End of School Activities

School is out and I have definite mixed emotions about it. It's great to have a break from the school routine and we have a nice summer to look forward to with Jake's brother Alec's wedding up in Seattle and then our big trip to the Bay Area which will include Joshua's baptism. But it has been such a great school year for both Joshua and Daniel and I am sad to see it end. They both had fantastic teachers and were in really good classes. They were just happy campers and that meant so much to us as their parents. This coming school year is more uncertain what with all the budget cuts our school district has been through and I really wish I could have held on to this year somehow, with things going so great. Anyway, here's a look at a few of the activities of the last days of this wonderful year.

Joshua's class put on a reader's theater play entitled, "The Principal's New Clothes." He was really excited that I could be there and I was happy to support him. It took quite a bit of orchestrating to get there though, but I did it and felt rather pleased with myself ;). It involved dropping Lucas off at a little friend's house early, rushing to the school, seeing the play, and then rushing to Daniel's classroom where Jake was already volunteering so that we could both be there for the Messy Play Day/Celebration of Summer Birthdays. Turns out Daniel has the only summer birthday in the class, so it was really a celebration of him! Jake had to leave midway through to get to work and I had to feed Caden which took pretty much half the time, but we did what we could and hopefully the kids will just remember that we were there for them which is the important thing.

"The Principal's New Clothes." There's Joshua just to the left of his teacher, Mr. Kelly. If it looks kind of boring that's probably because it was. It wasn't a great play, but the 2nd graders had a blast putting it on and...go Joshua!


Here's Daniel in kindergarten at the Messy Play Day/Celebration of Summer Birthdays which prominently featured...

...pizza!

Last of all was Daniel's kindergarten "graduation." Sorry for the really bad pictures -- I was holding a fussy Caden at the time.

There's Daniel with his lovely teacher Mrs. Grabel. Joshua also had her and she has been so great (sorry again for the bad pics, the camera was acting up and I didn't have hands enough to adjust it).

I can't believe my Daniel is moving on from kindergarten!

Caden's Baby Portraits

Some friends of mine, Mary and Jacki, are very talented photographers and they came over a couple of weeks ago to do a photo shoot. They brought all kinds of equipment, backgrounds and props -- talk about full service! All I had to do was provide a room with large bay windows that let in tons of light (check) and a cute baby (check!):) Thank you so much Mary and Jacki for using your talents on our sweet Caden!




He just could not stay awake in this little basket. It made for some great photos!


This is one of my very favorites:

Mary said he looked angelic in this one and I can't say I disagree ;)








Another of my very favorites. Mini Jake all over.