End of Kinder and 2nd Grade

I knew I would need to do a side by side comparison of the first day of school versus the last day of school because most of the time I'm in denial that these kids of mine grow so much every single day.  

The last day of school is also field day.  It was kind of a long morning for the twins and Holden, who had to sit through two hours of the same games over again.  The littles did well but were pretty done by the time we left.  Cameron was so sweet and cried and cried when he had to say goodbye to his teacher.  Tiernan was like, can we leave any earlier??  

  

We have a bit of catching up to do

The end of the school year is always such a busy time of year!  This year was extra special because we were able to celebrate Ethan's mom retirement from UNC.  We had to have a pep talk with the boys about behaving.  That day was frickin' freeeeeezing outside so we couldn't even run around outside to get the energy out.  They did pretty well though, especially when they were fed lots of juice and blue frosting cake.   

Love the sweet baby in a towel

Oh my goodness, is there anything cuter than a Kindergarten program?  Cameron was so sweet performing.  This is his class singing the turkey tango-SOOOO dang cute!

Me and my boys on Mother's Day

The littles enjoying the last few days before the big boys were home full time for the summer

The never ending landscaping project continues.  You can kind of see the baby grass FINALLY growing in.  The boys spent days and days shoveling rock into the trailer and then moving it up next to the house and re-shoveling it.  I was D-O-N-E after only like three loads.  The boys worked so hard and lasted a lot longer than me!  We're only about 1/3 done and were sidelined by sickness and injuries, but hopefully the next couple of weekends the weather will not be one million degrees and we can get it done.  Trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I so thankful for a husband who works so hard for us!

Cameron had so much fun this spring playing soccer.  I didn't get any good pictures of him-bummer!

Happy Birthday Twins!

What??  They are four years old?  How did that even happen?  I remember when they were just tiny babies, staring at them thinking, I can't even picture you as little boys.  And now they are!  Time has gone equal parts painfully slow and bullet fast.  I'm sure I won't remember anything about this time of life, so I am certainly thankful for having tons of pictures to document this crazy time of life.  

The boys picked out Smurf blue cupcakes with sprinkles for the top.  They had so much fun decorating and licking fingers.  A fun memory for sure

Jaxson always tries to see how many birthday hats he can fit on top of his head at one time.  He got so mad that he could only make two stay on.  

My big eight year old!

The spring partying carries on, and our oldest turned 8 this year!  I say it every year, and it's still true:  I can't believe it!  Every day he becomes more and more articulate, and I can start to see the beginnings of mature thoughts.  It's so fun!  

This year we got Tiernan one big present which was a bike.  He absolutely LOVES riding bikes, so he was so excited.  His old bike was too small and the brakes were trashed, so it was time.  He's still learning how to use the gears, but definitely feels more like a big boy with a bike like Dad's.  

He chose to go the Denver Museum of Nature and Science this year for his birthday.  I was surprised that all the kids seemed to like it more than I thought they would.  I thought for sure we'd make this big trip down there only for them to be bored one hour in.  We were there a few hours and only left because the museum closed.  We'll definitely be back (especially since it was cheaper for us to buy an annual family membership than a one time visit!) 

Their favorite section was the kids' area.  It was pretty crowded though, so that was kind of frustrating.  We managed to wait our turn and were able to squeeze in all four big boys in one area at a time.

Cameron LOVED the dinosaur area.  He especially like watching the workers clean off the huge bones.  He declared (again) that he was to be a paleontologist and work at the museum when he grows up!

Here we are partying like rock stars.  Tiernan chose an off-roading cake from the bakery.  There, I said it.  I didn't home-make my kid's birthday cake.  

Happy Easter!

My sister and her family were able to come over for Spring Break this year which also happened to fall right next to Easter.  We had such a fun time hanging out together even though it was freaking freezing, so we had to plan indoor activities.

Here we are dying eggs in the garage (notice the winter coats.)

The great Easter egg hunt which didn't really take very long since we have no trees or anything really to hide the eggs in.  They didn't really care though since they just wanted the chocolate.

We visited the train museum in Greeley, and we totally lucked out because it happened to be a free day!  There were Art students from UNC there who were creating graffiti on mini train cars.  They are so talented!  Tiernan made a Broncos car.  It was the most focused I've ever seen him-he sat there for a good 45 minutes making it just perfect.

The kids liked exploring the real caboose

Cameron and my sister went on a very serious scavenger hunt in the HUGE model train

Look at us all together on Easter morning!  What a miracle!

Love pictures of the kids in their jammies

Libby was the baby whisperer and helped Holden fall asleep.  So sweet!