summertime fun

let the good times roll!  summertime is here and we couldn't be happier!

we went to the park.  i was reading a magazine and when i looked up to check on the boys i couldn't see them.  i waited a few seconds to see if they would emerge from inside a slide or play structure.  when they did not, i started to get a little nervous.  but quickly i noticed a little head peak up above a nearby hill and when i went over to scold them for disappearing, i couldn't help but pull out the camera to capture what lured them away from the playground.

the joy of rolling down a hill!

subsequently, i won't mention all the little red hives over noodle's body after this personal meeting with nature.  i knew this would happen, but i just couldn't spoil their fun!

we resurrected the old slip 'n slide one hot afternoon.

and we even had an old fashioned water balloon fight. i was exempt for picture-taking purposes!  some might say how convenient but to those i say how smart!

the loot.

the fight.

so glad to be on summer break!

cca graduation

the final school event of the year was graduation, held last friday night.  john was so proud to be able to wear his hood this year as part of the graduation regalia, having completed his master's degree.  it's been fun to expose the boys to these ceremonies.  i have answered a lot of questions about robes, colors, hats, and the like!  i think it is great that they are able to see the fruits of years of hard work at such an early age.

dewey and john

conner and john

john and the boys

burrito and "his senior" elizabeth (also the salutatorian). you might remember me mentioning before that each grammar school class has a boy and girl senior assigned to it, and the seniors visit the class throughout the year.  the kindergarteners practically worship their seniors.  it's really cute.

burrito and "his senior" johnny.  burrito would not let us leave graduation without finding his seniors first for a picture.

one day way too soon these hats will be for real and my boys will be all grown up.  Lord help me appreciate each moment with my guys.

senior dinner

last thursday night, john and i had the privilege of attending the CCA senior dinner.  this is a night in which the seniors are robed by a person of their choosing prior to graduation the following night.  this year's senior dinner was held at the fort worth club, and it was a lovely evening.  there was good food and good company.  it was truly touching to hear each senior's tribute to the person that they had chosen...some were friends, some parents, some relatives, some siblings, some pastors.

we were invited to this special occasion by one of john's students, andrew samples, affectionately known as "dewey."  dewey chose his well-deserved mother (also a CCA teacher) to robe him. 

this was especially poignant for me to watch as a mom of two sons.  what a sweet moment, and i couldn't help but fast forward 12 years and imagine what it will be like when my boys graduate.

dewey and his mom have special places in our hearts.  our boys love dewey and cheered him on at many basketball games.  in fact, they would often pretend to be dewey when playing basketball in the hallway of our home.  john particularly loved challenging dewey on the basketball court in a shootout and in the hallway as dewey and his buddies tried (unsuccessfully i might add) to wrestle john to the ground.  john and i both loved the fact that he taught seniors this year because of the unique relationships you make with students that age.  just love it!  and dewey was even sweet enough to forgive me for yelling (in the kindest way, of course) at him when he served as john's coach for the donkey basketball.  thanks for not taking me too seriously!

and dewey's mom debbie is super sweet and funny (and the coolest member of the moms of boys only club)!  she teaches logic school science and is the mom of three boys, dewey being the youngest.  debbie was super sweet to our family after my surprise surgery back in january.  she loved on our family with food and gifts, and we will be forever grateful to her for her kindness.

thanks debbie and dewey for letting us be a part of your special night!

foundation signing

our school is building a new pre-grammar and grammar school building.  our pre-grammar classes are currently housed at a nearby church and the grammar classes are in portable buildings on our main campus.  the LORD miraculously provided the land and the finances required to expand and it has been so exciting to watch the progress at the construction site.

last week famililes of the school were given the opportunity to sign the foundation.  i was surprised at the spirit of the place when were were there.  i'm not sure if i can put it into words but it felt spiritual.  it was the sweetest sight to see families gathered, writing a verse that they had chosen together, and praying that God would bless future generations to come.  being the sentimental freak that i am, i just loved it.

we talked about what verse we wanted to write and decided on burrito's suggestion.

he had just memorized Jeremiah 29:11 and it seemed quite appropriate for this occasion.

