It's the Summer of Fun!!!!!!!!!

It's no secret:  I LOVE SUMMER.  And I look forward all year to planning the "Summer of Fun."  I think 2012 is going to be one of our best years yet!

The "Summer of Fun" officially began on Tuesday.  Hadley woke up asking, "Is it the summer of fun?!?!?!"

Yes, sweet girl, it is.

You may laugh at me (Ben already has!), but we're attempting to work a very loose schedule this summer.  So far, so GREAT.  We start the day with breakfast and a little tv time, then move into free play, morning snack, story time (a favorite!!!), our daily activity, lunch, room/rest time, afternoon snack, summer workbook time (another fave!!), and "screen" time (Wii/LeapPad/iPad).  It has seriously been AWESOME and I have enjoyed every single second.  Of course, we'll change the schedule up every week as our activites change, but it's a nice little routine we've got going right now.

We're kicking off the summer with swim lessons this week.  Harris is learning to "swim on top of the water" (actual strokes) while Babe has mastered jumping off the edge all by herself!

Stick around to see what other fun things we've got going on over the next couple of months!!

SOF 2012.  It's gonna rock.

Peas, Please!

Emmy Doe (yes, we call her that, too!) had her very first taste of veggies on Monday night.  It was quite the big deal for the whole family!

It's so much fun to share moments like this with the big kids.  Harris and Hadley are sooooooo excited to be a part of anything Emmy does.  I love it!

My baby ate her peas pretty uneventfully.  She finished half the jar and seemed to enjoy (or, at least, not hate) the taste.

As the week has progressed, I've learned that she is pretty particular about the peas being warm...she'll cry and cry if I try to feed her the food straight from the jar.  I've also started to thicken that stuff up just a bit by adding a little rice cereal.  So far, so good.

We decided to clean up after her very first "meal involving no breastmilk" by trying out the family bath.  Again, quite fun for all involved.

At least until Babe poured a cup of water over Big Nut's head...

Man, I love these guys.

Memorial Day Parade.

One of the best things about Dacula is the Memorial Day Parade.  It never ceases to amaze me that I live in town that is less than ten miles from the Mall of Georgia, yet still celebrates Memorial Day with a parade of tractors.  God bless America!

We've been taking these guys to the parade for years.  They were pros at the whole waving, clapping, and candy catching today.

Emmy and Olivia made their parade debut today.  Livi was too little to enjoy any of the fun, but Big Nut caught a good thirty minutes of parade action before passing out.

The kids (and adults!) crowded unbelievably close to the road today.  Our oldest four loved it.

My sweet (and tall!) Harris collected lots of candy and placed it all in his bag to eat later.  Babe, on the other hand, would pick up a piece, eat it, and then repeat the process.  That girl is a sugar addict.

We had a great time.  Granti and Auntie even ran the 5K before the parade started.  I think I might make that goal of mine for next year!

Happy Memorial Day, y'all!

Last Day.

Field Day.

As one of their final Private Kindergarten parties, Harris' class (along with the rest of Primrose) celebrated the last week of school with Field Day and a Luau. 

Harry's afterschool teacher, Ms. Bethany, taught the kids an absolutely adorable song (complete with sign language!) to sing for the parents before the big feast.

Harris was so proud of the "secret song," which ended up being very sweet.  Ben wasn't able to make it because of work, so Harry made sure to give Daddy a private performance (that I WAS NOT allowed to watch) before the big day.

I am so thankful for his sweet heart.

And his silliness.

And that summer is finally here! :)

The Graduate.

I didn't cry.  I smiled, I laughed, and I let my heart swell with pride.  I love this kid.

He chose Sonic for his graduation dinner.  Unfortunately, we were in such a rush to get home from school and work, change clothes, and get to the church that we didn't have a whole lot of time left to eat.  We managed to meet Auntie, DB, and Granti at Sonic, order our food, have it delivered by a girl on roller skates (which is all Harris really wanted) and pile back in the van to eat on the drive over.  The tater tots still tasted great, so it all worked out.

In case you're wondering, Ben bought Harris' tie especially for graduation.  He was so excited; he keeps asking for a bowtie, too, and I have no doubt he'll get one for football season.

We made it to the church and found a seat (and Pop!) in plenty of time.  Harris enjoyed goofing around with his friends while waiting and we had lots of time to take lots of pictures. :)

The more pictures I took, the sillier my sweet boy became.  He has such a great sense of humor!  We laugh ALL THE TIME at home (I love my husband for making me laugh!) and it's so funny to watch Harris ham it up in public, too.

His class sang a few songs (in English and Spanish!) to start the program.  He takes his singing very seriously, in case you can't tell.  Because he is quite the rule follower, Harris worked hard to make sure he sang loud enough for the whole church to hear. 

And then come the processional.  His teachers had told me that Harris, of course, was the best behaved, most serious student during practice that morning.  I think everybody was totally unprepared for his "march" down the aisle.

He had the whole place cracking up.  And he wasn't being rude or crazy or disprespectful...just funny.  It was awesome.

I hope he does it again when he graduates high school.

We are so, so proud of our graduate!!!  We finished up the evening with more pictures, a quick stop at the graduation reception, and a cupcake from Cupcake Diva Girlz on the way home. :)

Thank you, Ms. Wendy, for loving our baby boy.  I'm pretty sure we'll still be talking about you ten years from now.





Little Doe.

Emmy's newest nickname, courtesy of Babe, is "Little Doe."

Regardless of what we call her, she is as sweet as can be.  I love spending time with her when she's awake, but one of our favorite things to do is to check in on her after she's gone to sleep.

I love that girl.