Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend

My reaction..."NO!!! I have the camera!" He listened ;)
Mackenzie chillin' with mom.
Memorial Day fun with our friends.

Whew...thank goodness for long weekends. School is almost over and summer is almost here. We had a small taste of it this weekend. We spent Saturday afternoon at the beach. We brought a big quilt and spread it out so that Mackenzie had plenty of the "no-sand-zone" to play on. She loves being at the beach. Hunter and Adam built a few roads for his truck and had a few water fights.
Sunday afternoon we had a few friends over to celebrate the long weekend. The Briggs' family brought along their slip-and-slide. The yard is currently "under construction" with Scott's fertilizer company. So...with all of the weeds dead, our yard is very barren. Basically, when it is wet, it is one big mud puddle. The kids had a blast! We enjoyed hanging out and watching them play.
Monday, we took it easy and enjoyed the day together at home. Counting down the days until our trip to TN.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Hayden's 1st Walk

Kevin, Jayme, and Hayden ready to go.
Adam getting Mackenzie's feet wet.

Welcome to the world little Hayden Deardorff. We accompanied Jayme and Kevin on Hayden's first walk in the neighborhood. He did great. Jayme and I lagged behind a little, but she enjoyed being outside.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Enjoying Family

We were so happy to be spending time with the ones we love most.
Even though the weekend was a whirl wind of events, we found enough time to sit down with all of the babies and play. I can't wait to have more of these moments this summer.

We didn't play the coordinating outfits this time. Promise!!!

Aren't they cutie pies!!! Briley is 4 days younger than Mackenzie and looks 4 weeks older.

Papa is amazing with the babies. Mackenzie enjoys listening to him sing, whistle, and play the guitar.

He has the perfect touch with them all.

Annmother and Pops were able to spend some quality time with Mackenzie on Saturday. She had a blast.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Finally!!!

The anticipation and excitement were killing me. I was soooo excited to see her open her front door to greet us for the first time.
V putting together a salad for us to enjoy.


Virginia has been looking for a place of her own for quite some time. Kelly and I have secretly wishing it was 2 years ago. We now have a place to curl up, drink a few glasses of wine, and enjoy each other without looking at toys!!! Virginia hasn't moved in yet, but is looking for furniture. I was so excited to be able to be apart of one of her first meals in her new place. Thanks for the great night!!!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Nightly Routine with Briley

Splishing and Splashing together.

They couldn't decide on which book to read.
Mackenzie did want Briley's paci.

Mackenzie and Briley enjoying a book with Aunt Martha.


Briley and Mackenzie didn't like the ending of the story too well.




Too cute!!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Garage Sale for a Good Cause

Martha and I were soooo tired of pricing things that around 6pm I noticed Martha was putting $10 tags on things that were meant to have .10 tags. We went through and repriced, but it was good to get a laugh at that point.
My tag says "priceless". Martha priced this item and I think she hit that nail right on the head :)

Here is one of the 3 pricing and storing rooms.

Another room full of stuff priced and ready to sell.

It felt like we kept unloading and setting up. It never seemed to end.



Janet Capshaw and Martha discussing prices.

We were all smiles and a little goofy.

As many and most of you know, my family and I are trying to raise money for Colin to participate in Dolphin therapy this summer. This past weekend I was able to fly up and help with 2 of the benefits. My visit was long overdue. I have been longing to go home for several months, but airline tickets have not been cheap. Finally, I found a good deal and jumped on the opportunity to fly home and help.


Hunter and Adam had a "guys weekend" in Florida. I felt horrible about not bringing both of my babies, but the cost was too much for all of us to fly. Hunter still doesn't know where I went. Throughout the weekend he asked a few questions, but I don't think he figured it out. Here are a few of the questions and comments I got over the course of the weekend:

"Mom, are you staying in the hotel again tonight?"

"Mom, what world are you in?"

"Mom, it's raining in my world. What is it doing in yours?"

"Are you on a 'vercation'?" (vacation)

Gotta love these little comments!!!


