preparing for kindergarten

is so much fun...not! well, i guess i shouldn't say that. its just something we work on in spurts. lacey's attention span is very short, so when she wants to work on school stuff we do it right then and there knowing that it won't take us more that 10minutes if we're lucky.

a few weeks ago we got an email from lacey's kindergarten teacher in regards to things we could be working on during the summer to help prepare the kids for the upcoming school year. the list contained such things as writing upper and lower case letters, writing their names(which i'm happy to say she is pretty good at), and then of course, sight words.

its so funny working with her on these because she gets so excited and just yells out whatever she feels like. i'm happy to say that about 99% of the time its the wrong word. she does know two of the many which is - "a" and "i" (but half of the time she refers to "i" as a "l".) oh well, she'll get it one day, right? i will say to be the youngest one in her class and not even five yet, she is doing just great!!!

what to do

when you have cucmbers spilling forth from your ears??? why make dill pickles of course! can't wait to try them, but they won't be ready for another eight weeks. i'll let you know how they taste!

i really enjoy taking pictures, for as long as i can remember it's something i like doing. one of my all time favorite places in atlanta to photograph is oakland cemetery. to me it is absolutely beautiful, period. i love going there walking around getting lost in time and in the architecture - ah, what an escape. it's a place where death and life come wrapped together in one neat little package. in our wanderings on sunday i just happened to stumble upon this butterfly and couldn't resist the urge to photograph it, especially since we were in a cemetery. for those who view cemeteries as a place of death it is really is a place spilling forth with life and this butterfly should reminds us of exactly that - life!

happy father's day

we had a lot going on today - breakfast at sublime donuts, a quick tour of oakland cemetery, fernbank to see the geckos, lunch at the varsity and then to aunt laura and uncle eddie's for a cookout -talk about busy!

our first stop on our fun-filled father's day was at sublime donuts in atlanta. yum, is probably the most fitting word to use to describe the fresh unique donuts made here. i must say that to eat a donut from sublime is liking tasting a piece of heaven. the donuts are made fresh and come in unique flavors such as the orange dream star, red velvet cake and even a reese's peanut butter cup. we each got a little something different - lela, of course the reese's peanut butter cup, lacey a vanilla frosted bowtie, me a yin yang twist and kevin a fresh strawberries and cream donut. personally, i really enjoyed kevin's donut the best. it was like eating a strawberry shortcake on a donut like i said before, yum!

from donuts to death, we headed to oakland cemetery. despite the heat and the very short amount of time we were there, the girls seemed to really enjoy walking around seeing the beautiful architecture and reading about the various lives. (they must take after their mom...lol.) lela made the comment that she had wished she had brought her camera to make pictures. now that's my girl! the next time we go i will definitely encourage her to do that because i would love to see what she sees behind her lens especially being in a cemetery which many people don't really seem to appreciate.

after our quick tour of the cemetery, fernbank and the geckos was our next stop. little did we know that many surprises still lay ahead, well at least for the girls anyways. while at fernbank, disney radio was doing a remote, giving prizes away and just plain 'ole having fun with the kids. the girls absolutely loved it! they both actually won quite a few toy story prizes and even lacey sang justin beiber in the microphone to win a backpack full of stuff. what can i say, that's our lacey. lela even had a hard time leaving to see the imax film because she was so afraid that they might call out her name in the drawing.

i must say that all in all father's day was a huge hit for the entire family. we have been truly blessed with an awesome father and husband. i pray that it will be memories such as these that our girls will remember for years and years to come. happy father's day!

photo shoot

i had pictures made of lela in her dance costume and they turned absolutely beautiful. here is a look at them. i honestly can't believe how big she is getting. it just seems like yesterday that she just started dancing and now look at her...wow!

we made it!!!

yes, we made it through! there were times i wasn't sure we would make it, but it happened. i'm talking about vbs. for four fun filled days, the girls have sang, played games, painted barns and listened to bible stories. it's funny because you don't realize how tired you are until its all over with. i have vowed that we will stay in jammies most of the day and i'm refusing to leave the house unless necessary. ahhh, the joys of the summer! nothing to do. this something which rarely happens around here so when it does we definitely need to take it!

the barns the kids did this week turned out beautifully. i'm so thankful that god blessed with me an awesome team of women and youth to the pull the project together. honestly there is no way it could have happened without each and everyone one of them. each person brought something different to the table and when all combined it was a well oiled working machine. we had 216 kids attend this week, so that is 216 barns plus a few more that had to be completed within four days...well done ladies!!!

here's a peak at the barns...they look so good! we ended with three lela's, lacey's and then the sample i made for everyone to see.





this is something one of the older kids wrote on the back of his barn...very profound, don't you think?
here are our three. lela's is the red one, lacey's is the blue barn and then well, mine is the light blue one in the back.

fruits of the spirit - vbs 2010

yesterday, we started yet another summer of vbs. this will be a little different for me because it's my first time not having an actual class ): i've been put in charge of arts and crafts and really looking forward to getting to do what i love best - art and creating. this year's project will be a wooden barn that the kids will paint and decorate. we will then attach a wooden stake and they will then become garden art for their families to enjoy.

our theme this year is fruits of the spirits (galatians 5:22-23)and everything revolves around farming. what a wonder theme! this past year i was fortunate enough to participate in a beth moore bible study involving the fruits of the spirit. i learned so much not only about myself but about the nine different spirits we have all been blessed with.

