Last Day of 1st Grade

First, and most exciting of all, Duane came home EARLY!!! He walked through the back door 2 days before he was scheduled to come in shocked all of us! Ashley clung to him like a baby monkey and Austin started crying. What a wonderful TREAT!!! 2 more days with Daddy! He'll be home till July 6. YEAH! We're off to our Myrtle Beach, VA Beach then 4th of July extravaganza now.

Today was Austin's last day of 1st grade. Dylan is Austin's neighbor/friend and was just as excited as Austin was that this was the end of the year! We started the day off healthy, with donuts on the deck. We even put hair color in his mohawk. It is the last day, he can't get in too much trouble can he? Good bye 1st Grade!!! Another year gone, summer here we come!

1st Grade End of Year celebration

I have absolutely loved being Austin's room mom this year! We had a super-special end of year celebration complete with classic outdoor games that inspired al 7 year old kids to go crazy! Monkey toss, sponge and bucket relay, 3 legged race, bean bag throw, egg relay, and a dress up relay. I've loved being party of Austin's class. And of course Ashley was a super helper.

Spring Piano Recital

ALL FOR THE LOVE OF IT.

I have taught piano lessons for 2 years now. I received a vocal performance/music scholarship in college and am now using my talent to inspire other young performers. It's the most fulfilling talent I have.

I'm a much better teacher than performer. I love my students. Teaching is an integral part of my life.
June 14 we had our final spring recital. It was amazing! I was so proud of my students and am amazed how in 2 years they have gone from Mary Had a Little Lamb to Beehthoven's Symphony #5. Way to go!

Final Baseball Game

Austin did machine pitch little league this spring season and he had his last game a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad we did it with the Johnson's and Austin loved being with Cameron.

Ashley enjoyed her time at her little buddy Jack's 4th birthday party at Rady Park, in Warrenton. The creek was the biggest hit other than the cupcakes!

No Training Wheels!

One month ago, I tried to get Ashley to get off her training wheels so I didn't have to push the jog stroller anymore when I ran. So after one got on her bike fall, Ash was no longer interested in trying. Last week, Pop took off one training wheel and she's doing fine. On Friday, I told her if we took off the final training wheel, she could pick out anything she wanted at Target.
She told me not to let go if I did take the wheel off, and I agreed. So as soon as the wheel was off, I was holding tight to her bike, she yelled at me "LET GO!" And I said fine! And she took off like she'd been riding a bike for 10 years. What a girl! Later that day she did remind me that she wanted a Tiana doll at Target-not to forget. Ash cannot stay off her bike now!!

Jonathan is coming home in only 5 days!! We're so excited!!!

Extraction..

My wonderful parents have been up here two weeks with me. I love my parents and the kids love their Pop and Grandma! They've taken the kids for walks, to the pool, to the bus stops--and have played wii and dolls until they're probably blue in the face. Thanks Mom and Dad! They watched the kids so I could go to NYC, they were here so that I could deal with Ashley's surgery/tonsils removal and finally I made sure they were here so I could deal with Austin's first extraction.

When the dentist has to pull a tooth out, the word extraction seems so violating. So painful. So intense. Austin had to get his front tooth pulled because the baby did not want to come out! The other permanent one was there, but the little baby tooth was going nowhere. So, we went back to the "orange room". You know, the room with the door on it in the back of the dentists office? That's where the extractions and bad kids go. With a little laughing gas, some glasses with a movie on them hooked to an ipod (Gotta love Gainesville Pediatric Dentistry)Austin was getting more calm. The dentist and I started chitty chatting and after 3 minutes (Austin didn't even know he got a shot) Austin called out to interrupt our girl talk on vacations "Hello? Can we just get this over with?" The dentist laughed at Austins candor and with 2 small pull that last ed about 2 seconds, voila! Tooth in hand.

That night he wrote a letter to the toothfairy:
1. Are you really Duane Johnsons from the movie The Toothfairy?
2. Do you really live in a mansion made of teeth?
3. Do you really have wings?
4. Can I get a really good tip this time?

The letter was wonderful and the tooth fairy I'm sure had a great time filling the letter back out and slipping it and some money under his pillow with some extra pixy dust/glitter.

Grizzlies Here We Come!

We signed Austin up for Fall Tackle Football! Austin has been part of the Gainesville Grizzly family for 2 years now as he played flag football ages 5 and 6 and now he's 7 he'll start tackle. We have our sign in front of our home and Austin is proud.

I have my cruiser bike up and running and have been LOVING all the family bike rides we go on now. Yahoo!

Also, I am so proud of my hair cutting/lack thereof skills. I have cut Ashley's hair and given her "trims" here and there to even things out and realized her hair was never going to grow if I kept trimming her fine hair. So, after Austin gave her a makeover and cut inches off her head last May, it's been over a YEAR now that I haven't touched her head with scissors. Total restraint. Her hair does look adorable as its growing in with soft curls that fall over her face. Austin on the other hand gets the trimmer set cut from Mom. He hates it when he's a little sweaty and it pulls his hair, (I would too) but I tell him to take the pain and he laughs and does. I really love cutting their hair and I still trim their fingernails. Always a mom.

Tonsils Removed

One day upon me returning from my vacay in NYC, Ash got her tonsils removed-June 1, 2010. Being only 4 years old, I understand it's better to get them removed when kids are younger vs older. Austin got his removed when he was 4 as well. Ash had strep throat back to back so many times this year, the ENT and I thought this was best.

We went to the Fairfax surgery center and Dr. Lim did a great job. Ash is also one tough cookie. She's done a great job (been 2 weeks now) and no bleeding or anything. Phew! Thanks too for her little friends that gave her popsicles and cards and things to make the pain less severe for her. Both kids have been roto-rootered and at the age of 4 have no tonsils, adenoids and 2 sets of tubes in the ears each. How's that for ENT's?

Empire State of Mind-NYC

This weekend has been planned and I'd been looking forward to it for almost a year now! And May 25-May 31, I hit NYC hard.
The Bolt Bus took my dear friends Abby and Kendra to Manhattan. We got ourselves into the Marriott and hit the city! That night we saw Mary Poppins on Broadway (very cool show). We then ate NY cheesecake (of course!) from Stage's. The next day we started out at the Today Show (which we did get some live coverage on TV!) we then hit the first day of our double decker tour bus. We took a ferry to Staten Island, saw all of south town. We then got off at Greenwich Village to eat custard, a Falafel sandwich and get lost in the Soho. Friday we went to the Summer Concert Series on Good Morning America and saw the Country Group Sugarland perform! Kendra even caught the guitar pick thrown at the crowd! The bus took us that day uptown Manhattan and I saw the Temple, Harlem, and all of uptown with it's amazing history. That afternoon we took a stop at the Modern Art Museum. Very interesting. We also ate at Buttercup-a little cupcake shoppe that blew Sex and the City's Magnolia's cupcakes out of the water.

Saturday we attended a street fair up Lexington and enjoyed street meat vendors!

It was Saturday that I met up with Aaron and Reghan. They live uptown at 73rd and 1st. I love where they live and got to see their grocery store, I got to hear them speak on Sunday at church in the Manhattan 2nd ward and they did an amazing job. We played football at Central Park, ate Reghan's delicious cooking, and went to the Metropolitan Art Museum. I also got to check out Aaron's work place JP Morgan. And of course with Reghan expecting Sept 10 we had many talks on babies!!

This NYC trip was probably my favorite of all 7 times I've been! It just keeps getting better---it's the friends and family you are with that make trips so special. As Alicia Keys sings, "New York! It's where dreams are made of! There's nothing you can't do!" Love it!