A Big Day

Back in December, when my sister asked Evelyn to be in her wedding (it's in July), she gave Evelyn a pair of earrings to wear on the big day. She had planned on turning them into clip ons since Evelyn doesn't have pierced ears. Of course, my sweet girl was super hopeful that we would get her ears pierced for the wedding so we wouldn't need clip ons.

Now, in my growing up, my sisters and I were allowed to get our ears pierced once we were 10 years old. Evelyn is now almost 9 and 1/2. After talking it over, Doug and I decided this was a special enough occasion and let her get her ears pierced a little earlier than we had planned.

..and tonight it happened!!

Ready to do it!

Checking the pen marks to make sure she likes where the holes will be.

She wasn't nervous until the gal at Claire's brought the gun close to her ears. I could see it in her face! :) But she was brave and sat still.

DONE! She chose her birthstone and they are really pretty!

We celebrated with frozen yogurt!

A big day, a big milestone, a big moment for my big girl. Love her!

Here Chicky, Chicky

Part of the kindergarten curriculum is learning about life cycles of different things, like butterflies, worms, plants, and chickens!! There have been chicken eggs incubating in Matthew's classroom for weeks now and over Memorial Day weekend they started to hatch!! We had the fun opportunity to take two of the baby chicks home for a night. My only hope was that they would survive... and thankfully they did!

After we got them home yesterday afternoon, our neighbors came over to hang out with them. Cannon is in Matthew's class. The chicks weren't necessarily fans of being held so we kept the playtime short! :)

This is their home at our home. They tend to stick close together.. almost folding each other. while in there. It's pretty cute!

Matthew and Evelyn named them "Yawner"(because they look like they are yawning when they eat and drink) and "Roost" (because we think it really is a rooster!). They were so good with them and got them all settled at night before they headed for bed themselves. 

Don't worry, we put Naomi in the basement and she truly had no idea they were even in the house. She did perk up when she would hear them chirp but never really even investigated. I am thankful for that! 

The chicks were alive in the morning (phew!) and we got them back to school without incident. Thankful for the opportunity to keep them and also thankful to bring them back!!

3rd Grade Urban Walking Tour

I love school field trips. Really I do. Sometimes, tho, I enjoy hanging with the kids more than the activity itself. Today, tho, Evelyn and her mates went on a tour of downtown with people from Urban Walking Tours, and it was one of the most fun and more interesting field trips yet! I think we all learned a lot about our fine city and saw parts of town that I may not normally go to let alone take my kids to. Evelyn really had a fun time, I had had a fun time watching her have a fun time! :)

We started at Skidmore Fountain, and tour guide Debbie immediately grabbed the kids' attention with her whit and charm. She used to be a teacher..this gig is right up her alley and she was amazing!!

This super old Fire Truck was on display in the Fire Station. It was cool!

China town.. the gate is way more beautiful than this photo shows!

Evelyn and her friend Jasmine.. they had fun hanging out together.

Debbie and her charges... she really was awesome!

My small group... these kids are pretty great!

Evelyn couldn't stop talking about all she saw and learned on this trip. This will be a memorable field trip for sure! I highly recommend Urban Walking Tours, too!

Memorial Day Fun

What a fun day we had today with Doug's family! As always we met at the cemetery to clean up the graves of those who have gone before us. Then we did something different and headed to Dallas City Park for a picnic. It worked out wonderful and we all had a great time, especially the kids!

My kids take the grave clean up very seriously and are always helpful.

The Morris brothers!

ve 

Cousins!

Love theses silly faces!

Playground fun... I love that the park has some "old school" play equipment!

The little kids ventured down to the creek with Grandad and had fun playing on and throwing the rocks!

They keep getting bigger! Pretty soon we won't be able to call them the "little cousins"!

Zach and Matthew throwing the football... which Matthew LOVED!

I can't believe I didn't get one photo of the food or the adults, but we all had a super fun time together catching up! Looking forward to next year already!

AWANA Award Night

We wrapped up another year of AWANA tonight, with Matthew finishing up his first year in Sparks and Evelyn finishing her first year in T&T. It was a busy year in club for our family, as ALL of us participated in one way or another. Doug continued his role as a small group leader, and I accepted the role as Sparks secretary for this year as well. We are thankful to be involved in this ministry as a family.

Here are some photos from Award Night tonight....

My tall boy, up on stage and loving singing the songs he learned this year!

Evelyn is always enjoying worship time as well!

Evelyn and Heidi have been in club together for 5 years and I love their friendship!

My sweetie getting recognized for his 5 years of service.

He was excited about his ribbon!

...and all of his awards!

Those little hands.... I will always love them!

Evelyn and Heidi showing off their awards! They had to memorize a lot more verses this year and they both did great and worked hard! I am proud of them!

Love these two dearly!

Here's to another year of AWANA under our belt. Looking forward to a break for summer yet also excited about starting up again in the fall!

Spring Concert

It's that time of year.. Spring Music Concert time! Even tho I love to watch my kids perform and will be at every performance/game/whatever it at all possible, I was VERY thankful that both Evelyn and Matthew had their concert together this year (they split the grades up and do multiple concerts). Both kids did great and Matthew had a blast at his first school concert!

They are becoming such lovely young people!!

Evelyn had been sick earlier in the week but pushed thru and did great on her solo!

Matthew smiled the entire time. I love my sweet boy!

All of the kinders and 3rd graders!

We are so fortunate that Evelyn has such great friends!

Another concert down, many more to go!:)