Goodbye, Preschool...Hello, Preschool

I can't believe Sophia is officially a Kindergartner!  I know I've posted about this before, but my anxiety over her moving on to K is still pretty high.  I'm just not ready for it all, which is too bad, because I'm pretty sure she is! :)  I have really enjoyed her preschool years and I'm happy we found such a nice place.  Her teacher this year was just an incredible preschool teacher.  She was all the things you expect and more.  I so wish she could just move up with her, that would allay my fears at least a little bit!  My little girl is thrilled though and is definitely ready to gear up for big school.

Leo is starting preschool next year and is equally excited for his new adventure.  On his last day of Parent's Day Out, I picked him up and he shouted...MOM!  I'm a preschooler now!!!  It was just so darn precious that we hugged and high-fived over it.  He has also had some pretty great teachers the past two years and was lucky enough to have one of his teachers for two years in a row (there are 2 in each classroom).  In fact, this same gal was also Sophia's teacher her first year in PDO too, so that was also a hard goodbye.  I am looking forward to preschool for Leo, however.  I'm hoping it will help give him a little more focus to his energy and curiosity.  He loves reading and talking and playing and exploring, but I'm hoping that a classroom will help guide him.  

We are all ready for a fun filled, action packed summer first though.  We love spending time together and finding fun things to do so we're kicking off our summer the right way with ice cream, friends, and good times!

These are the teacher gifts I put together for the kids' teachers.
 

The note says Thanks for being a COOL teacher!  On the back I wrote each teacher a little personal note and of course, included a spoon on each one b/c why wait until you get home to eat this stuff!

Since Sophia was getting all geared up for field day, Leo needed to borrow his bear's cape and wear that....naturally.

Here is Sophia looking sporty for Field Day.
Her favorite activities were face painting and parachute.

Here she is with her teachers.
Mrs. Rothgeb on the right and her aide Mrs. Gregory

Since it was the last day of school, naturally we celebrated by going back to Murray's for super delicious ice cream!  (the other ice cream was bought the week before, so we spaced it out a bit)

Share-sies!
Notice Sophia's face painting...a rainbow leopard spot.  Random.

Leo enjoying his cotton candy confetti

still enjoying! :)

Andres and his mom Cari met us there too!

Trevor, Max and Jen were also part of the party!

And we can't forget one of Sophia's BFFs, Ashlynn, and her clan!

the boys

Leo wanting to pose.

Sprinkler Fun!

Ooooh it's cold!

Trevor and Leo were definitely die-hards

too cold for little Cassie to join the fun!

Max also just watched from the observation level

Bama stopped by to see the water action

Sophia the unicorn

Abby the unicorn

Obi Wan Leo

The other morning Charlie was watering the grass and the kids decided they should play in the sprinklers too.  It was rather early and wasn't all that warm but I guess that didn't stop them too much.  I called the neighbors to see if their kids wanted to join in the fun too because why should we have it all to ourselves!  So thankfully Abby and Trevor came over for a bit and that extended our play to the whole morning!  It was such a nice day outside and I was thrilled to actually have some summer type weather that it was the perfect start to our week.

A Shelby Moment

We go to the indoor pool at least once a week during the winter.  It's good exercise and it's fun, so it's definitely something we enjoy.  The pool was also one of the places Shelby used to go with us a lot.

Since it had been a while I decided to bring along the underwater camera to take some snaps of my kiddos and their friends. Towards the end of our play time Sophia commandeered the camera and insisted on taking underwater pics of herself. She did at least 5 by herself and then handed the camera over to me to take some more.  They did turn out pretty cute!  Anyway, this entire time all I could think of was Shelby.  Just weeks before she died she had done this exact same thing with me, my camera, and my kids.  And her pics also turned out pretty darned adorable.  I kept my thoughts to myself but she was certainly on my mind.  About 10 minutes later we were in the shower and Leo suddenly hung his head and stuck out his bottom lip.  When I asked him what was wrong, he shook his little head and said, I'm sad because I miss Shelby. Well if that isn't enough to make me tear up I don't know what is!  I found it really interesting that he brought her up so suddenly.  He has seen pictures of her, of course, including the swimming pictures I suppose, but I think he's probably too young to remember the actual day last summer when we did this exact activity.  Instead, I think her spirit had to have been with us that afternoon playing along side us in the pool.  She must have picked a day when we all needed a little Shelby.  We loved playing with her and she always did inspire us to be silly and have fun.

This is not one of my prettier faces, but oh well, I wanted to get in on the fun too! :)  This picture was taken by Sophia.

Here's a picture of Shelby from last summer.  We had such fun that day.
I really miss her.

Here are some other pics from our day at the pool...

Sophia and her buddy, Isabelle

my dude and me.
 I love the look on his face, so sweet and smiley!

Mother's Day

Our first stop for Mother's Day was Anne's house.

Charlie, Sue and Leo getting ready to eat

we made Grandma a magnet with two adorable people on it!

Cousin picture with Grandma

Our second stop was Meredith's house where we grilled some brats (a Wisconsin mom's favorite!) and hung out.  The kids liked playing in the back yard and I enjoyed some wine!

Leo needs to investigate

Sophia made Meredith a flower card too

Tennis time!

two flower-clad cuties!

Leo didn't want to get too close.  Nothing new there.  He is very fickle about pictures.

Let's add Cody for another cousins picture!

us with our mom!

My first baby and me

my second baby and me

Sophia drew a picture of us, we're holding hands.

I also got flowers, a handprint butterfly apron, a pot holder from Sophia (preschool) and a paper hanger for the refrigerator from Leo (Parent's Day Out)

here's a close up of the pot holder, it's me, Sophia and Leo and I'm holding a balloon.  It came along with a "recipe" for how to make mac and cheese and relayed by Sophia.