We had to jumble things up a little bit this year because of the amount of extracurricular activities going on with this family.  We took some time out to celebrate Mom’s day a little bit early and also a little bit late!  I had a fun dinner out with my sweet kiddos before Mom’s day at a new nearby restaurant.

Reece gave me her gift which was a packet of pictures and things she knows about me. According to Reece, I love to wear lip gloss, Fixer Upper is my favorite TV show, I wish for peace and quiet, I like to go to movies, plant flowers, and bake with her, and best of all, I want to go with her to Hawaii!!  She is one smart cookie!  Let’s get that trip on the books Reecie Cups!

On the real Mom’s Day, I was on a whirlwind trip home from DesMoines so we had a short little celebration with Blue Chip Cookies (my favorite cookie is chocolate chip if you ever feel like dropping one by) 😉

And I got the most heart-felt cards and a coupon book from Jake. I’m anxiously awaiting my opportunity to slap down the one that says he will clean the basement and fold my clothes!   Thank you, Jakers, for thinking of me on Mom’s Day, I love you to pieces!

I appreciate these notes so so much and I also love my new band for my apple watch! Thank you!

While Drew and I were in DesMoines, the rest of the crew got to make breakfast for Grandma!

And this past weekend we got to celebrate Nanny’s day and her 71st birthday!  We’ve had a month full of fun celebrations!

One final field trip to add to the list of a million things that happen in May.  The 5th graders at Manchester Park always take a trip to Lawrence to close out the school year and their elementary school career.  It’s a “fun” field trip in which parents are invited to come but few choose to chaperone so they can avoid super noisy bus rides and being responsible for 5th graders!  They start the day out at Allen Field House learning about the history of KU sports and pretty much anything about basketball. Jake and a few others decided to dress in K-State clothing head to toe.  I guess they were just screaming to get comments from obnoxious KU fans.  Oops did I just say that out loud!?

After the tour, the kids head to the union for lunch and to the Natural History Museum. They are strictly instructed to only bring $10 for lunch (no more).  Leave it to Jake to spend $10.30 on pizza, a bag of Doritos, a Kit Kat candy bar, and a bottle of lemonade. We’re in trouble here guys…from now on this kid is only allowed to bring a lunch from home.   Can you imagine how much money is going to fly out of his pockets when he’s in college!?  oh my gosh!

Finally they get to go to the Lawrence Aquatic Center to swim and go off the diving boards before returning to school.

This is always the highlight of the trip and Jake had a lot of fun playing basketball in the pool with friends.  Have you ever seen such a distinct farmer’s tan in your life!?  Or should we call it a ‘golfer’s tan’ for you, Jake!?

Apparently they were WORN OUT because this is Jake on the bus ride home (photo courtesy of my neighbor who was his group chaperone).

Here is a flashback of Morgan on her 5th Grade KU field trip in 2014!  (at that time, they had a bowling alley which has since been removed)

I can’t even believe how excited this little 3rd grader was to invite us to his poetry picnic! We’ve learned over time that Drew is not super interested into tapping into the creative side of things.  He’s definitely more left-brained.  However, last week he was thrilled to have the opportunity to share his poems he had written and was inviting anyone he could grab a hold of.  I’m surprised he didn’t invite the neighbors, his coaches, bus driver, mailman, the checkout clerk at Target…anyone!!  Since his classroom can only hold so many, and it was a picnic lunch on the floor, we stuck to parents & Aunt Jenn.  I really had to think back on what an Acrostic or Cinquain poem was and I’m still not sure I know!  The only one that sounded remotely familiar was a Haiku.

Drew Boo, you did an AMAZING job on your poems and I’m so happy you are proud of your hard work.  You are a poet and you didn’t even know it! 😉  “Jeffy the Frog” is Drew’s personal favorite.  Enjoy!

Drew’s 3rd grade class picture…

Tomorrow morning I’m heading to the music store to return Jake’s rented clarinet so I can finally save myself $40 a month and stop fretting over him potentially losing it.  He’s decided to put his band days behind him and focus on school and sports.  This is no surprise, but he gave it a great shot, and I’m proud of him for doing so!

You’re still the coolest looking kid in the band for sure!

We have enjoyed watching you!  I mean what would we really do with ourselves if we didn’t have band and orchestra concerts, a million sports practices, and baseball games every evening?  We’d be terribly bored.  Love you Jakers!

Here are the youtube videos of your performance!

Does anyone else feel like anything and everything happens in the month of May!?  It truly does.  I don’t think we can actually fit one more thing in!  The month generally fills up with school field trips.  Brian got to spend half the day with Drew at Lenexa City Hall. I got to do this one with Jake when he was in 3rd grade and we loved it!  They get to sit in the city hall meeting chambers, check out the jail cells, the courtroom, see inside the squad cars, and have some fun outside with the fire department.  It’s an awesome way to spend the day with 3rd graders!  At our school, there are so many parents that want to go on field trips that you have to enter into a lottery and hope you get chosen to go.  Brian got lucky!

you are certainly the cutest fake criminal I’ve ever seen! 😉

And Reece’s 1st grade class visited the Kansas City Zoo the day before…

And somehow my afternoon freed up and I got to go on Reece’s last Daisy’s field trip to Ernie Miller Park yesterday!  We had so much fun until someone brought up the subject of possible poison ivy…then it started to crumble with paranoia!

