Category: Uncategorized

Story told by: Lainey

Saturday evening was one of my favorite nights – DANCE RECITAL NIGHT!! I love performing!

A few weeks ago, the wonderful Ileia McCall (who also did our family pictures) took dance pictures for all of the girls in Parks and Rec. dance.

I’ve been dancing with most of these girls since just after my second birthday.

And here I am on recital night…ready to dance!!!

First up, my tap dance!

The mommies in our class were praising the dance gods that we only had one costume and no hair changes this year (compared to three costumes and three hair changes last year)! We just made a few quick changes in between dances. For my hip-hop dance, we just put on jazz shoes and took off the puffy skirt.

And for the last dance, puffy skirt went on top, black leggings went on, and we added dog accessories.

Me and Ivy!

All of the dogs!

We added this dance less than two months ago, so I was a little nervous about it, but I ended up having a blast!

One of the husbands of mommy’s good friend put together all of our dances into one video. These do a better job of showing the whole class. In the first dance, I’m middle right, and in the second two videos, I’m towards the left.

Although the dances were a blast, my favorite part was getting my fifth year trophy!!

I sure love Ms. Brooke, and can’t wait to dance again in the fall (but I did say that I’m glad for a little bit of a break).

Ashley (one of our sweetest babysitters) came and sat through the entire recital (24 dances) to support me. She’s AMAZING!!

Ashley, Mommy, and Daddy all brought me flowers. I love them!

We ended the night with a delicious ice cream treat.

Such a fun night! I love dancing so much!!

Story told by: Brody

Happy Father’s Day!! We had a great day celebrating the best daddy I know!

I got up first and was able to enjoy a doughnut breakfast with Daddy.

Before we left for church, we gave Daddy our cards.

I made sure to give lots of my signature wet, sloppy, open-mouth kisses.

Lainey had a special song in her card.

Then we gave Daddy his present!

He enjoys trying different beers. The Co-Op sells individual cans of beer, so we picked out a bunch of different kinds for him to try.

After church, Daddy’s lunch choice was Sella’s.

Henry and Lainey worked hard to get their pictures up on the wall at Sella’s.

Then we went to see “Incredibles 2.”

We ate lots of popcorn, and LOVED the movie! Really fun!

After the movie, we went home and gifted Daddy the opportunity to help us play Wii. (It was really a generous gift from us.)

We ended the night with delicious hamburgers and huckleberry ice cream. Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! We love you so much!

We recently had our pictures taken by the AMAZING Ileia McCall, and we love them so much!!

Story told by: Lainey

Today was my last day of kindergarten! I can’t believe it!

On Monday afternoon, I had kindergarten graduation.

Each student had a cute display set up.

Here is my self-portrait from the beginning of kindergarten.

And here is my end-of-the-year self-portrait.

When I grow up, I want to be a famous singer. I have moved on from wanting to be a sheep farmer because they are too stinky. I do love being on stage, so we’ll see where this dream takes me.

We sang lots of fun songs!

This was my favorite song.

My music teacher, Dr. Miller, set us up to each do some jazz improvisation during graduation.

After singing, we each had our turn to receive our certificate.

Here’s my turn!

Daddy brought this beautiful flower for me.

During graduation, awards were given. I was the only student in my class to receive the American Citizenship National Award for my leadership, school spirit, and respect. Mommy and Daddy are SO proud of me!

Me and my buddy, Joseph.

Me and another buddy, Logan W.

Also a picture with the best kindergarten teacher ever, Mrs. Kinzer. It has been such a great year with her!!!

Class of 2030!

My whole class.

On Tuesday, all of the elementary classes loaded up the buses in the morning to head down to Hellsgate State Park for a fun end-of-the-year field trip. Me with one of my best friends in class, Dez.

Mommy didn’t go on the field trip, but she had friends sending her pictures. We played games for the first part of the morning. (They put the kindergarteners in matching shirts so everyone could keep track of us.)

Lunch!

After lunch, it was time for water play! Joseph and I had fun attacking each other with water guns.

And, finally, today was my last day!!

So ready for summer!

Mommy did a side by side of me on my first day of kindergarten (on the right) with me today. I’m losing so much of my baby face (and Mommy may have teared up over this).

