last day of school

was on friday, and wow was that a busy week - don't know if i've ever had one like that.

it's amazing how hectic the afternoons and evenings get as your kids get older.

i got through the weeks activities, and could hardly wait until friday -

when there were no more baseball games, meetings, lessons, nada.

(don't get me wrong, i love all those things - but it was pure craziness last week!)

just the last day of school and a fun day at home with the kids and their friends.
they each had a couple friends over and spent the day swimming, eating and hang'n out.
these two cracked me up with all the games they came up with and played.
they really got along great, it was so fun to listen to their little conversations.

it was a great year, i really cannot believe how quickly these school years go by.
we are ready for a much needed break from all the spring craziness - yea for summer!

cousin curt

my cousin, curt, came to visit a couple weeks ago.

we had not seen him for four years, since john was a baby.

it was so fun having him here, felt like he had always been here -

he's so easy to get along with and so helpful with everything.

here he is playing 'toothpick' with the kids on mother's day,
did i mention he's great with kids?

curt and i were always close cousins growing up - he always looked out for me.
he was the one who would help me out on our family traveling adventures.
he encouraged me and made me feel safe in new situations on those trips.
reaching out for my hand when a big wave came and i was scared,
like a really nice older brother.

i hope that one of my kids can be like this someday with a younger cousin.
since there will be quite an age gap between the older ones.
i think curt and i are about 8 years apart,
and actually he's the youngest cousin we have on my dad's side.
let's just say he's awesome, and we were so glad to have him around for a few days.
we hope that someday in the future he might move here, that would be so fun!

life has been extremely crazy busy these last few weeks, hence the lack of blogging.
hope to catch up on all the new stuff going on around here soon...

may crowning

it was outside in the school courtyard at the wednesday morning assembly.

first was a living rosary, christopher was one of the kids representing the 6th grade...

there was a nice section with chairs for the parents to sit.
it was so peaceful sitting outside, praying the rosary together -
what a great way to start the day.

i have always wanted our family to pray the rosary together.
so far, we have not figured out a good time to do so.
i pray that we can find or rather make that time in the near future.

it was a beautiful may morning, perfect for honoring mary.

projects, projects

we've had a lot of school projects going on here the last couple of months.

i got a picture of just one of them-

this is the san xavier mission in tucson that andrew did for his arizona project.

this is the image we were trying to replicate...

can you see the resemblance even if it's a bit blurry?
(he was required to add farm animals, trees and crops)
he had the idea of using the sugar cubes.
i thought it was a great idea and since it was his i wanted to go with it.

great idea = very time consuming!
one day after school my mom came over to help andrew hot glue the sugar cubs,
while i led a brownie meeting at school - it was so helpful & i still got my share of them to glue too.

it seemed the boys had project after project for awhile there.
then, i was relieved that they were all done for the year until...
andrew announced to me in the car today he's got another one due in a couple weeks.

just add it to the plate- spring is busy, and baseball season (with 4 teams) is busy.
things are pretty hectic for us right now, but in a good and fun way -
so i will just try to continue keeping up with it all as best as i can, projects and all.