Pretty Princess

This is for Grandma's, Aunts, Uncles, and anyone else. Eliza was being so cute the other day wearing one of Maddie's many tiaras, and of course I had to share!

Reconnecting....

I've officially been graduated from good old Paul Harding H.S. for 10 years tomorrow (which is very soon by my watch). Where did 10 years go? I will have to post some pictures of me from High School, honestly I look the same except I look much more rested in high school, but my hair looks much better now than it did then. (a trade off I guess!)
As I've reflected upon my 10 years out of High School I realize I'm where I expected to be at this age. A mother, and a wife. I didn't expect to be a Military spouse, and live in all the places we've lived, but that's just made life that much more exciting!
In High School I was in Marching Band (yes start all the names, band geek, band fag, etc.) and as I reflect on those years of High School, those were some of the best moments of my High School years. I realized that those people in band were the one's I wanted to see the most, reconnect and spend time with them. So I decided to find out if anyone else felt the same way, and found out I'm not the only one! So I have begun plans to start a reunion for us Band Folks. It has been awesome talking to people I haven't spoken to in a long time, and hope that by getting us all together everyone else will feel the same way, and glad we got together. It's going to be a lot of work, but I know it will be worth it. (and thankfully I know there are other willing friends out there ready to help me!)

Happy 4th Birthday Maddie Mae!

Today is my Maddie's 4th Birthday. It's amazing how fast these four years went by! While pregnant with Maddie I decided not to find out if we were having a boy or girl, but I was so sure I was having another boy. Only once at the VERY beginning did I think I was having a girl. So when Maddie finally made her way into the world, Josh said, "it's a girl Honey!" I was shocked to say the least, but it only took me a few minutes to get over and realize, I get to shop for all those cute little girl outfits, dress her in pretty pink dresses, and play dolls! I was so excited! Maddie truly adds lots of sugar and spice and everything nice to our lives. She's such a sweet little girl, and such a good example to her brother and sister. We love her so much and have felt very blessed to be entrusted with this sweet little girl!
So now it's official... Happy 4th Birthday Maddie Mae!

2 more years

It's official.. we will be in Norfolk, VA for another two years. Yep, you read that right. Josh found out on Thursday (and yes I kept forgetting to write about it on my blog, ooops!). He will be an Admirals Aid. Sounds pretty official doesn't it? But so far it sounds more like an errand boy/servant/slave. Hopefully it won't be that bad, the boss sounds like an okay guy so far, but I don't have to work for him! lol! We're just happy to be able to enjoy our home for another two years. It felt much more official today after I had Josh hang a new shelf on the wall in my scrapbook room, and we got all of our stuff out of storage on Friday. Now I'm planning to do a yard sale in a few weeks with my friend Jenn cause I realized that some of that stuff I put in storage, really, I don't need. Funny how that works!

Watercountry time...

Yesterday it got hot so we decided to take a trip to Watercountry USA. It was our first time this year of going back, and boy what a difference a year makes! Jonas and Maddie were both willing to go on waterslides and the floating river (called Hubba Hubba Highway) that we could not get them to go on last year. Eliza was the only one not too excited about the waterslides. We went on the family ones so we could all sit in a giant intertube together. We played a lot in the section called H2O UFO and Cowabunga, which has a little waterslide for the kids. Maddie went down all by herself, but I didn't get a picture of it I only got a picture of her and Josh on it! On our way home all 3 of the kids were worn out! It was a nice quiet 45 minute drive home. It was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad we went. I also got a nice sun tan (and a little burn too!). Hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend too! I think tomorrow we'll try and go see a movie!

Preschool Picnic

I promise this is the last post about Preschool for the week! Today was our last day of preschool, which is the annual end of he year picnic at the park. The kids had a lot of fun, and the two hours we were there went really fast! I was amazed when noon rolled around. Jonas was given a special notebook with some of his work from the school year, it's really cute. Maddie was all about taking pictures with her friends. Here is her and her friend Erin, then the other picture is Maddie, Ava, and Lexy. They will all be in Pre-K with her next year! Eliza decided to start throwing the dirt all over and was covered in pine needles and dirt! I guess it's okay, it means she was having fun.
Speaking of Eliza yesterday I told her it was time to go lay down for her nap and she climbed up in the crib (with assistance from the toddler bed next to hers) and got in and fell right to sleep! Then she climbed out all by herself too! I was not expecting that at all! The little boy in the picture with Jonas is a boy named Connor. Funny thing was almost the entire year Jonas said Connor wasn't his friend, then a few weeks ago, he told me they were, and Connor told his mom the same thing, and now they are friends. We thought it was too funny!

