SCHOOL DAYS

MyHotComments

The last day of school has arrived which means the start of summer fun!!! Unfortunately this is not all happy news for me. You see, today marked the last day of elementary school for Tyler. I truely cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Here's a look back at the past five years...
Kindergarden...
A whole new experience for Tyler. I will never forget how it felt to put him on that bus for the first time. I hated it...he loved it. Everything about school excited him...his friends, his teacher, learning new things, and especially gym class.
Kindergarden Fall Picture...

Kindergarden Spring Picture...

First Grade...
The first experience of going to school all day. We moved to a new district at the start of this school year so Ty had to make all new friends. Didn't bother him one bit. He came home the first day and told me all about the kids he had met...all boys of course...how dare I even suggest he talk to a girl. He still loved school...and gym class...recess and lunch were becoming quick favorites too.
First Grade Fall Picture

First Grade Spring Picture

Second Grade...
This marked the end of when I was "allowed" to show my face at the school. I guess after second grade it's not cool to have your mom tag along. Gary and I chaperoned the field trip to Lake Tobias and had a blast. It was so much fun to watch Tyler interact with his friends. We also realized how wonderful Tyler is on the field trip. Some of the kids...well I'll just say were a handful.
Second Grade Fall Picture...

Second Grade Spring Picture...

Third Grade...
The highlight of this school year was the chick project Tyler's class did. They incubated eggs and watched them daily. I'll never forget the joy on his face the day he came home and said "mom, the chicks started hatching" or the sadness in his eyes the day he came home and said "mom, one of the chicks died". The teacher told us at field day that there were tears all around the day the chicks left to go live on a farm.
Third Grade Fall Picture...

Third Grade Spring Picture...

Fourth Grade...
This was a busy year for Tyler. He was selected to be a safety patrol, joined K-Kids (a community service "club"), and started playing the trumpet. His little brother also entered his life in February. Tyler has excelled at everything, including being a big brother. One of his biggest accomplishments that he's most proud of this year was having perfect attendance.
Fourth Grade Fall Picture...

Fourth Grade Spring Picture...


I can't believe how much my "baby" has grown up. Elementary School is over and Middle School awaits us. I think the first day of school next year will be as bad as his first day of kindergarden...well for me anyway.

MY NEW BABY COUSIN!!

My cousin Heather and her boyfriend Billy welcomed their precious daughter into the world the other day. Madison Rayne was born on June 1st at 4:46pm. She weighed 5 pounds 3.8 ounces and was 18 inches long. Right now she is in the NICU but is doing well. Hopefully she'll come home soon. Congrats to Heather and Billy!!!

EXPERIMENTING WITH MY CAMERA

I've been looking around photography websites for picture ideas. I found some and couldn't wait to try to capture somewhat close to the same images. This was my first attempt...I think they turned out pretty good. Enjoy.
Ian's feet with my wedding rings...

Ian's hand with my hand...

Ian and Tyler's hands...

My boys. How sweet is this...

FREE MOVIES!!!

I "borrowed" this from my sister in laws blog (she finds the coolest things). I hope she doesn't mind that I'm using this (I doubt she will). I just thought that this was worth sharing. Who doesn't like free stuff?

When school's out, kids around the country visit selected Regal theatres for the Free Family Film Festival. It's a fun-filled nine weeks of movies for kids and parents. Selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer. (taken from the Regal Cinema website).

Here's the website..check it out...
www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx?state=PA

VROOM VROOM!!!

With the end of my lease on my Honda CRV approaching (and the rising gas prices) I decided it was time to start car shopping. Anyone that knows me knows that this is one of my favorite past times. This is why I'm leasing...I trade cars in constantly. Although, I do love my CRV. I am just getting tired of how much it's costing me to fill up the gas tank and how short of a time a full tank will last me. So...Gary and I went over to the Honda dealership today to "look". I am very proud of myself...I didn't get anything, yet. I'm looking at a new Honda Civic. I was thinking about the Hybrid but it doesn't make sense. I've been told (by numerous people including the sales guy) that I would have to keep the car 10 to 12 years (yeah right) and put at least 200k miles on it to make it worth it. That's not me so I decided against it pretty quick. I test drove a Civic and I really like it. I'm not thrilled about getting rid of my SUV but I think it's the smart decision right now. I won't be doing anything else until at least next week. Gotta take my CRV over to be "inspected". It'll be interesting to see what they say it's worth...I know the bluebook so I'm going to fight for at least that. Here's a pic of the civic...

