Update

A random shot of the kids on Mothers' day, particularly nice of Ben in the doll stroller, don't you think?

First order of business, see and PLEASE reply to the post just before this one.

We had such a great weekend and it was the perfect antidote to whatever ailed us the week before. Thanks, by the way for all of your sympathy. Sunday night we met with my Mom's fun family at the cemetery and then to my aunt's home for a delicious BBQ and great company. Monday morning we rolled out of bed and packed up for a day at the park in one of the most beautiful, picturesque mountain valleys ever with my Dad's family. We arrived to a yummy breakfast served up by my parents and aunts and uncles and then settled in for fun. I passed up volley ball this year, but Brennan played and loved it. The kids had endless amounts of fun on the playground, a hike a long the river with a brave uncle and brother of mine, an exciting soccer game and just hanging with all the other kids. Good times. I was sure to bring my camera to both events, but was having too much fun to actually take a picture :(

For the end of school the teachers don't typically do SEP Conferences (Student, Educator, Parent), but Anna's teacher said she wanted to do them anyway. I went down with Anna yesterday and was so touched by this sweet teacher. She got emotional as she said, "Anna, I want you to always remember your fifth grade teacher loved you and expects to hear great things from you." I was in tears by the end of it and so grateful for wonderful teachers. I'm sure she did that for each of her students. Anyway, she only had some of their end of level testing totally graded, but for the science portion Anna got the highest score in her class. That kind of blows my very unscientific mind! We love Anna.

Abigail has been busy preparing for her class talent show, it's actually a shared talent show with their study buddy class who happens to be Anna's class. Anyway, she decided she would write a poem and share it for her talent. She composed it and then carefully typed it and pasted it onto a darling little backdrop. I'll have to try and get it from her and scan it later, but here's what her poem says:

I think I'm cool

I think I'm great

I love my self at least

better than fish bait"

We love Abby.


The other day we pulled up to my nephew Abe's birthday party which began at the fire station. As I drove up I looked around and said, "Looks like we beat the guest of honor." Nate immediately asked, "What the heck is a yestabonner?" He does that ALL the time and it cracks me up every time. He was then really worried about the fact that we brought a present for Abe when Eliza had specifically told us not to worry about gifts. He, like his mother, takes rules very seriously and thought about it for a while before saying, "Mom, just tell Liza we accidentally brought Abe a present." We love Nathan.


My mom asked the boys the other day what they thought our baby was going to be, a girl or boy. Nate quickly replied that he really hoped it was a boy. Benny said, "I hope it's a girl for my Mommy." Awwww. On Memorial Day when we were at the park he stayed very busy playing but at one point as I walked by the playground he looked up and saw me and said, "Mom! I'm so glad to see you!" We love Benjamin.

Abey's 3rd birthday bash

Belle really enjoyed the cake