Daddy!!!

 Daddy's pain has become to much for him to bear and is now pretty much bed ridden.  We've been trying to make the most of it and still spending time with daddy.  Andrew and Daddy's favorite activity together is playing video games, so Andrew is now bringing the games to daddy and laying in bed with him while they spend time together.

The kids also made daddy a picture that we could place on the wall next to where daddy is in bed.  It gives daddy something fun to look at and the kids know how special it is for daddy!

Daddy's birthday party!!!

 This year I decided to have a birthday party for Chris.  With his cancer getting so much worse, I thought this would be a good time to celebrate and let everyone come and see Chris.  I thought it might also put a smile on Chris' face.  I think it worked as Chris had a great time and we had a huge turnout with so many people coming to see Chris.  I think he had close to 100 close friends celebrating with him!

Unfortunately I forgot to take very many pictures, but these are the few I did take.  It was a huge success and it was great to see a smile on Chris' face!!!

Daddy's birthday!!!!

 This year was a very important year for daddy's birthday.  He was recently diagnosed to stage 4 melanoma cancer and we were unsure if this might be his last year.  We wanted to make it as special as we could for daddy.  So like we do every year, the kids and I planned a surprise party for daddy.  We made some decorations and a yummy cake then headed out and bought daddy lots of presents.  It worked, daddy was surprised and LOVED all his gifts!  It was so good to see a smile on daddy's face!!!!

Happy 36th birthday to best daddy ever!!!!  We all love you soooo much!!!!!

Worst day of my life!

Today is a day that no one should ever have to go through! I went in to the doctor with Chris expecting bad news, but I had not prepared for what I was told! It felt like I was punched as hard as possible in the chest and actually got the wind knocked out of me.
Chris was my first and only love. We went on our first date when I was 14 and he was 15. He is the only person I have ever loved and it rips my guts out thinking he might be taken from me!
He is 35! He should not have to talk to his wife about where he is going to be buried at! I'm so mad right now I just want to yell and punch something!
How in the world would someone ever be able to look at the three most beautiful people in the world and tell them their daddy might now be around. I wonder if my three year old will ever remember him and what a great daddy he is!
It makes me so mad that people like Michael Devlin and Chris Coleman can rot away in jail being healthy, when someone who is a great husband and daddy have to go through this!
How is it that the world goes on carefree and laughing when mine is falling apart!
Its not fair! I try to sleep and wake up hyperventalating from the pain!
I just wish the pain would stop, that I could sleep again! That my husband and best friend would not have to go through this!
I'm just so MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pony Club!

 This week in Pony Club they decided to move all of the kids outside for a lesson.  This is the first time Adriana has been out in the open without an arena so she was a bit nervous, but they made sure someone had ahold of the lead rope to keep her safe.

Here is my big girl leading Irish around.

Now checking her equipment and getting it ready to start riding.

 The older pony club kids checking over her equipment to make sure it is safe.

 Doing her exercises on the horse.

 Practing her 2 point for posting while trotting.

 Adriana, Jonathon, and Shea all ready to do a race together.

Adriana really enjoyed being outside and made lots of improvements with her riding!

Strawberry picking!

I am so excited summer is finally here! I'm not a cold weather kind of girl and love the heat! So to start off summer we headed to Windridge Farm for some strawberry picking. We picked a cool over cast day and it was perfect! The kids have so much fun picking different fruit and are excited to eat it after.
Here is a few pictures of the strawberry picking.....






So we ended up with quit a bit of yummy strawberries!


My happy strawberry pickers and their stash!

They were also able to play a little while I paid for the strawberries.

After we got done picking strawberries we headed over to MeMaw's house to make some strawberry jam. With our strawberries costing just under $10, we were able to make 15 jars of strawberry jam and 3 bags of strawberries to freeze up. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of us canning the strawberry jam, but I can guarantee that I have enough strawberry jam to eat for the rest of the year!
So here is to the start of summer!!!

Andrew's preschool graduation!

So Thursday night was a very sad night for this momma! My little boy graduated from preschool :( Its a bittersweet moment! A year ago I thought we would never make it to this point, but over the past year I think back into amazement at how much my little guy has grown! He has learned so much as well as matured so much. I couldn't have been more proud of my little boy!
Here he comes with the rest of the 2011 preschool graduates....

The preschoolers putting on their graduation ceremony...


Andrew receiving his certificate of graduation!

Andrew getting asked what he wants to be when he grows up and his answer was....."a hockey player......because I know what I'm doing"! Lol, thats my boy!

Andrew made a lot of close friends this year. These boys all seemed to get along so well and would even spend time playing together after school while us moms spent time chatting away :) I'm very sad to see these boys heading their separate way, but happy that a teacher doesn't have all of them in the same class together again :) It was really neat to see their friendships blossom and we are hoping to stay in contact over the summer so they can hang out together a little more before heading off to a new school to make new friends. So here are a few pictures of these best buds on graduation night.....




And the sadest part of the night was having to say goodbye to Mrs. Rhonda Gaines! She first became director of the preschool Adriana's first year at Curiosity Corner and now I'm saying goodbye to her after she was there for both of my older kids while they went through their preschool years!
This is the teachers all saying their goodbyes!

She will be missed but I wish her the best in whatever she does!

Andrew's last day of preschool!

Wednesday was Andrew's last day of preschool :( Much to my dismay, his growing continues! And boy has he grown this year. Last year I was really worried about him as he seemed very high energy and unable to concentrate, but he has grown leaps and bounds this year! He happily goes into preschool and I rarely hear anything but positives from his teachers! He has made so many incredible friends and they are all so much fun together, but they are all boys and I sure felt for those poor teachers :) Here are a few pictures from the last day of school which I was happy to be parent helper for...
Andrew holding the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance....

Andrew and Mrs. DeVries working on the calendar.....

Andrew and his best buddies.....


Joey thinking he fits right in with all the big boys :)


Andrew and Mrs. DeVries.....

Andrew and Mrs. Thomas.....

The cookie cake Andrew picked out for the special snack for the last day of school!

So the growing continues and my little boy will soon be joining his big sister at the big kid school :(

Camping at Lakeside 370!

Last weekend we went camping at the new Lakeside 370 park. This was the trial weekend and the city employees were able to camp for free. We really enjoyed the park and I thinks its going to be great to have such a nice park so close to home. So here was our first experience at the new park!
We were able to use all the rentals for free also this weekend so we tried out the paddle boats. Chris, Adriana, and Joey took one boat and me and Andrew took out another boat. They were a lot of fun but a lot of work when my passenger couldn't even touch the peddles.

We were babysitting my little brother's dog that weekend so we took her with us and she was so excited to go on lots of walks with the kids.

The kids spent a lot of time riding their bikes around!

We made s'mores of course!

And this was my best attempt at getting a picture of the kids by the lake with the sunset. We got there just a little too late :(

We had a great time and I know we will be spending lots of time camping at this park since it is so close to home and the gas prices are ridulous! I highly recommend the park to anyone who enjoys spending time outside!

Magic House field trip!

Last Monday was Adriana's field trip to the Magic House. The first grades kids go on the field trip with their 5th grade buddies. Unfortunately during the field trip Adriana got a migrane headache so I wasn't able to get very many pictures. Luckily her headache didn't last all day so she was still able to enjoy most of the day.
Sliding down the slide....

Climbing Jack's beanstock.....

It was a hair raising experience!

Adriana and her fifth grade buddy, Leah!

After the field trip the bus dropped us off at Blanchette Park for their lunch and the kids had time to play on the playground then we walked back to school. It was a great time and the kids had lots of fun, other than the migraine for Adriana!