rock star

we've had a busy day today. lela had her yearly dance recital earlier this afternoon. it always seems to fall on the second sunday of the month and then tomorrow we'll start vbs for the week. it feels like we get through one thing and then on to the next. i thought summer was suppose to be about having down time and resting? somehow i think that principle doesn't applies to us.

lela's recital was great! they always seem to do a really good job and this year was no exception. it was entitled "sweet dreams" and was about dreams you have. lela's class was rock stars. they were so cute dressed in their flourscent green jackets, bright blue skirts and hot pink socks. not to mention the fact they wore these hair pieces in various shades of hot pink, yellow, lime green, blue and orange. it definitely reminded me of the 80's and something that cyndi lauper or even madonna might have worn. lela has even asked if she could wear it to school? boy, i'm getting old because i can remember wearing that stuff in high school. talk about depressing. its like the old saying goes - what comes around goes around, uh?

i love...

lacey's swimming teacher! she is just awesome! i feel truly blessed that we have found such a caring and wonderful woman to teach lacey how to swim not to mention she comes over to our pool. we love rhonda, plain and simple and we'll probably be using her again later in the summer for lela. if it wasn't for my neighbor jenn who told us about rhonda i honestly don't think i would found such a fabulous teacher to teach swimming lessons. last week lacey didn't even want to put her head in the water now just look at her...(i've tried turning the video but for some reason it doesn't want to flip? oh, well you get the idea.)

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straight from the garden

the other day we decided to have a salad for dinner. it was awesome to walk into the garden and come back with some romanie lettuce and cucmbers. walla! summer salad!

trying to get creative

one of the many things i have discovered about summer is i end up having to keep the girls entertained. yesterday i came up with the brilliant idea of giving the girls pedicures. it at least entertained them for a bit and saved me some money. the pedicures came complete with a foot scrub, massage and toes painted all done by moi, of course. talk about personalized service.

busy, busy bee

would be my name today. i'm buzzing around the house gathering up food, toiletries, clothes and anything else that comes to mind. i'm in the process of getting ready for a few days away to serve on an intense spiritual retreat for young girls called chryalis. i'm really excited to be apart of this flight and can't wait to see god at work. daddy will be in charge while i'm away and gigi is suppose to spend the night as well, so the girls will definitely be in great hands. i actually think they are ready for me to leave.

swimming lessons

this summer i have vowed that the girls will take swimming lessons, well at least one of them anyways. lacey started this morning with a few other kids in the neighborhood. our teacher, ms. rhonda is wonderful!!! lacey seems to really like her and not to mention she is getting to swim with her buddies - ben, spencer and valerie. what is so cool is they are basically the same age, which works out great! it was a bit chilly this morning so i was pleased that i didn't have to get in. poor lace was shaking and her lips were turning blue because she got so cold. i hope the weather warms up this week, so i can get in the water and work with her on what she has learned. i'm just hoping that by lacey learning to swim it will spur lela on. i honestly hate the fact that lela is so scared of the water. during the whole class this morning i had to keep reassuring lela that ms. rhonda wasn't going to let anything happen to her sister. every few minutes lela would say, "i don't think that is good idea." oh lela, please! does she look like she is scared and gonna drowned?

summer has officially begun

and what better way to celebrate than with the neighborhood kids! this afternoon after school we had an end of the year party at the park to celebrate the beginning of summer. it's hard to believe that this school year is offically over and our very first year of elementary school is behind us. now we must look ahead down to the road to what lies ahead...second grade! way to go!

so girly...

i was checking out my newest favorite blog tea rose home and saw these awesome pin cushions. not being someone to just sit around, i went upstairs to my "junk" room and found some scraps of fabric, thread, a silk flower (which of course was a gerber daisy - my all time favorite flower) and velcro and well...here it is my new pincushion to wear around my wrist. love it!!!

a yankee doodle honors day

program was presented today by welch elementary's first grade classes. lela was so cute dressed in her red, white and blue singing "yankee doodle" and "god bless america." it's hard to believe but this is our last week of school...yeah! we made it through our first year of elementary school. we did the time go? lela was presented with two awards today. the first award was a citizenship award for exemplary behavior and valuable service rendered in class. her second award she got was for all-around outstanding student (positive attitude and outstanding effort.) we are all so proud of her! way to go, lela!

a trip back in time

yup, that's what i'm calling our trip yesterday out to oconee county. we went and visited an extremely old house built in the 1700s that belonged to one of kevin's ancestors - william daniell. i actually find all this to be really cool because i don't know much about my family history and well, we know quite a lot in regards to kevin's ancestors. who they were, where they came from and what they did. pretty neat, uh? i only hope our girls will one day appreciate this knowledge knowing exactly who "their people" were. it gives you ties to something, which i don't feel like i have. what a gift!

i brought my camera and made some pictures of the house which according to kev's uncle has under gone so major renovations. william daniell who lived in the house died when he was 97 years old. he married twice. his first wife bore him 13 kids and his second wife bore him 11 kids. talk about a house full of children, i can't imagine. it makes the duggar clan seem small in comparison.

our young graduate

well, lacey finally made it to preschool graduation. we are all so proud her. she was so cute with her class singing songs and getting their diplomas. gosh, it's hard for me to believe that she will be in kindergarten in the fall. where has the time gone with her? it just seems like yesterday she was starting preschool and now look at her. here are few pictures from her big day.