when they are fighting, but I'm sure someday I will look back and miss those sweet moments.

Somtimes Cate reaches over to touch/tickle Claire and it causes a real ruckus when Claire is not in the mood. However, sometimes it results in four kicking feet and tons of laughing and it is so irresistable. Here is Cate tickling Claire.

Once in awhile I look back and see them holding hands and that just melts my heart. Here is Cate holding hands with her big brother.

Field Day at Oakhill Academy

We had a great time attending field day at Brant's school this week. They did some of the typical relay races and had an egg drop. For the egg drop, all of the classes designed and made containers to hold and cushion their eggs and the firemen came out and dropped them off the extended ladder. It was actually pretty exciting. All of the classes who had their egg come out of the drop unbroken won a party. The kids had a good time and wrapped up the morning with a picnic lunch.

My gorgeous, happy boy!
Daddy with Brant and Shmuli

Group shot for field day.

Races in the gym.

Lining up for some of the outside races.

Brant was so dedicated to getting this tire around the track and struggled, but got it all the way around.

Everyone ready to watch the egg drop.

The firemen dropping our egg.

How did our egg do? Is it still together?

Brant and Michael high-five to celebrate our egg making it through the drop.