Theresa Graduated!

This is my beautiful niece Theresa and her nephew, JB on Theresa's high school graduation day.

 

It was a beautiful day for such a great kid to graduate.  To celebrate moving from one phase of her life into the next.

 

 Chris and I surprised Theresa by flying my other niece (Theresa's sister), Nicole and new nephew up for the graduation.  The original plan was for Nicole to be here the night before but due to plane delays and missed flights, oh and the airline loosing JB's car seat, Nicole didn't get here until a few minutes after the ceremony started.  So, from her seat up on stage Theresa saw her sister walk in with the baby!  I am so thrilled that Theresa LOVED her gift!  And as an added bonus I got to love on my new great nephew (although putting the "great" in front makes me sound old!) for a while!

It was a beautiful day and mother nature was very good to us!

Grandparents all came from afar to be at this long awaited occasion!

Heather loving on her new nephew for the first time!

Theresa, Nicole and baby JB!

Daddy's little girl....

 

Lots of family came for a celebration after!  I have a ton of pictures but if I put them all in one post it would be crazy long so I will have to do another one!

Theresa and Laney!

I am so very proud of you Theresa!!!

Arizona Critters

When we went to Arizona in April the kids were very happy to go critter hunting!

 

It didn't take them long before finding their first lizard.

Which they immediately made a habitat for. They made an easy way out for him in case he didn't want to stay in their man made habitat.  I wasn't overly surprised that he was gone when we went to look at him a little bit later.

I am pretty sure the kids caught at least one lizard per day!  Sometimes it was a few a day.

 

Maggie found a caterpillar at the park and was thrilled!  She was sure to have me take pictures of her critter as well.

Connor and Katelyn are the main critter catchers in our family.

I am really enjoying the zoom on my camera so I can get these up close pictures with out actually getting too close!  Since, you know, they are all thinking about how fun it would be to jump on me at any second!  The critters, not my children, although my children are known to do jumping as well.

Thanks Arizona, the critters were great!

A spring day

At the park on a beautiful spring day

 

 

the sun was shining and the sky was blue

One reason I guess I should be thankful for winter is that spring days like this are oh so sweet

Oh so sweet, just like this little guy

Boston Strong

I took these pictures of Ben in Arizona a few days after the "Boston Marathon Bombings" that shook Boston, New England, and our whole country to the core.  What a sad and tragic day for sure.
Yet, love, courage, and strength came from this tragedy and that must also be acknowledged and remembered.

I knew many people running the marathon and even more family and friends there supporting people they love who were running.  Thank God all those people were unharmed, physically at least. Emotionally, well that's another story, they will all carry invisible scars from that day for the rest of their lives.

 

So Ben was wearing his Boston Red Sox hat to show his support!

BOSTON STRONG

Gumball maker

Ben was given a new playdough set for Easter from his great Auntie Joanne.  It's a "candy store" themed set and Ben LOVED it!  He played with it for a long time and I may have also played with it for just as long.  I actually love playdough, always have and probably all ways will, and am so glad my kids love it too.

 

 

 

So, as you can surely imagine, I have played with a lot of different playdough sets. Most of the time I kinda think they are a waste of money and that regular old kitchen things are much better.  Like rolling pins, cookie cutters, and meat pounders. 

But this, oh this was GREAT!  My favorite playdough set ever!  So much so that I bought it as a birthday gift for a cousin's birthday.

Thanks for sharing Ben and thanks to Auntie Joanne for a great gift!

My mothers day!

I am so blessed

 

I love my family

And, oh these children, they are my world

Every smile and giggle

Every dirty face and muddy hand

 

Watching them play and explore

 

Learn and grow

 

Their "amazingness" awes me every day

I'm so glad I was picked to be their mommy

Connor and Connor

This is Connor and Connor!  For this post we will call my Connor,CJ, as to not confuse the two.
Connor lives down the street from us and the boys have become quite the friends.  The boys played all day yesterday and were having such a fun time.
CJ and I were supposed to have a Mom/CJ date last night.  I asked CJ if he would like Connor to join us and he was thrilled with the idea.  So off we set to go to dinner and do a little shopping.

It was fun but a little crazy and I discovered that taking two boys out to dinner is a much different experience then taking two girls out!  We went out for Mexican, yummy.

I tried to get some cute pictures of the two great friends, like I do with the girls, but unlike the girls they refused to take a "cute" picture and only wanted to take "silly" pictures.  Oh well, they are goofy boys so that's ok.

After desert we decided to head home for a sleepover instead of going shopping.  It was CJ's first time having a friend sleep over at our house and they had a great time!  They were together for almost 24 hours and didn't bicker one time.  It went really well and I'm sure it won't be too long before we do it again!