Last Day of Pre K

Tuesday was Kiera's last day of Pre K.  Sniffle.

The poor thing has been sick but we couldn't miss the last day of school!  After all it was only for 1 hour.  They had a little program where they sang a few songs, were given their portfolio with all their home work and a few other projects, and we watched a slide show of the different activities they did throughout the year which we were given a DVD of!!  I will be getting a book made of the pictures fo sho. 

We started out with a few cute pictures on her very first last day of school.

 

I let her take her new purse to school too since I could watch over it for her. The  contents include...change, mini brush, hand sanitizer, and chap-stick which is the only item that is truly hers and not something of mine I let her have.  She has repeatedly told me thank you for all of those things.

Once at school and in the class everyone grabbed a book to wait for all of the parents to arrive.  She eventually brought over the book and sat in my lap so I could read it to her.

 

Now it was time for them to sing us some songs.  I could sit and watch those kids all day long.   Just watch them play and sing.  Adorable! 

 

 

My baby girl getting her certificate from her teacher Mrs. Miller...

...and her portfolio from Mrs. Wall.  This has all of her homework and a few other things she has done at school throughout the year.  Not to mention I have kept basically every single little thing that was sent home almost daily in her back pack.  Gotta do something creative with that cause I can't bear to get rid of it right now.

Now it's slide show time!

 

Oh the kids were hilarious.  They were all so excited to see themselves up on the screen and were laughing and pointing each other out.  It was too cute. 

 

I am proud of myself for not crying.  I almost did when she was giving her teachers good bye hugs so I conveniently occupied myself by gathering our belongings so I could suck it up.

 Of course being such a big day and all we gave her a little gift to celebrate what a super duper wonderful job she has done this year and the progress she has made as a person and a student.

"Oh woooow!"

She likes her pink and black baseball glove and ball.

 

Watch out kindergarten, here we come!!

9 down 36 to go

Sometime during the first week of April I started running/walking and cutting back my food portions and trying not to eat a lot of crap and sweets.  I am tired of feeling like a fatty and don't want to tell Kiera I can't run around with her because I am out of shape (since we don't talk about being fat or skinny).  

I decided I would loosely try out the couch to 5k program to pace my self and get into running but the problem is that I have never been a runner.  In high school when I was on the swim team swimming for 3+ hours a day for 3 years and in weight lifting as a class, I could barely finish one lap around the track.    I was in pretty bad shape endurance wise when I started and was dying around the 30 second - 1 minute mark. Kiera has been going with me since the beginning and she used made me look pathetic.  That isn't the case now since I can run longer than she can.  But she really enjoys it and I occasionally go by myself, which is saying something when you exercise alone!  I also found my breathing pattern which I think was the biggest thing to figure out, oh and how exactly to run.  I land on the balls of my feet and man has it given my non existent calves a work out.  And my shins, oh the insides of my shins!  Slowly but surely they are getting stronger and hurt a little less every time but they are getting there!

Alas, my efforts have paid off because I have lost 9 pounds.  That is not a fluctuation in weight for me that is pure weigh loss.  Only I have 36 pounds more to go.  People always say "36 pounds from where?"  Oh trust me its there.  I just so happen to carry my weight very well and evenly all over my body, not all in my legs or all in my stomach, its everywhere.  But my weight has stayed the same for about a week, since I took a little running break to let my problem of a right shin to heal, so I am back on track er the road, I mean sidewalk.

I do have a little goal though.  I plan on participating in the Zoo Run this October.  

 Am I going to do the 5k?  Oh no no no.  My goal is to do the fun run.  Yes the 1 mile fun run.  Seeing as I have NEVER ran a continuous mile in the 32 years of my existence I should be good to do the 1 mile since I have now 5 months to prepare.  And who knows maybe by then I will be able to run 3 miles but I highly doubt it.  I know what my body is telling me and it ain't happening so far.  Maybe I will get to where I can run a fast 1 mile! 

Too bad I don't have any runner friends to participate with me.  Unless there is someone out there that wants to?  Anybody?

Mother's Day Camp

Last weekend had a Mothers Day camp at the river.  The lovely people that made up this camp were James and Kathy (Jimmy's parents), Robbie (their friend from their college days), Kristy (Robbie's daughter), Kameron and Izzy (Kristy's kids), Becky (Robbie's sister), Jimmy, Kiera, and I.  Whew.  It was a lot of fun.  We also did a short little 3-4 mile float trip on Saturday but there are no pictures of that.  I only had my phone so all I got were crappy pictures of everything else.