"for i know the plans i have for you," declares the LORD.  "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

and we all signed our names.

it was such a privilege to be a part of this history.  and who knows, perhaps these will be future CCA graduates!

end of school celebrations

well, the end of our school year went out with a bang!  here are just a few things that went on during that time.

we celebrated burrito's friend kayla's birthday at my personal favorite place (insert sarcasm here), chuck e. cheese.  we just made an afternoon of it and ordered pizza for lunch just prior to the start of the party.  i think we were there for over 3 hours.  the boys had a blast!  noodle driving the monster truck was the funniest thing of all!

i have to admit their pizza is really good!

and poor chuck e. was just about mauled at the party.  no kids scared of big people dressed in costumes here!

and burrito's class celebrated the completion of kindergarten with a trip to my gym and then the park.  noodle and i joined him for the celebration.  after decorating those cute orange pails, the class presented his teacher with an autographed t-shirt and flowers.

 

sweet friends.

my little kindergarten graduate!

even though the party ended a bit early due to rain, i think everyone had a fabulous time celebrating the end of the school year together.  goodbye kindergarten, it was a great year!

our supermom

many of you may be wondering why our mom hasn't blogged in so long and while we thought it would be funny to tell you that we have her tied up and held for ransom, the truth is that she has been so busy being supermom, that she hasn't had time to blog.

what has our mom been doing?  don't worry...she has multiple blog posts coming and of course, lots of pictures!  that woman never tires of picture taking! 

she even made us pose at church on sunday so she could get a picture of us in our new church clothes.  we do agree with her that we are handsome but does she really have to take our picture all the time???

so consider yourself warned...there are about to be a lot of blog posts and pictures!!!

over and out,
burrito and noodle

john's graduation

it seems like a million years ago when john started work towards attaining his master's degree in humanities from the university of dallas.  burrito had just turned 3, noodle was 1.5 and we were living in our first house, about an hour from the university.  i wish i could say that i was a supportive and understanding wife when john first broached the subject of continuing his education.  i was not.  i was not happy that he was choosing to spend the whole month of july driving to dallas while i was at home with 2 young sons.  you know, during a month when he could be home all day with us, on summer break.  and to make matters worse, he had to do the same thing the next summer.  what was he thinking?!?!?

he was thinking about long-term advantages, and i could only see the present.  i am so glad that he's the head of our family, and i am not!  and being on the completed end of this adventure, i can look back and say that it wasn't that bad and went by relatively quickly.  and when i consider how he managed to work a full time teaching job (with a job change in the middle), take 6 hours a semester and do both of those without neglecting his family in the least bit, i am truly amazed.  my husband is a hard worker!

so today was especially sweet as we, as an entire family, realized the fruits of his labor.  it was such a proud moment for me to be able to see my husband take the stage to receive his degree.  we met and were married a few years after we finished college so this was the first time for me to see him graduate, and i especially loved that our boys were able to witness their father's achievement as well.

the graduation ceremony was outside in the mall of the university, in the shadow of this huge bell tower.

the weather ended up being beautiful and a little warm by the end of the ceremony.  we were fortunate enough to have the shade of a nearby tree.  i didn't get a picture of john walking across the stage (i chose to get video of that instead) but here is a picture of him proceeding out.

and here is the proud graduate.  he looks so distinguised!

and because this was truly a family affair, we took some family pictures too!

congratulations to my husband and best friend!  we are so proud of you!

burrito's kindergarten program

this past thursday evening was burrito's end of the year kindergarten program.  we've been working for weeks on memorizing his speaking part and talking about being courageous and speaking in front of an audience.  each child had a speaking part in the program and they went through the letters of the alphabet to share some of what they've learned this year.  it was so sweet to hear each child speak about Jesus, recite Scripture and sing songs to God.  it made me realize the precious gift we have in Jesus and the gift of this opportunity to go to a school where Christ is interweaved into everything they learn.

burrito was the fourth child to speak and he incessantly talked about the cues the teachers would give to remind each child when it was their turn to speak.  here he is getting ready for his delivery.

