Teacher Apprec Week -- Part 2

As I said in an earlier post, Charlotte spent the first part of teacher appreciation week with my mom and dad. She was beyond excited at her big-girl week at Mimi's house. I snapped these pics as we got ready to leave that day -- after our stop at Sonic. :) 

She'd been telling Madeleine & Harrison for days that she was going and they were not! Ha! Harrison was pretty jealous, but Madeleine was looking forward to some time without her little sidekick. She's so amazing with Charlotte, but needs a break now and then.  

 The kids had school, homework, etc. that week, but we did sneak away one night for some TCBY on campus. It was a gorgeous night and we had fun eating outside!

 Seriously, how much of a heartbreaker is he here??!!

 Madeleine & Harrison had their own table and were engrossed in their own conversation. We got so tickled at them -- they were being quite animated in their discussion. I'm sure it had something to do with Star Wars. They are pretty obsessed these days.

 I love that they are still the best of friends. I often see them walking to the car in the afternoons and Harrison will reach out and grab Madeleine's hand and they will walk to the car hand in hand. (takes the edge off the fight that happens next about who will sit in the middle seat -- ha!). And, just tonight at dinner, Harrison asked Madeleine to take him to the Lion's Den at school in the morning so he could buy something. He could go alone, but he loves having her there to help him -- and she is always so so sweet about helping him out.

 One morning that week, Harrison had his checkup. We were in and out in record time. Thankfully he is healthy -- but crazy enough the boy has lost 2 lbs this year! What?? I knew he'd grown and gotten so skinny, but down 2 lbs and grown taller several inches. No wonder I've had to pull his pants in. :) So, in order to make up some of that lost weight -- we headed to Panera for a nice big cinnamon roll! It was such a treat to get to sit and have some one on one time with just him in the middle of the day. We talked all about school before I had to take him back up there.

 Thursday around lunchtime, my mom, Sharon & Cormac came up and brought my Charlotte home to me. The kids were soooo excited to have Cormac coming to see them! We met up and I took them to one of my favorite F'ville spots for lunch -- Hammontrees. It is so yummy! We shared an assortment of gourmet grilled cheeses and the best sweet potato fries. Then we picked up the big kids and headed home.

Madeleine was quick to steal some time with Cormac. They are all just in love with him!

 Matt even came home much earlier than usual to get him some love in too!

 I'm not sure Cormac knows what to think about Charlotte. :) She loves him to pieces though!

CharChar

As ready as I am for summer and to have all my littles home with me, I've truly enjoyed my one on one time with Charlotte this year. She can certainly be a sassy girl and life with her is never dull, but she has filled my days with so much joy and laughter. We have had such fun this year!

 

She loves to go go go. Most days, she asks me right away "what we going to do today?" We do stay home a lot of the time, but she loves to play outside and we often go to the park just around the corner. She loves to go to Walmart with me each week to get groceries and she loves Sams too. Ha!

Her favorite thing about Walmart is putting money in the "yellow spinny thing" after we checkout. I always give her the leftover coins to use.

We went to CFA this winter a lot when it was too cold to play outside. It's usually not crowded after lunch and we can kill some time until we have to get Madeleine & Harrison. We usually have the place to ourselves.

She also loves Target -- here she is belting out Jesus Loves Me while we shopped one day.

She is outgrowing the trying 2's and it's now easy and fun to take her places with me. She's become my little sidekick this year. :) I'm trying to soak up every moment, only 2 years until she goes to kindergarten and I now know exactly how fast that time will go!

Mother's Day 2013

I had a great Mother's Day this year! Matt let me sleep a bit later and got the kids ready by himself. Just getting dressed alone is a gift these days. :) Matt & I are teaching this quarter, and Matt was doing communion thoughts at church that day, so it was quite a busy morning. I decided earlier in the week that I'd rather cook than try and go out for lunch. That way everyone could come home and put on their comfy clothes, and we could take our time and enjoy our lunch. I made pork tenderloin, potatos, green beans, strawberry pretzel salad and 4-layer dessert. It was so yummy! And, Matt did most of the dishes while I sat and had another cup of coffee.

 

The kids were so excited to give me their gifts! The one thing that I always want is some nice colored cards and they did such a cute job this year! Harrison made me a book and Madeleine wrote me a song -- which they all sang! Matt got me some yellow tulips and they gave me gift cards too.

 

We snapped a couple of pictures when we got home from church that morning. Love Charlotte's face in this one.

Teacher Appreciation 2013

Teacher Appreciation Week was the first full week in May. This year I was the PTO Chair for the Teacher Apprec Committee and I'd been planning for weeks. I really love this position -- I've actually done a big part of this the past 2 years (while President & Secretary), but this year I got to make all the plans and it was crazy, but tons of fun.

 

I know exactly how hard teachers work and it was fun to find ways to tell them how grateful we are for all that they do!

 

Like I said it was a crazy week, and I'm so thankful to my mom for keeping Charlotte most of the week, so I could spend as much time as I needed up at the school. It would have been tough on her being up there so much and she was able to have a fun week too at Mimi's house!

