Kindergarten Graduation!

The twins have succeed at the first of many hurdles ahead in their years of education. Both of the had all "Excellents" on their report cards. So proud. Austin and Avery had the privilege of leading the flag solute for their ceremony. It was a great year with a great teacher, and a great class with great families. The kids really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I am glad that we waited a year to start them in school. Avery is my little perfectionist smarty pants. She reminds me of Hermione in Harry Potter. Austin is Mr. Social. His teacher said that he is very mature socially. He can get along with everyone and is not judgemental. I can't believe how much the kids are growing. First graders, wow. One more year and all three of my kids will be in school. It has been such a blessing to have such a great family. We are having a blast watching our kids grow and joining them in learning and just enjoying life. Yes, we have trials and hard times, but the good totally outweigh the bad.

 The only day ever Avery didn't wear shorts under her dress. Poor girl flashed the whole audience.

 The pledge. (above)

 Austin got a certificate for perfect attendance. One of only two students in his class.

 Thank you Nana, Hayley, and Jessica for coming.

Back in front of the door for the end of school pic. (above) Compare to the first day of school. (below)

Easily Entertained!

Sometimes it doesn't take much to keep the kids entertained. Give them a big box. Build them a fort. Buy them a donut! The kids play so well together, take care of each other and love each other. I'm glad that they are so close together in age. I hope that they will always stay close.

Cousins and Memories

It's not often that we have the chance to play with our cousins Gracie and Abby. In May, Jolene went to a wedding and we got to spend some time with the cousins. We went to Grammy and Grandpa's house and had lots of fun. At first Gracie wasn't so sure it was a good idea. By the end, everyone was comfortable and cuddling up to a good movie. We played hide-and-go-seek for a long time in the house. Gracie, Avery, Nolan and I went for a walk and fed the horses (Gracie's favorite part.) and we ate spaghetti and watched a movie. Nolan and Abby got along great, as did Avery and Gracie. It is so fun playing with cousins. One of  my favorite things to do growing up. I remember the sleep overs, the steamrollers, the tape recorders, the bike rides, skating (on 4 wheel skates), nights at Great Grandmas with frozen chocolate chip cookies and lemon drops, hikes with uncle Randy, and on and on. I hope my kids can make lots of fun memories with their cousins.

More Baseball

 Garrett always says he doesn't want to coach his kids, but he is so good at it. He gets lots of quality time with Austin and Austin gets attention to his hearts desire.

Austin had a great baseball season. His team was great. All the families were awesome. We were sad to see the season end. The kids had a great end of the year party and coach Dave's and we made new friends.

Three Piggy Opera

The kids did a THREE PIGGY OPERA for back to school night. I video taped the whole thing, but didn't get any pictures. Here are the ones I took before we left for the occasion. The kids did a great job singing. Avery was a mommy pig. Austin was one of the three little pigs. Avery is our performer. She is the one you can hear the most whenever the class sings together. Austin is the one that looks like he is having fun because he is not always singing, but always smiling.

 Nolan had to do a Karate Kid picture. (the original of course.)

 I asked Nolan to do a serious picture and this is the best he could do because he just couldn't help himself.

Easter 2011

O.k. this is really sad that I am finally getting around to blogging about Easter. Better late than never. Plus I am on summer vacation, so I can catch up on all my blogging, cleaning, resting, and (the best) family fun!

Easter-
Easter was way kicked back for us this year. We didn't go anywhere and I didn't make anything. Just resting and enjoying our little family and celebrating the sacrifices that were made for us. The kids did enjoy the tradition egg hunt, in and outside, and their Easter baskets.

We had a great time coloring eggs with our friends this year.

Happenings.

Austin.
Austin is playing his first ever baseball season this year in farm and loving it. He can hit, play catch, and drink and lot of slurpies. His coach promised slurpies to the team whenever they caught a fly ball in a game. So they have been drinking a lot of slurpies. Garrett takes Austin to the batting cages and out back to practice. It is so great to see Austin learn the game. His first live at bat, he didn't quite know that he had to run to first base after he hit the ball. In his first game, the coach told him to play first base, he went to third.

Student of the Week!
Austin was student of the week in his class. He got to bring Curious George home. We had a camp out in the living room the first night George was home with us. Avery and Nolan enjoyed it too.

Notice the iCarly shirt. Avery loves her shows. She has moved on from Full House to iCarly and others. She loves the High School Musical Movies and is definately my drama queen. On the other hand, she is my worrier and helper.

We love our camp outs!

Nolan's New Clothes!
So my friend gave me bags and bags of her sons old clothes and Nolan just loves them. He changes his clothes 10 times a day anyway, but now he has so many clothes it is like he is in heaven. He was so excited. He still thanks me for getting him new clothes and it has been at least two weeks:)

He calls his new black pants his "cowboy" pants.

His favorite outfit from Karen is the black pants and rock and roll shirt. Rock out Nolan!