Max's Last Day of 3's Preschool

As most of you know, we cheated a bit and snuck Max into a 3's class at preschool this year. His birthday is about 2.5 weeks after the deadline. I knew he was ready though and after meeting with the teachers last spring they agreed to let him give it a go. He did an amazing job! You would never have known that he was the youngest kid in his class. The plan going forward is to do the 4's class next year (in the same room and with the same teachers as this year, but he will go M/W/F instead of T/Th) and then Pre-K the following year. 

Max knows all his letters and most of their sounds, can count up to about 40 with consistency, can identify numbers, knows all of his shapes and can write his name among other things. We are just so proud of our spunky little dude.

Preschool Picnic

We love Mrs. Franklin (he calls her his funny teacher) and Mrs. Kragt

He was so excited to get his end of the year gift from his teachers. 

Preschool Water Day

Yesterday the kids had "water day" at preschool. The weather was absolutely perfect for it. There were 13 kids from Max's class and 12 kids from Alia's class all out splashing, blowing bubbles and enjoying a gorgeous day. I'm in complete denial that the year in almost over. Max has one day left on Tuesday and Alia has a full week finishing up on Thursday. Both kids will have end of the year pot luck picnics.

At the end of the day the kids gathered under a tree for a story and Otter Pops!

Just Keep Swimming!

We have taken quite a break from swim lessons. We had so many other things going on that something just had to fall off of the calendar. However, we are back at it now! The kids are taking lessons this month through our parks and rec department and will take lessons next month at the pool in our neighborhood. As is typical with my kids, the are complete opposites in the water. Max is fearless and is making some really good progress. They are currently both in the same level, but he'll be passing Alia up before long (which she is currently fine with). Alia loves being in the water and swimming with her Puddles Jumper on, but just doesn't have the confidence to do it on her own yet. Max has all the confidence in the world and now we just need to work on some of the coordination. Here is some video of Max from swim class yesterday ...

Half-Marathon

Ok, so I know most of you have already seen these pictures and heard all about this,  but I am so stinking proud that I want to make sure it is documented :-) My absolutely amazing husband ran his first ever half marathon just a little over a week ago on May 3 in Indy. He finished in just over 2 hours! We had a great (but very quick) visit with family while we were there too!

Preschool Program 2014

On Thursday night the kids had their preschool program. Each of the classes sang songs that they have been doing in class. Alia's Spanish class even performed some songs. Afterwards we all enjoyed yummy treats! It was adorable and lots of fun. We were so proud of them both.

(Videos of each performance are at the end of this post!)

The 3-4 year old class - Max is on the left with the white shirt and navy sweater vest.

The Spanish Class - Alia is on the right with the pink dress.

The Pre-K Class

Birthday #36 & Easter Sunday

I had a wonderful birthday weekend. On Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends ... like a grown up dinner with no kids! Food was yummy and company was great. On Saturday morning, Jason and the kids let me hang in bed a while and they went to pick up some Panera for breakfast (a special occasion staple around here). 

Alia made me this one of a kind birthday crown and we opened presents while eating our yummy bagels! My favorite gift was a new Blazers tee-shirt which I am pretty certain is responsible for our amazing post season performance thus far!

In the afternoon, we colored our eggs for the Easter bunny. 

 We had lots of fun experimenting and mixing coloring this year.

Daddy made me a yummy dinner and I requested my favorite cookies (peanut butter with peanut butter cups inside) as my birthday treat.

The kids were pumped and ready to hunt for Easter baskets in the morning.

Max's basket was under the dining room table.

Alia's basket was in the linen closet in the hallway.

We had to thoroughly check out our baskets before getting dressed and ready for church.

After church, Grammy, Tom, Simone, Nick and Alex came over for a Easter egg hunt and Easter brunch. 

Easter Bunny 2014

For the first time ever, both kids just "hopped" right up and smiled for the picture. 

The camera girl had to act fast! They showed the Easter Bunny how to bunny hop and we were on our merry way.