Mother's Day 2015

Happy Mother's Day! This is going to be a long post but I have a lot to share about Mother's Day this year.  

 

I saw these shirts on Zulily that say, "I love my Gigi" and I knew I had to order them for my mom.  We picked a weekend back in April to take the pictures and thankfully the kids cooperated long enough for me to get a few cute pictures.  Exhausting is an understatement when I think about how hard it was to wrangle all three of these munchkins. Luckily we got a couple cute pictures!

 The frame worthy shot:

 

The Thursday and Friday before Mothers Day, I went to "Mommy and Me Tea" with both Kate and Mason. This was Kate's last year at Good Samaritan (tear).  The kids made adorable gifts and were so excited to show me what they had made.

Thursday was Mason's Mommy and Me Tea: 

 Ready to perform!

 My Mother's Day gifts:

 I love it when they ask the kids questions - so funny to hear their responses.

 One of Aunt Katie and Camden (who were also there):

 On Friday I went back to school for Kate's Mommy and Me Tea:

She was so excited to sing with her class and ran to the front of the group so I would have the best view of her performance.

 My Mother's Day gifts from Kate:

close up:

Kate drew several pictures for me. 

The caption reads "Mommy and I invited our friends to a sleepover"

A coaster - this is at my office. :)

 And an extra special surprise was the bracelet Kate made for me one Wednesday night in bible class.  I love it!  She did such a great job picking out the beads and have enjoyed wearing it.

 

I have to share how great of a job she did decorating the bag my bracelet came wrapped in:

 

The Saturday before Mother's Day was a very busy day.  We ran a couple errands that morning and then went over to Nanny's house to eat lunch and visit.  We really enjoyed spending time with her since we knew we wouldn't see her on Sunday.

Saturday night, we attended Libby's wedding (Aunt Katie's sister) at Honey Lake Plantation.  It was gorgeous!  The kids spent the night at Mimi and Papa's house so Justin and I could enjoy the wedding and not rush home (it was 45 minutes east of Tallahassee).  Dad officiated the ceremony, Mom helped wrangle Camden, and Justin and I enjoyed the festivities. 

 We owe a special thank you to Aunt Katie's cousin Chris for taking these pictures with his awesome camera:

On Mother's Day (Sunday), I enjoyed sleeping in before meeting the kids and Mimi and Papa at Seven Hills.  We had a nice lunch together and even took a couple pictures.  Papa hasn't sent me the picture we took of his camera but I have one from daddy's phone:

Mason was over taking pictures but he still looks cute.

 

After lunch, Mimi pulled out an old poster of daddy from his t-ball days and we compared it to Kate:

They're both a couple cuties.

 

I spoiled myself this year for Mother's Day.  I upgraded my iPhone 4s to the new iPhone 6 (love it!), bought myself a new FSU shirt and arranged to have Mother's Day pictures taken one Sunday afternoon at the Miccosukee Greenway.  We tried a new photographer (Kate Bellflower) since Lexi recently moved away and I am in love with them!  I'll share all those in my next post.

 

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

Kindergarten Orientaton

Last Friday, I took off for the day to take Kate to Kindergarten Orientation at Roberts.  She was so excited but a little overwhelmed at first.  We met in the cafeteria and as soon as we walked in, there were a couple groups of students getting ready to leave for a field trip in addition to all the Kindergarten parents and students.  Kate immediately asked me in awe, "Do all these kids go to Roberts?" Shortly after we got there, we saw Nolan and Mrs. Amanda - the only other people we knew.  I was surprised I didn't recognize more families but I guess I'll be meeting lots of new parents in the next year.

 

Waiting for Orientation to begin.  We were in the pink fox group. 

Kate and Nolan checking out one of the classrooms.  Kate told me after we walked in the first class, "I think I'm going to like this place".   

Nolan and Kate. :)

After a brief introduction, we took a tour of the school.  We went to all six Kindergarten classes, the Media Center, the Front Office, passed the Art Room and Music Room (but only peaked inside) and then ended the tour on the Kindergarten Playground for cookies and juice.  While we were there, I dropped off Kate's registration packet so we are official!

 

After our busy morning, I took Kate to lunch at Red Elephant, we did some shopping, and then we took a tour of Killearn United Methodist Daycare.  I think Kate will end up going there but we are going to tour one more place before we decide. I'm more confident with my decisions when I have something to compare to. After the tour, I took her for ice cream at Sweet Frog.  I love that it's a Christian company - FROG stands for "Fully Rely on God". Great motto!

 Posing in front of the sign with the white frog...Kate loves to "pet" the frog any time we are there.

Perfect day for ice cream! 

It was a busy day and she was wiped out before we got home.  She's ready for Kindergarten now!

