Finishing up the school year

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind!  It's nice to have a few quiet moments tonight to look through pictures.

 Memorial Day at the lake with cousins.  Highlight - a multi hour 6-kid building project.

Morning sing performances

Walking home from their last Bingo Night

Errands with these silly boys

First time biking to school by themselves 

Girls on the Run lemonade stand fundraiser for CHAD

 4th Grade Chorus Concert (so much less nervousness than last year!)

CG Cookout (you know it's a good time if it ends with cleaning up muddy kids with the garden hose)

Girls on the Run was such a win for Emily.  Her first 'team' sport that she really enjoyed, and so much progress and confidence in her running ability.  I loved spending the day with her and running together at the 5k.

When you manage to fall over while sitting down eating a cupcake, and it lands in your eye?

First Nighthawks game!

💜💜💙

When it's been awhile and you forget how to apply sunscreen?

Opening day at the pool!

Alden tagged along to PA with Daddy for a few days to be with Granny, so the girls and I had some nice time together here.  Hightlight - TipTop pottery and dinner at Trailbreak the night before the last day of school.

I have a memory of Emily first truly reading to herself around this age, with Junie B Jones book.  And here we are again...

Alden's special solo days with Granny - face paint, zoo, Franklin Institute, and all the attention. 💚

Spring Skiing

We had the best two days at Killington during the kids April break.  Slow mornings over breakfast and games, and bright sunshiney spring skiing in the afternoons.  It was fun to introduce them to spring snow, and to watch how far they've all come with their skiing!

sad to be on her last run of the season. i love her passion for this sport.

my kids are constantly talking while skiing

one of these people doesn't share my love of sun on my face

Alden is FIVE

We had such a sweet day celebrating this sweet boy. 💙

Mimi, Papa & Daniel came up for church and the afternoon. Alden loved his gifts and felt so loved by the time with family, and calls and videos and cards from aunts and uncles and cousins.

At five, Alden is affectionate, bursting with energy, and loves a good conversation (usually about dinosaurs or other creatures) and being read to.  His love of sports is going strong: he loves to watch Philly sports highlights with Daddy, really took off with skiing this year, starts baseball this spring, and my kitchen floor is scuffed with hockey puck marks. His sensitive streak has been strong lately - easily embarrassed or teary, and also paying attention to and delighting in what brings joy to others.  

  

It's both so easy and so hard to believe we'll be launching this one to Kindergarten in 4 months!

  

Lately

I think I've decided just to post here when motivation strikes... but here are a things I want to remember from the last few days.

Twice on Friday I was reminded of why I love our little hippy elementary school.  We've been at Morning Sing for performances a few times recently - 1st and 4th grades have performed, and both girls have had friends sing solos. I love the safe place for kids to perform, and seeing how supportive they all are of each other.  This week also featured teachers singing about reading week in hula skirts, to the sheer delight of my kids. :)

That night we had to cancel going to a school social event on Friday night very last minute due to a sick sibling, and Emily had such a good attitude - didn't complain even though I knew how disappointed she was.  She surprised me by being totally comfortable hitching a ride with anyone and going alone, not knowing who would be there.  When I dropped her off, a crowd of classmates ran over to greet her and I was thankful again for this small and warm environment for my shy girl.

It was also officially the first night I had to wait on going to bed until a child got home. ;). She's getting old.  We've been sharing books lately too -- I got this out of the library for myself and she got to it before I did.

This one curled up next to me on Saturday morning while I was working on my bible study.  Both girls listened intently to my explanation of the passage of Isaiah I was reading, and I looked over later to see her working on her own Bible journal.

     

Oh -- speaking of books and writing!  Look what we held in our hands on Friday for the first time.

A skip-school ski day with Papa last week...

And a sweet day with Mimi..