Jacob Kindergarten Update

I was thankful to get to be fairly involved in Jacob's Kindergarten year.  My mom helped with Aleah and Lucas so I could attend several events.

Here he is dressed as Abraham Lincoln:

Skating Party for Colby's b-day:

I got to go to the planetarium with him:

We went to the mother son game night:

Josh and I both got to go to the Orpheum Children's Museum:

He graduated from my department at church, which is super weird after six years of having him with me:

FuNd Walk:

I also got to go to Forest Glen with him!  So many fun Kindergarten field trips:

And one final trip to the Catlin Park:

There are no words for how much we love this boy.  He is a GREAT kid!  We could not be more proud of him!

End of School Year!

We were so EXCITED for summer break!  

The last full day of school was supposed to be the Jelly Bean track meet.  Unfortunately it was canceled for rain.  Hopefully it will work out next year.  The kids were SO READY:

We had celebration milkshakes after the last day of school.  Woo hoo!!!!

Jacob was the top AR reader for Kindergarten, and actually Mrs. Spezia told him that he read more books that any kindergartner she's ever had in her twenty some years of teaching!  He was completely independent in this.  He was reading quite well before he even started K, so he did this all on his own.  I am proud of him:

Jacob's class made these pillowcases with drawings they did of themselves:  

Last day of school:

SO HAPPY FOR SUMMER!!!!!!

Illinois Half Marathon & Strawberry Fest 5K

I did a couple more races this year.  First, I did the Illinois Half Marathon with Betsy.  My goal was to do a lot more jogging this time (I have walked in the past) and to finish in under 3 hours.  I accomplished that!  I beat my time from two years ago by about 15 minutes, so I felt good about that.  It was really hard for me to find the time to train this year.  Life just seems so much busier lately.  And I still had a nursing baby during much of my training time, so I shouldn't be too hard on myself.  I got my weekend "big runs" in, but I didn't do well through the  week at all.  I was very glad to have Betsy with me to push me along.  I got really dizzy towards the end.  Miles 11-13 always kill me.  After the race, I was really nauseous for a couple of hours.  I have never experienced that before.  

 I also did the Strawberry Festival 5K.  This is the first race I have ever done without Betsy.  I'm certain my time would have been better if she had been with me.  I didn't do great, but I did my best with my current life schedule for training.

 My Uncle Art and Cousin-in-Law David both came to town to run the race.  They both won their age division!  I think the girl who won my age division was 14 minutes faster than me, ha!  I need to find another race to train for so I don't lose what I have gained!  Any suggestions?

Mother's Day

My family made Mother's Day very special for me this year!

The weekend before Mother's Day, the six of us went out for dinner at Garfield's for an early celebration.  I also got to go to Maurices and get a few new shirts!  

The kids made me so many adorable and thoughtful gifts.  Hannah especially went all out; she wrote me a song, made me a card, a "mom" headband, a book, and breakfast in bed (frozen waffles with frozen berries at 6:20 am😂). 

Jacob made me the sweetest card and life size poster of myself at school 😂 . 

Josh got me a beautiful mother's bracelet.

And we got to spend time with both of our moms!  We had Josh's mom's side over for a cookout: 

We went to my parents' house for a cookout:

Being a mama of four really is hard work. It is lots of laundry and dishes and crying and messes....But it's also lots of cuddles and kisses and giggles and fun times... It is everything I wanted and I am so thankful ❤️💙❤️💙

Ms. Wheeler's Room Mother

I had a great time being Hannah's room mom for 2nd grade.  I got to plan all of the holiday parties, as well as help with cooking days and decade day!

Hannah's class was the Roaring Twenties, so she was a flapper girl with her teacher, Ms. Wheeler:

I got to help at The Fund Walk as well:

I'm thankful that my mom helped me so that I could go to the school for some of these events!  Love my 2nd grader!