Goodbye Pre-K

Today was Jonas' last official day in the Pre-K class. This is his teacher Mrs. Skees. She is such a wonderful teacher. Jonas really learned so much from her, and for that I'm so grateful. She's so caring and kind, and has great patience, which is really needed I'm sure! Jonas has really enjoyed being in Pre-K. I know he's ready for Kindergarden, if you would've asked me if he was ready last fall I would have said, no. What a difference these past 9 months have made for Jonas. It's so exciting to watch him grow, and learn. I cherish everything he writes his name on, even if the letters are really big or really small I love it all! Jonas you've come a long way since last fall, I'm so proud of you buddy!

Last day of 3 day 3 year old class

Today was Maddie's last day in the 3 Day, 3 year old class. They gave each one of the kids a scrapbook with pictures of different things they did over the year. It's super cute! (in the pictue Mrs.Warren on the left, Maddie, and Mrs. Pierce on the right)

Each child also got a little graduation hat and a sash with their name on it. Then they sang us a couple of songs: Little bunny foo foo, and Baby Bumble bee, both of which are hilarious songs to see 3 year olds sing. Sorry if you don't know the songs, they would take way too long to type up, and they have hand motions! I forgot my camera (can you believe that!) but thankfully the Mom sitting next to me offered to take a picture for me and e-mailed it to me today! Then we had a pizza party. It was lots of fun. Maddie is very excited about being in Pre-K, so excited that that I don't think she's sad that this year is over! I'm now trying to plan out our summer to keep us busy. One thing we'll definately be doing this year will be swimming classes for Jonas and Maddie, and it will be two weeks long in the mornng, so it will keep us busy for sure! Unfortunately it's not until the end of June, so we'll be making lots of trips to the parks and beaches, and of course Busch Gardens AND Watercountry USA!

having fun

For fun last night we took a walk down to the river to see if we could feed the ducks some rolls that were given to us that we hadn't eaten yet. Instead of ducks we ended up feeding seagulls as

the ducks were no where to be found!The kids didn't care, they just enjoyed throwing the bread to them. Today for some reason the kids were all up really early. So by the time we got to the Norfolk zoo for Jonas' class field trip at 9:45a.m. they were a bit cranky at times. Maddie had to come along since she doesn't have class today. It was fun seeing the elephants, which Eliza really liked, and we saw some baby pigs, and of course the prarie dogs which are one of their favorites because they can look at them in the cave! Afterwards we went to the park that is before you go through the entrance to the zoo, and had a picnic and the kids played. Don't you just love the little side ponytail that Maddie wanted today! She kept leaning her head to the side to make her hair feel longer! It made me laugh so I thought I better take a picture of it! The morning wore them all out, and Maddie is laying down in my room, Eliza is asleep in her bed and Jonas is laying down on the couch! I love this! Free time for me!! YEAH!

Last week of Preschool

It's hard to believe this is the kids last week of preschool. Tomorrow Jonas' class is going to the zoo, then Maddie's class has a party on Wednesday, then Thursday is Jonas' party, then Friday the whole school goes to the park for a big party. It's one big week of partying! Jonas informed me this morning that he's tired of Pre-K. I guess that means he's ready to be in Kindergarden. (yikes I'm going to have a kid in Kindergarden!) This school year for them went so fast! Maddie is ready to be in Pre-K, and she will have Mrs. Skees too so she's very excited, and I think her whole class from this year will be with her next year so it won't be a difficult adjustment. So today is pretty much my last day with just Eliza until the fall. In about an hour we will go back to preschool to take cupcakes to Maddie's class to celebrate her birthday. They're definately not pretty, but they will taste good for sure! Maddie really wanted to have all different colored sprinkles on top, so that's what I did! With our last day without the big kids Eliza is keeping herself entertained with some of Maddie's birthday presents, and I've managed to mop the kitchen and dining room, and I'm doing laundry! (it's so much fun, let me tell ya!)

