The Story Of Seven

For the past few years, Kate and I have been participating in a preschool program called Joy School. It's a home preschool where the moms in the group take turns teaching the children each week. The classroom rotates to each teacher's home. The curriculum includes teaching values like obedience, service, order, setting goals, being unique, and family as well as kindergarten readiness material. Both Kate and I have really enjoyed being together. And she has made some really great friends. For me, it's been a real blessing watching Kate grow and learn. She has become a smart girl with a love for learning and a lot of personality! In preparation for the graduation, the girls learned and practiced a few songs and a Joy School cheer which they performed. They also each made a unique family and Joy School flag. They were so excited to share these things with their families. Graduation was a great night! Here are some fun pictures with Kate and her two best friends on the night of Joy School Graduation!

All three girls: Lizzie, Kate, and Eliza

The girls taking turns sharing the family flags and the Joy School flags that they made.

Eliza

Lizzie

Kate and I with our family flag.

Kate waving her flags.

All the girls doing the Joy School Pep Song with the pom poms we made!

They loved those pom poms!!!

The graduates: Joy School class of 2012

Kate with her report card and diploma.

All the girls with their moms.

Guess who snapped a picture DURING the closing prayer?

My husband!!!

The girls eating refreshments.

Build your own sundaes. YUMMY!

Joy School has been a great experience for us. Kate has learned a lot and had so much fun with it. She will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and she is sooooo excited about that. She loves school! This summer she has already been asking me when Kindergarten starts and we are only a few weeks in to the summer! I am excited for her and happy to see her eagerness. But every now and then I can't help but be amazed at how quickly she is growing up!!!

Spring brought with it many fun things for our family. One of them was Spring Break. This year we got to take a vacation to visit my mom and Rich in Bluefield, West Virginia. It's always a treat to visit them! On our trip we got to do lots of fun things. Here are some highlights:

Grandma and Kate decided to make chocolate chip cookies. Kate got to put in all the ingredients which she was very excited about! Now she loves to always help me with the cooking!

Sampling the cookie dough!

There is a really cool park near grandma and grandpa's that we always go to whenever we visit.

The tire swing is one of the favorite attractions.

Grandma planned a fun outing for us. We got to go to a nearby Indian village/museum where they had actual Indian homes and other things on display. We got to see some cool stuff and learned a lot of new things from our tour guide.

Grandma and the kids in the car on the way.

We got rock paint temporary tattoos...

Grandma

Josh

Kate and Jake

Even I got one...

All of us (except Robb. He decided not to get one.)

Our tour guide also showed us how to do cording. The indians made all sorts of things with this, baskets, mats, etc. Here he showed us how to make bracelets.

We also learned how they made arrow heads and about other weapons they made and used.

Here's Josh with a handmade bow.

Jake with a big stick.

Kate with a club/axe.

Near the village was a river where we stopped to skip some rocks.

And take pictures, of course!

We had a great visit with grandma and grandpa and can't wait until we can visit them again.

Along with Spring Break, Easter came in Spring. We had a fun time celebrating. My sister, Marcey was able to come for the weekend to visit us. We were super excited about her visit because her and Bill moved to Washington State shortly after she visited and we don't get to see them as much now.

The kids coloring eggs...

Getting Easter baskets Easter morning before we went to church...

Since we go to church in the afternoon, we did our Easter egg hunt that morning.

Marcey and I hid the eggs in our front yard.

The kids were very good about finding them...

After the Easter egg hunt we got ready to go to church and had a great Sunday celebrating Easter.

This year my birthday fell on Mother's Day weekend. I was really spoiled by Robb and the kids. They gave me some nice gifts, flowers, cake, and even breakfast in bed! It was a great weekend and I felt really loved and blessed.

Yummy!

One of my gifts was a new Kitchenaid mixer!

I have always wanted one of these and I was so excited to get one.

I have used it so many times already!

For Memorial Day we got to go to a local parade with some of our friends. It was a nice warm day, perfect for a parade.

Josh and Jake climbing a tree...they just couldn't resist.

Kate with one of her bestest friends, Lizzie.

All the kids lined up waiting for the parade (and candy throwing) to start.

Chilling in the shade.

Over Memorial Weekend, our town also held a carnival. I was able to take the kids and they had a blast. We rode rides, saw friends, and ate carnival food. The boys saw a lot of their friends from school and hung out with them most of the time riding rides. Kate and I got to spend some time doing the things that she wanted. It was a lot of fun!

Kate on the roller coaster!