What a Difference a School Year Makes

This was the kids last August, on the first day of school...

This was today, the last day of school. I didn't notice how much taller they got!
Daniel was not happy about school ending and was in no mood for pictures this morning. That's why he looks like he does. LOL!

5th Grade Farewell

Jacob's 5th Grade Farewell was tonight. I cried, but only during the slide shows. They had one where they took their kindergarten picture and morphed it into their 5th grade one. It was really neat. If I can figure out how to copy it to my computer, I'll post it. Anyway, here are some photos from tonight. I can't believe Jacob's in 6th grade!!!





They asked us to bring in photos of the kids as infants and their current picture. They hung them up like this.
The 5th graders line up for a song.

Jacob gets his certificate from Mrs. P, the school counselor (remember her? I haven't mentioned her in a long time!) and from Mr. L, the principal.
Jacob with Lanston and Louis
Jacob and Andrew

Jacob and his best friend, Kellan. Kellan was smiling right up until I took the picture. He did the same thing to his parents when they tried to take one. Gotta look tough, I guess.

Jacob and Mr. L. See that chair to Jacob's right? There are a couple of moms that call it my chair because that's where I usually sit to wait for them to get out of school. LOL!

Photo Post

Here's what we've been up to this month...in pictures!

Jacob playing 2nd base
Jacob batting

Hannah's music program

Daniel's pack graduation cookout
Bears becoming Webelos I
Getting the new neckerchief
Playing spoons at the Daisy campout
S'mores!
Hungry Daisys!
Getting ready for a hike
Brownie Bridging. Make new friends but keep the old...
Hannah crosses the bridge and earns her Brownie pins

Hannah's troop leader made this cake. Isn't it adorable? She even gave the girls patches for their smocks!
We still have 5th Grade Farewell and the last day of school this week, so I'm sure I'll be posting more photos!

Where Has This Week Gone????

Kids' rooms...done. Yep, I said done. All three really like them. Daniel's is dramatic and totally him. Jacob's is, well, grey. What can I say? He really likes it. However, he's been begging me to paint the ceiling. What? I have to say that Hannah's is my favorite. It's a pretty blue and I put some white clouds along the top. I love them. I rehung her fabric butterflies and was inspired to put up some more. I need to get some other colors but we're going to paint handprint butterflies on the walls. I thought it'd be a fun way to really personalize the room. I'll have all of us put at least one up, even Mike and me. Of course, it'll make it that much harder to paint over in the future, but thought we could put one up in each of the kids' closets that wouldn't get painted over eventually. I'll post pictures soon.

I'm still finding it hard to believe school ends next week. Where has this year gone? It was so nice to pick up all three kids after school today and just head home. No Hebrew school. No running club. Just home. Soon, we'll just have baseball, gymnastics and TKD. I'm so excited. We've bribed Jacob into not doing baseball next year with violin lessons. I talked to him about how, while he likes baseball, it's not really his passion. Violin seems to be his passion. We told him that if he didn't have baseball, we would get him private lessons. He loved that idea.

Tomorrow, I have to clean this house. I've been ignoring it while I've been painting.

I'm Soooo Tired

It seems as though life has trapped me in a little tornado and I can't get out. Fortunately, we've gone from an EF5 to an EF4 with the ending of Keshet (Hebrew school) and Sunday School for the summer but we're still spinning in this long-track tornado. Ugh! However, this is the last week for soccer and Daisys (Hannah's bridging to Brownies on Friday) and we ended Running Club last week. I can't even remember the last time we went to TKD because of Scouts or baseball. I just have to keep telling myself that summer's almost here.

I spent almost two weeks finishing up projects on the house and getting it ready for the appraisal for the refi. I had heard horror stories from friends that have recently gone through it, so I was really scared. Several friends were told to repaint their houses, refinish floors, replace carpeting, etc before the appraisal could even happen. One friend told me the appraiser didn't even come inside the house (she lost $100,000 in home value and was livid). I had no idea what to expect and could only go on what had happened on previous appraisals when we lived in Buffalo Grove.

When I heard the knock on the door, I thought I was going to be sick, but he quickly put my mind at ease. He loved the basement and didn't even say anything when, after talking up the wonders of the safe room, I opened the door and found two bags of garbage in the way. Nice. He just laughed it off. I took him through the house and, 15 minutes later, he was gone. Friday, we found out that our house, had indeed, gone down but not as much as we'd feared. Refi's a go and we'll be sitting in our new 20 year mortgage soon. Mike says that's his way of saying he'd like to stay put for a long while. Can you believe we've been in this house for 3 1/2 years? It's the longest we've ever been in one place. Hopefully, you can actually write this address down in pen this time!

Now that the house is sparkly clean, the beige on the walls is screaming at me. I liked the beige when we first moved in, but it's taunting me now. With the thumbs up given from Mike, I've decided to paint. First stop is the kids' rooms.

After Hannah's soccer game on Saturday, we went up to Lowe's to look at paint. The kids all picked out colors and we got samples to try out. Jacob went with a blue-grey color called "shark tooth" or something like that. The color is more blue than grey but Jacob loves it. His will be the first room I paint. Daniel decided he wanted Chicago Bears colors...orange and blue. I wasn't sure until I saw that orange on the wall and I'm in love with it. It is definitely Daniel. The top 2/3 of his wall will be this orange and the bottom will be navy blue. His will be the second room I paint. Hannah kept picking out the worst teal colors for her room. Not that I don't like teal, but these were hideous. I nudged her towards a color called, "the perfect blue," and she loves it. She says it looks like the sky. That gave me the idea to swirl up some clouds in white for her after it's painted. Let's just see if I can actually do it and if they look like clouds.

I really want to paint the living room a bold color and was leaning towards a color called, "cinnamon cake." It's a great color but I realized that it just might swallow up the room. So, I think that color will go in the front hallway and a gold color will go in the living room. Or maybe green. But a good green is hard to find. Luckily, I think it'll be a while before I need to make that decision.

I'm just so excited about getting some real color into this house. Maybe then it'll finally feel like home.

It's May Already???

I have a love/hate relationship with the month of May. I love it because Spring's in full swing and the flowers are starting to bloom. The trees have their leaves and it's getting warmer and warmer outside. May's also the beginning of the end of the school year. Of course, that's where the hate begins.

I hate the wind-down. The end of the school year. The parent volunteer luncheons, 5th grade farewell, final concerts, the teacher retirement parties. The end of the Scouting year (both Cub and Girl Scouts). The end of the Sunday School year. The end of the Hebrew School year. Trying to get everything all wrapped up before the end. Then, trying to get all registered for the next year. Ugh! The mountains and mountains of paperwork that it entails to get these kids registered for next year. And, wouldn't you know it, now we're adding a whole other school into the mix. Whee!

I'm really sad because this is the last year we will EVER have all three kids in the same school. And, just as we'll be getting used to PRMS, we'll transfer over to the new middle school when Jacob's in 7th grade. So, we'll get to do all that paperwork next May. I'm not ready for middle school.

On a side note, I discovered that one of the local MOPS groups has the MOMSnext (MOPS for the school-aged set) group as well. :) Of course, they're winding down for the year but have put my info in for the next school year. I'm such a flipping joiner. LOL! I just really missed MOPS and the support this year. PTO just doesn't fill the gap.