Last Days of School

June 4th was the last day of school (this year went SO fast!) and the weeks before that were bizz-y wrapping up all the school events.

Ella's art was in the school art show.  She had a Picasso...

 And a self-portrait in clay

Ella and Silas both got to give a hand in making ice sculptures

There was Field Day, which I got to volunteer at.  What a blast for all the kids!!

 (picture taken by Si's mom's friend, Lori - (Studio Williams)

I was stationed at the "devil sticks" - they were fun - but hard!!

We had a wonderful Kindergarten picnic at the school with Si's class.
 We took a delicious picnic dinner of fried chicken, cole slaw, cheese/olive/pepperoni kabobs,
lemonade and watermelon.  It was a perfect picnic (except no wine! :)

Si's pals - Ben and Joey.

The last day of school...last day as a kindergartener and 3rd grader!!
I wasn't able to get Mason before he left the house :(

Walking Siley to his classroom  :'(

 And a last picture with one of the sweetest kindergarten teachers ever.
What a fantastic year she made for Silas and her class!!

He just exploded with learning this year. This was her comment on his report card:
I am so proud of Silas and all that he has learned this year.  
In his quiet way he contributes
great things to our class. He has become such a proficient reader and is ready for almost any beginner reader you can find at the library!  He is also such a great math thinker. It is amazing to watch and listen to his thinking as he solves a problem.  He loves numbers!!  Silas is so ready for first grade!  He is going to be awesome!  Thanks for sharing him with me this year...what a treasure!!

I'm so proud of him in his first year of school.  They all 3 had a great year - we've got a little bit of time and summer fun to prepare for 1st, 4th and SENIOR year!!!

Mother's Day 2012

My 16th Mother's Day was nice and quiet and relaxing. I went to Indian Lake with the girls and enjoyed some time relaxing and gabbing. 

I spent a little time lounging in the hammock, looking out at the lake and up at the trees.  We had an evening of drinks and chitchatting by the fire and it was wonderful.

 On Sunday, I was welcomed home with a Welcome Home/Happy Mother's Day sign, with balloons even!

 

Ella gave Silas some rollerblading lessons. Only minor wipe-outs...

 Justin created a frame and mixed concrete so that all 5 of us could
make our handprints and then decorate it. 

Silas hand painted me a wonderful tile with flowers.

 
And made me a book about "My Mom"

 Which he put in this big envelope with his paper flowers and flower pot.

 Ella had this card for me...
So much better than the "mean mom" note that I usually get!

 Ella also created a really wonderful book of poems for me too.
She made "me" on the front - I love that she gave me a Life is Good t-shirt,
which I wear as often as possible.

 This was her opening note:

 Dear Mom,
I'm writing you this letter to tell you how much I love you. I appreciate how
you cheer me and my soccer team on and buy us what we need, I appreciate
that you cook for us and take care of me.
I hope you like my poetry book!
You are the best!
Love, Ella

Mother:
Mother
awesome, loving
cooking
running, very amuesing
excited, funny, happy, joyful
Mommyo

There were a few more wonderful poems that I'll have to post too.  I like flowers, I like some pampering...

but this to me is what makes Mother's Day. Though I did NOT get any cute pictures or art from Mason!  I guess that ship has sailed :(

I feel very blessed to have a wonderful mother, wonderful mom friends and family, and pretty darn good kids that call me mom and seem to appreciate me more than just on Mother's Day...life is good :)

Fall Into Winter...Already!

With Christmas quickly approaching, the kids have had some festive school projects to create.  In kindergarten, they make wreaths that they can decorate however they want. We made Si's this week.  I thought I'd have to come up with ideas for him, like things to glue on or family pictures but Silas knew exactly what he wanted to do.  He wanted snow on the ground, snowflakes falling and Santa and a snowman.  With the exception of gluing down some of the cotton balls (it was messy) he did everything else himself.
I thought he did a beautiful job!
I love that Silas is taking more interest in art and painting but in pure Silas style though,  he likes to drink the paint water. He really is a nutty child!!

Justin has gotten to go on two fun outings over the last few weeks.  The first was to see a Notre Dame vs. Boston College football game with Kevin.  It was a good game and ND won.  It was pretty cold, just like a November football game is supposed to be!

This week Justin got to go on a 5 day golf trip with Tim and a bunch of other guys.  They went down to Santee in South Carolina and golfed 3 days of 36 holes per day.  I can just imagine the Icy Hot and tired-men-drinking-booze smell filling the air in the condos! He had a BLAST and I was very happy to see him go have some fun after all the long days he's been putting in.

I have been happy to have some good live music to listen to.  I listen to CD101 (now 102.5) and the CD101 Holiday concert was this past week.  I won tickets to see one of the bands playing in the Big Room on Tuesday, so Justin and I went to see them.  There were probably less than 30 poeple in this (very not big) room and the band.  It was very cool. Sleeper Agent was the band.  A very young looking band.  It was a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure we are old enough to be the parents of most of these guys!

That night I went to the concert by myself. Everyone else was either busy or had never heard of the bands I was seeing. It's the first time I've gone to a concert alone and it really wasn't that bad.  They biggest problem was I wanted to keep the spot that I had claimed (open venue, no seats) so I didn't leave to go to the bathroom or anything once there.  I stood up on the 2nd lever so that I had a better view of the stage and it was crazy watching all the young "kids" slam dancing and crowd surfing.  All I could think is how sore they would be the next day.  Guess that shows my age! (though I was never one to get into that anyway).

After a very busy week and weekend, we've got some sleepy people in the house (it's 9:30pm and I'm the only one still awake!).  But I think I'm ready for bed now too.  When did life get so exhausting!?! (I think my answer is when I hit my 40s!)

