Thursday, May 31, 2012

Josie & Jolie

Two things I want to share this morning.  First a conversation Jolie and I had this morning:



.Jolie: Who put our heads on?

Me: God.

Jolie: How did he do it?

Me: I'm not sure, you'll have to ask him one day.

Jolie: (looking to her side) God, how did you put our heads on?

Jolie: (talking to me) I can talk to him because he is everywhere and because I know he is right here beside me.

Me: That's right. He is always with you and he loves you.

Jolie: I love God too.


All I can say, is on days like this I feel like I must be doing something right as a mom.


Today is Josie's last day of school.  Here are some pictures I took.




 Josie and her friend Kielie:

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Our Weekend

I know you must all be shock getting this many posts after going a month or so without any. 

This past weekend was a good weekend.  Friday after we picked up the kids from school we went and ate at McAllisters.  After dinner we went to Bass Pro Shops and walked around.  Actually after looking at everything we kind of started a game of hide and seek.  (Sidenote: I won).  After Bass Pro Shops we went to  downtown Prattville to walk around.  It really is beautiful, and the kids loved walking in new scenery.  It was late when we got home and we all crashed that night.

The next morning Joe left to go help my dad with a project while the kids and I met Quint and Ansleigh at the Zoo.  We had a good morning, but with the temp. reaching 96 degrees, I imagine that will be the last visit for a couple months.  Thank goodness they have all the misters to walk through to help cool you down.

Take 1:

Take 2:

Third time is a charm:




Momma peacock with about ten babies:

Isn't he beautiful.  If there is a such thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a peacock.  I think they are so beautiful.  You can tell these at the Zoo are quite used to people, because I probably could have reached out and touched him and his buddies.

The kids didn't want to stop looking at the monkeys.


















After the Zoo we went home for some down time and naps.  After naps and lunch we headed over to Other Mama and Pap-Paws.  The kids played while Pap-Paw and Joe worked.  At about 7:00 p.m. they wrapped it up for the day.  Poor guys worked out in that heat all day long.  After Joe showered us and Other Mama went out to eat.  Joel had already fallen asleep so Pap-Paw stayed behind with him.  When we got home Joe had a few more things to finish up before we could leave, or so we thought.  Josie was so tired and starting to get ill and Joel was already alseep, so we decided to spend the night.  Joel slept in the play pen in Other Mama and Pap-Paw's room, the girls slept in the bed in their room (they love that they have their own room at Other Mama and Pap-Paws), and Joe and I slept on the fold-out couch in the living room.  The next morning Pap-Paw fixed us a very yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, and waffles before we headed out for Sunday School.  After Sunday School we headed home so Joel could take a nap before Annaleigh's birthday party at Artistic Expressions.  The party went great.  Josie painted a penguin, Jolie painted a unicorn, and Joel painted an elephant. 

After the party we headed back to Other Mama and Pap-Paw's house to get Joe's car and for Joe to finish up a few more things.  That night I laid down to go to bed at about 10:10 p.m.  Five minutes later Jolie got up, she had a stomach bug.  I ended up making the love seat into a bed for her and the couch into a bed for me so that way I could be with her all night.  I think she finally settled back down around midnight.  The next morning she was still a little puny, and Joel has been fighitng a nasty cold so none of us got of our PJs the entire day except for Joe who had to go to work.  Joel took a four hour nap which I think did him a lot of good. 






Josie has school 3 days this week and then she is out for the summer.  She has become more excited about not being at school because starting on June 18th Caden will be at MCDP with the girls during summer break. 

Friday we leave with Quint and Sheila for the beach for our 10 year anniversary trip.  I can't wait.  I'm so excited.  Joe has taken the whole day off so he will deliver children that morning: Joel to MeMaw and Paw-Paw and the girls to Other Mama and Pap-Paw.  I think Pap-Paw is just as excited about this weekend as the girls are.  He and Josie made a list of all the things they need to bring: fishing poles, sleeping bags, bug spray, swim suits, floaties- just to name a few.  We will be back Sunday afternoon. 

Friday, May 25, 2012

Josie's Awards Day


(Just a heads up for those of you that don't know: There are a lot of pictures in this blog.  If one is too small you can click on it and it will make it bigger.)


Yesterday was Josie's award ceremony at school.  I think I was just as sad the day she entered kindergarten as I was yesterday.  This year as flown by and the amount of things she learned in one year, I still can't believe.  She can write, she can read, she can do math, she is understanding some science, she knows money, she is working on telling time, and the list goes on and on.   She only had one sad face and a handful or two of straight faces the entire year.  She has done amazing on all her testing sometimes receiving perfect scores.  Joe and I are both so proud of the how great she has done.

Coosada Elementary has 19 kindergarten classes.  They are divided into groups of four and each group is called a "pod" and is known by a color.  Josie's class is in the Yellow Pod.  I took her to school yesterday morning and stayed for the Yellow Pod's awards ceremony.  All the kids from the Yellow Pod sang three songs-Baby Beluga (about a whale), Have you Ever Gone Fishing, and another song I can't remember the name of.

The pictures aren't the best.  We were in the gym which was dark and I was too far away to get good pictures, but if you look real close you can see Josie doing the moves to the songs.  She is on the right hand side third person on the first row of the standing kids.  She is in a blue, white, and purple dress with white leggings.




Then each kid from each class received an award.  Josie received the "Best Manner's Award." 

This is Josie starting to walk up to the principal to receive her award.



After each student received their award we went back to the classrooms to enjoy brunch with the kids.  Mrs. Jackson (Josie's teacher) had made each child a sand bucket with their name on it with all kinds of goodies inside.  There was a t-shrit with a sea horse that they colored and each student signed the back, a booklet she had made (see below), sunglasses, kool-aid with a straw, and some other goodies.  The kids had also made a video earlier in the week that she showed to us.  She first asked each child what their favorite part of kindergarten was (I couldn't understand Josie's answer and she didn't remember what she said), then she went back and asked each kid what they hoped to learn in first grade (Josie's answer was to be a better writer), and at the end each child said aloha (I know this may sound stupid but that really choked me up because she was saying goodbye to her kindergarten year.)  It was all really sweet and I am soooo glad I got to be there. 




 Here is a picture of Josie and Mrs. Jackson from Josie's very first day:


And a picture of the two of them yesterday:



When I left Josie let me take her bucket but insisted that she keep her t-shirt and booklet.  I told her to make sure she didn't lose them because those were the two most important things. 

When I picked her up Josie had two more awards/certificates with her:



She also brought home a journal that they had started writing in back in November. Each time they wrote the kids would have to sound words out as best they could or she may give them the beginning and she had to fill in the rest. Here are two of her journal entries. The colors are originally in color but I did not want to tear them out and I don't have a color copier.  This is the five of us eating shaved ice:




This was is about when she took the doll her Aunt Tiffany made her to show and tell:


Josie was mad at me that I did but her a yearbook, but this that Mrs. Jackson made is 500% times better than a yearbook b/c it is in essence her class' yearbook.  I absolutely love it!!





(She wrote that one of her best friends is Caden.  Isn't that sweet!!!!)























Well I guess she after May 31st she will officially be a first grader.