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.

look at my "new" shirt

i have made the most awesome discovery of my life. it's this absolutely cool blog called tea rose home. i found this tutorial to make this ruffled tshirt on it and i just had to share. i went to one of my all time favorite stores - target and bought me a couple of shirts and walla....here's my new tshirt. much cuter now that i've added the ruffles, don't ya think??? i now have my eye on another ruffled tshirt on her blog. that will be my newest project in the coming weeks ahead. oh, i can't wait!!

our first harvest

i think i've shared with you before how gardening has become my therapy. there is something therapeutic about digging in the dirt. honestly i don't think i would know what to do if didn't have our garden to get lost in. to get up in the morning and tend to it is just so comforting to me. it just gives me such a sense of pride and accomplishment when the "fruits of our labor" appear. well, we finally have our first harvest of the season...squash! talk about excitement! to me nothing taste better than the vegetables out of our garden and what did i make the with the squash? my mom's recipe for squash casserole. yummy!

lacey's gymnastics performance

this morning lacey had her gymnastics "recital." she did really well as we walked through the apparatus with her. she hung from rings, flipped over bars, walked on balance beams and even jumped down the trumble track into the foam pit. lela's teacher was there and made the comment about how both of the girls had a natural ability for the sport. really? are you kidding? i was totally taken off guard by such a comment. i have no athleleitc ability in my bones, so this really surprised me. kev said that she probably tells everybody that. gee, thanks honey.

well, when we got to the end of the "obstacle course" the gentleman who owns the gym and assessed lela last night gave lacey her trophy. he remembered exactly who lela was making the comment that both the girls looked just alike. of course, after he made the comment about lela i got all excited thinking she must had made some sort of impression upon him if out of twelve girls her remember exactly who our daughter was, but then again when you have super dark hair and bright blue eyes and an unusual name that too might have something to do with it. oh well...we just have to wait.

now we wait and see

lela had her gymnastics assessment last night. she did really well i thought. well, a lot better than i ever would have done. her lines are beautiful if you ask me. she points her toes and stands tall. she has nice long legs which look even longer when they are stretched out. for an entire hour with about twelve other girls she ran, jumped, did chin ups, cart-wheels, splits and even had to do a hip circle on the bar. i stood at the window with lacey taking everything in. at times i noticed my hands where clasped together so tight with the excitement of watching her perform. now i must say i'm glad that's over, but now what? we were told that sometime in the next few days we will be getting an email letting us know what the next course of action is regarding lela's gymnastics. so now all we can do is just wait and see.

no it's a bird, no it's a plane, no it's.....

hurricane lacey.

yesterday, lacey was in rare form. she totally destroyed her room as well as a few other rooms throughout the house. she was so busy and basically out of control. you can totally see where hurricane lacey had been when you walked into the house. she left a path of destruction a mile long and kept on going. to be such a sweet child, she definitely has a rebellious streak in her and really likes to push your buttons. honestly i almost dread thinking about what she will be like when we hit the teenage years.

we were in the garden yesterday and our squash is doing great! in fact we probably have about five of them that are not quite ready to be harvested. lacey said she was gonna pick some. i said no that they needed to get just a little bigger and just give them a few more days. i turn my back for a second and what had she done...picked the squash! why? because she proceeds to tell me she loves squash bread? no, lacey that would be zucchini bread and you say you don't like it. why do i even bother?

it's mother's day and

what a wonderful day it has been! going to church, spending time with my family, my sister's family and most importantly my mom, how blessed am i? yesterday we had a wonderful lunch with kevin's mom and buster bud. talk about an awesome weekend. i just hate that tomorrow is monday and back to the grind. it's hard to believe that lacey only has two more weeks of school while lela has three more weeks. talk about a fast flying year. i still can't believe that we will have a second grader and a kindergartner. all i keep thinking is how did that happen?