We met up with Niki and Cece (who wasn’t quite in the mood to take a picture) before school to give our teachers their presents from us. We are SO grateful for their hard work this year. We will really miss them!

After just a half day of school, I’m now officially a first grader!!

Summer!!!

The rest of the day was a perfect start to summer. Henry and Brody are swimming with Dede right now, so I got to go to their lessons and swim with them during free swim time.

After a couple hours of swimming, we got ice cream! I got to load up with delicious toppings.

We went to Rosie’s graduation party this evening. We had some delicious food, and got to celebrate one of our sweet babysitters (and one of Mommy’s former third graders).

And my request to end the night was a slumber party with Henry! We ate popcorn and candy, and watched “America’s Got Talent” with Mommy and Daddy. Best way to kick off summer!!

Story told by: Henry

Today is my last day in Mrs. O’Loughlin’s class! I’ve had such a fantastic year!

Mommy is crawling to the end of the school year. When it came time to wrap Mrs. O’Loughlin’s present, she realized that she hadn’t thought of wrapping paper. So she gets a uniquely-wrapped present!

Despite the weird wrapping, Mrs. O’Loughlin loved her new griddle from me and Weston.

Months ago, she mentioned to Mommy that she wanted one, so Mommy made sure to remember that detail.

We also gave her pancake mixes, syrup, and yummy jam.

She loved it!

Mommy, Natalie, and Christy were in charge of our party, and they had some great helpers with setup. The theme was a beach party, so while we were practicing for our closing ceremony, they whipped up the party.

We got to hunt through sand to find buried treasure. (Please note our adorable sand buckets).

We made a jellyfish craft, as well as painted seashells.

The kids have arrived!

Yum!

Of course I found a spot with my best buddy, Weston.

My favorite thing was definitely the whale-termelon.

Mommy and Natalie had a lot of fun planning this party together. They make a good team!

After eating, it was time for crafts and games. First stop, digging for treasure.

Next I did the scavenger hunt.

Next up was fishing. I got some good prizes!

We also had beach ball bowling. I was pretty darn good at it.

Making my jellyfish (or my squid as I keep calling it).

Jonah needed some help with the scavenger hunt, so I made sure to give him some helpful hints.

Photo booth with Mommy!

Final blessing song from Mrs. O’Loughlin and Miss Stahlecker.

I’m really going to miss having them as my teachers. They’re so wonderful. But thank goodness I go to church with them, and Brody will be in their class in the fall!

When we got home, we took a picture showing the difference between my first day of preschool and my last day of preschool. I’m starting to look so big!

Tonight was my preschool closing ceremony (and graduation for my friends going off to kindergarten).

Each class took turns singing songs. My class got to do two songs. (This was actually Mrs. O’Loughlin’s two classes combined.) I’m in a blue shirt on the far left in the back row.

After the ceremony was done, we got to have some yummy snacks.

My other best buddy from class is Pierce. He’s headed to kindergarten in the fall, but he and I might get to wrestle together, so hopefully we’ll see more of each other.

And it wouldn’t be a true party day if it didn’t end in tears. But at least now I have summer and sunshine in my future. Can’t wait!

**This is the one day a year we let Mommy take over the blog to tell her story.**

Story told by: Mommy

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday! The greatest gift the kids gave me was that they slept until 7:15!

Of course my body woke me up earlier than that, but Kylan made me a delicious breakfast to enjoy while I watched “Ellen.” Perfect!!

Henry was the first one to wake up, and went running right away to grab the adorable card he made with Kylan.

These two were up next with their cute cards.

Kylan got me a funny book that I’ve been wanting to read for awhile. (And I may be blocking out a naughty word for the sake of this blog.)

Lainey loves holidays just as much as me! (In fact, she said a prayer just a few nights ago thanking God for holidays. Amen, little girl!) She wanted me to open presents before we left for church.

Henry made me an adorable bookmark at preschool. He was very excited to declare that it would work perfectly with my new book!

He also gave me a flower and a bird house that he decorated.

Lainey next gifted me with a book she made in kindergarten.

She also had an adorable mug for me to use!

Lainey sneakily asked me recently what my favorite animal was, and I told her a giraffe. Her class went to the Dahmen Barn in Uniontown a couple times over the past few weeks to make clay sculptures for Mother’s Day, and she made me my very own giraffe.

