Kindergarten comes to an end for my Aidan

It doesn't seem like so long ago on an August morning that I walked you to Mrs. McCarthy's door.  The door you would enter for the next year, I kept it together but as I was leaving the room my tears began to flow.  And now I can't believe that my little boy is ending his first year of school and getting ready to be a very important first grader!

Everyone came to see your end of the year Kindergarten performance Grammy and Papa, Grandma and Nono, G.G., and Mommy, Daddy, Mikyla, and Ethan. You were so excited and almost embarrassed when I kept taking pictures, which is a little too early on in your childhood for that.  And knowing me you should get used to mommy taking pictures, lots of pictures! 

You got cookies after the performance, which was just icing on the cake for you!  Then you got everyone's congratulations and love. I can't tell you how proud I am of you and I have loved seeing you grow this past year into such a wonderful and smart little boy!

Arrrrr Matey!

Caleb and Mikyla aboard the pirate ship

What to do on a Saturday when Daddy has gone fishing?  Why not go and find us some pirates, so down we went to Fresno!  There was so much to do and pirates galore!  We found a pirate ship right as we walked into the festival with a genuine pirate welcoming the kids aboard.  Aidan cracked me up when he asked him what happened to the parrot on his shoulder?  Too clarify the pirate had a bunch of feathers and a few sticks attached to his shoulder.  The pirate then told Aidan that it was a sad day when a canon ball hit his pet, and that he was a horrible parrot anyway, "always mouthing off!"  Cracked me up, my oh so shy son! 

Aidan after his winning game of Royal Goose.

CANON BALL!

 We got to play games of the 1700's with the Royal Goose, Aidan even won!  And then there were the belly dancers and the parrot show, all the while canons randomly going off.  The canons going off first when we arrived did not sit well with Mr. Ethan, he was down right scared and didn't want anything to do with the pirate ship and then later he started saying BOOM after every canon was shot, funny!  Aidan got to try his hand at archery with Nono's help and got two arrows on the bulls eyes, I was pretty impressed! 



Aidan and Mikyla signing their lives away to be pirates!



Nono helping Aidan shoot a bulls eye!

Ethan getting down to the beat of the belly dancers

What fun cousins are.

Mikyla and Aidan even got to sign up to be a pirate.  Aidan signed his name to a contract with a feather quill and ink and then it was Mikyla's turn and Aidan had to tell the pirate, "Oh she can't write her name so I'll do it for her";  getting ink ALL over his hand in the process.  After some lunch and ice cream it was time to go, a great day with Aunty Brooke, Uncle Matt, Caleb, and of course Nono and Grandma.  When asked what there favorite part of the day was Aidan said, "I liked when I got to shoot the arrows", and Mikyla said that, "the parrots were neat and she liked the bathrooms."  This was hilarious because she had to use the port a potties not once but twice, I don't know what the fascination was, but she had it!

Uncle Matt has everyone during the parrot show.

Ice Cream!!!

Ethan and Aunty Brooke at lunch.

Ethan loved the pirate ship as we left!

Aunty Brooke was putting her fingers to her cheeks to get Ethan to smile, he thought he should copy her!

A mother's love for all!

I was awoken by an anxious little boy bursting to give me his very special gift that he made me at school.  I love the excitement he had, and of course I loved the magnet with his picture and the card with his hand print and picture.  Aidan told me, "Mrs. McCarthy said to hide your gift in a good place and someone said to put it under their bed, so that is just where I put it, I knew you would never look for it there."  It was so cute! And then came the gift from Daddy, it was a special plaque that said being a mother was a holy privilege.  It is, and I decided to put it next to the sink in my kitchen to remind me of that fact during those not so holy feeling situations.

 After church we had a barbecue back at our place with all the moms from the family, dads were there too of course, but it was just a relaxing time with family.  We had a great time listening to our parents talk about goofy things about our childhood and then they even got into their own.  I think these kinds of times are so much more special to me because I know the fact that they aren't going to be here forever and I want to soak up as much of them into my memory as I can; because I'm sure you know my memory is like an elephant's...I never forget anything!  We even got some information from the trivia king A.K.A Nono about Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers.  And then the perfect ending,  a bedtime story courtesy of mommy.  Daddy relinquished his storytelling role for the night saying it was mommy's day.  I love my life and all three of my precious blessings!

