Last Day of School & Graduation

Thursday was the kids' last day of school and Wesley's very last day of preschool. Michael stayed home with Carigan that morning so I could help out in Anna Kate's class and help them celebrate summer birthdays. Both AK and Christopher have a summer birthday, so they got to lead the pledge. Miss Barbara's class is so much fun! (Below) Wesley's class getting ready for snack out on the playground. Wes has loved each and every day of school this year... there wasn't one day that he wasn't eager to go to school & he always ran into his classroom with excitement on his face.





Anna Kate praying before snack. I wish I could get my kids to pray like this at home! It's amazing what the kids will do for their teachers that they won't do for me. They sit still for prayers and clean up their toys at school... both are a constant struggle at home. Kind of makes me feel defeated sometimes, but my mom (my go-to early childhood development expert) assures me that it's common and normal. -sigh- My kids are all wiggles and squints during prayers here, and lately neither one of them ever wants to say the prayer either. Anna Kate picked out a Disney princesses cake to take to school to celebrate her birthday. Her birthday isn't until July 12 (and Wesley's isn't until August 16) but they're both already gearing up for their big days in a big way!





Anna Kate giving Miss Barbara a good-bye hug. Later that day when I put Anna Kate down for a nap, she wanted to sing Skidda-mi-rinky-dinky-dink, which is Miss Barbara's daily good-bye song. When I finished singing it with her, she started pointing around the room saying, "And Miss Bahbra loves Maren and Miss Bahbra loves Wowen (Lauren) and Miss Bahbra loves Anna Kate and Miss Bahbra loves Kelly..." just like Miss Barbara does every day. So very sweet. You can't ask more from a preschool than to know your child feels loved!



Wesley with his teachers Miss Roz and Miss Amanda on the last day of school. (Below) Official Last Day of School picture. We were in too much of a hurry before school, so we took it after school.





Look how much different they look in their Official First Day of School picture! Some things haven't changed though... below is Anna Kate later that night before we threw her into the tub. Sometimes I think she does this on purpose to score a second bath!





Friday was Wesley's preschool graduation. They had a slideshow with baby pictures of all of the students, which the kids thought were hilarious. The kids also performed some songs for us. Here they're singing Wesley's favorite chapel song, "Jesus you're my superhero." He sings this around the house a lot, pretending to fly like Superman. They also sang their Florida Alphabet song, which is super-cute. Now I know why Wesley is always asking me for some Zephyrhills water!





Wesley was the first child they called to come receive his diploma and medal - My big graduate! (Below) Miss Amanda's Class, class of 2010! Front row: Jomar, Owen, Braxton, Maddie, Wesley, Zachary, Katie & Erin. Back row: Jonathan, Shelby, Skye, Kenna, Paul, Hunter, Cozette & Riley.





The best we could do for a family photo - Carigan was asleep in the stroller and Wes & AK were already hyped up on cake! Later that afternoon Wesley got his official acceptance letter from Lakeland Christian (and his uniform order form... he's loving carrying it around and has circled in crayon all the shirts he wants). AND Michael got the official letter from the University president that his tenure has been approved! What an exciting day! So proud of my boys.

As Wesley's graduation gift, we headed to Magic Kingdom later that day (after Michael got a few hours of work in and AK had a nap). It was Carigan's first time to go to Disney World. We met up with a friend of mine from Colorado (my "adopted" Aunt Phyllis) inside the park, and we got to see a show and ride about six things before watching the fireworks. We mostly went to see the fireworks since that's the one thing we didn't do a few weeks ago when we took Wesley & Anna Kate to Disney for the first time. We got a great spot, right in front of Cinderella's castle. I was super-excited about seeing Tinkerbell fly from the top of the castle, but it had rained a little right before the fireworks, so I guess Tinkerbell's wings were wet (and Disney doesn't want an electrocuted fairy on their hands). I was disappointed because I had talked it up to the kids, but they didn't even seem to notice. We had a great time.





Happy Graduation, Wesley!!

4 Months Old!

Carigan is 4 months old today!! I think Carigan is the prettiest of my babies. All of my babies were beautiful newborns, but both Wesley and Anna Kate were more cute than beautiful at this age... mostly bald and chubby! Carigan is starting to rub her hair thin in certain spots, but I don't think this head will ever know bald.





Carigan is a happy, smiley baby, but she's a little more reserved, I think. I remember Anna Kate having big goofy grins at this age. Carigan's smile is a bit more dainty, but she does smile easily and I've even gotten a few giggles out of her. (Below) A little giggle for Mommy. I noticed in previewing the pics Michael took tonight that he was shooting Carigan from below and it was making Carigan's legs look huge (like in the top photo). So I instructed him to shoot her from above... don't worry, Carigan - Momma's got your back!





Wesley at 4 months. He looks so different now, but he still has that dimple! I was so blindly in love with my firstborn that I honestly failed to notice that all the dark beautiful hair he was born with had mostly fallen out... I seriously remember being surprised when my sister called after receiving pictures I'd mailed her of him (pre-blog days!) and pointed this out. Strangely, I had very honestly not noticed the near complete loss of hair. Ahhhh, love is blind. At least the first time around...





Anna Kate at 4 months. I have to say I was acutely aware of her baldness! I guess I wasn't going to let that slip by me unnoticed a second time. She was such a beautiful newborn and is such a beautiful little girl, but I gotta say, she wasn't winning any beautiful baby contests at 4 months old! But she was cute and sweet and squishy and smiley and she smelled good! Amazing how different my girls look. I think Wesley and Anna Kate look much more alike, and Carigan looks much more like Michael and I did in our baby pics.



