Summer time = fun

It's been a lazy kind of week... mostly letting the kids running and play in the neighborhood. We have some really great neighbors.  Here are a few photos from this last HOT week!

 Monty helping Kody across the monkey bars.

"Really. More pictures." That's what he was thinking as I took another shot.

Peter-Leo playing out front in the sprinkler and toy bucket!

 We moved the sprinkler to the backyard (to water the yard) and they both played in it!

 Our new ($42) pirate kiddie pool. I love this cannon because it really works!!

 Kody in the pirate kiddie pool. She loves it..

although she keeps wanting to be called "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."

"Ahoy matey!"

Giant cinnamon rolls, toads and woodpeckers!

While the title may throw you off a bit.. they all happened today.  I made a giant cinnamon roll and we saw toads swimming and woodpeckers visiting our backyard trees.

First of all I don't normally like cinnamon rolls... but I found a recipe for a GIANT one. It was alot easier than I thought it was going to be..  and of course yummy. This photo is of the one that requires no yeast. I have a friend that is allegric to yeast.  So I was trying to find something I could make for her.

WINNER!

As usual I am always parnoid about the inside still being mushy while the edges are burnt. Not here!!

Second, this morning before the cinnamon roll and bread making (might post about the bread making adventure.. not sure yet) Kody and I went outside to water our garden and she found a couple toads. Which is no big deal... but this little fella...

is stuck in Dixie's water bowl. After a couple quick photos we poured him and the water out.

What a nice little toad!!

Lastly, some of you may remember the woodpecker that came to visit our trees... today he brought two more friends! Yay. I was able to take a couple photos of one of them before Dixie scared them off. Bad dog!

Oh well. What a beauty!

At least until he starts attacking our house and then we've got a problem.

two if by shore..

This is our daughter and my husband... at least their backs.. they are a pair.  She is definately his child. She loves to fish.  After preschool today, we went fishing.  They brought their rods and reels and worms too. And me.. well my camera and a book. 

 They started off here, but...

Despite the fish biting... Kody wasn't happy.

So, she packed up her little fishing chair & told us to do the same..

 to this spot.. much better. much grassier... much itchier. Did I mention much better?

  And she caught more fish.. (this is catch and release so size doesn't matter)

 And me, well.. I caught a turtle. Seriously.

Monty trying to get the hook out of it's mouth.. he was a biter!

Back in the pond happy fella!

Kody's Preschool End of Year Program

It has been a great year at Noah's Ark Preschool. We have loved all the teachers and staff so much!Especially Mrs. Melody she is fanastic!! Monty and I were so blessed to have found them. And we are happy to be able to send her back for their 4 year old class (aka private pre-k.)  However, this morning they performed their preschool end of year Program. It was just wonderful!

 Waving to Daddy. Because of his schedule he doesn't get to come to this things very often..

so this was special.

Two thumbs up!!

Links to the songs they sang and Mrs. Melody giving her the award.  Sorry blogger is not being very cooperative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRQ6qYQsiHI (this is the video of them singing)

                               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v8d-2ihFEI  (video of award)
                  

After the songs and awards were given out each classroom teacher handed out a memory book about each child and what they had done during the year. The book alone was darling, but the fact that 75% of the photos have Kody and Timothy together is even more precious! I know they will miss each other in the fall. But they have VBS the last week of June.. so I know they will be soo excited!!

lemons and oranges coming right up...

in a month or so anyways.  As another step in my garden adventure.. I went to lowe's are purchased two of the cutest fruit trees I could afford.
A lovely lemon and a awesome orange.  I did my research and thankfully this two species of trees are container friendly (although much care is required.) Since we can't dig up the yard (our landlords would not like that)... it's more container gardening for us!

 Kody waters the trees after I transplanted them from their plastic cups..

into larger ones! ($5 at Wally's SCORE!)

 Kody waters them with her watering can.. this is usually the container she uses to help me water the tomatoes, carrots, peas, cucumbers, herbs, and zucchini!

 PEEK-A-BOO!

just the beginnings of a lovely lemon... I can almost taste the lemon tarts now.

Spring soccer.. so it ends...

at least until September when FALL SOCCER KICKS OFF!! YAY!!
It has been a great season, we have been lucky to have great coaches, Coach Jack and Coach Gene, for Peter-Leo first time playing.  And we are thrilled that Coach Gene is returning in the fall to coach the team!
The only other difference is the name... instead of Holland (in honor of the World Cup) we will be the U10 Sounders (in honor of the MLS.) Go Sounders!! 

Our last game was actually called about 15 minutes in due to lightening strikes, but the party was great. Sorry no photos from the party..I forgot my camera. I know I stink.

This wasn't meant to be in B&W, but I forgot to change my camera settings. Still, I like it. His last game of his first season. I need a tissue!

Here is the shot with my cell phone camera.. not too bad. Coach Gene said very good things about the 'newbie' he was very proud of his growth as a player and was so happy to have him coming back in the fall!

GO SOUNDERS!!

Kody sings..

...many thanks to Mrs. Melody at her preschool, who is just one of those teachers that you love because they truly love your child.  A couple weeks ago they were studying bugs and she taught them this little ditty. I think it is so cute I had to share!

Peter-Leo is "A"mazing!

What a great school year this has been, with only 3 more days left, it is bittersweet.

Can you believe this little fella is going to be a 4th grader next year??

Yesterday Monty and I attended Peter-Leo's End of the Year Awards Ceremony at his school. We were so proud of him! He recieved the award for "A" Honor Roll for the entire year! And his class voted him "Most Artistic." I think I almost cried. (ok, I did, but not at the school as that would have been too embarrassing for him!)

After the ceremony. I tried to find a spot that wasn't a bunch of people. Chairs will do!