Play Ball

It was the annual Ag Night game at the Fresno Grizzly's and we were all excited because Uncle Matt and Aunty Brooke were going to meet us with Caleb, Cora and Adelaide.  We started by feeding our bellies with some delicious Barbeque, and after getting a little messy we were off to find our seats. 

 I was pretty excited because our seats were amazing, right along the third base line, and we realized that we probably should have brought a a baseball mitt in case of foul balls.  We weren't seated very long before Mr. Lonnie, who works with Daddy bought all of the kids ice cream.  Chocolate and ice cream and baseball, what could be better.

 
I would have to say that playing and going on all the rides with your cousins topped everything. Before we left for the game Aidan was talking about how he wasn't going to go on the Merry-Go-Round because "it was for little babies."  It didn't take me long to convince him otherwise and he then he was having trouble deciding which animal he would go on.  He is definitely at a stage where if he thinks that a first grader wouldn't do it then he thinks he is too old to do it too.  It's hilarious because it really never takes much to convince him that he's not too old.  Even though it got really windy by the end of the night we had a great time, and both Aidan and Mikyla conked out on the car ride home!  Too bad my camera battery died before I was able to get some pictures of you guys and your cousins, next time.

Camera Joyride

Mikyla is the sneekiest little girl sometimes, and she is good at not getting caught, most of the time!  The other day while I was entertaining some of the senior ladies at a luncheon she snagged my camera without me even knowing it; I turned around and there she was handing my camera back to me.  So sweet of her to find my camera and return it to me, right?  Later I was going through the pictures that I had taken of the ladies and low and behold there was my little girls face.  She had taken the camera and taken pictures of not only herself but of the many objects around the yard and house.  I saw the swing set the playhouse and then the many aspects of her bedroom.  She had a great time expressing herself...I got to see every kind of face that she had in her bag of tricks.  I was mad and had to disapline her by reminding her what will happen to her if she ever decides to take my camera for a joy ride again; but I couldn't help but laugh to myself because it was so darn cute!

 

Family added and taken away

 

 

This Easter had new faces with the addition of Amanda's fiance's family Joe and Boscha; and we had to try and have as much fun as we could without the rest of the family who was in Idaho.  We went out to Grammy and Papa's as always to get our egg dieing skills sharpened, and as always there were an enormous amount of eggs, crayons, stickers, and even fuzzy orange hair that wouldn't stay put, to get the job done.  Joe and Boscha were very good with you guys helping with the egg dieing process and we were told that they even memorized everyone of you kid's names before they came.  They even knew who was missing and in Idaho. Aidan, you were in your prime without a shy bone in your body, wouldn't stop talking to our guests and doing most anything to make them laugh.  While Mikyla, of course, stayed pretty close to my side and smiling from a distance and Ethan was a little shy at first but then warmed up to Boscha who helped you die your eggs over and over again into as many colors as you could.

 

Easter was so exciting with the arrival of the Easter bunny in the morning and finding out what he brought to you.  Mikyla, you got up so early and got so restless waiting for Aidan to get up so you could go out to find your baskets.  After church we went out to Grammy and Papa's to join everyone else, and of course we had to take pictures in our Easter outfits before changing into more comfortable clothes, more fitting to hunting eggs. 

 

 We ate a great feast, but the kids table was so much quieter, and it made us miss our cousins and Aunty Andrea and Uncle Britt even more. Next came the hunt, all you kids were rounded up in the front living room to wait while Daddy, Uncle Matt and Megan hid the eggs.  Then it was on and I have to say that Aidan, being the oldest you were the fastest egg finder around, with Mikyla a close second very upset if you ran faster to get an egg that she saw first.  Ethan, you were more interested in the color and the way the egg looked than the amount you found. After hunting eggs two times Daddy and Uncle Matt took you for rides on Grammy and Pappa's new four wheeler, and we enjoyed a special call from Clayton all the way from Idaho.