IT'S BEEN AWHILE

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted last. It's was a crazy, mostly enjoyable, busy holiday weekend for us.
I'll start with Saturday...
We headed to the Poconos so that Gary could work on the plane with his dad. Frank (Gary's dad) purchased a kit plane and it finally arrived. For those of you that don't know what that is (I didn't know until they decided to do this) it's a plane that you build and then fly. I refer to it as an adult model car...just alot bigger.
And when I say you fly it, yes I mean you pilot it and take it up in the sky. Kind of scary...at least to me. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon Gary went right to work. I'm told they were building the tail. Didn't look like a tail to me but ok...it's a tail. Ty even "helped" the big kids with the plane. He helped to break down the crate that all the parts came in. I went out to the garage once (that's where they're building this thing) and Ty had a power tool in his hand...I went back inside. Here's some pics from their "project"...
All the parts...

"Men" at work...

I'm told this is the tail


Sunday...
The boys worked on the plane some more and then we left and drove to camp. Finally, my relaxing place. Interestingly enough there was a little excitement on the way. We were driving down the road and saw smoke up ahead. Then it was off to the side. I looked back when we passed it and Gary and I both said at about the same time "oh my that's a car on fire"...so we turned around. I couldn't let him keep going and not feel guilty. I'm glad we went back...the other bystandards had no phone...in this day and age who doesn't have a cell phone? So Gary called 911 to report it and they said that they had already received the call. We came to find out that the occupants of the car were already inside the church that was right there. That made me feel better knowing that everyone was out and safe. So, eventually we continued on our way. We finally made it to camp around 6:30pm. We enjoyed some outside time, it was beautiful!!! Even went for a walk...all of us. Tyler took the dog and it wore them both out. I love our campground. Most of the people really take pride in the sites and keep them nice. We're working on ours a little at a time. Saturday night we just relaxed., Ty went fishing for a little, and we played scrabble...well, Ty and Gary were playing then I started helping Ty and decided that I wanted to kick Gary's butt...ok, I lost. But it was kind of close. Here's some piectures (yes i know it's spelled wrong, Kim, that's for you)...from our walk and ty's fishing adventure...
An example of how nice some people keep their sites...

Walking down the one "road"

A view...

Trying to catch anything...

The cabins you can rent at our campground...they're right by the canal


Monday...
Happy Memorial Day
Today was busy. We decided to do some yard work on our site. This was the most physical labor I've done in a long time. We put top soil down, did up a flower pot, planted grass, put mulch down...I'm exhausted just thinking about all we did...Eventually in the evening we headed home from our exhausting weekend. The boys and the dog slept the whole way home...
The flower pot i planted...

Main landscaping we did...

Tyler has an obsession with campfires...


So that was our weekend. I love getting away but god am I exhausted. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I'll close this post with a pic of the loves of my life...my boys!

FIELD DAY!!!

This past Friday was Tyler's 4th grade field day...his last one of elementary school...sobsob. As always it was complete chaos at the school. Although I did notice that there are not as many parents there for the 3rd and 4th graders as there are for the 1st and 2nd graders. Luckily 1st and 2nd grade goes in the am and 3rd and 4th grade goes in the pm. Tyler had a blast. Considering recess is his favorite time of day, and this is basically just a long recess, I wasn't suprised. He competed in 4 individual events. One of them being the 100 yard dash. He finished 3rd out of 18 kids...he was very proud of himself. I honestly can't tell you what his other events were...trying to find him was impossible...so we just kind of sat back and watched all the kids have fun...and I got a chance to visit with some people that I haven't seen in forever. At the end of their individual events all of the classes compete in a tug of war game. Each class goes against another class. I think it's more for the amusement of the parents. Tyler's class lost...oh well. Then they put the 3rd grade teachers against the 4th grade teachers. I think this is the highlight of the day for the kids. The 3rd grade teachers won. I did figure out that Ty is completely full of himself when it comes to the girls. Boy do they like Tyler. As the class was sitting with the teacher getting their station assignments...most of the girls were talking away to Ty...then a few of them were tapping him on the shoulder, smacking his back, etc...and of course we all know that this is how little girls flirt. Tyler just sat back with a huge grin on his face the entire time. Aggh...these little girls are soon gonna start to invade my little boy's life. I'm not ready for that...
The final 6 running for places in the 100 yard dash

Crossing the finish line 3rd!!!

Tug of war


And of course Ian enjoyed the day with us. He was a hit...everyone that passed us said "oh he's so cute"...I must say that I agree.
How cool is he?

Ian getting some mommy time