{the end}

Its the end of another school year. I had been counting down the days since spring break. There is just something about not setting alarms (even though I have early risers) and wearing jammies till noon, time for hot breakfasts any day of the week & living in swim suits. I was always a winter kid growing up. I loved the holidays, my birthday, the brightness of the snow, the school cancelations...but now as a mom, I live for summer. The kids play all day and crash hard through the night. There seem to be a lot more hours in the day for dance parties and movie nights with popcorn & cuddling. I have officially converted to summer. Which works out good because there is no winter here in Texas. So its finally here. No more school for T & Britt. Maddox will continue his therapy sessions through the summer, and he is one happy camper about that. I can't imagine pulling him away from Ms. F. for 3 months. We love her & all she has done for our little Madds/family/me!

My Mom and Dad are just the best around. They were here for the first day of school, and are here for the end of school. They made the boy's last week something very special! My Mom joined T for lunch at school one day & walked Britt to the bus stop. My Dad has thrown Maddox in the pool no less than 100 times & my parents tell presley she is pretty when she shows them what she is wearing (which is hilarious by the way. I have to catch it on film. she even goes up to strangers rubs her dress and smiles and waits to here "so pretty." ) 


The kids were all decked out in their hawaiian gear that Omah & Opah picked up from well, hawaii. We thought it was funny/festive  for the last day of school. 

So heres the last day run down...

1. Britt's ice cream party for Pre-K with story time, and fun games. Teachers gifts distributed.

2. my 5 second poster for the front door was a hit when we pulled up to the house after school.

3. when I was growing up my mom always had a new summer outfit  and summer gift waiting for us on the last day of school. I loved it and still have those moments imbedded in my heart. Loved those plaid blue shorts! loved them! I wanted to do the same tradition with ours & so they got play clothes and flip flops. T got Lax gloves, Britty got a ninjago something-of course, and Maddds got bubbles, Presley got bracelets.

4.we were treated to a pizza dinner by Omah & Opah.

5. The boys climbed walls and were bouncing all over the place with excitement.

6. Presley was a royal grumpy girl, darn teeth.

7. Thus presley was put to bed early & she was thrilled about it. no really. she started giggling when I put her in her crib!

8. Rod watched the girly and some Lacrosse, while my parents and the boys & myself went swimming with 1/2 the neighborhood till 8:30. It was a gorgeous night & we had a blast. Opah was a human jungle gym & maddox is an awesome diver!

9. The little boys dried off and put on jammies & were asleep in seconds. T stayed up and ate ice cream from the carton & read on his kindle till his little eyes could not stay open any longer.

10. We are all happy its finally summer break.

here are this years teacher gifts.I made a few & the tags read "I couldn't have picked a better teacher! "  My talented sis in law Kalen usually makes the sweetest necklaces for the teachers, but she recently welcomed baby Norah into the family & I was not about to bother her with necklace making! I got this idea HERE! 

Britt & his little Buddy Gabriel. He lives just down the street & we love when he comes over to play. They had a great Pre-K year together!

surprises....

grump-bump getting extra love from Opah. He knows how to calm our babes! 

Maddox and opah comparing shoe size. 

& to the pool we go...

omah & Opah smooching! 

last day of school..why not eat a tub of ice cream? 

late night reader...

and thats the end of the end...only after a gazillion and one pictures. 

{un-birthday}

Britton's eviction date was June 1st almost 5 years ago. The poor dear has waited patiently all school year for his turn to bring in a treat & have his classmates sing a song to him. Well I did not have the heart to explain that part of being a summer babe is not celebrating at school so instead I emailed his teacher who was very understanding & we organized a day & time for me to bring in a treat for Britt's class. I stopped at the store and picked up 4 boxes of what Britt refers to as "christmas brownies" because they are a special treat. Since I was not allowed to bring in a homemade something I thought he would get a kick out of the brownies & that his teachers would be thrilled to see anything but messy cupcakes! Watching Britt sitting like such a good boy as I walked into his classroom carrying what felt like the heaviest bowl of brownies ever, just melted me. Such a  good boy. We sang to him, he smiled, the pre-k-ers ate "christmas brownies" they sang some cute songs before closing up the school day. I took the boy home with his back pack strapped on. He felt very special on his un-birthday. 

& on a totally different unrelated note...

I was taking pictures of a super cute babe tonight & this babe's brothers were over playing with our 4. Rod handled it perfectly. After dinner Rod headed up the stairs to sneak away & clean the playroom that I had just scrubbed down yesterday. He & Maddox were cleaning & when Rod finished Maddox paid Rod for a job well done. He is such a comedian. He knew he was going to get some laughs out of that one. 

We are prepping for end of school, birthdays & the boys are going on a trip with Omah & Opah. what am I going to do boy-less? Presley & I are going to have to keep busy! 

{2nd Annual}

Remember this from last year? We had so much fun that we decided to do it again. When I saw the neighborhood yard sale signs up at the gates this week I  hurried to get everything we would need for another successful lemonade stand. I contacted our fun neighbors & they were in. Everyone got to baking & come early Saturday morning we were outside waving to every car passing by. After 3 and 1/2 hours we closed up shop. The boys & Presley too as a matter of fact...were down right grubby from playing and snacking so into the tub they went with pink cheeks from the sunshine & belles full of sugar. A quick bite of something healthy and then everyone went down for quiet time. Even Maddox took a nap...and he never does that, he prefers to play with an iPad in his room, but today the tired bee was sleepy. & the highlight and huge surprise of my day...all 4 children let me nap on the couch uninterrupted for 2 hours! that my friends has never happened before.  Poor T missed out on the fun as he was at a lacrosse clinic for 3rd-8th graders...he was the tiny one, but at 1st grade he plays pretty tough...and since the local HS knows T from going to all their games...he was allowed to join in the day long clinic. That about concludes our Saturday...poor Rod is a bat these days..working nights, sleeping days. the joys of medicine. He is a super sport about it. I never hear the guy complain.

that was a mess of a paragraph...long sunny hot fun day.

{We've never had a little girl...}

Rod picked the big boys up from school. Maddox and I started to watch Annie. I was not confident that my 3 year old son would be interested in a bunch of little girls singing about how its a hard knock life. I was wrong. He was intrigues, as was Britton when he returned home with back pack in tow, & Presley obviously loved it---music and girls...her kind of flick! She stood in the middle of the floor watching until the songs would begin and then she would twirl and shake what her momma gave her.  Britt and I got a big kick out of the song "We've never had a little girl" mostly because he was old enough to be enchanted by a baby sister from the day she was born. So we can relate. She is as girly as they come and really knows how to put on a show. We enjoyed the evening hours outside. she made faces, I took pictures of her faces. I wish she were a twin. I could do two of her!