...to host a shower

...for Meghan

Baby Morrow #3 is sure to arrive any day in the next few weeks.  Amy and I wanted to help Meghan celebrate this wonderful occasion with a few of her Fort Drum friends.

Meghan's requests included:  Simple.  Small.  No baby games.  

This meant Amy and I had to nix the poopy diaper game and the toilet paper game off of our list of activities for this event!  

Meghan only had diapers and wipes on her wish list.  We obliged.  And Amy found these awesome industrailish baskets for storage and to put these said items in... 

Meghan has an amazing sense of taste.  In her home she implements many of nature's elements.  She is often out clipping leaves and wild flowers to fill her vases.  She has drift wood on her walls...she has a new beautiful wood stump for an outdoor coffee table.

Amy and I attempted to make this shower...woodland chic if there is such a term, and incorporate nature into this event.

Air plants were the favor for the guests to take home.  Amy, Isabella and I gathered and washed lots and lots of rocks...

Slices of wood served as food platters...

Pine cones were the food tag holders...

Clippings from my garden...

Daisies from the path behind our home...

And ferns and wildflowers helped to create the backdrop for the gathering...

The menu:

Raspberry Lemon Scones

Ham & Swiss Rolls

Bacon Kabobs

Fruit Kabobs

Chocolate Ganache/Raspberry filled Cupcakes

Vanilla Bean Lemonade

Iced Cold Brew Coffee

What a beautiful and elegant momma our guest of honor was:

I loved putting this event together with Amy...clipping ferns, washing rocks, rolling out scones, squeezing lemons...

And loved seeing how happy everyone was at this event!

I sure can't wait to meet my godson...now if could only wait for his dad to get home....

...to say goodbye...

...to a school that was the perfect fit for our kids' these past three years.

It was a teary good-bye.

I was boo-hoo-ing the whole afternoon.

I know that we'll love the kids' new schools in Michigan.  I know that these new schools will also be a perfect fit.  But this charming little school, the school where all of my children were in the same building together, the school where the lunch lady made Isabella some broccoli and cheese soup only for her (because she knew Isabella liked it)...will always have a special place in my heart.

Abbey loved her teacher Miss Abrams so much!  Will and Mrs. Sadler photo-bombed this shot!

Mrs. Rios was such a gem!  This sweet lady stayed at this school an extra six months after her husband was PCS'd much earlier than they had expected.

Mrs. Carney celebrated her 25th year of teaching this year!  Amazing that she still loves teaching science as much as she does!

And sister....Sister Anunciata the principal of the school told me over-and-over the past few weeks how sad she was our family was leaving the school.  She has such a great heart.

This is the last time that all four of these jokers will be in the same school....  

You can tell that Audrey is really broken up about this fact.

...to watch a school play

...and enjoy Abbey's Kindergarten celebration.

As you can imagine there have been a lot of tears around here as we move into the last week of school.  Tears about leaving the school.  Tears about leaving friends.  Tears about leaving Fort Drum.  Worries about the move.  Worries about making new friends.  Worries about our new home.  Worries about new schools.

This Momma is a wreck.

The kids'...they seem to be taking all the changes in stride.

As for me...my emotions are out-of-control.

Change really isn't my thing and goodbyes...well I'm pretty terrible at them.  I pretty much cry just thinking about walking my kids to the school bus stop for the last time tomorrow morning and that's just the tip of the iceberg...when I really think about what we are leaving behind...oh my.  It's just so hard.

At the same time there have been some really special moments this week.

Will and his classmates put on a play for the whole school to watch.  The set, the costumes, the storyline was all so much more impressive than I even could have imagined.  I was so proud they all had the confidence to perform in front of all of those people.

I'm pretty sure Will is the cutest fisherman/stagecoach driver ever.  You can be the judge.

Here is a short video clip from the performance, while it is hard to hear, you can still see Will's theatrics.

Will and his classmates were responsible for their lines, costume changes, and scene changes.  Pretty impressive for 4th graders!

Will's in the back of this photo...stagecoach driver.

For some reason I find this photo so adorable.

Will and his buddies.

The cast.

After Will's play, Mark and I went to Abbey's classroom for an end-year-celebration.  Miss Abrams had a special program for the parents.  First, she had the children sing a few of their favorite songs for the adults.

It warms my heart to see that Luke and Abbey are always side-by-side.  And tears me up they'll be so far from each other next year...

Here is a little video clip of their performance.  Grandparents watching this video...pay no mind to the boy in front of them...I didn't exactly have the best camera angle.

The second song the kids' sang the pulled a parent in to join in the action with them...

I love how she looks at Mark.

After the little performance Miss Abrams recognized a special attribute of each child in the class.  

Abbey's award and proud parent moment:  Child most likely to be President someday.

She finished the celebration by presenting each child with a gift bags of items.  Her note:

Have a Fun Summer Abbey.  

Bubbles: You blew me away with your hard work!

Smarties:  You are a smarty pants!

Lollipops and Pixie Sticks:  To keep you sweet!

Book, Bookmark, Pencils, Notebook, Eraser, and Pencil Sharpener:  To keep your reading and writing skills sharp all summer long.

I sure am going to miss these sweet teachers...sniff sniff. 

...to finish the first of

...my two card catalogs

Yesterday was the annual spring Fort Drum community garage sales.

Although we didn't real have a traditional garage sale (with lots of toys, clothes, books, and household items) I did put out a few big items that have been on the purge list that I set outside.

This gave me the opportunity and the time to tackle the first of my two big projects.

Disclaimer:  Mark said they aren't moving unless they are finished.

Eek.

We don't have a garage in our new house.  Which is code for:  There is no place for spray paint or staining.

