Today was FINALLY the big girls last day of school.

Jackson and Caroline have been out for weeks.

The girls went to school bearing many a gifts for their wonderful teacher’s whom they both adore. 

Caroline has been bored out of her mind the last couple of weeks without her big sister’s at home.

 Flashback…

August 2011…the night before the first day of kindergarten and 3rd grade.

  The first day of school 2011…

The girls kicked of summer by swimming for 4 hours straight!

Summer, I have missed you.

Bring it on!!

I went to go get my hair done and came home to this little gem by Jackson. . .

I told you my girls fight a lot! Lol!!!

have no pre-schoolers in my house.

It is disturbing and exhilarating at the same time.

Springtime in Texas, gotta love it!

PERFECT weather. It is like living in San Diego or something. At least until the bugs make their way into our lives, stripping our spring joy just a bit.

One of my favorite parts of spring is the gardening.

As I walk through the gates of our local nursery I actually get chills. Everything is so beautiful and colorful after a blah winter.

Of course liking something and being good at something is a far different thing. I am a little ADD when it comes to gardening. I buy a little bit of everything and don’t have much of a plan to make it flow and be symmetrical.

The girls haven't figured out yet that I am an amateur. Whew!

  This picture of poor Lucy Lu cracks me up. She is so patient and kind. She endures so much and never complains. The best dog I have ever had the privilege of knowing. 4 kids and she has never growled or even attempted to bite one of her torturers. Impressive.

Don’t ya love it when you look up and see this?  Heaven sent…

One day I was chatting with Brent in his office and noticed something out his window. I grabbed my camera and went outside. This little chickadee was learning to fly and was not very good at it. He kept flying into the house and the bushes. Poor thing.

We always have so many nests around in the spring. We love to try to find them every year. I found this one in our weeping cypress tree in the back yard.

On top of our gazebo is where we found these 2 baby dove’s. We watched their mama sit on them for weeks. So sweet.

Here they are, first time out of their nest.  We loved how the daddy was the lookout as he watched our back door as the mama fed the babies and helped them spread their wings (we took the picture through the window).

Savannah brought this paper home from school around Earth Day. I must admit it crept me out a little, especially the “I speak for you” line. Don’t get me wrong, I love “Mother Earth” (why wouldn’t I? My Creator made her!) but that paper is just weird.

Speaking of my Creator, we celebrated Easter in April!

The girls were bright eyed and bushy tailed by the time Brent and I woke up.

Jackson? Not so much. We had to drag him out of the bed.

Savannah was so excited the Easter bunny brought her this movie because she never saw it in the theatre.

Caroline got her own pair of play glasses…all the rage.

We went to church the evening before, so after breakfast we started getting ready to go celebrate with family at Grandma and Papa’s house.

The girl cousins.

Apparently this side of the family has an Apple fetish, or something along those lines.

6 of the 8 grandkids taking a dip.

Avery Grace waiting for the Easter egg hunt to begin.

With Grandma after the hunt.

Caroline checking out her finds.

And then trading them with the others.

 

  Our only family photo from the day. :-(

Miss Thang entertaining us on our drive home.

Jackson had a belated birthday party with his friends. Don’t ask how Savannah weaseled her way into that photo. Lol.

(By the way, I know our fence looks HORRIBLE in the background. Our fence is being stained tomorrow and our pool landscaping installation starts on Thursday…I will post before and after’s next week.) ;-)

Some of the gang later that night.

Avery saved up her money for over 6 months and was finally able to buy herself an Ipod touch. Here she is at the Apple store setting it all up.

Nana was THRILLED when Avery gave her her old ipod. Avery wanted to surprise her!

Caroline rolling around on the ground with Lulu one afternoon.

  We packed some disaster relief meals for World Vision one afternoon with our church family.

The kids love doing stuff like this. We also pack with Feed the Hunger twice a year.

I love that we can do it as a family.

Our north Texas version of the “super” moon…

Our little Savannah decided she wants to have her own room. She and Caroline shared a room for the first couple years we were in this house. Savannah complained almost nightly about how difficult it was to fall asleep. Caroline would not stop talking to her. Savannah would come downstairs a couple of times a night telling us Caroline would not leave her alone. It was very frustrating for all of us. So, Savannah started sleeping with Avery in her room. This has worked out well, but all of Savannah’s stuff is still in Caroline’s room and she feels in limbo. We have a guest room downstairs off by itself that Savannah has her eye on. Brent thought she would be too scared to sleep all by herself in a room that is so far away from everyone else’s. So he challenged her to sleep alone in the room for a week (never thinking she would do it). Well….he was wrong!

Speaking of Savannah, she was student of the week recently. Her class made her this book on why they like her. She LOVES it and reads it over and over again.

Well, she loves it except for that ONE page. A boy named Ellis wrote this…

She was mortified about it and even cried from embarrassment while showing the book to her dad. So what does Brent do? He rips it out of the book of course. Typical man.

 

Speaking of typical men, while wrestling around with her daddy, Caroline knocked her front tooth out (or almost). She was extremely distraught as she had been guarding that dangly tooth for over a week.

Though once she pulled it, she was tickled pink!

Here she is with the man that accidently made it all happen.

My 3 girls and their toothless smiles!

Caroline’s pre-school class had a Mother’s Day Tea. She made me this beautiful vase with tissue flowers and a cute little purse that opens and…

said this…

I look pretty dang good for being a thousand years old. Lol!

The last answer made me a little sad. Caroline has been home for 4 years, but still has a little bit of food issues. I guess that answer is from the post institutionalized child still in her. :(

Here I am with the ones that refer to me as “Mom”!

We had another fun day with the family at Grandma and Papa’s.

Caroline wanted me to photograph her fancy jump into the pool.

This photo cracks me up! Brent, his mom his brother Blake. Everybody is lookin’ for their Mama’s attention. Hee hee.

Diane with her daughters-in-law…

Brent and the kids got me this beautiful bouquet. Avery said she made him buy this particular bouquet because it had my favorite flowers in them…hydrangeas. :)

Only 7 more days of school until SUMMER!!! Halleluiah!