Last day @ Christ Church School + Changes

The last day of school was bitter-sweet. We love Christ Church School and will miss everyone! Next year, Sammy will attend Pre-school at Cornerstone Christian Academy four days a week and of course Emma will be going to Kindergarten. This is going to be a big change for all of us. We will all be getting up much earlier than we are used to and we will all be more on a schedule than we have been for the last 5 years! I am having mixed feelings about that part but looking forward to entering a new stage in our lives. It is a bit sad to leave the "baby" & "toddler" years though, they are so super adorable and well, kids, so there are so many fun things to do with them! I think though that we will love the next stage too!

Sammy with his teacher Mrs. Link on the last day.

Emma also had her last day of "Pre-school" with Mrs. Diekroeger and Mrs. Gardner.
Of course all the teachers received some personalized stationery from Simply Sassy Paper!

Some of Emma's friends in her class.
Jake, Tyler G, Emma & Sydney.
Wonder when will Emma get taller?

Emma's Graduation from Pre-School

May 19th. Christ Church School held a little program for the kids graduating from Pre-school, Bridge & Kindergarten. Emma came in smiling and waving. We got everything on video too.

Emma was so cute up there smiling and waving at us. There were really tons of kids up there. Then they started singing songs with Mrs. Frye, the music teacher.

The theme was about the ocean, so there were lots of songs about the beach and ocean animals. It was very cute!

Emma got her certificate from her teachers Mrs. Diekroeger and Mrs. Gardner. We will really miss them!

Emma gave some roses to her teachers after the program.

Then they posed for a photo with her. They both told me how fun she was to have in class and they couldn't wait to see what she grows up to be. She is so "in charge" and has such an outgoing personality.

We are so proud of our little graduate!

After the program, we sat outside on the sidewalk and had cookies & punch. Emma posed with her pretty pink roses. She is such a good poser!
Sammy was there too and almost tried to join in the program by walking up to the front and then over to where Emma was sitting after her presentation time. He loves his sister!

Emma's end of school pool party

Mrs. Diekroeger hosted the end of school pool party in her backyard with a beautiful pool and lots of fun for the kids! Emma found it a little chilly but had a great time other than the goggles issue. Turns out I forgot the big nose-covering goggles that she wanted so it was a little hard to get over that, but otherwise we had a super time!

Here are the wrong goggles that I brought. She tried them for a while but they are just not what works.
Then we found out that one of her friends, Lilly, had some just like hers that she wanted (with the nose), so we got to borrow those for a little while.

We were really happy while we had those goggles.

Here's Emma going into the deep end.
Emily & Emma enjoyed the popsicles!
Mrs.Diekroeger also passed out the Memory books for the year. I teared up on the first page, but later was able to look at it over Emma's shoulder. It is absolutely priceless!
Aren't they super adorable? What a cute class of pre-schoolers!
We had a great year!!

Mother's Day School Picnic

Mommies are invited to a special Mother's day picnic and songs the Thursday before Mother's Day. It is so precious to see them singing the "I Love My Mommy" song...to the tune of Oscar Meyer wieners.

I love you mommy,
My special mommy.
You are the best in every way.
And that is why I, really wish you,
A happy mother's day!

Sammy made me the beautiful flower necklace and a fingerprint calendar.

Cute mother's day hat that Emma made with my favorite color pink on it! She also made the beautiful flower corsage on my wrist!

Ms. Pam & Tyler (Emma's class-mate and "boyfriend"). We enjoyed our PB&J with them!

We have A Bean & A Tomato!

Our little garden is growing! The tomatoes look great and the beans are coming along too. These first 2 pictures were taken May 12.

The corn is growing great. The squash is on the right side. Cool!

May 21. Sammy picked a green bean and Emma got a little grape tomato!
One of the little green bean plants (with more green beans on it!)
Some of the new tomatoes. The grape tomatoes are ripening already. The other larger versions don't have any blooms yet.

Sammy's 4th Birthday!

Sammy's actual birthday was on May 5th. We had a few neighbors over to play slip & slide to celebrate. Everyone had a great time and got really tired! The slip & slide was pretty fun too! Daddy came by to set it up and get it started!

After all the fun slipping & sliding, the kids enjoyed the snacks and we tried out the new Giant cheetoes balls! They are GIGANTIC! See. & Yummy too!

Then we brought out the bubble machine and bubbles were everywhere.
Cupcake time!

Emma the red nosed reindeer was there!

Rachael the blue nosed reindeer too!

Kendall (Emma's first friend). Gosh he's growing up!

Baby Jack. He's getting big too! :-)

Sammy's Birthday Party @ Rocket Town

For weeks, we have been talking about what Sammy wanted to do for his 4th birthday. He kept saying he wanted a Thomas party again (which he had last year) and sometimes would say he wanted Lightening McQueen. Well, we decided to have his party at our church where they have a big play structure called Rocket Town. So we just went ahead and included all of them for the theme. I took a cute picture of Sammy with Thomas, McQueen AND Rocket and made the invitations up. Now what to put on the cake! It was a bit of a persuasion to get him away from the big blue Thomas cake, but he was happy with his selection!

Sammy mostly played in the ball pit with his friends Preston & Caroline. They got really crazy!!
Cake time! Lightening McQueen and a yummy white cake. Just what Sammy ordered!
The pinata was a fun time and it really lasted forever! Everyone got to hit at it and then Sammy got even more time at the end.
Preston working on the pinata!
Then daddy finally had to break it open for the candy to come out! That was fun!
After a fun party and opening a few great presents, Sammy was a happy 4 year old boy! I must mention that he decided that night to not wear pull-ups to bed anymore! Yippee! He really is a BIG BOY now! We are so proud of him!

Christ Church School Annual Dinner/Auction Fundraiser

To raise awareness for Simply Sassy Paper and to raise some funds for the kids' Mother's Day Out program at Christ Church School, I came up with a March Madness Sale that ran through March. It offered special deals on some of the custom stationery and a percentage of the sales went to the school. The check was presented at the annual dinner auction held at the Sweetwater Country Club. It was a fun night with a Boots & Bling theme and lots of silent auction items to bid on.

Check presented to Beth Carter, CCS director

I personally ended up with both of my kids' class movie posters with a western theme. Since then, we have had them hanging in the playroom. They are adorable!

Here's Emma's poster. She's down on the bottom row, 2nd from the end. click on the picture to enlarge.

Unfortunately, a couple of days ago, Sammy was playing with his tinker toys and flung a wooden wheel at his poster. The glass took a bad hit and broke! He was so sorry and "didn't know it was going to hit it!" Oh well, glass is cheap, right?

Here's Sammy's poster. He's on the top row, 4th over. (the shortest one!) You can see the starburst he made with the tinkertoy on the left upper side. :-)