Among Friends

John looks at this image and he sees a girl who disobeyed the "Only two friends to bed" rule.

I look at this image and see a girl who loves to be surrounded by her friends.

How do you pick just two when you have so many wonderful friends? You don't want to hurt the feelings of your other friends. You don't want them to miss you or you to miss them.

I hope that Abby will always be surrounded by good friends.

I am thankful for my many friends. They have helped me through the tough times, laughed with me through the fun times and listened when I needed to talk.

Thank you friends.

Abby's Art

"Flowers in a Vase"

I love the art that Abby creates for me to hang on my refrigerator! This is one of my favorites!

If you haven't visited her art gallery recently, you should check it out at http://abbysartgallery.blogspot.com/ .

My Beautiful Daughter!

On October 7th my beautiful daughter Abby turned seven! I feel so blessed to have her. She is my one and only daughter. The only one I will get to go wedding dress shopping with. (Which may actually be a blessing.) I love you Abby!

Abby on the day she was born:

Abby on her blessing day:
Abby was my happiest baby. She smiled and laughed a lot!
Abby's first Easter:
Abby's Second Easter:

Thank you Heavenly Father for letting me experience the joys of having a daughter of my own! She is so precious to me!

First Day of School

Well, Jack and Abby are off to school for another great year! They both love school. I must say, I love having my children home for the summer but the quiet I enjoyed today in my home was quite nice.

Abby started First Grade today so she received her Schultuete! Being able to continue our German traditions is so much fun! John created this cone for Abby. Isn't he awesome?

Jack just started Fourth Grade!
Joshua... well... he could be starting preschool in October if only he would decide to be potty-trained!

Ethan just likes to wear the extra cone we made on his head and walk around the room! I have had trouble catching him on camera though but I hope to get a better shot or even a video to share with you soon!

Abby's First Photo Shoot!

Recently I have started letting Abby take pictures with my camera. Here are some pictures from her first photo shoot:

Girl Scout Camp

Last week Abby attended three days of Girl Scout Camp with her best friend Kelsey. They are both in the same Daisy Troop and Abby loves it. However, she was a bit disappointed that Girl Scout Camp didn't have fishing and swimming like Boy Scout Camp did the week before! Next year, I plan to sign her up for Boy Scout Sibling Camp on the days John volunteers.

By the way, guess who they asked to be the cookie mom? Cookies anyone?

Abby's Art Gallery

A Fly-Catching Frog

My sweet Abby LOVES to draw, paint, color, craft, etc! She has started her own blog so that she can post her artwork for you all to enjoy. She even named them herself!

Check it out at http://abbysartgallery.blogspot.com/ .

Abby Graduates From Kindergarten

Abby has had a wonderful year in Mrs. Baggett's Kindergarten class! When recording her Kindergarten memories she wrote that the hardest thing about Kindergarten was staying home sick. She loves school and I am so happy about it! Abby was the only one in her class that was already reading at the beginning of Kindergarten and one of only a handful reading in ALL of Kindergarten. I was worried that she wouldn't get the attention she needed at her level but luckily, they pulled her into a reading group with the other 4 readers and WOW! By the end of Kindergarten they told me she is reading on Rigby Level 22 when Level 5 is considered to be on grade level at the end of the year. Way to go Abby! We love you so much!

Was I good at Abby's graduation?

No.

Don't Forget National Teacher Day!

National Teacher Day is tomorrow, May 6th.

I appreciate all of love and dedication my children's teachers give them!

Abby's teacher Mrs. Baggett is a wonderful, caring teacher. She was Jack's teacher too and will be retiring after this year. I am sad that my other children won't be able to be in her class. She is a teacher who continues to squeeze in a lot of fun activities even with the pressures of No Child Left Behind and the Virginia Standards of Learning. She is always teasing the children and making them laugh. Mrs. Baggett is the perfect teacher for getting Kindergarteners on track for loving school! Jack and Abby both love her and I love her too!

Jack's teacher Mr. Wills is a very hard-working, truly dedicated teacher. John and I were so happy to learn that Jack would have one teacher for all of his classes this year because Mr. Wills teaches all of the highest groups! Last year, it was hard for Jack to switch between teachers and get right back on task. It was also hard for me to communicate with so many teachers! (He had five teachers last year in second grade. Isn't that crazy!?!) John, Jack and I immediately loved Mr. Wills when we met him on Meet the Teacher Night and were so excited for this new year. Mr. Wills in one of those teacher who is often caught working in his classroom hours after his contract time. He also leads a drama club after school that Jack plans to join next year. He helps Jack stay on task and Jack has been completing all of his classwork on time. Yeah! I need to start praying now for another teacher like Mr. Wills next year. I told Jack to ask Mr. Wills if he will switch to fourth grade next year. : )

I plan to show my appreciation by giving them some very rich Frosted Brownies with a note of appreciation from me and one from my child. I also plan to give Frosted Brownies to various other teachers and assistants who work with my children--PE Teacher, Music Teacher, Mrs. Baggett's Assistant, etc.

Don't forget your child's teacher!

Oops!

Abby's kindergarten class dyed Easter Eggs today. When I picked Abby up from school we had this conversation:

Abby: "Mommy, you have a big mess to clean up in my bookbag!"

Me: "What do you mean?"
Abby: "I had eggs in there and they cracked."

I was thinking: "No big deal, they are hard boiled" but I opened her bookbag to see what was going on. See the picture below to see what I saw!

Apparently a parent sent in raw eggs instead of hard boiled and nobody noticed. Abby's teacher happened to come out of the building while we were still waiting for Jack so I showed her the mess. She couldn't believe it and said, "I'm glad you are taking this so well." I was laughing and said, "I have four kids, this is nothing!" I guess it's time for a new bookbag!

Fun in the Snow!

Okay, so these pictures are from January and now it is March. I really agree with "Better late than never" in this case so here they are!

We all played in the snow this day. My children were excited about me coming out because last year I was pregnant and didn't go out much. Why bother if you can't go sledding at top speed down the hill just to throw yourself off of the sled before it goes over the drop off and into the woods???

This was Ethan's first time in the snow! He really enjoyed it and smiled a lot. When my other children were first introduced to the snow, they were curious but didn't really smile and eventually cried to go back inside. Ethan stayed outside for at least twice as long as the others did as babies.

He even let us lay him down in the snow and help him make a snow angel!

We actually didn't get much snow this winter and the children are disappointed. Abby keeps commenting on the lack of snow and I'm sure I'll continue to hear about it for a few more months or even until next winter!

At least they didn't lose any of their Spring Break like they usually do. My parents are going on a cruise for Spring Break so we are staying home the whole time. We hope to go bowling as a family on the discount day.

Fun, fun, fun!