Last Day of Kindergarten

Friday morning began with a bang.  It was supposed to pour down rain like crazy, and no one was excited about that.  Lila's grade was told that they would have to race their box cars indoors--boo!  A few of us moms suggested the blacktop since the rain was holding off, and the teachers agreed.  Hooray!  This event simply wouldn't be the same in the kindergarten hallway.

Each class had a boy car and a girl car.  We went with a Pool for President theme since it's an election year, and we think she'd make a stellar candidate!

The first race was girls against boys.  GO LILA!  It was a little hard to tell who won because her class has so many more boys than girls.  It was still fun, though.

The second race was more heated and each class ran against the others.

With the help of our resident speedster, Lila, and a lot of fast boys, like Jackson Reed, Mrs. Pool's class won!

The last race was for the teachers.  Mrs. Pool came prepared to win, running shoes and all.

And she did it--beating out Mrs. Rea by about 5 feet!

Pool for President!

If we would have had a Room Mom Race, I'm confident that Abby and I could have won that, too.  We worked hard on our cars!

The rain held off for these sweet kids and the kindergarten race tradition lived on.

The kids played a few games and then signed frames with their K photo in it.

They had pizza and popsicles and got to watch a little show, too.  

I'm so very thankful that Lila had such a wonderful teacher this year.  She was loving, kind, patient and taught our sweet girl how to read and write like a champ.  The perfect kindergarten teacher.
We really couldn't have asked for more.

Lila will miss her dearly next year, but knows she'll always be able to visit and get a great hug.
We all love Mrs. Pool!

Kindergarten Recital

I have NO idea how we already made it to the end of the school year.  Just a couple weeks ago, we were picking out a new backpack and taking Lila to meet Mrs. Pool.  I blinked, though, and a whole year shot by!

I went to watch Lila and all of her classmates sing all sorts of sweet songs.  My favorite was the one where they spelled out kindergarten, though.  "K is for Kindergarten hip, hip, hooray, I is for imagination we use every day, N is for numbers 1,2,3, D is for drawing the best that you can see..."

I'm pretty sure Lila was lip-syncing for most of the show.  Not because she doesn't know the words, she's just super-shy about singing in front of a crowd.  I get it.  She did not inherit any natural singing ability from me, that's for sure!

Her BFF, Madison, recited a poem about all the things they have learned this year.
She did a fantastic job!

After their songs and watching a slide show, we had a reception in the cafeteria.  The teachers made all of the room mom's a photo tree, complete with photos of our kids.  Such a sweet gesture.  I loved helping out the kids as much as they loved having a mommy at school!

Hays Family Cookout

Our fun in the sun continued on Memorial Day with a cookout at Memaw and Poppi's house.

These four were happy to give me one sweet picture before they got soaking wet.

Who loves a good holiday?  These girls!

Little sister sure does, too--especially when it means hanging out with her favorite cousin.

Since it had been raining earlier in the day, daddy and I didn't bring our suits.  We enjoyed some nice patio time with Aunt Bina and Shelley, though.

Thank goodness Poppi offered to get in the pool, since Cami was all about a good swim day.  

It was a great afternoon filled with lots of smiles...

plenty of laughs...

and good times together.
On the real, though, Lila started not feeling well shortly before dinner and was running fever by the time we got home.  Pretty sure it was her sinus infection popping back up--ugh.  Then Jackson woke me up at 4am on Tuesday morning with fever.  He had a very rough two days filled with high fever and vomiting a couple times, and was so sad about messing up his perfect attendance for the year.  We got him medicine for strep just in the nick of time, and he made it back to school for the last day.  Whew!  It's been a crazy week for sure.  

Memorial Day Weekend at the Lake

Last Friday afternoon the kids and I just had to head north.  All of the big kids were back from their sleepovers and parties and baby sister had taken her a nap.  Mama had packed everyone and we were ready for some good lake living.

We made it with very little traffic, got our things put in the house and then hopped in the golf cart to go check out the lake.  Happiness!

