Schools OUT for the SUMMER!

I can't believe that school is done for the year.  We have a fifth grader in the house.  CRAZY!

Well, she wasn't very cooperative in getting a last day of school picture, so this is the best I got in the van as I dropped her off for school.

They were all to wear the "Team Jamison" shirt and sign them with Sharpies.  I really wanted a picture of her when she got home, but that didn't work out either.  Oh well.

Her teacher sent home a disk and I actually just popped it in the computer to see what it was.  She made a video of pictures of the kids.  Very cute.  I am so glad she shared it with all her kids from this year.

Although school is out for the summer, our summers don't seem to be a whole lot different.  Hope will still go to "the school" everyday for the summer care program.  They will keep her very busy with all kinds of activities.  Way more stuff then if we were home together and I was entertaining her.  LOL!

Earlier this week she had her last session for gymnastics too.  It was parent night, so we all got to come in the gym and do some exercises with our kids.  There wasn't much I could do.  LOL!

And here is a cute picture I captured of Hope and Taylor snuggling the other morning.

Well, keeping it short for the night.  Everyone have a safe Memorial Day.  Thank you to all the service men and women AND their families for the sacrifice of their service.

Here are a few other thank you cards as well...

Thanks for visiting...

Darla

Recital and more...

It was recital week and I survived, what I expect to be, my last recital.  Hope decided she doesn't want to do dance anymore.  I am ok with it because that will be one less battle each week getting her to dance, etc.  We will see if she changes her mind though when fall comes around.  I am trying to convince her that we can put the money into savings for a trip each year instead of spending it on dance.  LOL!  I hope it works because a trip sounds way more fun than the stress of dance and the recital.  :)

Anyway, Hope did a fantastic job at recital.  So did my sister's twins, Annie and Ally.

Hope had a lot of special family members make the trip to see her dance.  Of course, Joe and I were there, but Aunt Dee (see photo bomb below-LOL)...

...her birth mom Jessica came too.  And of course Aunt Debbie, cousin Kendal, Aunt Dawn and both grandmas (Karen and Deloris) were there too.

I got a few pictures of Hope at rehearsal the other night.  She is the one in the center posing with arms up.

This was her ballet routine to Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas.

This was from her jazz routine...It's a Girl Party.

She wore this same costume for tap also...Walking on Sunshine!

I was such a proud mom.  She did such a great job and had some really groovy moves up there.

After the recital we ate at Hickory Park.  Oh yum!

For several weeks, she has been talking about getting her hair cut short, but I told her she had to wait until after recital since she had to wear it up in a bun.  She couldn't wait until after church to get her haircut, so we stopped on our way and got it cut while Joe and grandma Karen went ahead and saved us seats.

Here is the before...

and here she is after (when we got to church).

Oh it is so cute and will be so much easier to take care of.  :)

And it kind of makes her look even more ornery.  LOL!  If that is even possible.  She is going to donate her hair to a charity that offers wigs to kids at no charge.  She didn't want to get her picture taken with her hair she got cut off, so I held it up for her.

She is very excited to go to school tomorrow to show everyone her new look during the last week of school.  Can you believe that...the last week of school!  I almost have a 5th grader.  Where oh where does the time go.

Before we know it, it will be Christmas again.  Since I brought it up I will just share a few Christmas cards.  LOL!

Have a great day, until next time...

Darla

Congrats to the Mr. and Mrs.

I had a great weekend!

Saturday I worked hard out in the beautiful weather planting flowers and a container garden.

Here are a few close ups of the fairy gardens too.

While I was out buying a few more plants I found this fairy garden lemonade stand.  I thought it was cute since Hope has had a stand too.  

And this year I added my own private beach between our new chairs on the front porch.  Kristi and Evon, I REALLY wish I would have gone back and bought that mermaid at the Junk Jubilee.  I guess I will have to look for one on line.  :)  Or maybe I can go digging in Hope's toy room for Ariel.  LOL!