The major event for the weekend was a large garage sale on Saturday. Sara has been collecting donations of "stuff" for several months. I was amazed at how much she had. We, Aunt Sallie, Martha, Sara, and I, spent ALL day Saturday pricing and sorting. Mom, Sallie, and Sara returned after dinner for a few hours to finish up. I have never seen so much stuff. It was a little overwhelming in the beginning, but after we started digging in it started to flow. It was fun spending the day with my sisters with no kids around. We had fun goofing off together. I hope sometime in the next 20 years we can go on a girls trip with mom. That would be a trip to remember. Start planning girls ;)


Saturday morning started early. I joined a little after 7 due to needing to get Mackenzie settled and ready to spend the day with Annmother and Pops. Luckily, I had brought jeans. It was very chilly. Someone said that it was "blackberry winter". The day went well. We ended up making $2000.00. A special thank you to our family and close friends (The City Road family, Sallie and George Rogalle, The Pearsall family, Janet Capshaw, and Jama Gains). This day couldn't of happened without your help.


Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day

Mackenzie's gift to me.
Hunter's gift was a vase with a flower that he made.

This is the Mother's Day card he created at school.

(Not sure why this is sideways again.) This is the poem and hand print on the inside of the card.


He is doing a great job writing his name. We will be working on the "e" this summer, but for now I think it is cute.


A beautiful bouquet of Spring Flowers Adam brought home after picking up my prescription.



I love Mother's Day. I have decided that it means more to me than my birthday. It is a day that I get to celebrate my role as a mom and honor our mother's for all that they do. Unfortunately, I woke up with my throat or "mouth" on fire!!! I have the same virus as Hunter. My throat hasn't hurt this bad since I had my tonsils taken out. It hurts to swallow and talk. I went to a walk-in clinic this morning to make sure it wasn't strep. It is just the same virus that Hunter has. Luckily, they did give me some prednisone to help with the swelling and pain. We spent the remainder of the day resting and enjoying being home. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Sleeping off a Fever

Hunter came home from school with a fever on Thursday. He kept the fever through Friday and complained of his "mouth" hurting. We did go to the doctor on Saturday and it is just a virus. I couldn't help but capture Chocolate Chip nurturing Hunter as he sleeps off his fever.

Monday, May 2, 2011

The Butterfly Garden

We began our butterfly life cycle by glueing carrot seeds to leaves to simulate the eggs.
We then created caterpillars using Fruit Loops. The kids did get to eat Fruit Loops for snack that day.

Here is one of the butterflies coming out of their cacoon.


Another one of our butterflies.


This is a bulletin board that was created as the transformations of our real butterflies happened. Once the caterpillars made their cocoons, the students create their cocoons out of paper bags. The butterflies were so much fun to create. I had the students put crayon shavings (pre-shaved) on some wax paper. We then folded the paper and ironed it. The iron melted the crayon shavings and made beautiful colors. I cut out the butterflies. On Friday morning, I sent the kids to PE and quickly cut open some of the cocoons and place the butterflies coming out of them. I then put the remaining butterflies on and around the board. When the students came back from PE they were amazed to see their creations all over this wall. I have to say, I am having fun with my kiddos. They are wearing me out, but it is fun.
We also watched the transformation the ladybugs go through.
This is the ladybug house we used to observe them.


The butterflies loved the sugar/water soaked paper towel. I had a hard time getting them off .




If you look at the top left corner of this picture, you can see one of our butterflies enjoying the garden.

The speck on the sidewalk is one of our butterflies exploring the world.


One of the butterflies took to the flowers immediately.



In my class, we have been exploring and observing butterflies the last few weeks. I have never actually had the experience of watching each stage of this amazing transformation. The kids loved watching it also. I had no clue that they spun cocoons or came out of the cocoons so quickly. You can leave them for 2 minutes and these 2 happenings can happen. We had combined our 5 butterflies with Mrs. Payne's classes. We had 10 cocoons, but only 9 made it. Today we set them free in our Butterfly Garden at school. Our courtyard has been made into a garden that has plants that are appealing to butterflies. It is so much fun to take the kids out and explore that area. Now, at least for the next 12 to 14 days, we will be looking for our butterflies and seeing them enjoy our garden.

Mother's Day Projects

These were handprints on tile.
This was the poem that I put on the back of the tiles.

We created this butterfly stain glass resemblance by using contact paper and tissue paper.

(I'm not sure why this is coming up sideways) This is a poem I wrote that I hot glued to the stained glass butterflies.






With Mother's Day quickly approaching, I came up with 3 really cute ideas for gifts. The kids in my class had a blast making 2 of the gifts. We were so caught up in creating those that the 3rd gift didn't get completed. The kids had a blast and so did I. I'm trying to soak in the last moments of kindergarten before it is all over and I move to 5th grade next year.