The End

Monday was the end of soccer.  

Abigail's last game was a couple of weekends ago but she was participating in a weekly soccer clinic.  She would go practice with professional coaches, her and J learned a lot.  Those girls were run hard.

Thursday was the end of Tball.  

Ash had her last game and then excitedly said, "Now, I'm going to practice soccer."

Friday was the end of 2nd grade

Here she is on the 1st day and last day.

Abigail had a great year.  At the last assembly she received an award for Most Responsible.  Way to go!  

Ash's preschool days have ended,

she had her graduation program and is now officially a big kindergartner!

Everything Friday

Ash learned how to tie her shoes!  Now all she wants to wear are her tennis shoes.  She has also mastered how to spell her last name.  We're so proud of you Ash.

Abigail is so ready for school to be done.  It's getting harder to get her up and moving in the mornings, I guess that goes for me too. ;o)  We're down to the last week, I can't wait!!

Ash is almost done with Tball, only one more game.   She has been requesting that we video her when she goes up to bat, she likes to come home and watch the videos over and over again.  I don't know how it started or where she learned it but every time she's up to bat, she'll practice swing, then hit the plate with her bat, square up again and then finally take a swing at the ball.  It's too cute!

Bedtime, is such a sweet part of the day.  The girls settle down, snuggle, share what's on their mind as we chat about the day or coming day.  I really enjoy doing bedtime.  But lately J has scored some cool dad points with his back rubs and made up bed times stories that now the girls are picking him to put them to bed. Insert a little bit of a sad momma.  But my sadness quickly washes away when I see this

all three of them cuddled together.  Before he begins his bedtime story he'll ask the girls to give him some words.  That night the words were, soccer, Elvis, Hawaii and the color purple.

Well it's been 3 months since I got my braces on.  I am totally shocked at how straight my teeth are.  It's amazing what a little wire can do.  I'm super happy with my new smile even if it is with a mouth full of braces. 

  Tonight is going to be a family movie night and hopefully a family bike ride before that.  Have you heard about the Redbox promo code you can get everyday if you text them.  I just texted 'deals' to 727-272 and got .50 off any night rental.

What are your Friday night plans?

Added color

I happened to walk into Target one day and saw the cutest clipboards in their 'cheap' bins for only $2.50.  I knew right away they'd be cute hanging in Abigail's room above her desk.  I also found a pack of 3 frames for a buck, perfect.

So, I arranged them out on the floor, grabbed a hammer and some nails and went to town hanging them up.  

(If you know me, you'd know this is not a typical Amanda job, I'd usually ask J to do this for me.  He was shocked to see I had hung them all by myself.  I'm not saying it was hard, but it's just something I'd still usually wait for J to do.)

She already had the cross, and hand print heart.

I love how it turned out.

It adds some color to her walls, which we painted white awhile back.

Now guess who else needed a clipboard and wanted it hung up in her room too. ;o)

Almost There

Only 10 more days left of school!  Wahoo!  We can't wait for summer vacation.  Ash, Jake and I are looking forward to having Abigail around all day, everyday.

 

We have some fun plans in store for summer like the pool. the pool. and the pool.

Okay besides that, J is taking a couple of week long vacations, a family weekend trip to Cascade Lake, VBS, church camp (Abigail's first time), a wedding to go to, fireworks, a trip to Sweet Home, and birthday celebrations including someones big 40.

What are your plans for summer?

The Greatest Title in the World

 MOM

I love being a mom to these two beautiful girls.

They bring me so much joy and laughter.

When I picked Ashlynn up from school on Thursday all the kids walked out holding a Cheesecake Factory bag.  Ash handed it to me, I told her thank you and we headed home.  As we were walking I finally realized there was actually a piece of cheesecake in that there bag.  A piece all for me!  Ash said yes mom and I can't even have a bite, Miss Joy said so. 

Once we got home Ash went through the bag and handed me all my gifts.  A sweet card with a drawing of me on it, a cute little bird house and a chocolate piece of cheesecake. 

Abigail came home Friday and immediately walked up to her room and told me she was working on something and that I couldn't come in her room.  That girl is good at keeping a surprise, many times I asked her if I could have my present and she'd say it's not Mother's day yet.  I told her we didn't know the person who made up the rule, that it had to be the day to get the gift, and she could just go ahead and give it to me.  But she wasn't persuaded.  I had to wait until Mother's day.

Sunday morning the girls each gave me posters they had made and Abigail had the sweetest book made all about me.  On the last page you had to draw a picture of your mom and of course she drew me with braces, ha.

We enjoyed a nice service at church, I was happy my parents missed their service and joined us.  There's something special about sitting in church next to your mom and holding your two girls.  It brought back memories of all the many Sundays I sat their with my parents and Grandma Tuning when I was a kid.

After church we met up at my Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It was nice to celebrate Mother's day with her.

Thanks for a beautiful day, I'm so thankful for all the mom's in my life. 

Two of a kind

  Look at these two.

I couldn't wait to take this picture.

Too cute!

We have a picture of Cody and Abigail like this.  Although those two lost their teeth naturally, these two had to go through a little trauma to look this cute.

More details

I just wanted to list or write out a few of the details from Saturday.

(that's about to turn into a couple Saturdays ago)

I wasn't sure what to do after Ash crashed.  I had a crying, messy girl in my arms, a frightened 8 year old, a clueless dog and 3 bikes.  Abigail helped me talk through my thoughts and we came up with, we needed to ask a neighbor for help.  I told Abigail to sit and hold Jake in someones yard and I was about to walk to their door when I realized we knew the neighbor across the street.  Jaclyn came to the door, I tried to cover Ash's face to not scare her and asked for her mom.  The whole family came to help.  After washcloths and ice were applied, I looked across the street and there, sitting so still, were Abigail and Jake, right where I had told her to wait.  What a girl.

After the crash Ash kept saying, "I don't like this day."

As we pulled into the driveway Jaclyn's mom said I should call my dentist.  Good idea.  I asked Abigail to run to the boys house to get Melissa, Ash crawled up on the couch and I called the dentist.

Later Melissa told me that Abigail rang the door in typical fashion, a bazillion times. They all thought oh, it's just the girls. 

I see God's blessing in the fact that Melissa and Heath were home and that right when I called the dentist happened to be driving back from Swan Falls and was right by his office.

While we were at the dentist office

Ash made an awful sound and I quickly asked her if she was okay.   She said, "yes, I was just laughing at Spongebob."

and

While Dr Grant was sitting next to Ash she said, "Dr Grant, I want to be a dentist like you one day."

When Ash saw herself for the first time she said, "I look weird."

Ash was the only one to wear her Easter outfit on Easter.  She was so excited to finally get to wear it that she wasn't going to let not going to church stop that.  She looked adorable.  The only picture taken that day was of Ash in her Easter outfit.  The rest of us opted for a more casual look.

A couple days after the crash Ash asked if there had been rocks in her mouth.  I was a bit confused, not sure what she was asking.  But then I figured it out, after she'd crashed it felt like she had rocks in her mouth, that gives me goosebumps on my head. ;o)  No Ashy, no rocks, those were your teeth.