Easter Party at School 2011

The girls had a cute Easter Party at school this year. The weather was cold and raining so they did their Easter Egg hunt inside. Here is Mary Elizabeth finding an egg with her name on it.

Mckinley eating her Easter party snack

Their party was so cute. They had a lot of fun and I was glad that I was able to enjoy it with them.

Circus Day at Preschool

The girls had Circus Day at their school on April 15th instead of class. I was working full time then, and it was during CRCTs, so I asked Louis to take them. He had no idea what he was getting into. :-) He was such a trooper.

The girls were able to dress up however they wanted to and this is what they each chose.

My little pink cowgirl!

Mckinley fishing.

Mary Elizabeth fishing.

Mckinley showing off her goodie bag.

Mckinley doing the bean bag toss.

Mary Elizabeth doing the bean bag toss. Great action shot, Lou. Louis came home bragging about how much better our kids could throw than the other kids. :-) He's always a coach! I'm glad they throw like their Daddy and not like their Mommy.

Mckinley attempting the hula hoop.

Mary Elizabeth - just check out that pose. She's got that hip popped out.

My sweet girls. They are waiting for their turn in the jumpy house.

Waiting to ride the ponies.

Mckinley - she's happiest when she's riding a pony.

Mary Elizabeth.

Mckinley

Cheese!

My 31st Birthday

My 31st birthday was AMAZING!!! We went to the beach for spring break and came home the day before my birthday. It was a wonderful trip with my family. Then, on my birthday, my wonderful husband gave me something I've always wanted, but never have gotten: a SURPRISE party!!! It was so awesome! He invited everyone, arranged everything, and all without me knowing. He had the party at my favorite BBQ restaurant, Williamson Brothers. It was all perfect. Thank you, honey. You are the best.

These pictures are from that night. We came home and had a delicious cake that Louis bought me. Publix' Raspberry Sacher Torte. It's my favorite. He did such a great job thinking about me and what I would like this year. I am blessed to have an amazing husband.

Here I am with my two favorite girls. They love blowing out candles on a birthday cake.

Easter Egg Tree

Yes, I'm just now posting Easter pictures on June 20th. Pretty bad. Anyways...

I have carried on the tradition in my family of decorating an Easter egg tree for Easter. This is where the Easter bunny leaves our Easter baskets on Easter morning. On Easter morning, we go outside and look under the Easter egg tree to find our baskets. The girls love this tradition and so do I.

This was the first year they helped me decorate.

They did a great job. We decorated the tree their way.

It was a lot of fun.

My Sweet Girls

I'm back! It's been a long time since I blogged last. I'm really going to try to catch up. This is totally out of order, but it's recent, on my mind, and I wanted to share it.

My precious girls. They are so sweet. They are so close and they love each other so much. It makes a mommy so happy.

This has NEVER happened before. Friday night, I went upstairs before I went to bed like I do many nights, just to give them a kiss and see for myself that they are asleep, there, and safe. I was so shocked to see this - Mckinley had crawled in the bed with Mary Elizabeth. Mckinley had a rough time going to bed that Friday night. She was over-tired from spending the night with Uncle Matt and Aunt JuJu for the first time Thursday night, and then spending Friday with Uncle Matt. Mary Elizabeth fell asleep as soon as she got in the bed, but Mckinley would not stop screaming. Since nothing that I was doing was helping, I left the room thinking that she would calm down once I left. A few minutes later, the crying stopped and I assumed she finally just gave up and went to sleep. Then, when I checked on them before I went to sleep, I found this. Like I said, this was the first time they have ever choose to sleep together. They share a room, but they always sleep in separate beds. It was so sweet to me that Mckinley was having a hard time sleeping, so she crawled in bed with her sleeping sister for comfort. :-) The funny thing is that Mckinley is the one in the pink shorts closer to the wall. She crawled over her sleeping sister to fall asleep. I loved my sweet girls. I love that they have each other to depend on. I hope they always stay this close.

I'm thankful

This post is just for me. It's a chance for me to get my feelings down. Today was my last day working part time. I can't believe that almost 4 school years have come to an end. When my sweet little babies were born, I never imagined that time would go by so fast. I am so thankful for our decision for me to work part-time. I am so thankful for my time that I've had at home with my children. It hasn't always been easy, there have been some very trying times, but I would not do a single thing different.

The first 2 years I job shared. That really was the best of both worlds. While I was at work I could be in work mode and stay in work mode until the day was over. On my off days, I could sleep in, and be in mom mode all day.

I truly believe in God's timing. So many things have worked out so perfectly. I don't know if things would have worked out the same if I had my girls any other time. I was able to keep a part time job for 4 years even through these hard economic times when many part time workers lost their jobs. For that I am so thankful. Also, the same year that I was released from my contract at Cumming was the same year that Tracey, my current principal was appointed principal. I taught with her at Cumming and when I needed a job, she called me. For that I am also so thankful. I've always wanted my girls to be typical peers in the special ed preschool program. I always knew that it would be a long shot since it's such a popular program and there are so few spots. Since I would need two spots, I knew my chances were slim. I don't think it would have been possible for me to get my girls in this program, like I did, if I were not at Mashburn. Again, for that I'm thankful. Another thing is that next year I was hoping to go full time. While nothing is official until I sign a contract, I'm supposed to be teaching 3rd grade next year. How blessed am I? Every year that I wanted part-time it worked out and the year I want to go back full time because the girls will be in full time preschool it works out. If that's not God's timing, I don't know what it. Finally, since I was fortunate enough to be asked to go to Mashburn, I was asked to be my assistant principal's long term sub while she is out on maternity leave. This is a great opportunity to see if going into leadership is something I really want to do. Also, if I do enjoy it, this is great experience for me. I am so thankful for this opportunity.

I love my beautiful little girls and I thank God for them everyday. I cannot imagine life without them. I am so thankful that God chose me to be their mom. I am so thankful that I was blessed to be a mom. I am so thankful to God for his wisdom and his masterful timing. While it is still a struggle for me, I know that I should put everything is His hands and let everything happen in His time, because His plan for me and for my family is better than anything I could plan.

Graphing

One of the girls' Valentine's activities was to graph little conversation hearts. They did a graph at school and their teacher sent home a baggie of hearts and a blank chart. I was so impressed that they were able to graph, that I just had to see it for myself. So, we did at home too.

They did such a good job. First, they sorted the conversation hearts by color.

Then, they lined them up, one in each box next to the corresponding colored heart.

They counted the hearts out loud as they were placing them on the graph.

After we had all the hearts on the graph, they were able to look at the graph and tell me which color they had the most of.

Next, I had them trace the numbers to tell how many of each color there were. Finally, we took the candy hearts off and we colored the graph to show how many of each color we had. The reward for their hard work: eating the candy!!!

I'm so proud of my 3 year old graphers!