Just us - there’s a little of the before, but mostly it’s the after...: May 2014

Curb Progress

I do have to share a bit of progress Addie made during the last month of school.

Progress on a goal that many people take for granted, and I probably would too, if I didn't have this seven year old Little Monkey reminding me every single day just how very fortunate we are.

Stepping down off a curb!

Thank you Mrs. Allison for sharing the video with us!

The End of Another School Year

The start of last week brought with it the opportunity for Addie to meet her teacher for next year.

Addie had the opportunity to visit the classroom and it appears it took her no time to make herself at home.

There will be lots of changes taking place this next school year, but since it is officially summer, I am going to allow myself not to fret about it for the next eight weeks.

Thankfully, Addie was feeling better and was able to make a brief trip to school on the second to the last day.
She played outside with her friends and her very favorite kindergarten teacher (mine too!) - Morris - and she enjoyed every second of it right up until exhaustion set in.

She hadn't fully recovered enough to take on such an adventure!

The next morning, Addie looked better and was fully ready to go back to school for the very last day -

of kindergarten.

By the time we began our morning commute, Julien had been finished with school for two days and was already in another state.

...and it was like 107 degrees, but Addie refused to leave the house without her rain coat. whatever makes her happy and gets her in the car...

No time to stop and get pictures before we left the house, so a last minute photo while in car rider line was all I could manage.

Mrs. Anita meets us each morning and helps Addie throughout the day.

I cannot imagine a school day without her.

Addie will stop and wave bye to us - and when Julien is in the car, she always has to lean back into the car for one more big hug.

When she turned back to tell us "bye", she couldn't help but tell Julien bye too - as she blew kisses and waved with excitement - despite him being hours away.

She melts my heart.

This past school year has been wonderful for Addie and I pray that each year continues to be the same.

I am so looking forward to the opportunities ahead for Julien - and the drastic change in school environment that awaits him.

Kindergarten/Freshman Years - That's a wrap!

17

My Dad was 17 years old when he joined the army and was subsequently shipped off to WWII.

He made it back home when so many others did not.

Today marks 17 years since his death.

Today was truly a Memorial Day.

Instead of heading out to a nearby pool or lake, we headed over to my Mother's to spend the day with her.

BBQ, family and ToTo made for the perfect day.

Disgusting

About this time last week, my husband had the pleasure of volunteering his time to help out a few guys that came into town.

To say he was on Cloud Nine is an understatement.

That feeling of pure elation lasted right up until the moment when his body decided to eject whatever it was that gave him food poisoning.

It was a fun, exhilarating time in my home.

Since I spent every waking moment cleaning and washing linens, I figured I might as well let Rudy play in the bath, so I could have one more thing to clean and dry.

He loved it and Addie thought it was hysterically funny.

Right when I thought I was catching up from the disgusting few days with my husband (I mean that in the nicest possible way), I woke up last night to Fungus Monkus getting sick all over the bedding that I had washed repeatedly just days before.

She has drastically different symptoms than Chris, and while it is an exhausting process, it resulted in me getting to spend the entire day lounging in the living room with my two favorite kids in the entire world.

Today marked the last day of Julien's freshman year (insert an ugly display of tears here), and while he loves school, his sister, adores school and desperately wants to be able to enjoy her last two days of kindergarten (...I'm so not ready for this).

I hope Addie is remarkably better in the morning, which would allow us to finish out the week on some sort of normal schedule.

After that, we have three whole days to adjust before summer schedules begin, which throws its own level of chaos into our lives.

Chaos that I will enjoy, because it makes my children happy.

Back to Easter...

Easter morning was lots of fun!

Since the bunny doesn't visit our house, I had left the baskets in the office the night before.

Easter morning, I left Addie downstairs with Chris for literally a second and I had no more made it to the top of the stairs, when I heard Addie gasp with excitement and start calling my name!

She is such a Monkey - she can get into anything!

Addie and Julien were both thrilled with their Easter surprises,

but, we all know what Addie's favorite was.

This took determination.

It really was this peaceful.

I brought out the mega bubbles and put Addie to work.

My sweet baby.

One thing that I love about my family is that I never even had to express any concerns over the whole egg hunting business.

When it was time for the guys to hide the eggs, they "hid" a bunch of eggs for Addie in an area that was off limits to the big kids for the first few minutes.

That gave Addie a chance to get a few eggs of her own.

AND, before the big kids made their way into the restricted area, they made sure that Addie had her fair share.

It was pretty awesome, but the thing about it is that Addie honestly doesn't care.

She isn't aggressive and she had more fun watching everyone else than she did finding the eggs.

Goodness, we couldn't proceed until Addie had confirmation that her hair bows were properly in place.

Just like last year, we made the trip to Wrapsody to see the Baby Chicks!

Addie walked up to the table, scoped out her spot and was very polite and said, "excuse me" as she made her way past what appeared to be a couple of other children waiting.

Addie is usually a champ at turn taking, and the other kids assured me that it was more than fine that Addie took over the prime viewing area.

It was quite the experience and very outside of Addie's usual behavior.