Blue Jeans Week 19

What a week, what a week, summer is finally here. . .

Sunday:  Got my pots in the back planted.  Love those wave petunias!

Monday:  Mr J got this book from the library and has LOVED it!  He laughs and laughs, and I laugh too because it is pretty funny.  I have read it at least 3 times daily to him, and then he reads it to himself too.  It is  The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens.

Tuesday:  Let it begin. . . Mr J started piano lessons today. I start my kids right after they finish kindergarten, and I have told them they may quit when they are 18 :)  His teacher is the same one I had in high school.  I now have 4 taking lessons, and am wondering when we will get all the practicing in???

Wednesday:  Mr J's birthday!  Miss A made him his cake, which wasn't a cake, it was an Oreo cheesecake that he requested.  Yummy!  Smart boy!

Thursday:  My youngest sister and her hubby were in town, and it is tradition that Aunt Tessa always does the girls' nails when she comes, so we had Tessa's nail salon today.  So fun!

Friday:  Miss A took a gardening class this week from this sweet man.  Such a nice guy, and she learned so much.  She came home and told us all the things we are doing wrong in our garden :) so maybe with her expertise we will bring in a great harvest this year!

Saturday:  I took the kids to a local greenhouse and gave them $2 each to buy any plant they wanted.  Miss E got hers all planted and ready to go.  Love gardening season!

Hope you all had a great week!

 

Chocolate Chip pancakes

In honor of the long weekend, wanted to share one of our favorite weekend pancake recipes.  Of course, they are Mr. J's favorite, and he is very good at helping to make them.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 Tbl baking powder

1/2 tes salt

1 3/4 cups milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

In a large bowl combine the flour, chocolate chips, baking powder and salt.  In a medium bowl combine milk, eggs, oil, and brown sugar and mix well.  Add milk mix to flour mix and stir until just moistened (batter will be lumpy)  Pour using 1/4 cup onto hot griddle.  These don't really need syrup--they are sweet enough, but they are good with vanilla yogurt or powdered sugar and strawberries on top--yum! 

Happy long weekend!

My Baby's Birthday

My baby turned 6 years old this week.

Where did those 6 years go?  He was just born yesterday!

And his dad was/is so proud of his boy.  He finally got a boy!  When he was born at our small town hospital even the nurses cried they were all so happy we got a boy (we didn't know what we were having).

So fast forward 6 years and my baby started piano lessons this week with the same piano teacher I had in high school.

And my baby got a spark making scooter for his big day, but you know the thing he wanted most for his birthday????

White bread.  Ha!  So his sweet oldest sister got him a loaf for his special day.  Must be some push-back to the whole whole wheat/whole grain thing he has been eating for the last 6 years.  The kid is so funny, all throughout the day he asks me for "white bread toasted with butter please."  That loaf isn't going to be lasting very long with all the toast he has been eating.

And that same sweet oldest sister made him his birthday cake, but this 6-year-old didn't want a regular cake.  Nope.  He wanted a cheesecake, and an oreo cheesecake at that.  Smart kid.  Takes after his mother :)  We sure love you Mr J!!

Last day of school

We have had about a week of summer now, and 6 of those 7 days it has rained and rained.  We think we might float away somewhere when this is all done.  Anyway, wanted to share some last day of school pictures. 

Miss O had her 5th grade promotion.  Next year she is moving onto the middle school which she isn't too excited about at this point (lockers, showers in gym and all that fun stuff), but I think she will like it once she gets started.  We all survived, even though we still may have nightmares about not being able to get our lockers open.  Anyone relate to that?   So here she is before the promotion started. 

And then after.  Her and her brown eyed, brown hair girlfriends.  Thank the Lord for good friends!  These girls are the best!!! 

And Mr J and his last lunch as a kindergartner and probably the last lunch Mr. Thomas will have with him.  I don't know if he will take Mr. Thomas lunchbox to 1st grade.  We shall see.  Sadly, I think he is slowly moving out of his train stage, so sad. 

And my kiddos home from school on the last day and ready for summer!  How is your summer shaping up or are you there yet?  We keep looking for rain activities :), have gone to the library daily, and keep hoping the rain will stop!

Blue Jeans Week 18

School is out, summer is here, well maybe not totally here (June 21 Mr J keeps telling me), but at least school is out.  Here is our last week.

Sunday:  My mom went to the International Reading Association Conference in Orlando.  She came back with a library worth of books that we got to choose from.  It was like Christmas--the kids loved it!

Monday:  Miss E with her awesome 3rd grade teacher!

Tuesday:  Miss A had her end of school choir concert.  She sang a solo of "Give my regards to Broadway" and did beautiful!  It was an outside concert, and they did a great job.

Wednesday:  At the end-of-school awards assembly Miss O was honored by being selected as one of the 2 5th graders to receive a $500 scholarship to be put in an education saving account for college.  So awesome!!!  Way to go Miss O!!!

Thursday:  Our Toyota jump!  School's out for the summer!!!

Friday:  Great way to start summer vacation off with playing at the park.

Saturday:  Miss O and Miss A went to a learning magic workshop this afternoon, and then that evening we all went to the magic show of Mark Toland.  It was really good.  The kids got to demonstrate a trick before Mark started, so Miss O is on stage doing the string in the straw trick :) 

Our hearts go out to the people of Joplin, MO.  We have been blessed and spared from the many storms around us, but pray for those affected by these terrible storms.

 

Blue Jeans Week 17

Last week of school here.  The kids are done Thursday!  How did summer sneak in so quickly?  Hope you have all had a good week! 