3 tents, 1 pop up camper, 1 2-wheeler, 2 4-wheelers, 2 kayaks, 3 kids bikes, campfire, marshmallows, beer, wine, good food, rainstorm one night, heavy sleeping, hot coffee, good company. 

 

Jimmy and I slept in this lovely little tent of ours.  We have had this tend for 12 years now.  There wasn't any remaining flat ground to pitch our tent on so we just set it up under the building.  We do have a massive 2 room tent with screened in porch but this was all we needed, along with a blow up mattress.  Yes we have slept in a tent with just a sleeping bag before but not since we were young.  Our bones are too old for that now!  HA!  Oh and Kiera slept in the pop up camper with Nanny and Papa.

This was what it looked like facing out of the tent.  Trees, river, and gravel bar.  It is pure bliss laying in bed listening to the water rushing by.

Kiera and Izzy stayed occupied riding their bikes when they weren't banned from it.  Bikes were off limits during meal prep and eating.   

Robbie, Kameron, Kristy, Izzy, Kiera and I went on a bike ride on Sunday, though everyone actually took a a number of rides over the weekend.  Someone is always on a bike when we're camping.  The road we are on here is in perfect alignment with the Milky Way.  We always ride down to this road at night to see the line of our galaxy. It's absolutely beautiful.

Kiera and Izzy gave me the best mothers day flower bouquet I have ever received.

 Before we left we all took the kids down to the river to swim for a bit.  The water is still pretty darn cool so I didn't swim in it.  Hopefully it's a little warmer when we go back Memorial weekend!

When you turn around to see this in the backseat you know it was a good weekend.  She is sitting in a booster seat by the way.

However this is the reality when you come home.  6 loads of laundry in their neat little piles strung about the living room.  Somehow I got everything done and put away before I went to bed Sunday night, except for the big black comforter in the center.  It's still sitting in the same spot today.  I'll get it done eventually.

8 years

Today marks 8 years of wedded bliss.  There have been plenty of ups and downs but there isn't anyone else I would rather go through all of it with.  Lets take a stroll down Memory Lane...

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

Mother's Day Celebration

Kiera's class had a "Mother's Day Celebration" on Friday for all mom's to have a day of pampering.  I was approved to go into work late so I could attend and enjoyed every minute of it!  

First I walked Kiera to her class and once all the moms arrived with the kids they started their morning routine.  

They said the pledge of allegiance to the flag, sang the song "Oklahoma" to the state flag, and did their Pre-K song.  Oh and then they all counted to 100, which Kiera can do on her own!  By the way she is very well on her way to reading.  She is sounding out words and reading things like "trash"!  Ok then the entire class sang a few mother's day songs they had been practicing for the last month.

 

After the songs were over there were 4 different stations for us to get pampered at.  The first was the "Spa" where she massaged my hands with lotion and painted one of my hands nails with glitter.  We actually had to go back to the station at the end so she could paint them with the glitter since that seemed to be the popular choice.

Next we stopped at the "Jewelry" store and she made me a bracelet.

After that is was a game of Mom-O (Bing0) that I won!  

Then it was time for a snack where she iced us cookies and put sprinkles on them and we had lemonade to drink.  She made mine with rainbow and pink sprinkles and hers had yellow and pink sprinkles.  It was the best cookie I have ever eaten.

The kids had also planted seeds and have grown to be 2 little sprouts.  I can't wait to see what kind of flowers pop up!

My happiest moment was when we had to find the paper the kids made with their version of us.   

It says...
My mom's eyes are greenish (correct)

Her hair is brown (correct)

She likes to sing me songs (Since they day we brought her home from the hospital I sing to her every night at bedtime)

My mom is proud and happy

Wow.  That last line melted my heart.  You never know what your kids truly think of your or how the perceive you but I am definitely glad she sees me as happy.  Not mean when she doesn't get her way all the time.  I would say that I am proud of some things in my life, especially things that really matter like Kiera and Jimmy.

A couple other things Kiera told me about the picture...my lack of hair is because it is short, I am wearing a watch on my wrist which is funny because I never wear a watch, and I am pretty sure that she put my wedding ring on my hand too.  

The day of pampering only lasted and hour but it was one of the best hour's of my life.