Memorial Day Picnic

We went to a picnic at my grandparents house on Memorial Day. Often, when we get together my maw-maw, my aunt, or my mom makes Cucumber dip. It is delicious. Ty is eating it below. I think this was his first time to try it. I eventually had to put the lid on so he would go play with his cousins and stop eating!

 But mom, this dip is soo good!

Wilson playing wiffle ball. He looks rather into it. :)

Luke getting sprayed by the sprinkler! Madelyn, Silas, and Wilson are in the background.

Luke is a Kindergartener!

Luke graduated from preschool at the end of May. We loved LE Preschool. Luke attended for the past two years and had wonderful teachers. He is so ready to start Kindergarten at "mommy & Wilson's school"! I keep telling him it is his school now too!

Here he is walking in. Love that little grin.

A cookie and lemonade for celebrating!

With his buddy Ethan. They are good friends from school and church. They were in the same class at LE this year. Ethan will be moving to Africa in August. Luke is a little sad about that.

I have a new job!

Last week I found out at work that I have a new job for next year! I am SO excited. I will be an intervention teacher for grades K-5, teaching reading and math groups all day. I'll have between 3-5 kids per group and each group will last 30 minutes. I told my principal in March that I was interested in the position. It was a long 2 months to find out the result - but it was worth it! It will be nice to be doing something different at my school. I was ready for a change. This will stretch me since I haven't taught intermediate kids before but I'm ready!

I have taught 2nd grade for 10 years with my friend, Jenn. We have been there for each other through everything it seems. I've had so many wonderful teammates over the years but Jenn and I have taught together since we graduated from college. It was hard to tell her I was going for a different position but she has been so supportive. Even when I told her I got the job she was so excited for me. It will be weird to not be teaching together!

I'm looking forward to next school year and everything that it will bring. I have a LOT of packing to do. Packing up 2nd grade stuff for the new 2nd grade teacher, packing up my personal teaching stuff that I won't use in intervention, and packing stuff up for my new intervention classroom. Lots of weeding out, organizing, and packing to do!! As I look around my classroom I got very overwhelmed so I started with my filing cabinets this past week. I cleaned out both over a few days! Recycled a LOT of paper. Amazing how much you accumulate in 10 years.

More Spring Break :)

It's so hard to see the week coming to an end. It has been wonderful! We have stayed busy around here that is for sure. Thursday was appointment day. Luke had his eye exam for school and Andy and I had a dentist appointment. We went and got frozen yogurt that night with several of the youth kids from CCY. A new froyo just opened near us and I tried pineapple/coconut twist. Not something I would usually pick but it was DELICIOUS!! I want to go back! Friday we took a picnic to the park and hung out for a couple of hours. The day was beautiful. Andy and I read while the kids ran around - it's a small park so there were only a few other people there. Ty came back every few minutes to eat cheez*its. It was funny! Later we started working in the garage and took a load of stuff to Good*will. Today we worked more in the garage this morning. We're making progress! A load to the dump and another load to good*will today and we can see the floor. Lots of organizing still to be done. I've gotten to spend a lot of time in the kitchen this week. The new recipes I have tried: - scones (1/2 blueberry and 1/2 plain for the man and boys in my life) - creamy mac & cheese - it was yummy. of course the rest of my family didn't like it - it's just a classic homemade mac & cheese...I used whole grain pasta but that was the only change to the recipe. This took a long time to make and since my family prefers less creamy mac and cheese I'll be using the boxed kind again... -spring green risotto- my first risotto ever. I've wanted to make one for a long time. It was delicious. It has asparagus, leeks, peas, & chives. I knew no one else would eat it so of course there are a ton of leftovers. It was really good though. It is creamy due to a little cream cheese (or mascarpone) and parmesan cheese. Plus a lemon flavor - perfect for spring! It makes a lot and it a little pricey with all of the ingredients. I definitely want to try more risottos. - dijon vinaigrette - this is a link to a salad with mushrooms. I just made the dressing. It was good. I only used 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and it was plenty tart for me. - smoothies- yum! So many seeds though. That was my only regret. Next time no raspberries or blackberries for me. It really tasted great I just didn't like the seeds! I just bought a mixed bag of frozen berries- raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Also used a banana and frozen fresh pineapple like the recipe suggests. The boys weren't interested in even trying these. Andy had a pineapple/banana, blueberry. It was ok. That's all. I read several cooking blogs even though these are all linked to the same one. Annie's Eats is definitely my favorite site for finding new recipes!

