Finishing Up May

For Memorial Day we packed up and headed to a little public beach at a local lake.  We packed a picnic and had a lot of fun just playing around until the crowds really began to show up after lunchtime!

Oh my gosh, it was so hot!  We drove around while the kids napped and looked at so many places around the lake that we had never been to before.  It was neat to explore new corners of our town.

Our neighborhood pool opened, so we started trying to go in the evenings a little bit!

James Spann would be so proud of our tornado preparedness!  We kicked back and took cover in the laundry room late one night and the boys baked us a "cake" in the mixer while we waited for our tornado warning to pass.  Even though I often sleep through tornado warnings (umm woops!), I don't play around and I get my kiddos in helmets if it's starting to look pretty rough.

Just a fun shot of a random, lazy summer morning.  We were so happy to not really have to be anywhere except gymnastics and PT/OT all summer long!  I baked yummy breakfasts a lot of mornings, we worked on our Bible devotionals over breakfast, and I just literally enjoyed not really having to rush them to do much of anything.  It felt so good!  I felt like I had a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders.

I wanted to make sure I enjoyed every second of my summer with them .  I wanted to really cherish our last little bit of time together before kindergarten started up in the fall.

We set to work doing fun things like puzzles, painting the house with water, and playing Memory!

Matthew loves to play Memory lately!

Preschool Graduation

Better late than never with blogging, right?!  I am so far behind so I thought I would pick up where we left off in May!  We were so excited that Meme and Papa drove up to come to John Michael's preschool graduation.  It was a fun, sweet time and a really cute ceremony,  I am constantly surprised at how fast our mother's day out then preschool years went by. It's definitely bittersweet to think of these crazy, tiring, baby-filled days slowly growing into having kids start school and grow and learn.

Here's John Michael with his sweet pal.  I had to get a picture with the two of them!

John Michael loved his teacher this year, Mrs. Beth!  He learned so, so much.  She was such a good combination of firm but gentle leading. I was so happy to drop him off with her, knowing she was showing Jesus' love when I wasn't there with him.   I was so surprised at how much he memorized throughout the year.  Kids really are like a sponge.

You know what's next....Kindergarten!!

After the graduation ceremony their class went to the park for a fun party!  All the kids played together one last time and they released their butterfly that they had been taking care of in class.

Now, it's officially summer!!!!

Last Day of Preschool

It seems like the last day of preschool came so quickly this year!  This year seemed to go by very fast!  Here are the boys on their last day!  Matthew had a water day so he wore his swim trunks to school.

Here they are this year:

And last year's last day of school:

Here's John Michael this year:

And here he is last year's last day of school:

Matthew had fun playing in the water for his last day of mother's day out.  He will start preschool next year!

We always go out for an ice cream treat for our last day of school!

We had some chick fil A and it was so fun.  We stayed for a bit a played in the play place.

I've been so proud of how well Matthew did at mother's day out this year.  He loved to do his art, loved his teachers, and really enjoyed going on Wednesdays.  I know he will love preschool next year too.  I'm also so sad that John Michael is finished with preschool.  I have no idea how life went this quickly!  We are proud of how much he learned and progressed this year.  We still have a lot of struggles with handwriting and his grip/strength of his pencil holding but he is doing great and learned so much this year from his teachers!

All By Mysellllllfffff!!!

The one things I've noticed so far this year how well, how much easier everything is getting.  There, I said it.  It's hard, if you don't have three crazy boys all crammed together in the span of 3 years, to understand what the last 3-ish years have been like.  It's been plain hard.  Potty training, nursing, meltdowns, exhaustion, Jordan working a LOT,  no family in town to help or give us a small break, you get the picture!  Now that Noah is almost 2, we are coming up on some really fun times.  Not that I didn't take the boys places by myself, but it was just hard and I usually had to go sit in the car with a movie on for the boys so I could feed Noah and it just took forever!

Here lately, things are getting fun and I'm finally getting to a point where I feel really comfortable packing them up and taking them by myself and going and doing things that normally I wouldn't have done by myself a year ago.

Last month we packed up and drove out to our drive through safari, which is the coolest place ever!  This was a big deal for me, mainly because I am terrified to be in the giant petting zoo part with the donkeys and goats that try to eat you.  Not to mention the chickens and pigs that follow you around.  I usually make Jordan take them in there, but this time I went in there and I didn't want to act scared because I want my boys to have a sense of wonder and excitement at seeing all these cool animals up close!

Everyone acted so great, they all obeyed and truly made it an enjoyable experience to be out with them!  Whenever we have a successful library trip or a great trip out and about, I just think YES!  Yes!  It was so, so worth it all those months of really hard times of leaving places to discipline unacceptable behavior.

Of course we had to stop by our all-time favorite pizza place, Pioneer Pizza!  It's the best after a long day at the safari!

I love that they are still ok playing games without actually having to put money in the game!

I know this isn't everyone's experience with having lots of small children in a row, but for me there was just nothing easy about it.  Sure, we still have meltdowns.  Yes, we still have to discipline unacceptable behavior but it feels like it's getting less and less and they are turning into truly awesome little guys that are a pleasure to be around.  (and as a side note, may I say that bless his heart, Noah is still in the middle of hitting the terrible 2s and we have a LOT of work to do on that little stinker!)

I took them to the pool all by myself yesterday.  We packed lunch, ate there, and stayed about an hour and a half in the water.  They all behaved, everyone was safe, there was laughing and splashing and jumping and when it was time to go, they all came and got dry and helped me carry our things out to the car. They even put their swim trunks and towels into the washer when we got home!  As I buckled everyone into their car seats, I wanted to cry because it was just a big mom-achievement moment and it was bittersweet.  Bitter because they are in fact, growing up.  Sweet because, although we are NOT perfect by any means, they are slowly choosing obedience in their hearts and that just makes me happy!

His Amazing Handiwork

The next day when we woke up at the beach and I walked into the den and saw this.....

my jaw about hit the floor.  It was just so beautiful!  It took my breath away!  I just sat and stared at God's glory and how he shows it in small things and in big  things too, like the beauty of ocean!  We ate on the patio as much as possible just to soak in this view!  Absolutely amazing!

We have three distinct personalities going on at the beach.  Matthew doesn't like it and will only dig a little bit or make castles and then stomp on them or destroy them.  He does not like the water or the beach at all.  His true love is being in the pool and jumping in 1,000 times!

John Michael takes after me!  He loves the water, he loves the beach, he loves to find shells, and he just loves looking at the waves and the ocean!  The first thing he says in the morning is that he's ready to go down to the shore! I love his adventurous spirit when we travel!

Noah's motto for the beach is: "I dun wike".  He doesn't like the beach and he definitely doesn't like the water.  It makes me sad because I want to stay at the beach for hours on end but they aren't very into that at this age.

We ate at Captain Anderson's and then went to Pirate's Island mini golf.  The boys LOVE mini golf!  We actually went back to this same one another night.  It was so clean and well kept and I just loved being around all of the flowers and greenery that they have there.  I definitely recommend it if you're in the Panama City Beach area!

Date night! Hello!!  We were so excited to go on a date night by ourselves while the grandparents kept the boys.  We ate at the Saltwater Grill and it was one of the best meals we've had in years.  Everything was wonderful and tasted great.  We were pleasantly surprised to have picked a great place.

Here I am with my 3 beautiful blessings from God on Mother's Day.  I still can't believe that they are mine sometimes.  They are fun, sweet, crazy, cranky sometimes, loving, and all around the best boys I could have ever even hoped to have.

What a great time we had at the beach!