Forget baseball practice in Sachse.  These kids had their own kind of practice.  Big brother taught his sister how to throw rocks into the water.

We also found two geese over by the water, and even though the kids tried their best to creep up on them, they were detected.  

An hour later we met Daddy at The Rig for dinner.  Imagine everyone's excitement as he pulled up towing this big toy...

and this one behind his truck!  Yeehaw!  We had dinner on the patio and two different times people came over to tell us how well behaved all our kids were being.  One even said, "And I love how none of you are on any devices!"  We thanked them and then told the kids how proud we are of their good behavior.  A proud parent moment for sure:)

The next morning started out with rain as we went to grab some donuts.  By the time the Squiers had arrived, it was gone, and the sun was out!

The dads were busy putting the new toys into the water, so the moms decided to take the kids for a spin around the lake.  Four excited kids and one very tired little girl.

Since I was driving the boat, Bubbie took care of Cami.  He sat in the back with his arm around her and she tried so hard to drift off to sleep.

We toured Grandpappy Marina...

and then turned around.  Sweet Cami just couldn't fall asleep in the back of the boat, so I scooped her up in my arms.  Within two minutes, she was out.
Sometimes you just gotta do it all--Boat Captain and Baby Rocker!

The kids had been begging to stop and swim, which meant we needed to find a buoy and tie the boat to it.  No problem for two supermoms!  I drove the boat and Julie leaned over the front of it with a rope.  She tied us to the buoy on the first try.  We were impressed with ourselves:)

These two boys did some swimming and then their dad's showed up.

We didn't have to ask them twice if they wanted to go for a spin.  So fun!

The girls were having a ball doing their "Whip & Nae Nae."  

 

It was just a gorgeous day and such a fab time for all of us.  This girl keeps us entertained...

which probably explains why these two are two peas in a pod.  

Everyone got a turn on the Waverunners, including the littlest girl, who told me "I like to go fast, mom."  She loved it!  I think she's such a cool cat.

All of that excitement finally caught up to her and on our final boat ride of the day, she fell asleep in my arms again.  Sweet baby girl.

The next morning we got up early to try and teach the kids how to ski.
We were almost the only boat on the lake--perfect!

We all rode out together and Lila was the first skier.  She tried her best, but forgot to let go once she fell.  Oops!  Cole tried five times or so and even stood up once--great success!  It's a work in progress, for sure.

The tube was much easier and Lila volunteered to go first on that, too.

She hit some big waves, popped way up in the air, but held on!  Go Lila!  Both Jackson and Madison got even bigger air, but I didn't get a photo of either.  It was impressive!  Cole had the only wipeout of the day, but he came up smiling.

Our friends went home after lunch, but we decided to stay.  Cami got a good nap at the house and was ready to roll that afternoon.  She was one happy camper in the tube.

Sunday afternoon. I'm so thankful I got to spend it with this guy.  He's my favorite.

 I was also the judge for these two goofballs, as they had me score everything from "Biggest Splash" to "Longest Jump." 

Lila won Sweetest Kung Fu Kick...

And silly Maddie won best...

Carley Lloyd kick!

A sweet ending to a very cool weekend.

Good Times with Good Friends

It's so nice to live around so many other families.  Last week I asked Memaw to take Cami to her gym class while I went to the Perot Museum.

She said that would be no problem and took Cameron that morning.  A fun bonus was them running into our friends, Bella and Baby Johnny!
Jackson and Lila were lucky enough to get a four day weekend this school year.  Lila, Madison and Jackson kicked it off right with some sleepovers.  

Lila and Madison got invited to spend the night at The Reichert's house, so Jackson invited his buddy Tucker to our house.  A win for everyone!

 On Friday, the rain stopped just in the nick of time for these third graders to enjoy a swim party at Blake's house.  

A big hit for sure!

I think everyone had a ball.  Such a great group of kids.

How many kids can fit in one hot tub?  A lot!

It's days like this that make summer so close we can practically taste it.
I'm ready, and I know they are too.