{PS} - sorry to be such a blog slacker lately - it's so hard to find time!  I promise to try to do better with updates!

Last Day of School

Hard to believe, but another school year is over.  Silas finished up last Friday, Mason took his last exam yesterday and Ella's last day was today.  What a great year they all had!!  

One early morning event that we went to in Ella's class was a book signing.  Each kid chose a topic, researched, drew pictures and wrote the text and then it was bound into a book.  The parents then got to visit the classroom, see all the books and the "author" signed the book for us.

This is some art that Silas did in school, then the PTO had a company take the art and do magnets, mugs, t-shirts, etc.  It was cool.  Those they had to shrink the art (thus the hand print) for the magnets and Silas could not understand why his hand was so small!

Unlike Mason and Silas, Ella actually gets to celebrate her birthday during school. We took snacks and the class sang Happy Birthday.

They sang the "cha, cha, cha" version.  Mrs. C was fabulous this year.  Ella absolutely loved her and today as she was leaving the room, gave her a huge big hug. Mrs. C asked Ella to email her over the summer.  Hope she knows what she is in for!

Silas' field day at school was postponed twice, so it ended up being on the last day of school. I volunteered and was stationed at the "cow milking" area.  They must have known I was a home-grown Hilliard gal.  The kids loved it, though Si doesn't much look like he's enjoying it.

I love this picture - Si's favorite activity was the wet ball throwing.  When his teacher, Mrs. P, was out on maternity leave, Mrs. H (here in orange) was the sub for 8 weeks.  She came back to visit the class on field day and Silas welcomed her back by nailing her with a soaker ball. Look closely in the upper right corner of the picture and you can see the ball that bounced off of her.

Today was the "clap out" at the elementary for the 5th graders.  We have a few friends whose kids are moving on up to the 6th grade building. It's SO emotional and I was glad today that my kids are all going to be in the same buildings next year.  I'll still have a high schooler, an elementary student and a preschooler.  They just all move up a notch.  I'm happy for some even keeledness (not really a word, I'm betting) - it's been a rough week/month/2010.  I'm looking forward to not necessarily a stress-free summer, but definitely spending a lot of time with the kids, family and friends.
And I've got my list of Fun Stuff to do!

10 billion beads

Aunt Abby, Uncle Shawn, cousins Molly, Myles and Hud sent Ella a great birthday present...
Perlerbeads.com! They have provided hours of amusement in the few short days we've had them.

I just pray to God that the beads don't get knocked over and spill all over the floor - there are about 10,000 per bag!

O Tannenbaum...O tannenbaum

We put our Christmas tree up the weekend before last - always a fun time in our house. I'd love to say that we take a fun-filled family drive to a tree farm, carefully select and cut down our tree (all while frolicking in the snow) and then sing Christmas carols all the way home.

The REAL story is: we pack the kids into the van, make the 10 minute drive to Lowes, spend 4.67 minutes picking out the perfect tree (Mason and Justin usually agree on several that I veto before we all agree) and then we pay our $15.97 for it, net it and stick it on the roof of the van. Usually (always), Ella and I cannot stand to even be outside for the total of 5 minutes that it takes, so while Dad is paying for the tree, we're back in the van warming up.

When Mason was little, Justin and I took our first tree-buying trip to Lowe's - and yes, we were the people that tied the doors shut on the car (with Mason inside - luckily he was about 3 or 4 at the time). And yes, we had him roll down the windows so we could climb in and not have to untie the tree. Truly not something that I should admit to!
But 10 years later, we are pros - we have a minivan with a roof rack now and that makes it pretty foolproof.

Another confession: I am about totally worthless when it comes to the tree-trimming event. I am in charge of music and eggnog when we decorate. I do put the household decorations up, but mostly I try to make myself look busy. I am more of the re-arranger once the tree trimmings are placed.

The best part for me is seeing all the old ornaments that we had when I was growing up and the ones that the kids have made over the years.

Silas hanging an icicle on the tree (actually, on the cord to the lights)

Ella has become the official "angel-put-er-on-er"

Silas loves the nutcracker - it tries to bite him

Justin and I laughed our butts off at this - Mason made it in the 2nd grade (it's a snowman). He has my artistic (in)ability.

It reminds me of the snowman from The Nightmare Before Christmas movie.

Freaky Friday

Okay, cheesy title ;)

We've got some pictures - and artwork to show off...

This is Ella's self portrait for the wall at school. They were instructed to make the picture look like them. She picked the paper for the shirt and skirt out of my scrapbooking paper and then we cut hair and glued on the flower buttons and she colored her boots and jewelry.

This is Mason's 8th grade picture - quite handsome I must say

This is Silas' first masterpiece - he told me he made a cat...After looking at it, I thought that Aunt Margie had made it. Given my VERY limited artistic ability, I was highly impressed that a 2 year old could draw a cat that resembled a cat.

Tonight I panicked for a minute when we couldn't find Ella outside where she had been a few minutes earlier. After yelling inside and out, I went into my room and found her sound asleep in our bed with her snuggle bunny.

Siley J. - before a haircut and after - my little gap-tooth monster!

We are having fun with Uncle Shawn in town from Rhode Island. He and Justin have been golfing the last 2 mornings. The kids have also been having fun getting him to play outside with them. Tonight he pushed them on the swings and did under dogs - and then chased them around the house while they screamed bloody murder. I've yet to check for scratches on the hardwood floors.

FYI - I was looking on a photo blog and found this:
Simplify Your Life: Send Photos to Different Sites at the Same Time where you can upload your web photos to different sites at the same time (duh, as the title says). Pretty cool. In the process, I upgraded to Picasa 3 which has more features and is still easy to use.