Adley PreK End of Year

 What a wonderful experience Adley had in PreK this year! She loved going to school, meeting new friends, and having fun experiences with her class. In May, Adley's class had a Bike Day. The students were allowed to bring a bike or scooter for the special school day, so Adley chose to take her scooter. She is quite fast on her Razor scooter!

Her class also had an outdoor picnic after their playtime. What a fun-filled day!

On Adley's last day of school, the day began with chapel. After a devotion led by Jason, the Butterfly class performed two songs.

The first song they sang was one that Jason had written a few years ago called "Here's What I Know." Jason played his guitar and sang along with the kids. Adley knew this song quite well! All the kids seemed to enjoy it.

The second song was another fun one called "My Lighthouse." My full video of this song was four minutes, so here is just a portion.

Adley and her sweet friend Avery

Adley and her wonderful teachers:
Miss Kelly and Mrs. Horn

We were thankful for all the sweet kids that Adley got to know this year and for her two godly teachers who kept this big group in line!

Both sets of grandparents attended Adley's chapel. We treasure their support and love!

Adley's day concluded with a lunch of pizza and ice cream. What a way to close out a fabulous year!

May Misc.

 Here are some of our family's events from May:

MOTHER'S DAY

What a blessing it is to be called "mom" by my three gifts from God! Cody, Jaden, and Adley were all so proud to give me gifts they had made at school. Cody decorated a wooden spoon, Jaden made a diamond art keychain...

... and Adley made this butterfly canvas with her hand and footprints. So cute!

All three kids also gifted me with a Ticket of Time coupon, as they did for me last year as well. In the coming weeks, I get to see a movie with Adley, play tennis with Jaden, and go bowling with Cody. I love this special gift of individual time with my kiddos.

Later that day, the extended family met at our house for dinner. This was a way we could also celebrate my wonderful mom and mother-in-law. Each of the dads had declared that none of us moms could step foot in the kitchen! These hard-working guys worked together to prepare a delicious meal of grilled kebabs, potatoes, fruit salad, rolls, and ice cream sundaes. Sooo tasty, and such a treat to have everything prepared for us! 

PLAYDATE POOL PARTY

For our last playgroup event of the school year, Adley's friend Tank and his family invited everyone over for a swim party. Tank's family has a perfect yard to play and relax in. The kids especially enjoyed the pool and the trampoline.

Adley has definitely made some sweet friends this year! We had a great morning together!

RYAN'S BIRTHDAY

When Jaden and Cody's cousin Ryan turned 10 this month, his request was to ride go-karts and have a sleepover with Jaden and Cody. Our boys were so honored to spend this special time with Ryan and his family. The boys seemed to have a very active sleepover-- playing foosball,

riding go-karts,

 

and playing various arcade games. What a treat! Happy birthday, Ryan!

SEISMIQUE

My friend Andrea also celebrated a birthday in May, and she invited me to attend this immersive art museum with her one weekend. It was such a unique place!

Many of the exhibits were hands-on. We enjoyed this one that made various sounds.

This particular room was so impressive! The wall was painted with three different murals, but each one only showed up under a certain type of lighting. We loved sitting and watching the designs change along with the lighting. It was so amazing thinking of the artistry and planning that was behind this exhibit!

TWEENS EVENT

This month, Cody and Jaden were invited to their first "Tweens" event at church. The Tweens group is designed for 5th and 6th graders, and they do regular social events and service projects throughout the year. This event involved meal packing with the Kids Against Hunger organization. Our whole family actually volunteered for this service project after church. The kids worked hard in an assembly line to package rice, spices, and dehydrated vegetables. Even Adley helped scoop protein powder into the packages. These kids worked hard and packed quite a few meals! Following their time of service, the Tweens group went to see a movie together. Cody and Jaden loved being inducted into this group.

NEW BIKES

As an early birthday gift, Jason and I purchased new bikes for Cody and Jaden. Their old bikes were getting quite small for them, as their knees nearly touched the handlebars! Grammy and Papa graciously volunteered to help me assemble the bikes during one of the boys' school days. I definitely needed their assistance, as the assembly turned out to be more difficult than we expected. Once the bikes were finally together, Grammy came up with the great idea to design a scavenger hunt for the boys to help them find their bikes after school. Grammy and Adley worked together on most of the clues, and we hid the bikes in the laundry room. The boys enjoyed the special way to find their birthday gifts, and they were particularly pleased to get new bikes--their first bikes with gears!

END OF SCHOOL

As Jaden and Cody's 4th grade school year drew to a close, they started bringing home supplies and projects from their classrooms. Both boys brought home the animal book posters they had designed earlier in the spring. This animal project was quite a large one. The boys had to read a chapter book starring an animal, write a two page book report, design a poster, AND write and give a speech about the book. Whew! The boys were most proud of their posters (below). I had neglected to take a photo of their projects earlier, and all of the class posters had been on the display in the library since the spring. It was nice to finally get their posters back and take a photo of the boys' hard work!

Here are the boys with their 4th grade teachers-- Cody with Mrs. Braunersreuther (Mrs. B) and Jaden with Mrs. Smithers. We appreciate these intelligent, hard-working teachers and the godly role models they provided for Jaden and Cody this year.

KINDERGARTEN SIGNING

At the end of Adley's school year, she was invited to attend a special kindergarten signing event, committing herself to being a Salem kindergartener. The event was short but cute! Our school principal talked with Adley and invited her to sign her name on the school certificate.

Adley took the task very seriously!

This event made Adley even more excited to start her experience as a kindergartner next year. It's hard to believe that she is nearly a full-time school-aged kiddo!

And that's it for our May happenings!

Tea Party

 During May, Adley and I learned about the country of England for her Around the World activities. I figured it was only fitting to organize a tea party to give us a true taste of England! Before Jaden and Cody got out of school for summer break, Adley and I invited Grandma and Grammy to join us for an afternoon tea. Adley was soooo excited to dress up for our special tea. She picked out her dress-up pearls and her Easter dress to wear and even let me curl her hair.

A couple days before the party, Adley helped me make four fascinators using dollar store flowers, headbands, feathers, and loofahs. They prettied up our outfits quite nicely!

We set the table using china place settings that had belonged to my mom's mom, Adley's great grandmother.

I wasn't sure whether or not Adley would actually drink tea for the party, but I set out a wide variety of options for the rest of us anyway. I had apple juice on standby for Adley. :)

Adley was so proud to hand out the fascinators to Grammy and Grandma when they arrived. Both grandmas dressed up so nicely for the event too!

Here is our fancy foursome!

I divided the tea party into three courses. Our first course was fresh fruit cups and cranberry-almond scones with Devonshire cream. While we ate, Adley drew out discussion questions from a jar. We talked about everything from favorite cartoon characters and where we'd most like to travel to the best gifts we've ever received. Adley was so talkative and excited to answer each new question.

The most surprising thing about the tea party was finding out that Adley actually LOVED the tea! As long as the tea was lukewarm, she downed her cup in no time and tried multiple varieties. Who would've guessed?!

For our second course, I served three different kinds of sandwiches-- egg salad, cucumber & cream cheese, and PBJ. The sandwiches were on regular wheat bread as well as pumpernickel. We also had baby carrots and cubed cheese.

Finally, course three was dessert. We had strawberry thumbprint cookies, homemade brownie bites, and chocolate eclairs. I made the treats small so we would feel no guilt about sampling all three dessert types! For each course, we all filled up our tea cups with a new variety of tea.

While enjoying dessert, we played a game of tea party bingo.

We were so thankful that Grandma and Grammy could join us to help make this tea party so special. What a delightful afternoon!