Flowers I usually have pretty good luck with (outside anyway).  I haven't had good luck with container gardens for veggies, but we will see what happens.  I planted 4 cherry tomatoes, 1 large tomato plant, 1 pepper plant, 4 jalapeño plants and cucumbers.  

Taylor has been enjoying some time outside with us too, but she still has to be chained up.  She got out the other night and ended up down at the neighbor's house where her doggy boyfriend lives.  

Of course she is really cute in the picture above, but when she sees a pair of socks on feet, she turns CRAZY!  Here she was attacking my feet as I tried to walk around until she was able to get the socks off.  Good grief!

So to the point of my title of my post...Saturday night a few ladies gathered together to celebrate the recent marriage of our friend Evon to her husband Bill.  It only took them 22 years to get to the alter.  :)  Congrats you two.  She didn't want anything traditional, so we all met at Social Canvas and painted a pictures.  Here is our masterpieces!  It was a lot of fun!

So in honor of the newlyweds...here are a few cards to share.

Well, this is recital week, so next update will likely be after the marathon day of dancing this weekend!  Have a great week!

Darla

Get your ice COLD lemonade!

Oh the joys of living in suburbia, lemonade stands.  I lived in rural Iowa, so there was just no opportunity to have a lemonade stand to make money.

Hope (and friends) decided on Thursday night after school to open a lemonade stand.

They made posters and went around to all the neighbors to tell them about it.  I think they made about $8 the first night.  They were pretty proud of themselves.  

So on Friday night after work, they all set up again.  They asked me to go to the store to get more lemonade to sell.  Since I did need to go to the store, I agreed to go get them more lemonade too.  They made a little more money and had a few donations too from passers by.  :)

This morning is when things got REAL!  Joe and Hope built a more mobile structure, with wheels and everything!  

Hope could NOT WAIT for one of her friends to get home so they could set it up and get to selling lemonade.  LOL!

Of course it was junk day, where you can put out any kind of junk for the garbage to be picked up, so at some point during the day the kids started collecting items they wanted to keep from the neighbor's piles.  Santa cracked me up.  They were using him for a garbage can since he had a hole in his head.  LOL!

The kids had a lot of fun with the lemonade stand, but I think we need to arrange for it to only be open (maybe) once a week/month over the summer months.  

Most of you will read this as you wake up on Mother's Day.  But today I would like to celebrate one special woman who made a life changing decision to choose Joe and I to be Hope's parents.  Jessica, we love you and are so glad that you are a part of our lives.  Happy Birth Mother's Day (today) and Happy Mother's Day tomorrow.  

And another shout out to MY mom.  Happy Mother's Day to you.  I love you and appreciate everything you do for us.  

And of course, Happy Mother's Day to my mother in law Karen.  Thank you for raising such a wonderful, Joe.  He is a great husband and father, in part because of you.

So in honor of all Mother's, here are a few cards and a layout to share with you.

This is a layout of Mother's day, 2011.  We were visiting Joe's grandma Weber that day.  Although she is gone from this earth, we love and miss you too.

Well, if the computer starts cooperating more, I have a lot more fun things to share with you this week.  We will see how that goes.  

Tomorrow, we get to go see the Lion King.  We gave Hope tickets as part of her birthday present in January.  I think she is going to LOVE IT and I can't wait to see her face as all the animals start to come on to the stage, etc.  I saw the show many years ago, but I can't wait to experience it through Hope.

For those of you still hoping and praying of being moms, I have walked in your shoes.  I may (or may not) know specifically who you are, but know that I am always praying for you.  You will make it through this time.  It is hard, but well worth the struggle (no matter how you become a mom).  Honestly, I still struggle with the day itself.  I am so thankful to be a mom, but those sad years are very difficult to forget.  Also, becoming a mom through adoption is such a bittersweet experience.  On one hand, you have just been given the most incredible gift ever,  and you REALLY do want to be happy.  BUT on the other hand you KNOW the woman that gave you that gift has a broken heart for the gift she just gave you.  Jessica, I will never forget that moment you handed Hope to me.  Thank you just doesn't seem adequate, but for tonight, that is what I have to offer.

Everyone have a great Mother's Day.

Darla