Me and Peter-Leo. What a handsome fella!

Additionally, we recieved his CRCT (standardize testing, at certain grade levels a student must pass the test in order to move up to the next grade!)  It is a very big deal in our state! And the results are:

EXCEEDS THE STANDARD! on all 5 areas of competency!
YAY!! PETER-LEO!!



He has had a great year, Honor Roll, Gifted Program, Flying Colors on the CRCT, and he is enjoying soccer so much that he wants to play again in the fall! WOOT-WOOT!!

Ok, I guess that is enough for now.. I will post more tomorrow after his game and End of Season Party!

Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens

If you were lucky enough to score free admission to participating gardens, like us, SCORE!
We were able to go to the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardnes in Jacksonville. It was a bit overcast, in fact it was raining on the way there.  This museum was quite a treat as it was both an art museum and gardens. Our day was broken into 3 sections, the main art (aka don't touch, don't swing your stuffed animal because the security cameras will record it and then alert museum staff.. yes that actually happened to us.) the Art Connection (aka kids zone, with several AWESOME interactive exhibits) and finally the gardens.

This was the last photo we took with Eyore (the orange toy, on the ground to her left) before security came in... she was nice and we just had to put him in my backpack.

 In the Art Connection (aka kid zone) there were several areas.. Kody loved the blocks. Go figure.

One of several buildings she built.

 And writing on the plexi glass stuff.

  

And one of wall images from her dancing.. see video at the very end..

This was so cool.. very cool. I think Monty should build one for our house!

This is the view out to the gardens from one of the galleries.. it was stunning. If I were alone.. I could of sat there all day.

 On one of the sets of steps. This photo is funny because the only way I could get this pretty face was to have her say "I love Timothy!" He is her school chum that she loves!

 This side of the garden was the Italian Gardens, not sure what that means.. but very peaceful.

 Kody running down the garden (this is the English Garden) towards the water fountain, with the museum in the background.

 This beautiful museum and gardens were once the Cummer Family Home and it sits on the banks of the St. Johns River. It was amazing.

This chair is a concrete replica of the chairs that Mr. & Mrs. Cummer would sit in and enjoy their gardens from a beautiful patio area.  She thought she was being sneaky by sitting in it!

Oh my stars I think that I could add the remaining 80 photos .. but I will just add this last thing.. the video.  In this section you were able to move around and your thermal image was projected on the screen in front of you, plus they added a sequence of special effects that are totally cool.  They also have various tempos of music playing so the children can not help but dance!!

Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/i5mQr2VLezs

 

Honestly, this is one place that I want to get a membership to.. if not for the art work and gardens.. then just for the Art Connection Zone. Stellar stuff!

catching up...

oh man. it's been a few days. and I must say... while nothing earth shaking has happened we've had a few precious moments this past weekend.  Between soccer and friends and crafts.. I can not describe how at peace I have felt.. (until Sunday afternoon anyways, but that's not important.)
First we had our good friends (and hubby's cop buddy and fellow 1st counselor in a ward bishopric) Keith & Amanda join us for the weekend. It was nice to see them.  I don't know Amanda very well, but she is always fun to talk to and hang out with. And hey, even I didn't like them.. I love their two little girls!
Saturday morning, they got up and went to the zoo and I headed out for Kody's last soccer game of her first soccer season..even now I am grabbing a tissue.

 Being silly before kick off..

 Number 6 leading the pack!  She did score a goal on this drive!! Go Kody Go!!

 The last line up.. at the end of the game..

Saturday night our ward had their Girls Camp Fundraiser Dinner & Cake Auction. While in our previous ward we have seen this type of activity there was one difference! Before the main cakes were auctioned off our caller gathered all the little kids to auction off cupcakes (mostly for a dollar or whatever the child had.)

Bishop Wilheim, our auction caller, handing out the cupcakes!

Yes, one of the 'bigger' kids had to get into the action too. Go figure.

Brother Welch, Kody and his little daughter ( i love, love, love that red hair!) enjoying their cupcakes.

This is the Welch's older daughter, (isn't she so, so, so cute!!) with the ruins of cupcake on her face!

 

It was a great time. I love this family.  There are one of several things/people I miss about our old ward.  Mother's Day morning was great. I got a very cute tissue paper flower corsage from Kody & a flower drawing and poem from Peter-Leo. Which is so precious to me. 

After church services, the Welch family had to drive home. We were sad to see them go, but we are super excited that they invited us up to their house for the weekend to enjoy their pool and most importantly there friendship! Yippee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a dress.. oh. my. heavens.

Yes, that's right people. I made a dress.. not a skirt... no pj bottoms.. a flippin dress.. And darn cute dress that I might actually wear out in public.  Although I need some kind of strappy sandal or maybe my black ballet flats would be okay... err. IDK!

I found this brillant idea over at
http://verdantbents.blogspot.com/2011/04/empire-sheet-dress-tutorial-get.html#comments
she's got some great and fun stuff over there... so... two bucks (plus the elastic and thread I already had) and four hours later.. yes four hours.. I have a preschooler who likes to play with me... I don't know why I am totally boring (but that's another post..)

First my proof..

now, now don't get your panties in a wad.. it was sheet set.. and I only used the flat sheet so half of 1.99 is about a buck.

Now the next 3 shots aren't the most flattering so ignore the bad hair, the bad lighting, the bad angles, the bad everything but the dress. Also the dress is a sundress which meant sleeveless.. I am mormon and we don't wear sleeveless so until I learn how to make/sew sleeves I wear cardigans. Deal with it. =)

And no I did not cut my thumb while making this dress.. I was painting a new table for our playroom and got a splinter from heck. Oh wait never mind you can barely see the bandaid!