Chicago and Crazy Fun with Daddy!

I was able to go to Chicago from Friday to Saturday with my mom to attend a shower for Karen which was thrown by her friends.  We had some great girl time together and enjoyed spending time with her friends at the shower. 

The kids got to spend Friday afternoon hanging out with Grandpa until Daddy got home from work.  Casey promised them a "crazy fun" weekend, and they had a great time on Saturday.  They went to the zoo, watched a movie, and had dinner at our neighbors Tony and Linda's house.

Last Day of School

Today is Esther's last day of school for the year!  It always flies by so fast... wasn't it just yesterday that it was the first day of school for Esther and the first day of preschool for Peter!?

I forgot to do the porch pictures of Peter on his last day of preschool, so we did them this morning when we did Esther's.  It's fun to see how they've grown and changed since the first day!

Neither of them have the same backpack they had at the start of the year, because they both broke.  Esther went back to using her kindergarten one, and we picked up a cheap one for Peter to get him through the last couple months.  I think we need to find better quality backpacks for next year!

Why yes, he does have hair under that hat!



Camp Roger

Today I was able to go to Camp Roger with Esther and all the 1st graders from her school.  It was a great day of exploring God's creation and learning some fantastic things about nature.  It was a really fun year-end field trip!

Stopping to explore while hiking around the lake with Mr. Phil

Learning about shrinking animal habitats while pretending to be giraffes

Getting instructions on how to play "camouflage"

Finding salamanders under rotting logs

Sizzling Soccer!

Well, so far this spring Peter has played in rain, really cold weather, mild weather, and today he got really hot weather!  It was toasty out there and 1 player was missing, so the other 3 played the whole game without sitting out a quarter.  They did great, but played a tough team that just kept scoring.  Fortunately, they stayed positive and still had fun! 

Peter's coach was great this spring, and when he gave the kids their medals he told them that he was very proud of them and how hard they had worked this season. Here is Peter with the 2 teammates who were there today, Alex and Taryn:

Last day of Preschool

Today Peter had his last day of preschool.  We are so thankful for what a great year he has had!  Today the morning group (there are only about 6 kids there in the morning, and the rest come for just the afternoon) went on a fun field trip.  They walked to his teacher's house which is a couple blocks away from school.  Peter thought it was pretty cool to go to her house, and they got to have popsicles there.

At the end of the day Peter of course hugged everyone several times and said his goodbyes.  Unfortunately, the adorable pictures I got of him with his friend Anna and also his teachers somehow were lost because something went wrong with our memory card.  So, here are a couple of him with his buddies:

Getting crazy with Simon!

Peter and some of his friends.

Such a fun group of boys!



Peter was a little sad about it being the last day, but he's also excited for kindergarten.  His teacher told him when he said goodbye, that when people ask him about school now, he's supposed to say that he's a kindergartner!

Preschool Picnic

Today Peter's class had a picnic at the home of one of his classmates.  It was a great place to have it because they have a big yard and live on a little lake.  We had fun playing in their basement, going on boat rides, hiking on the boardwalk in the woods, and eating cake!  Casey was even able to stop by for a while, which Peter thought was pretty cool.  We thanked his wonderful teachers for a great year and also sang happy birthday to his teacher, who will have her birthday in a couple weeks.  Peter has had such a great year, and we are very thankful for his amazing teachers and also his friends at school.  We will be sad to see this fun year end on Thursday!

Happy Memorial Day!

We have had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Friday night Casey and I went out with friends to celebrate his birthday.  Saturday was spent hanging out, getting stuff done around the house, playing outside, and watching a movie with Uncle Nick.  On Sunday we went to church and then continued with the relaxing and hanging out. 

This morning I was awakened at 6:30 by my little buddy Peter telling me "Happy Memorial Day, Mom!"  I'm glad he feels that this holiday is important enough that it is worth an early morning wake-up reminder.  We went to Marge's for a donut and had a nice chat with Marge since we had not been there in quite a while.  We spent the rest of the day doing much of the same things we did all weekend--hanging out and getting a few things done.  This afternoon we went out to Casey's parents for the annual birthday celebration for Casey, Renee and Nick. 

Here are a few pictures of our patriotic kiddos and the annual birthday cake, which had a patriotic theme this year!

Happy Birthday Casey!

Today was Casey's birthday.  Of course he had to work, but Peter and Miriam and I tried to brighten his work day by delivering a balloon and some candy.  We met Casey's parents and Jeff, Renee, Ty and Cassie at Russ' for dinner to celebrate the twins' birthdays.  Then we came home and had cupcakes, and the kids presented him with their beautifully made cards and their dollar store treasures.  It was hilarious taking them there and seeing what they picked out for him!

Here's what he got from each kid:

Balloon rocket launcher and poker game from Peter

Hand decorated mug and dress socks from Esther

Clip-on book light and Mike and Ikes from Miriam

Tooth Fairy

Tonight the tooth fairy will make her first visit to our house!  Esther has had a slightly loose tooth for a long time, and it finally started getting really loose today.  She was really annoyed with it at dinner, and just before she got in bed, she popped it out!  She was SO excited!

She had made a tooth pillow in school when they studied dental health, so she wrapped her tooth in a Kleenex and tucked it in the pocket of the pillow.  She also included a note requesting that the tooth fairy leave her tooth since it was the first one she has lost and she wants to keep it.

The funny thing is that this is our girl who figured out that Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy were not real at quite an early age.  I think she's just too inquisitive and practical and realizes that those things are not realistic.  So, she proceeded to give me some instructions on how to carefully get the tooth out from under her pillow while she's sleeping.  She also referred to the "tooth fairy" by using air quotes when we were talking about it.  She cracks me up.

New Bike

I LOVE MY NEW BIKE!!  I got a new bike for an early birthday present.  It is a pink bike with a little bag/basket thing on the front of it.  It has 1 hand brake for the front wheel, but I don't use it because I'm still getting used to my new bike.  So I just use the coaster brakes.  Miriam got my old bike because her other bike broke and she was ready for a bigger bike.
-Esther