They're all cute and beautiful to me now! But more importantly, they're sweet and loving and nothing but pure joy (... most of the time). ;o)

The Wesley Collection

I've been meaning to get around to this post for a long time... Wesley is drowning us with drawings, writings, cards & books. He would rather sit and write than watch a TV show. (Sometimes much to my chagrin when I'm trying to cook or am otherwise very occupied. He follows me around asking me how to spell words and trying to shove his art work under my nose so I can praise it. Usually I'm patient with it but I tell ya I do it All. Day. Long. Sometimes I just want to say, "Are you sure you don't want to go watch TV?")

My house is littered with paper and markers and art work taped to walls in every room (now that Wesley knows where to find the tape!). I throw away 5-15 original masterpieces a day, and I have to hide them at the bottom of the trash or Wesley will "rescue" them. I am trying to keep a record of his work though, so here's a sample of what you'll find taped to every wall and cluttering up every flat surface in my house!

Below is a typical self-portrait. Interestingly, all of his self-portraits look very similar, and are distinctive from his drawings of other people. Not sure what it is about spiraled eyes and a toothy grin, but in Wesley's mind it's distinctively him.





This is a picture of me from one of Wesley's journals. He also likes to "scrapbook" along with me while I scrapbook. I give him things like Pottery Barn Kids catalogues and old pictures I've taken out of frames and he cuts things out and pastes them in his scrapbook. He just writes and draws in his journals. I did not help him with any of these pictures... I just found them when thumbing through his journal. He either knew how to spell the words himself or was copying off something (as in the case of my shirt in this drawing. I must have been wearing a St. Pete Beach t-shirt that day).





Picture of Daddy and picture of Carigan. When he really takes his time, he'll draw a body... so at least he knows there's supposed to be one! He churns out his drawings fast though, and when he's in a hurry, a mid-section is usually the first thing to go.

I found this page of rhyming words in his journal. Apparently he had a harder time coming up with words that rhyme with cap than he did for cat! (Below) He is obsessed with his cousins Caleb, Gabe, and Abby (usually referred to in one breath as Calebgabenabby). He always writes their age next to their picture. Notice the 8 at the top of his picture of Caleb.

This says, WesLeY'S GRANMAE and WesLeY. According to this drawing, Wes is 4 and Grandma is 51... I think he shaved off a couple of years. ;o)

(Below) This is a picture of Daddy and Dash (dating from when Wes insisted on being called Dash from The Incredibles. He was Dash for most of the fall through the holidays, then changed his name to Geo from Team UmiZoomi around January. Now he's starting to like Dash again).

He loves to make cards for people. This is one he made about a month ago... he made it while I was cooking dinner and I didn't help him with it at all. I was very impressed! It says HAPPY BRDDAY DADDY TO DADDY FROM WESLEY. (Below) The inside of Daddy's birthday card (Daddy's birthday isn't until June... Wesley just likes to make birthday cards!)

This translates, "Happy Birthday Gabe. To Gabe, From Wesley" (Below) Inside of Gabe's card (I chose one from about 5 cards he made for Gabe and just as many for each of his other cousins).

A birthday card for Anna Kate. She wants a princess party when she turns 3 in July, so Wesley drew a princess with a beautiful yellow gown and wrote PRESESS.

(Below) Wesley also likes to create little story books. He just started doing this on his own (wish I could take credit... I would never have thought to ask him to create a book at this age). Either it's something they talked about in preschool, or he just started imitating the books we read. This was one of the first ones he made, a couple of months ago. This book is called Mommy Blueberries.

The left side says, "Mmmmm, blueberries" and he drew lots of blueberries. The right side says, "1 blueberries" and he drew a sad person holding only 1 blueberry. (Below) This is the back... De End. Cracked me up when I found this. He created this whole book on his own one day.

Sometimes there are recurring themes in Wesley's books... apparently this is the story of Anna Kate and the blueberries. Sound familiar?

This shows how far Wesley has come in the last few months. He made the blueberry books a few months ago. He made this Cars book a few weeks ago. He drew Lightning McQueen and wrote KA-CHOW in a conversation bubble for the cover.

(Below) "Hi, I'm Lightning McQueen." Wes wrote both KA-CHOW and IPAN in conversation bubbles. Not sure what IPAN means... something from the movie, I guess (as translated by Wesley, I'm sure). My kids don't sit through movies, so I've never gotten past the first scene of that movie. Wesley will pay attention on and off while he plays though.

"Hi I'm Mater. I went to the race." (Below) "MATER AND LIGHTNING" As you can see, his drawings have come a long way in the past few months!

I just found this drawing yesterday. I think it's a picture of a roller coaster. It says "super fast" on the top and I think he was trying to write "Little Einsteins" on the bottom. I think he was depicting a scene from the intro of the show.

Also (just thinking as I'm sitting here... too late to take a picture to upload), Wesley's new thing is making shopping lists. He'll make a list of things around the house and then he'll get Anna Kate's pink shopping cart and go around the house "shopping" for the items. His lists of essentials can be pretty funny.

(Below) I picked this up awhile ago and almost whisked it into the trash without giving it much of a glance. But Wesley rarely writes random letters so I started staring at the letters trying to figure out what he was trying to write. I finally called for him and asked him. He said, "That says an X locked in jail." Yep, sure enough!

"A EX LOKT IN JAL"

And there he is... naughty X locked in jail. Hilarious. Not sure if they read a story about X being locked in jail in school, or if Wesley is just not a fan of the letter X.

My smart boy! Thanks for indulging me... I realize this is probably a pretty boring post to most, but it makes me feel good that I have this stuff recorded because I'm pretty sure the originals will get lost over the years. These memories are so precious to me!