Daniel's Birthday

Daniel is 4 years old! We went to Burger King on his birthday--his choice! The kids had fun eating and playing on the slides.



He wanted an Island of Sodor (Thomas) cake, of course.

Here he is in his new pajamas. I think Daniel gets too many hand-me-downs. He asked me, "Where did my pajamas come from?" I said, "From Papa and Nana." Then he asked, "But who in Papa and Nana's family didn't want them anymore?" I made sure he understood that his new clothes came from the store and that they are just for him. Now I'm especially grateful that he got new clothes for his birthday!

This is the other outfit he got from Papa and Nana. They got him a Thomas video, too. :-) (That's not what's playing in the background, though--that's Max and Ruby.)

Happy Birthday, sweet boy! You amaze me with your insightful questions and your sense of humor every day. I love you, Daniel!

May Family Fun

May is a crazy/busy month for us. It's recital season and there are many events at the schools as the year comes to a close. I love it, but it sure is hectic.


Emily received an award for writing a song for the PTA Reflections contest earlier this year. Here she is being recognized with all of the other winners from the district.



Here is Andrew at the Mother's Day program at his school. They sang the cutest songs for us!

After the program, I got to visit Andrew's classroom where he gave me many wonderful handmade gifts.

On this day, Michael was up north helping with the tornado clean up. The kids and I were on our way to the YMCA, but I had noticed the day before that the local Geico office near us was collecting donations for tornado victims so we dropped off our boxes. The kids were so excited to get their picture taken with the gecko.

Mom's Morning Out is now over for Daniel (and me!). On the last day, he had a field trip to the zoo. They love to ride the train!

Here is Daniel with his teacher and his class. I know he will miss everyone. Not to worry, though, since we know most of the children from church!

Here is Nathaniel at his bridging ceremony where he received his Arrow of Light and officially became a Boy Scout. He is super excited about it. He went to day camp on Saturday.

Since Nathaniel was at Scout Day Camp, he missed the piano recital. He hadn't ever missed one in the five years he's been playing. Emily performed, however, and she did a wonderful job!

Here are the boys, waiting to cheer on their sister at her dance recital.

My beautiful girl, after the recital.

This has been her fifth dance recital! Every year she gets this same picture with her Daddy.

It's not over yet! Emily still has her Gymnastics/Baton/Jazz recital next week!

Fun times

Apparently, we can't get enough Disney these days. Here are the kids at Disney on Ice. I didn't tell the boys until we got there that it was "Princess Dreams." Emily was pretty excited. Don't the boys look thrilled? They really did enjoy it. The characters did some cool tricks that we all liked. We were in the front row of the balcony, so the seats were perfect for us. It was so much fun!

Daniel must have thought that I didn't do a good enough job cutting his hair. He found some scissors and made an adjustment. I thought about giving him a buzz cut, but he cut it so close to the scalp that a shorter cut would make it even more obvious.

Andrew likes to make "projects" these days. This was his idea for an Easter basket that he can wear. At least this one didn't include glitter.

Here is Jonathan doing what he does best--looking cute and melting my heart with that smile!