I attempted numerous pictures with the kids throughout the day, and there weren’t many where all of the kids were cooperating at the same time.

Before we left for church, the kids surprised me with a drawing they had made yesterday.

I made sure to get some delicious coffee to sip during Sunday School. A good morning treat!

The kids all made some adorable gifts in Sunday School. (Thanks, Miss Kassidy!)

After church, we went to Banyans for brunch and mimosas! And all the carbs!

We got to eat outside and enjoy the GORGEOUS weather and amazing view!

After brunch, we changed into Cougar clothes and headed to the baseball game.

The Cougs lost, but it was still a really enjoyable time.

The Barnes family was there, so the kids got to play with Eleanor and Owen.

And Natalie and I enjoyed our time together as well!

A shot of me and Kylan from Henry’s perspective.

It got pretty hot as the game went on, so the kids found whatever shade they could.

When we got home, Henry was really excited to plant his flower for me.

Henry told us that he learned in preschool that plants need water, so he made sure we watered it well.

We put the birdhouse right next to it!

Kylan made me a Moscow Mule, and then ordered me to come sit down to enjoy my book while he made dinner. No protesting from me!

Burgers and asparagus! This guy is the real MVP of the day. He made Mother’s Day so special.

This sweet guy loved picking all of the flowers out of our flower beds to bring to me while I read my book.

I ended the night reading with my sweet girl.

She’s very proud to announce that she’s starting to read chapter books!

Then today the celebrations continued with Muffins with Mom at Lainey’s school.

We filled out a fun questionnaire together.

It was a perfect day (plus a little extra this morning) with my wonderful family! I feel very appreciated and loved!

Story told by: Brody

I’m three today! I’ve been so excited for my special day!

It started out with a rather loud wake-up of “Happy Birthday.” I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as my family.

Before Daddy left for work, he showed me the new trapeze bar he installed on the playground as one of my birthday presents. I love it!

I picked out Unicorn Lucky Charms for my birthday cereal!

It was delicious!

After dropping Lainey off at school, we had a few minutes to play on my new present.

And then I had some time to myself because Henry got sent inside after refusing to share. (Listen closely to hear his fun tantrum from inside the house.)

Mommy had to volunteer in Lainey’s class, so Henry and I went to daycare for an hour. Ms. Dyan had special birthday presents for us!

Next we went to get ice cream at Ferdinand’s!

I got a free scoop that they split in half so I could share it with Henry.

I’m working on showing my age with my fingers – three!

When we got home, our neighbor, Guy, brought me some delicious Twinkies! I saw him at the WSU baseball game yesterday, and told him that I had just discovered Twinkies at my birthday party. He wanted to make sure I had more, and he upped the game by buying chocolate Twinkies!

So good!

After we picked Lainey up from school, I wanted to go to the park, but it was wet from the recent storm, so I chose to go to Planet 3 instead! About halfway through my time at Planet 3, Mommy found me just laying on the trampoline. I wasn’t acting normal, but since I always keep them guessing with my behavior, she thought I might be feeling a bit moody.

I was getting pretty whiny, but Mommy thought I might be hungry. We were on our way to meet Daddy for pizza, but had some time to kill, so we went to the library. We found Miss Kathleen there, and she pulled out the books to let us pick some for our birthdays! She’s the best!

I came over to pick a book, and then laid down on the floor.

We read our books on the bench until dinner.

At dinner, I didn’t want any pizza, and that’s when Mommy knew for sure something was up. Everyone had a quick dinner so we could get home.

About 30 seconds after getting out of the car, I threw up. And Mommy discovered that I was running a fever of 101.5. Not how I wanted to spend my birthday. But I insisted on still opening presents! Lainey bought me a minion with her very own money.

Grandma and Grandpa sent me minion movies!

Na Na and Ba Ba sent me frosting! They’re hilarious!

And cool minion motorcycle Legos!

Gma and Gpa gave me my very own Kindle! Now I have one just like Lainey and Henry!

I requested a chocolate m&m cake, but unfortunately I couldn’t eat it. Big bummer. Mommy and Daddy promised me that no one will eat any until I’m feeling better. Right after this, I went to bed. Not my best birthday, but I did have some fun moments. Let’s hope the other 364 days of being a three-year-old are better than this!