18 months..

Last Sunday Eliza turned 18 months old. For us LDS (mormon) folks that's a big milestone because that means the child is nursery age. So for the last two hours of church Eliza now goes to nursery!! It's an exciting time because for 17 months she has had to go with me to my classes, and now she gets to go to her own class. Last week she did pretty good. She did get sad they told me, but did okay. This week she cried because she realized when we go there that I wasn't going to stay, so she was not happy about that. But you know what? She stopped crying and realized that it's fun to play with the toys. Hopefully she will be good next week too! Although as soon as I go in to get her she starts to cry and tries to act like she was so sad without me the entire time!
Today I made some jello jigglers in a 9x13 pan. Just square ones, nothing fancy to them. We had some for lunch, and some for dinner and the kids snacked on them immediately after church and after dinner, and the entire pan of them is GONE! I guess I know what their favorite thing is, J-E-L-L-O!
The party yesterday went great! Everyone had a fun time, and seemed to enjoy themselves. I worried that I made the party too long, but I think I made it just right. Tomorrow I will be taking cupcakes to Maddie's preschool class, it should be fun.

Pictures!

Here they are! Enjoy!

Mayday Celebration, Saying goodbye, princess parties...

Yesterday Jonas and Maddie did their annual spring performance at preschool, which they call the Maypole celebration. Anyway, it was really cute, and both kids did a good job. I was pleasantly surprised that Jonas made it through the whole thing, he had a few moments where he looked like he would just lay on the ground and not do anything, but he didn't! He really enjoyed using the instruments they got to play for their performance, and the different hand motions and clapping their hands. It was cute! Maddie kept smiling at me the whole time, and seemed a little nervous in front of everyone. Last night we went to the Bakers Crust for dinner, we had a girls night since it was the Father/Son campout. It was me with my two girls, Marie with Harmony, Brooke with Rueben, Jenn with her three girls, and Barbara with her two girls. It was quite the crowd of kids. It was bittersweet since we knew it would be the last time we'd see Marie in awhile since she and her hubby are moving to Guam with the Navy. I will miss her a lot, but I know we'll keep in touch. Now I'm getting ready for Maddie's princess party. Jenn did the decorating for me. She is the best when it comes to this stuff, I just handed her scissors, or whatever she needed. So if you are in the area and you need someone to decorate she's your woman! Thanks Jenn! It looks awesome! I'll post pictures later. I need to go shower and finish up for the party! There are going to be 12 little girls at my house today.... yikes!

Strawberry Picking

Today for playgroup we went Strawberry Picking in Pungo, Virginia. It's only 35 minutes away, but it is definately not the big city! Eliza had so much fun picking the strawberries, and actually picked for quite awhile before she finally tasted one! (we got several greeen ones since she didn't quite understand just pick the red ones!) We got two bucket fulls of strawberries... they are so yummy! Have you ever tasted a freshly picked strawberry that is still warm from the sun? I don't think you can beat that taste, it's so yummy! Some of the other kids our group were too busy eating their strawberries to put them in their buckets and were covered in red juice! It was perfect weather it was warm, but not humid! It was a fun way to spend the morning!

Scavenger Hunt Pictures

I got these pictures from our Scavenger Hunt, and I forgot to mention that thankfully our friends son Josh (nice name!) was with us and that made it easier to take pictures of all of us! We also were the first one's back and got pictures of everything too, which we were proud of ourselves about! We're dorky, but it was a lot of fun! I guess this is what us "crazy" mormons do when we have a chance to break away from the kids and go out on the town. These pictures were e-mailed to me from Holly. Thanks Holly! Some of the things we're in front of: The Chrysler Museum, USS Wisconsin, lots of Mermaids that are all around town, The Attucks Theater, Doumars, MacArthur Memorial, Veterans Memorial, Tea House (sorry don't remember its exact name, but it was neat!), The Scope, Moses House, St. Pauls Episcapal Church, and Some random sailor statue. Anyway, these are things all in downtown Norfolk, so if you're ever in town you should come and check it out!