Graduating...and on to bigger things

Hello all. I'm back again. Let's start by saying these last few weeks have seemed crazy. I feel like I've had so much to do...and not just w/ the kids or w/ Mike, but actually me, lowly ole housewife having lots to do on my own.

Well the easiest place to start would be graduation. Last Friday Van had his last day of school for the summer. Our preschool runs on a school year schedule so we get out in June and begin again in September. One side of me is bummed for Van and wanders a bit what I'm going to do with him all summer but there is that other side of me that is so thankful for me and Ava to not have to work another Tuesday morning for 3 months!!! I know, its only a few hours a week, but to have to bring my 1 year old crazy spazy monkey child with me and have to keep an eye on her from not single handedly destroying every craft on Tuesday plus doing my job as a parent worker are 2very difficult tasks. Tuesdays were easily my most trying day of the week with 2 exhausted kids by nap time. So I'm very relieved to have this short break. Oh yeah, back to graduation. So our school does a general graduation that all of the kids get to participate in and then at the end they just have the "actual" graduating preschoolers stand up for acknowledgement. The service was short but very sweet. They all walked in to the graduation march song and then went on stage to their assigned seat....sounds easy, huh....I'll have you know we worked with these 2,3, 4, and 5 year olds all week for this....so it was quite a triumph for it to go pretty seamlessly. Then our little ones did their good morning prayer, good morning song, and pledge of allegiance...Van of course knew all of these. Then all of the teachers went up and talked about the kids that came on their days and that was about it. It was still very exciting to get to watch Van at the door waiting his turn to come in and then watching him on stage doing his songs and stuff. I know he's only 3 and still has 2 years left of this program, but we are already so proud. He has gained so much socially, physically, emotionally, and intellectually over the last 9 months. I just can't wait to see how proud I'll feel at his high school graduation....or as Nana (my mom) says...when he graduates from med school. He is such a serious and intense little boy but has such a sweet innocent side that just catches you off guard...its sooo opposite from his in-your-face super cute charming demanding little sister. Well we were the epitome of proud parents and proud Nana cheering for him when he made his entrance and snapping what few pictures we could. The theme was Hawaiian in case you're wondering why I dressed my child like that for a graduation...enjoy the photos...sorry about the lighting, this is WITH a flash.

(do you see the thing in the background in the green dress...yes that's our crazy spazy monkey child Ava...she will climb on anything she can find...I really hope she lives to see 3)

So now that school is over, we are going to try our hardest to enjoy our summer break. Thanks to Nana, our kids will be partaking in some rec classes this summer. Van will get to try out his skills at soccer and tball and Ava will be taking her first tumbling class (okay honestly at this age its really just balance, tunnels, slides, and fun stuff like that...next year is the real tumbling....we're very excited for her). This will be Van's first time actually getting to play sports in a team like setting. The classes are really just skills classes but at 4, next summer, he will officially be able to join a t-ball league or a soccer team and we can't wait. I think this is really what Mike has been waiting for since the day I told him I was first pregnant. It will be fun to get to watch this and we really hope Van enjoys it.

So what else is happening...well Van is a writing machine now. He loves to write any word we can think of for him to spell. Earlier this week he wrote out little notes that said mommy, pappy, grammy, Nana, and opa...all by himself...so of course we gave all of the grandparents their notes. He loves to spell and read too...well not really read but he likes to sound out the words and make a real effort to read his books...I honestly don't think it will be long. This summer our mission is to get him to be a number writing master. He's doing so well on his letters but we need to work a little more to get his numbers really legible. He's such a little sponge, he gets so excited to learn new things and show us what he has done...he's an easy one to teach.

Ava is really becoming a crazy toddler. She is so much more physically active then Van ever was. I'm convinced its because she watches him do everything and just does it too. She will climb on anything, including the monkey bars in our backyard. She climbs up both sides of ladders and the slide on our backyard tree house. She climbs up on our beds, chairs, couches if she can find something to push over to give her the extra height boost. I really do fear for her life here in the next few years. Amazingly though she does not climb out of her bed...at least for now. She has really started to thin out since she is always running after a faster brother. I'm anxious to take her for her 15 month checkup next week just to see how she's grown. She really can be so sweet and charming...she just sucks you right in when she wants to. She says please now...well actually she says..."puh puh" which to her means please, heck I'll take it. She is quite the jabber jaws though so it will probably only be a matter of time before words start spewing out....such the girl.

As for Mike and I, we're doing great. We have been sticking to our budget so well the last month. We even had extra left over a week or so ago and I was able to pay 2 bills that I wasn't expecting to be able to pay, at least not then. Plus Mike has been able to save a little here and there and make himself a nice little spending money pot. Its funny, we really aren't sacrificing that much..like we don't feel like we're missing out on anything we really want to do....we're just being better about being smart w/ what we have and really saving for the things we really want to do other than just being lazy. Does that make sense? We have been cooking machines lately and eating at home so much more...which lets be honest, is so much cheaper and better for all 4 of us. I try really hard to not give in to the temptation to be lazy at night and eat out instead of cooking good stuff we already have here....so far I haven't given over to this weakness and Mike has eaten everything I've cooked. We've even tried a few new things and are trying to expand our "menu" so that we don't get tired of the same stuff. Its amazing how little you really need to spend every week if you really watch what you are spending money on. Plus, this should not go un-noted, we have great wonderful families and friends that take us to dinner or make us dinner at least one time a week just because they like our company...so its always a nice break for my cooking hands and Mike's cleaning hands.

Life is good right now. We've got a couple of really busy weeks coming up but I hope to be back after the kids start their classes with some good pictures. Thank you for all of your prayers and kind thoughts...they really do make me feel encouraged and uplifted...its so nice to know we have a huge support system out there that sometimes we just forget about. Love to you all.

B