I just may go through withdrawal if I have to go three years without a project!  Maybe I'll pick up sewing.  Or knitting?  Glass blowing?

I digress.

I began to tackle this project on a whim.  (Since I was sitting outside watching our few items that no one was coming to buy.)

Consequently, I took very few photos and cheated a bit.  Meaning:

- I only sanded the grubby parts with tape and stickers.
- I only spray painted the parts of the cabinet that are seen.
- I only cleaned the hardware with vinegar, soda and water.  I didn't use chrome polish.

I knocked out most of this project yesterday afternoon.

Most of the labor involved scrubbing and cleaning.  Blech.  This treasure was gross.  I cannot believe I don't have any before photos.

Drying.

Putting the hardware back on.

Voila.  Photo bomber.

It turned out kinda pretty.

My vision for it had been for it to be in the toy room...sorting smaller toys.  Our new home sadly does not have a toy room.

I have agreed to part with this little treasure.

Sniff.  Sniff.

...to enjoy the annual Augustinian

...walkathon.

This is a favorite activity of the kids' each year.

The purpose:  Raise money for the school.

The objective:  Walk around an empty parking lot in a small circle.  Do this over and over and over again.  For one entire hour.  Do not run.  Do not squirt water bottles.  Do not push your friends.  Do not but in front of the cones.

The kids LOVE this (everyone except Audrey that is...For the record she does not like walking around in circles.).

All the other kids in the entire school think this is the best event !  I am not kidding.  It is the event they all look forward to each school year.

Audrey got herself ready for the big day.

And began walking with her BFF.

Although Audrey dropped out after only four laps, Paddy kept going.  He was very serious about getting his card marked each lap.  He even won for the preschool boys with the most laps walked!

Cormac gave everyone high five as they walked by.  He especially loved it when Will walked by.

Abbey was determined to do well!  34 laps!  

After the walk-a-thon is over the laps are tallied and they the awards are given.  The students that earned over $500 in donations got the opportunity to put a pie in their teacher's face.  Clearly Isabella is enjoying the fun at her teacher's expense!

The whole school...ready to enjoy the day.

My kids have been able this event for three years...they sure have plenty of fun memories to cherish from this event.

...to share the kids' activities so far

...this week

And it's only Wednesday.

Soccer games.  School concert.  State projects.

It's all fun as the school year begins (finally) to draw to a close.

Isabella had a small solo part in the school chorus program...

The school has had a new music teacher for the last month or so of school and somehow, lucky-for-us-parents, she managed to pull off putting on concert for the families.  We were pleasantly surprised by the selection of music (the tunes were both familiar and rather catchy) and the kids even seemed to enjoy their presentation.  The less than twenty minute performance was just perfect.

Afterward a friend took this photo of a few of her friends from her class (two girls aren't pictured)....

Each one of these girls (plus one more) will be moving over the summer.  The goodbyes sure are going to be hard next week...

The kids' had their state projects presentations this afternoon...

Will dressed up as the future hall-of-famer (Cooperstown, NY) Miguel Cabrera.  Isabella dressed as a farm girl.  Isabella's class worked on their projects and knowledge of their chose state for most of the school year.  She had Minnesota.  The entire 4th grade class had NY and Will chose to feature the nine areas of NY.

Today three big kids also had their last-day-of-wearing-uniform for the school year even though there is still a week left of school...Isabella isn't picture because she gets on the bus an hour earlier than these two.

We finished our day with Abbey's soccer game this evening.  The weather was less-than-desirable and the last half of the game found us soaking wet in the freezing cold rain.

Abbey didn't care.

She said she loved it.

Hopefully we won't get quite as wet in our activities for tomorrow!

...to enjoy a long though

...not-so-lazy Father's Day weekend.

What can I cram in?

Pool time?

Pretty good flip!

Nice form!

Baseball?

She was 3/3 for each first pitch throw at her!

Time at the park?

An evening with Meghan and the boys...

C pushed Audrey around & around & around...

 Drive In movie?

Yup.

Cleaning closets?

Did that too.

Getting rid of tons more schtuff?

Including more than tens years of old statements, receipts, and documents...

crumbling the data...

And of course we found time to take Mark out to dinner.

Audrey was sure to get herself all dolled up for our family date...

She even picked a flower for her hair (Sorry Amy).

...to attend the beginning

...of the end-of-year festivities.

The kids are in school until the end of June.

June 26th is their scheduled last day of school.

And today marked the beginning of the activities that mark the 'end-of-the-year'.

The annual school talent show was the first of our lasts these next few weeks.

Lucky for those of us in the audience I don't think auditions were held....meaning all willing participants...participated!

And Isabella was brave enough to participate in two different acts!  I am certain I was NEVER brave enough to do anything in front of an entire student body and am so proud that she had the courage to do this.

The first routine was a dance routine with the girls in her class.  Unfortunately there was a little operator error with respect to the video footage on this routine...

Here they are warming up though:

Isabella is relaxing and practicing before her second routine (in this next photo) that she performed with the boys in her class:

It was an air guitar routine.  

We were so proud of her skills.  

You should have seen her fingers fly on those strings!

The hour long show was quite endearing.  

This little school has been so great for our family and afternoons like this will be long remembered.

...to watch Isabella bridge

...to Cadets.

What a beautiful day for Isabella to celebrate her completion of six years of Girl Scouts!

Abbey and Isabella and I were able to enjoy an overnight at the baseball field in Syracuse together watching the Syracuse Chiefs AAA ball team.  The girls had such a great time!

They loved the fireworks!

After the fireworks (and the fans had left) the girls' set up their tents and got ready to watch Frozen on the big screen.

Happy Friends!

And camping on the field...priceless!

Such a fun weekend of scouting together!