Miscellaneous Pictures to Share

A few random thoughts and pictures to share. 

 

Mason loves helping Justin and doing "boy stuff" (as Justin calls it).  We ordered a new Swiffer vac and Mason enjoyed helping Justin put it together.  He's such a good helper.

 This is the kids new "secret hideout" - my closet.  Kate loves to take all her stuffed animals, her blankets, and pillows into my closet where she and Mason hang out.  This particular time got her into trouble because she didn't pick up all her things after bring told repeatedly to do so, so I packed them all up and she's earning back one animal each day she is a good listener. 

 

The Skink 

I wish I had taken a picture of this, but on Saturday Kate and I finally caught the blue tailed skink that has been living in our house since Christmas.  Yes, CHRISTMAS!  I saw it one day in the hallway when I was home with the kids and it ran up into the door frame in Kate's room before I could catch it.  We never saw it again until a week ago, when it scurried across Kate's room from under her bed to her closet. Until then, I assumed it had died or found its way back outside.  Boy was I wrong. I trapped it in the closet that afternoon and waited for Justin to get home.  But before he could suck it up with the shop vac, it escaped into a hole in the corner of Kate's closet. 

 

I was so aggravated but relieved that Kate didn't seem too upset about it being in her room.  When we got home a week later on a Saturday afternoon, I saw that nasty skink once again running from the closet and heading for underneath her bed. This time I put towels down so it couldn't get back to the closet (since it had an escape route there) and Kate watched it with a flashlight while I grabbed a broom.  I heard her say "Mommy, I think he's having a party under there".  I agree...he's been having a party for months! Anyways, I managed to force it into a shoe box and forced the lid on it before it could escaped.  We ran outside and let it loose in the neighbor's yard. Girl power!  I was so proud of us!

 

I'm SO relieved we finally got rid of Kate's roommate.  When Justin and I were leaving for church the next morning, another skink (twice as big) was in our garage and ran straight for our kitchen door.  I started shouting "Don't let that thing in here" and unfortunately it got away before Justin could kill it.  We joked around that it heard we had a vacancy.  Ugh!  I will freak out if another one gets in our house.  So gross!

 

Back to happier thoughts...my little man loves playing on daddy's "tractor".  But once it gets cranked up, Mason runs inside crying because it's too loud.

 

Look what else he is up to:

He tried big boy underwear and quickly had an accident but hey, it's a start!

 I had to take a picture of this sleeping position...all boy.

My little stud muffin with chocolate ice cream running down his chest.

 

Here's a couple new pictures Kate drew that I thought were so good: 

 Kate and her friends dreaming of Minnie Mouse.

 Kate and her friends dreaming of more friends!

 

A couple weeks ago, it was "Take Your Son/Daughter to Work Day" and my co-worker brought her three girls (ages 10,9 and 7).  We had a lot of fun through out the day and the girls kept bringing me drawings they had done.  What made me laugh was they had our boss sign every drawing, making them "official". 

Can't argue with that - "World's Greatest Rebecca"

 Signed by my boss, Clark.

My self portrait.

I still have all of these hanging in my office.  I can't wait until my kiddos are old enough to come to work with me.

 

We also made another visit to the Southwood Pool.  Daddy was out of town at a fishing tournament and the weather was terrible that weekend.  We met Uncle Jordan, Aunt Katie and Camden at the pool but didn't get to stay too long (maybe 45 minutes).  The upside was that we had the entire place to ourselves - no one wanted to come out with the weather being so threatening. 

 

 Showing off his muscles.

We still had a great time even though it didn't last long.

 

Later that evening, we attended a bridal shower/cookout for my long time friend, Michael (Audrey's Uncle) and his new wife, Rose. Kate and Mason had a great time playing with Audrey, Sawyer and their cousin Lily.  At one point during the night I decided to go check on the boys, who were off by themselves.  Audrey told me they were having a party in the upstairs bathroom.  Hmmm.  After I got Sawyer to unlock the door, I discovered they were playing swords with disposable razors.  Thank goodness they didn't get hurt! Boys! 

 This past weekend we snuck into Lafayette Oaks neighborhood to play on the playground.  The kids had a great time playing and I'm sure we'll be back soon (if we don't get caught)! 

 After the park, I told Mason to jump in the bath:

I guess I should have specified to take off his shirt first.  Silly boy.

 

And finally...this past Sunday I took a couple quick pictures after church of my cuties: 

The lamb Kate made in bible class. 

They are currently learning about Psalms 23 and memorizing the whole chapter!

This is one of my favorite outfits on Kate!  Nanny bought it for Kate's birthday this past year and she's finally able to wear it. Thank you Nanny for another precious outfit. 

And the last picture of this post, my matching boys.  Love them!