and then the big moment came!  he was so excited to speak into a real microphone.  his lines were:

"a is for apples, we're the apple of God's eye, so was his servant johnny, who sowed his seeds and slept under the sky."

then they sang a johnny appleseed song.  i breathed a sigh of relief that he did not succumb to stage fright, spoke his lines clearly, and seemed to enjoy his moment in the spotlight.

all of the kids did really well and were eager to help each other out.  it made me wonder how many of these kids would end up graduating together as the class of 2022.

speaking of graduation, john graduates from the university of dallas in the morning with his masters of humanities degree.  we are excited to see him walk across that stage and receive his diploma.  it was a family effort so i think it's especially exciting for all of us to participate in celebrating his graduation.

summer is almost here and we can't wait!

postscript

after speaking with my husband regarding my previous blog post, we thought it would be wise to add a postscript.

you know, a p.s.......

p.s.  i love aprons.  my husband giving me an apron for mother's day is not/was not/will never be a sexist gift as far as i'm concerned.  i love aprons, i love most things associated with the 1950's and i know aprons are a thing of the past, and i love my role as wife and mother and cook and cleaner and to be able to don a rather cute and stylish apron while doing those things makes those things a little more enjoyable.

you should try it, really.

while this apron is not actually vintage (it came from world market by the way), it sure looks it and i couldn't be happier about it.  so while most women prefer jewelry, pedicures or perfume for mother's day, i prefer aprons.

just wanted to clear that up.

thanks :)

happy mother's day

this is my mother's day present.  it is perfect.  i love aprons...now i just need my mid-century kitchen to wear it in!  happy mother's day to all the mommies out there! (picture taken by noodle)

the zoo with john and my birthday celebrations

last friday provided a rare treat for us...burrito and john both had the afternoon off from school and to celebrate we headed to our favorite place, the zoo of course!  it just also happened to be the last day for us to go before our zoo passes expired so it worked out perfect.  we met our good friends who have 1 year old twins and had so much fun!

the boys were just slightly overexcited to show john every square inch of the zoo, especially the new MOLA exhibit.  it was fun to go slow and see if we could find all the snakes, bugs and critters through each window.

and i was excited to have someone there to actually take a picture of me and the boys at the zoo instead of me always being the one behind the camera!

we thought this monkey was so funny.  she would just sit and ignore us and then look up and put her hand on her head like "what do you want?"

the rhinos were out and about that day too, and we think these two were in love because they would rub their faces up against each other through the fence and then touch lips as if to kiss!

the boys are always fans of the meerkats, thanks to the movie the lion king.  look real close and you'll see burrito and noodle!

the elephants were super active too!  the zookeepers had given them several big branches full of leaves for their afternoon snack and they were eating them up.

we spent over 3 hours there and it felt just like heaven to me.  i just love that place and it is full of memories for our family.

after we left the zoo, we zipped back to our house because aunt stacey was coming over to watch the boys for john and i to go out for dinner.  it was my birthday present and a great one at that!  john and i tried bj's brewery, a new restaurant that is always packed and it was this night too.  i ordered the open-faced meatloaf sandwich with cheddar potatoes, onion strings and grilled veggies.  it was SO HUGE, john said i had to take a picture.  so i did!  see?

it was really good and i felt stuffed for days!

on saturday we celebrated my birthday at my mom's for dinner.  i picked cousin's bbq, fried potatoes, and lemon pound cake to eat for my birthday dinner.  it was so yummy and we had so much fun just relaxing and watching the boys play outside.

my actual birthday was spent with a stomach bug, not exactly how i wanted to celebrate but i was thankful to have celebrated with family beforehand.

and this week has been a week of cleaning, organizing and enjoying time with noodle at home.  on thursday we went "treasure hunting" at one of our favorite thrift stores and had so much fun.  noodle is such a good shopper and was so patient, even while i tried on some clothes.  so we celebrated by stopping at this really fun park with the spider web climber.

tonight was super sweet to me because both boys wanted to snuggle up with me on my bed before bedtime and we just talked about our day and plans for the weekend.  i just love these sweet times with my boys and i am so thankful for them.