Sunday:  Mother's day, and this is one of the awesome cards I got by Miss A.  She knows me well and put all my "likes" on the front--books, cheesecake, music, hot chocolate, taking pictures, and scrapbooking.  Love being a mom!

Monday:  Playing ball is usually not allowed in the house, but Ben got some new soft foam balls for the kids, and they enjoyed tossing them around tonight.

Tuesday:  We love our public library, and they recently remodeled ours, and it is so nice!  In one new section of the children's library they got a new table that Mr. J just loves!  He always asks me, "Mom, can we go to the library, and I can sit on my table!"  So here he is looking at a train book (surprise, surprise) at

"his" new library table :)

Wednesday:  End of the school year.  I always take a picture of the kids with their teacher in August on the first day of school, and then I take one with their teacher at the end of school.  As an end-of-the-year gift we put the August and May pictures in a frame and the kids write on it "Thank you for helping me grow!" and then decorate the frame.  So this is Mr. J and his amazing kindergarten teacher at the end of the school year.

Thursday:  Miss O had to do a technical essay (one of my least favorite things) and she decided to do it on "How to make the best chocolate chip cookies in the World."  Then she was to take pictures of the process of making the cookies to show when she presented her essay to the class.  So she made cookies today, and her little brother was there to lick the extra cookie dough off the bowl and mixer attachment.  I think she ended up putting this picture in her presentation :)

Friday:  My last Girls' Lunch Out until August.  Sure love my friends!

Saturday:  Today was my dad's last college graduation as a professor since he is retiring this week.  They had a special presentation and award for him for his 24 years of teaching.  Way to go dad!  Sure love you and am proud of you!!!

 

Blue Jeans Week 16

Trying to catch up, but sort of feelin' like I'm drownin', and I seriously think April/May is as crazy as December! 

Sunday:  We had Miss O's family party today, and we have the tradition that the kids get to decorate their own cakes with their dad.  I make the cake and the frosting, but they get to decorate it with him.  They love this tradition.  This year Miss O wanted her round cake to be a bowling ball, and then she put some bowling pins on it--cool stuff!

Monday:  Miss O received the Presidential Academic Award tonight at the school board meeting.  Way to go Miss O and her awesome friends!

Tuesday:  Today I got to attend my Dad's retirement reception at the college.  That is my dad in the white shirt and my mom to his right.  It was fun to hear the different stories people told from the many years he has been there.

Wednesday:  As part of the young author's celebration I always help with the book selling.  It is a fun job because I get to work with the cutest lady--she is Mr J's kindergarten teacher and we both love her!

Thursday:  I don't have a picture to download here because I am using the picture from the front page of our local newspaper.  Miss O made the front page because her Arbor Day Tree picture got honorable mention in the district competition.  The funny thing was the paper got her name wrong and called her by her older sister's name--twice!  Miss O was not too happy to be called Miss A, but 2 days later they ran an apology, and Miss O felt better :)  But we were proud of her awesome picture !

Friday:  Today was Miss O's field trip to the state capitol, and Ben went along as one of the parent helpers.  They had a fun day seeing the state history museum and touring the capitol.

Saturday:  Today is Miss E's birthday (yes Miss O's and Miss E's birthdays are only 1 week apart) and she turned 9!  She is also showing off her cake that she decorated with Dad.  She decided she liked her sister's idea of the bowling ball cake, so she did the same thing :)  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?  She also had a friend party, and we also were taking the friends bowling, but for some reason (and I did call and check before hand) the bowling alley was closed when we arrived--ugh!  I had 5 9-year-old girls to entertain for 2 hours, and my plans fell through!  So we did some quick improvising and went to the church to play dodge ball, then back to our house for pizza, presents and jumping on the trampoline.  Luckily Miss E didn't seem to disappointed, and the girls had fun, but I was so ready for bed when all the girls were gone!  Note to self:  no more bowling parties!!

Hope you all had good weeks!  School is quickly coming to a close here--8 days left!  Oh, my!

 

Blue Jeans Week 15

A week behind but better late than never :)

Easter Sunday:  Love the new dresses and how they each have their own style--long gone are the days they would all wear the same dress :)

Monday:  Mr J didn't have school today, so he got extra lucky and got to go have lunch with Grandpa!  My dad is retiring this month after many, many years as the art teacher at our local junior college.  It is sad to see his office slowly being emptied, but I am excited for him to start a new phase in life.  Way to go Dad!

Tuesday:  Kind of blurry, but the girl was running fast!  Miss E's last soccer game today!  Yeah!

Wednesday:  Had lunch with some girlfriends today, and we went to this place that had the biggest and best hot chocolate I have ever had--all the whipped cream on top--oh my!

Thursday:  Beautiful day, and the crew went on a bike ride while I had some quiet time :)  so nice

Friday:  Two pictures for today.  Each April our county hosts a Young Author's conference/competition.  The school children write books and the best book winners get to attend a conference with 2 visiting nationally known children's authors or illustrators.  My mom is the co-chairman of this thing, so we get to attend a dinner with the visiting authors the night before.  Above are my kiddos with children's book author Pamela Duncan Edwards.  If you have never read her stuff, please check it out--super fun picture books your kids will love!

This is the other visiting author--Dandi Daley MacKall, and she has written over 400 books for kids--picture books, novels, check her stuff out.  They were both awesome to listen to and meet.  Great people!!

Saturday:  Today was Miss O's 11th birthday!!  We took her friends bowling then back to our house for pizza and then the girls had an impromptu hair salon--cute, cute!