 

My plan was to do a small goodie in their box each day along with some bigger treats during the week. Monday I did mini hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works attached to a card that said cute things about hands.

 Back

Front

Tuesday I did gum, with this saying: "The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. Hope you have an extra good day!

 Wednesday I did bags of cookies with the saying "Thanks to you our kids are smart cookies!"

 Thursday I did bags of popcorn with tags that said "for a very POPular teacher."

I also planned some bigger events during the week. On Monday, we did a "picnic" lunch of grilled chicken sandwiches (from backyard burgers), potato salad (from Whole Hog), fresh fruit, and bar-style cookies for dessert. I didn't get to stay after setting up since I was dropping Charlotte off, but I think it turned out cute.

 Tuesday we did a Taco Bar catered by Qdoba for lunch. We had chicken and beef soft & hard tacos, queso and chips and 4-layer dessert. It was sooo yummy! I didn't get any pictures because we were so busy during lunch that day. :)

Thursday we did Cake & Coffee in the afternoon for the teachers. We did cheesecake, carrot cake, chocolate bundt cake and chocolate covered strawberries along with coffee & flavorings. I wasn't sure how well this would go over, but it was a huge hit! Almost everything was gone in an hour! Yay! I'm so glad they liked it!

Earlier in the week, we gave the teachers/staff Sonic drink order forms and Friday we provided them a large drink of their choice with a bag of chex mix. We also put sonic gift cards and candy in their boxes that day.

 On Friday we gave the secretaries, principal, and asst. principal candy bowls filled with truffles and a gift card to Starbucks (which they are always drinking up there!). They are always so helpful and encouraging during TA week, and I wanted to do something a little extra for them.

I have to say, I was exhausted when the week was over! :) But, it was so fun to make our teachers feel loved. Many of the families at our school don't have the resources to send something this week, so PTO takes the lead and does most of it. I'll be sad to not be a part of this next year -- I'm taking the role of VP of Committees -- but next year I'll be busy during TA week planning Matt's Graduation which will be at the end of that week!! Woo hoo!

Snow in May!

Last Friday we woke up to the ground covered in snow! It was crazy and the first time there's ever been snow in May in Arkansas. I think this is the first year that I've been really ready for warm weather to get here -- winter has just hung on forever this year. The kids popped up out of bed that morning to see it. We knew that it wouldn't be enough to miss school, but we were all excited to see that snow anyways! It was just wild because 2 days earlier I'd sent the kids to school in shorts and tank tops! Crazy Arkansas weather!!

 It was pretty much all melted by mid-morning since temps were well above freezing which worked out well since Charlotte and I were planning to have lunch with the kids that day at school. Our school does a farm-to-school lunch once each year. They have lunch made from all local products and teach them about where their food usually comes from (i.e. all over the country) and where it can come from if they buy local. This day they had burgers from a local beef farm (that's going to be the new supplier of all the district's beef next year -- yay!), buns baked at a local bakery, salad/veggies from a local farm, sweet potato fries made from a local farm and strawberry milkshakes from a local dairy. It was so yummy!

We had lunch with Harrison then had lunch with Madeleine. I had to stay and do a little project for Teacher Apprec week (the next week) and then we checked them out early and headed home to start our weekend a bit early. There were a ton of parents there that day and we loved getting to eat lunch with both bubba and sissy! Charlotte is quite at home up there and all the kids in Madeleine's class just love her -- they remember her from when she was just a baby back when they were all in kindergarten.

Random Stuff -- iPhone Pics

Here are a bunch of pics from my iPhone. It seems like I'm using it most of the time these days to snap quick pics.

 

We had a shower for my friend Whitney who is expecting a baby any day now! We did a "little birdie" theme and it was so cute! 

 I did the birds for the cupcakes.

 And for this cute tree.

 It's not unusual to find Charlotte asleep early in the evening these days. She's phasing out her nap (boo hoo hoo) and is out by 7pm. It's been kinda nice to have some time with just the older kids those nights -- we play games or read together.

 Harrison celebrated his school best bud's birthday. Jude has become his best friend this year -- a prayer answered for this momma. He's a great little kid and we love this family!

 It was at a local "retrocade" and Harrison got to discover lots of "new" games for him -- like pacman, donkey kong, and all those "old" games!

 Finally time for the first mow of the the season. If you look closely, you can see that Charlotte is helping. She was dying to help Matt with the yard!

 We also had our first visit from the ice cream truck! Just 6 days later and there was snow on the ground!

First Golf Outting

With the weather finally warming up, we broke out the golf clubs and hit the driving range. Madeleine has some new clubs this year -- much more grown up ones. She's working on her driver and she's getting better. She hit the ball almost 150 yards this day! 

 This little one had to get in on the action too. :) She's going to be a lefty like her brother.

 Harrison is getting good too! 

 Matt's teaching them to stretch first....

 More stretches...

They finished up with some putting while I went home and started dinner. We are so spoiled to live so close to all of this. The kids can walk home and Matt can watch them and I can see them out there from the kitchen windows. I'm pretty sure we'll never have this setup again!