Spring Break!

We are having a lovely spring break so far. It is so nice just being home with my family and taking it easy. * Wilson, Luke, and I went to the movies to see Gnomeo & Juliet in 3D- it was really cute. * The boys have played outside quite a bit with neighbors. * I took the boys shopping for some new spring/summer clothing. Wilson got a lamp for his nightstand- a fireman themed lamp wtih a hydrant, hose combo. Really cute. Luke got new tennis shoes for his basketball class to replace his green chucks. They weren't so good for basketball and he needed bigger shoes! * We all went swimming at the Y today which the boys LOVED! Andy had to coax Ty into the pool but by the end of our time there he was loving the water! * Last night we went to the 1/2 price bookstore to sell and buy a few books. Wilson read in the car on the way home. I told him he could read for 10 minutes before turning out his light. Andy found him reading 25 minutes later. Even after we turned out his light I caught him reading again. Stinker. I love that he was reading though. Early bedtime tonight! * We're waiting for our new froyo to open near our house. Then we have plans to stop there! * We plan to enjoy the second 1/2 of this fabulous week! I have about 5 new recipes I plan on trying this week. I'll share any good ones with you. I'm watching Friends Season 5 with Andy, reading Little Bee, and loving my boys. Vacation rocks. :)

Katie's Wedding Shower

Last weekend Stephanie and I threw a bridal shower for our sister-in-law Katie. More pictures will come when I get them from Steph! Here are the few pics Andy took before he left the house. I made my first banner and I loved it! I have seen so many on the blogs I read and always thought they were cute. I will definitely make these again for future parties. It wasn't hard and it was a really cute decoration for very little cost. We bought the scrapbook paper at Hobby*Lobby. I used the letter punch at school on the paper for the hearts and letters. Then I had an oval cutter for scrapbooking at home. The gifts went on the table at the shower.

Fruit kebabs! Meghan and Lily (my nieces) worked hard to put the fruit on our little bamboo sticks. They did a fabulous job!

The last picture for now- our cupcakes! Stephanie made the cupcake stand. One of my favorite blogs, Annie's Eats has a tutorial on how to make your own cupcake stand. We bought the stuff at Hobby*Lobby and she put it together easily! We bought the cake circles, scrapbook paper (to cover the cans and box at the bottom), and the ribbon. Then Steph used a hot glue gun and there you have it!

The adorable cupcakes were made by our friend, Heather. I found a picture on the internet of some cupcakes I liked and showed it to Heather. She then created these adorable cupcakes. Katie's colors are teal and yellow. These are topped in fondant and then she made little flowers for each one. They tasted great and were adorable on the cupcake stand!

We also had chicken salad in mini phyllo cups. They were cute! I used purple grapes instead of green and did not use the radish garnish.

Katie's maid of honor, Shana brought a veggie tray, and we had salmon mousse that I piped on crackers. Mine did not look like this- I just realized I was trying to pipe it wrong! I did a swirl in the center of each cracker. This was an incredibly easy recipe- with a food processor. I've realized I'm not a big salmon fan. But I heard a lot of great feedback. I'd make them again- they were a nice addition to the food spread and something different and kind of "fancy"! I love the chive garnish on Annie's but the chives at my grocery were half brown so we skipped that step!

One of my favorite things of the shower was the mock champagne punch. It tasted great and we bought plastic flutes at the party store. We garnished each glass with a strawberry on the rim. I so wish I had a picture of the 20 flutes filled and garnished! They looked so cute on the table! Everyone enjoyed the fancy glasses.

I didn't get a picture of any of this - :( - maybe Steph did. But if you click the link on the mock champagne punch and the chicken salad you'll see what they looked like!

My Baseball Boy

Action shot. Look at that stance!

Tyler loves baseball. He spent a lot of time at the baseball field last spring when Wilson and Luke were playing t-ball. We recently found a Thomas bat and ball (he LOVES Thomas) so now we've been playing baseball outside, in the basement, etc. He can hit the ball pretty well sometimes!

He'll be on the baseball field soon enough!