The End of Kindergarten

On his way to "field day". What a fun way to end the school year!

Aspen with his awesome teacher, Mrs. Wheeler. We loved her.

I have two things to say about this photo.....First, this was our "last day of school" picture. Second, that's a freaky look on your face, Aspen.

Michael & Aspen

On Aspen's last day of school (he didn't go to the last day of school because of

leaving early for Twin Lakes), we went to his class party. Aspen was so happy to have us there. He was especially happy to show Journey off to his friends (it was so cute!).

Showing Journey around the playground. Aspen and his friend, Michael actuallyheld Journey's hands and lead her around, pointing out all the "dangerous" areas that she should stay away from.

Playing "duck, duck, goose"

Aspen with his best friends of the year, Michael & Nash.

Playing with bubbles.

Wow, I'm sad. How did this year go by SO fast? Aspen had a great year of Kindergarten. Especially since he was dreading it so much. He ended the year in the top three of his class for math and has come a long way with reading (although it's not his favorite thing to do). I really enjoyed volunteering in Aspen's class to see him in his school environment and to get feedback from his teachers on his behavior and progress.

There were a few bumps in the road, but you know what? I'm thankful for them. He learned so much from his mistakes, and I'm proud of him for that. I'm thankful that he can learn while the price is low, and I'm thankful that he was able to reflect on his behavior, learn from it, and change.

And now, let the summer begin! We have a lot planned. Twin Lakes for a week with Nana, Papa and the cousins for Aspen (garage sale for us), beach trip, VBS and then back to the beach for the 4th. Zoo Camp the next week (for Aspen), and then 9 days of swimming lessons for Aspen and Journey to end the month of July. We are keeping August open for the beach and hoping the house will be done by then. It's gonna be fun!

Beach House Progress

The whole beach house thing has been a bit of a whirlwind for us this year, but we are very excited about it. So that I can remember later on, here's the background story.

Around the first of this year, Mark and I were talking about goals and what we would like to do this year. He is crazy/obsessed with fishing and has said for the last couple years that one of the things that gets him through the year of long hours and hard work is looking forward to fishing in the summer. He really wanted to make a goal to spend the whole month of August as a family at the beach so that he could fish as much as possible, plus spend a lot of time with the family. We decided to start looking for a small house to rent at the beach for the month.

Mark mentioned to his dad what we had planned, and he said, maybe you could look for a bigger house so that they could stay down there with us (he's as into fishing or more so than Mark is). All this was still in the thinking process when we went to the beach with the whole Wilde family in the middle of February. It turned out that Mark's parents had been wanting to have a place to come to at the beach as well.

That weekend thoughts turned to action, and pretty soon, we were looking at houses in Rockaway "just for fun" (easy to do since Mark has his Realtor license). haha! After looking at a few houses, talk turned to building, then looking at lots..........yada, yada, yada......offer was placed the next weekend, and here we are! Building a beach house with Mark's parents.

Building started the first of May....

May 8th

Excavation and driveway in, foundation done.

Aspen loves going to the beach with Mark to check on the progress. Such fun to have Daddy all to himself!

May 20th
First floor framing in progress.


May 20th


May 28th
First and second floor framing done. Roof and dormer framing in progress.


May 28th

June 4th

Windows in, roofing half done, plumbing done, waiting on inspections in order to start siding.

Mark and Aspen are headed back to the beach again tomorrow. I'm so excited to see the updated progress! We are hoping to have it finished by August. We will see...

Two down, One to go

Yep, you guessed it. Chicken Pox. Aspen got it first, and two weeks later, Journey sprouted the spots....and then a couple days later, so did Peyton :)

I'd have to say that it hasn't been that big of a deal. It didn't seem to affect Aspen at all. Journey was a little feverish for the first two days, but not bad. We still went to the park to play (just found one without too many people). Now we are waiting for Willow and Lilly to get the pox. :)

Cousins

Having cousins close in age is so much fun. Today we had Ava and Zoe over to play. The girls had fun and are learning to play nicely.

Zoe 7 mo. and Willow 9 mo.

Ava & Journey 3 years

I Love Them

I'm not going to lie. Three kids is A LOT of work. I am not a perfect mom. I get stressed out. I yell at them to be quiet, to stop fighting, to hurry up, to stop bugging each other. Sometimes their bickering makes me feel like I'm going to loose my mind.

BUT, I love them! They are each so different, yet sweet, loving and fun. I'm so thankful, and do my best to live in the moment, enjoy and know them.

My Garden!

This year, I'm really excited about having a garden. I've made enough mistakes in the past years that I'm hoping this year, it will turn out. Plus, I've got all sorts of plans for my organic veggies :)

We had a mild Winter/Spring, so in March, I bought some seeds and had Mark and Aspen make me a couple raised planter beds.

The planter beds. I'm hoping that the sprinkler system will water the garden well enough in the Summer so that I won't have to worry about it when we are gone.

We started by planting the seeds in egg cartons inside. Once our seedlings were up and growing, we transfered them to the garden area. I also planted more seeds directly in the garden so that hopefully I'll get a longer harvest period.

The garden is growing! These last two pics were taken a couple weeks ago when we actually had sun.

Lettuce, red and orange peppers, and chili peppers planted in the first bed. Sugar snap peas and yellow squash in the second one..........for now! I'll be adding more veggies soon.

I'm keeping five tomato plants on the deck, four in pots and one in a topsy turvy planter. I'm SO excited about having fresh tomatoes! I've also got my spinach and basil on the deck. Since it's been pouring down rain, and I'm lazy, I'll post pics of them later. We have been eating fresh lettuce and spinach from the garden for the past week, and I'm hoping I won't have to buy lettuce for the next couple months.

Journey is 3 now. Here's what she's into right now...

Journey's my little shadow in the kitchen. She loves to help me out with anything I am doing (and sample everything she can get her hands on!). She's a great little mommy to her dolls and animals. Today she informed me "I'm a good mommy, mom!" as she was changing her baby's diaper. The other day she sat next to me on the couch and fed her baby as I was feeding Willow. I had to laugh as she lifted her shirt, brought the baby to her chest for a second and then scolded her baby "DON'T bite!" haha! I guess she's heard me say that a few times lately!

I don't think there's anything she does quickly. Nothing! Everything is done at her slow little pace, including running (if you could call it that). She likes to play the helpless card. I still have to lift her into and out of the car everytime we go anywhere. She's just learning how to put underware and leggings on, but hasn't figured out how to dress herself beyond that. I don't want to jinx anything, but I think she just may be potty trained (except for at night). It has taken lots of candy and bribes, but we haven't had an accident in a couple weeks.

Journey's got a sneaky side. She gets out of bed and plays at night and sometimes during nap time. I'll admit I pretend I don't know most of the time. :) First of all, I remember doing the same thing as a child. Secondly, we do put the kids to bed early at night. As long as she isn't cranky during the day, I really don't care. She's become as much of a tease and antagonist as Aspen is. The bickering drives me crazy. I hope I survive the summer.

She's very affectionate and loving. When she's feeling needy, she'll say, "I neeeed you, mommy!" And many times, out of the blue, she'll say, "Mommy. I love you." Sometimes in the middle of fighting I'll hear Journey say, "Aspen, I love you." Without thinking, he will say, "I love you too, Journey" (and then they'll be back to the fighting).

She's our little sweety, and honestly, it's easy to let her get away with more than she should because she's not defiant when she is disobedient. I'm working on that!