To top off my lucky day, I received this sweet note from Reece’s 1st grade class thanking me for helping out in the classroom this year.  I love this!

One more field trip left to go for Jake this Friday to KU and then we will call it done for this school year!!

Ugh…why does everything have to be so hard to deal with right now!?  I feel like I could crumble into a million pieces at any moment.  This young lady is going to be entering into High School very soon and putting away the cello for good.  I always thought I could handle a lot, but for some reason, all this change has me thrown into an emotional tizzy! That’s slang for…mom’s that can’t handle that their kids are growing up.

Morgan, as you know, we could not be more proud of you for exploring the world of orchestra.  It makes you EXTRA super cool in my eyes 😉

And you too Collin!  We are going to truly miss watching the two of you perform with the PRT orchestra together!

It is with tears welling up in my eyes,  that I tell you that Jake is officially nearing the end of his days at Manchester Park.  We attended his 5th grade recognition/graduation ceremony Monday night.  I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but he actually skipped a soccer practice to attend (shhhh…let’s keep this on the down low!).  These 5th graders sang two ‘goodbye’ songs and one by one, accepted their certificate from the principal, Mr. Bohon, the counselor, Mr. Shipley, and their 5th grade teachers (Mrs. Petty for Jake). They all looked so nice!  What a change from the usual, everyday school outfits that roll in and out of MPE.

Jake, you have had an extraordinary elementary school experience!  You have learned so much and really made us proud!

I know many of you thought I was crazy when I declared I was excited to spend my Mother’s Day weekend in DesMoines at a soccer tourney!  Hey – it’s fine, I’m not easily discouraged.  And I’m kinda sticking my tongue out (in a nice way) at you now as we came home with a championship win on Mom’s Day!

I gathered up my Drew Boo, his soccer gear, my mom, plenty of snacks, and hit the road Friday after school.  It’s an easy 3 hour drive and within 30 seconds of being checked into our room, this little guy had his PS4 hooked up without help and fired up with a baseball game.  Life is good.

We had an 8pm team meeting in the lobby and caught up with the coach and all the families (with the exception of one other teammate, we were the only ones that didn’t have our entire family in tow).  I’m not sure how these families swing it!?  I know for us, both girls had games and Jake was competing in a soccer tourney in KC, so there was no way that was going to happen for us.  BUT, we got to have my mom aka “Nanny” for the weekend so we were thrilled!

The weather was absolutely perfect, the Cownie Soccer Complex fields were pristine, and it was only a short 20 minute drive from our hotel.  Each trip to and from the fields we got to admire the capital building, which is quite stunning.  I was unsuccessful in getting a picture of it, so maybe you’ll have to google it.

Drew’s team consists of 9 year olds, but we played up in the U11 division.  Here are a few pics of game 1

Between Games we took Drew & his buddy, Kole, to Zombie Burger downtown which is a local attraction.  Morgan has been there a couple of times now and we decided we did not want to miss out.  The menu language is super creative and also super unhealthy.  When you have a burger on the menu that replaces the bun with fried mac-n-cheese patties, you know you’re really in for a heart attack on a plate!

 I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I ordered the “Trailer Trash Zombie” and ate the best fries I’ve ever had!  Ugh, I feel like I need to go workout just thinking about it!

Back to the hotel for a massive game of pool baseball and PS4 of course!

I’m basking in the glory of having a sweet 9 year old boy to spend my mom’s day with because we will blink our eyes and find ourselves in the sometimes gloomy teenage years!  And double bonus that I got to spend so much time with my mom.  She’s my bestie and an absolute super fan when it comes to her grandkids.

When we arrived home about 8:30pm, I got to squeeze my other babies, open the sweetest cards ever, and genuinely felt super loved.  Words cannot express my gratitude.

Oh no.  Here we go again…we are coming to the end of the school year and I’m getting sad that Jake will no longer be in elementary school.  How is this happening!?  Can we please go back to this day when he had his first day of Kindergarten!?

The extreme cuteness of Kindergarten is just too much for me to handle!  And now all of the sudden Jake took his very last spelling test EVER! (that’s him in the back in the orange shirt trying to be tall).

And today he participated in his very last Fit-N-Fun day at school.  

Next week he will sign his very last elementary school yearbook, take his last field trip, sit in the lunch room for the last time, and say goodbye to all his teachers at Manchester Park.  All of this makes me extremely sad but it also makes me think back on the amazing memories he has created!  We have a new middle school journey to face and I’m with this handsome guy every step of the way.

And on a sidenote, he went on a slight shopping spree at Bass Pro last night with Papa and is thrilled to try out his new fishing pole.  Hope you catch some good ones, Jakers!

This beautiful gal turned 93 years old on May 1st and we were lucky to have her here at our home for a celebration.  Everybody LOVES Grammy D.  She’s pretty spectacular.  She expects nothing, loves all of us unconditionally, and still manages to keep a million grandkids and great grandkids straight!  How does she do this!?  I hope I’m that sharp at 93 years of age. Chances are I won’t be, because I’m not even sure I’m sharp right now!

So what do you give someone that has had 93 birthdays!?  The answer is pictures.  Always pictures.  She absolutely lights up when she gets pictures of grandkids!  I put together this little collage for her to display in her home and I hope it brings her joy every single day.  She deserves it, she’s awesome!

Reece could not wait for her to open it…she was super excited about it!

Happy Birthday Grammy D, we love you!