I'm Back (I Hope)

I started this blog to keep a record of our family since I don't scrapbook and so I'm going to plug away at catching up with everything we did over the summer.  I didn't intend to not blog over the summer, but it just felt a little overwhelming at times for many reasons.  Although, I enjoyed the trips we took and not having a schedule, it was a hard summer.  The girls seemed to be constantly fighting, I had a minor surgery, and we had got some hard news about my mom. 

I want to record this because it is a part of what makes up our family and I feel that I want to have record of God's faithfulness to us.  We found out that this summer that my mom has cancer for the 4th time.  It was a big shock and I HATE that my mom has to go through this again, but I do trust God through it all.  He has shown Himself to all of us over and over throughout the last 14 years.  I am thankful for my mom's example, faith, and strength, and I can't believe what an amazing woman she is. 

On a lighter night, my last post was about a trip to Florida to visit family and as soon as we got home we started Vacation Bible School.  I taught preschool music and the girls had a fun week in their classes.  The first picture is of the girls singing the VBS songs on family night with some friends. 

All week the children at VBS collected money for a summer mission trip to Vermont.  (which is what their tshirts are for)  They collected money as a competition between Auburn and Alabama.  Months before VBS they emailed Aubie and Big Al to see if they would be able to come to VBS on the last day.  Big Al wasn't able to come and they never heard from Aubie.  Imagine everyone's surprise when Aubie showed up right after they announced that the Auburn team had collected the most money.  The kids went crazy and it was fun taking pictures with Aubie. 

Summer Trip to Florida

Shortly after school got out, the girls and I headed to Florida to visit my family for 8 days.  As usual it was a busy week and unfortunately my parents were still working but we also had a lot of fun despite a lot of rain.

The girls got to swim a couple of times between the rain and they got to have swim lessons once.  We had hoped to get in a few more swim lessons but we had to reschedule 3 times.  Their swim teacher, Ms. Karen, is the same one who taught my sister and me to swim and she also taught Emma Catherine to swim a couple of years ago.  Bailey doesn't like water in her face so we were hoping she would cooperate for swim lessons, and she did great and even put her head in the water a few times.  Emma Catherine worked on her swimming strokes and did well also.

While I was home, we celebrated my dad's birthday and mine as well.  My sister flew in for the weekend and we enjoyed tacos and a yummy but very rich dessert from pinterest.  It had a layer of homemade chocolate chip cookies, a layer of double stuffed oreos, and a layer of brownies on top all baked together and then we ate it with ice cream.

 Another day we went to the park with my aunt and Papa.

The next day, my aunt took the girls and me on a special outing.  We went to play with the puppies at the Southeastern Guide Dogs.  These puppies will hopefully go on to help blind people and they allow people to come in and play with the puppies most mornings of the week as part of their training.  The girls loved it and are still talking about the cute lab puppies they played with!

This year my dad decided to retire from teaching.  It was a very hard decision for him but he felt it was best, and I'm so proud of him.  He has touched a lot of people over the years and I was so glad that we were able to be at his school retirement party with the other 3 teachers that were retiring.  They had another one for the whole county that we weren't in town for, so I was glad to be in town for this one. They gave him a Nook as his retirement gift.

Before we left we went to dinner with Papa and my parents one last time.

Another fun week for us and it just makes me so thankful for my family!

End of the Year

Well school has ended here and we are our first week into the summer.  Honestly, this school year flew by and maybe I will say that every year, but looking back it felt like we were just starting.  I had a unique situation this year because I knew both of the girls' teachers outside of school.  I really feel it was a blessing, especially for Emma Catherine and her first year at real school.  I was always confident they were both in good hands and learning so much.  In a lot of ways, I will miss this next year because I already know I won't personally know either of their teachers.  I am so thankful for wonderful teachers that helped both girls have a wonderful year. 

Bailey finished school a week before Emma Catherine and had a small party with her class.  Unfortunately a few kids were sick and another was out of town so it was a small party, but the kids were excited to have happy meals for lunch.

Bailey and her teacher, Mrs. Kristi on her last day of school.

Emma Catherine had a pizza and popsicle party during her last week of school.  She also had kindergarten fun day and field day her last week so she was very busy.  I helped Emma Catherine's teacher a lot the last week of school and when I finally said goodbye to her, I cried.  I think it was out of thankfulness and gratitude, and also a feeling of finality because she is not coming back to school next year.  I know we will still see her because she lives down the road and her children will be at Riverchase next year, but it will different not seeing her at school.

 Last day of kindergarten. 

Ballet Recital

Last weekend the girls had their ballet recital.  They were very excited and had been asking for weeks when their recital would be.  We were very excited to have my mom and her best friend, Kathy come up for the recital, and they were such good sports to sit through the recital twice (dress rehearsal and the actual performance). 

The pictures on stage are from the dress rehearsal because you weren't allowed to take pictures or record the actual recital. 

It was a fun day and we were all so proud of them.

Bailey and some ballet friends.

Emma Catherine and her class.

Easter

Egg Hunts

Although we do know that the Easter bunny and egg hunts aren't the true meaning of Easter, they are fun and we participated in a couple this spring.  The first one we went to was at our church.  The girls liked hunting the eggs, but I think they liked the inflatables the best.

We also went to an egg hunt in our neighborhood. The girls loved hunting with Lilly and we are so thankful she is our next door neighbor.