this is actually a big week around here and i'm trying to stay cool and calm, but at times when i actually think about what is going on i get really excited. come friday of this week, lela has been asked to go through an assessment at gymnastics to determine what the next step is in her training. she has somehow moved from a level 3 to a level 4 all in the course of year. it is not unusual for an athlete to stay in the same level for a couple of years. just because you get older does not necessarily mean you move up; you have to meet certain criteria in order to move up and it seems that lela has and can do this. from what i understand that at level 4 you can start to compete...yikes! lela kind of understands what is happening but at the same time we are totally downplaying it. we don't want to put any pressure on her and we want this to be fun! i guess never in a million years would i have dreamed that we would have a gymnast for a daughter, but she is definitely in her element. i can't wait to post some video of her performing.

muffins with mom and whatnot

yesterday i not only celebrated muffins with mom at one school, but both. as you can imagine by the time lunch rolled around if i had never seen another muffin in my life again i think i would have been ok.

lela's class also surprised me along with some other moms that had helped in the classroom this year with a book of drawings and sentences from each of the students. i absolutely started crying when i read it. i will never be able to explain how special this book is to me. as i read what the kids thought about me and how i helped them this year it made my heart fill with joy as tears started streaming down my face. let me tell you this is what life is about...helping one another! little does any of those kids realize how much they have given to me and how truly blessed i am to have had the opportunity to be there with them this year.

lacey's muffins with mom consisted of me receiving a cookbook, a list of questions and answers describing your mom (lacey did pretty good - now that's scary) and a terrarium with a watermelon in it. (i don't think lacey understands that at some point we have to take the plant out in order for a watermelon to actually grow on the vine.) here is her list of questions and answers per lacey daniell, herself:

all about mom

• i know my mom loves me when ... i clean up
• my mom looks pretty when ... we go to church
• my mom is happy when ... she doesn't get mad at me
• what makes my mom mad ... when i'm mean to her
• my mom's favorite place to go ... is shopping (that's my girl)
• mom's favorite food ... is vegetables
• if my mom could buy anything she would buy ... a purse (hit the money on the head)
• height ... 5 feet tall,
• weight ... 16 lbs,
• age ... 69 years old (thanks, lace. love you too)
  

also this week at lela's school we have been celebrating teacher appreciation week. i decided to do something a little different and actually just wait and give her teacher her "gift" the last week of school. the pta did something everyday for the teachers, so i was also at a loss as to what to do. i found this really cool website from a friend of mine who recommended it - no fuss fabulous. talk about neat ideas. well, i got on there and found a cute little inexpensive gift which was a bouquet of pencils. i decided to throw that together yesterday and give it to lela's teacher. what teacher couldn't use a bunch of pencils? it turned out so cute! just look!

here is lacey's recipe for pizza from her class cookbook she made me.

i have discovered that i absolutely love having a vegetable garden. in fact i love it so much i had kevin build us another raised bed for this year. honestly, i can't tell you why i love it so much. there really isn't that much involved other than planting the vegetables and watering occasionally, but for some reason when i walk to the back of our yard and start looking at what is happening in the soil i get really excited. when things are growing i swell up with excitement and then when things don't seem to be quite right i go on a search through books, the internet and even magazines to discover exactly what is going wrong. i find all this to be so therapeutic? here is just a peek at what is happening. i just can't wait till its ready to be harvested...yeah!

no, i'm still alive.

i absolutely can't believe that i have let myself go this long without blogging. it's probably the first time since i started it that i have gone two weeks or more without updating anything. well, as usual things have been crazy and somehow the time just got away.

during these past few weeks lela has taken her crct. she was a little nervous about it. why i don't know? the child is extremely smart. she just amazes me especially when it comes to math, she loves it! i will say that i'm glad that is behind us. she has also had field day as well as a block party at school that entailed everyone getting to jump and slide on inflatables, watching movies, eating popcorn and even playing games all during a not so typical day. (i don't think i even had anything like that growing up!)

then last sunday evening after many, many months kevin's grandmother passed away peacefully. by the time friday arrived i was coming down with a sore throat and not feeling quite like myself. comes to find out i was running a fever and by this morning had decided that i needed to head to the minute clinic. i somehow had a feeling i knew exactly what i had and yes, i was right...strep throat. i hadn't had it since i was a kid and obiviously had forgotten how painful it was. at one point it honestly felt like i was swallowing razor blades. never in my entire life i so wished i could take a shot of pencillin just feel somewhat better, but when your allergic to it sometimes you just have to suffer through the pain.