Homestretch time

My parents came to visit for the weekend - they were nice enough to watch the girls Friday night while I had dinner and a much needed margarita with friends Jess and Mandi.  Saturday was a pretty lazy day, capped off with a cookout in the evening.  And then Sunday...they packed up and took Ava with them!   With some new found freedom, I took Reese on a 10 mile bike ride before we spent the rest of the rainy day inside. 

The week shapes up to be pretty easy with just one short person in the house.  And Scot found out recently that he doesn't need to attend the 4th week of his 4 week course, so he's home this Friday night.  Yahoo!

Marching on...

To first grade?  Sniff.

Ava had some fun events to mark the last few weeks of kindergarten.  Her last day was June 6th.

In May, we were invited to their class "Spring Fling", which was all over adorable.  The kids sang songs and told jokes and poems.  I'm not sure there was a dry eye when they ended with singing "What a Wonderful World".  Afterwards, Mrs. Lloyd showed a video montage of pictures she had taken throughout the year and even burned copies for each family to take home. 

A few weeks later, I snuck out of work for a few hours and watched her at Track & Field Day.  It was always my favorite day as a kid :-)  It was fun to see her participate in all the events and excitedly count up her "golds".  For each event, they had 3 kids participate at a time in no particular order, so everyone was always assured a gold, silver, or bronze standing in each event.  Low pressure and lots of fun.

Ava brought home a lot of stuff over the last few days, my favorite being a scrapbook she made.  It's a great overview of the year with pictures from Mrs. Lloyd's camera.   And we got another great report card for the last trimester.

 It also marked the end of her time reading with the friends she made in the special needs classroom.  She made cards for all of them and they made one big Thank You card for her.  I'm thrilled she had that experience this year.

Here's my big girl on the last day of school, sporting her new end of kindergarten haircut!

If only...

Me: Reese, I really wish you would poop in the toilet.
Reese: Wish, Mama? Get a wand and I'll poop in the toilet.

Potty training, six months and counting.  Sigh.

What Happens in Vegas...

isn't really all that scandalous when it involves my sister and me, but we had a great time!  Like over a month ago.

It all started when I was supposed to take a weekend jaunt in February to Phoenix with my BFF Jess...but Baby #3 (hers, not mine) got a little too wiley in the womb a few weeks prior to our departure date.  Dr. L. said it was a no go.  And wouldn't you know it, Baby #3 ended up being 5 days overdue in May.  Sigh...

With that trip canceled, I had a whopping $105 left on my Delta account and figured I might as well use it for something.  Hey!  My big sister JoAnn is turning 50 later this year - why not a trip with her!  We discussed options and settled on Vegas for a 4 day trip in April.

We stayed at The Mirage...spent our mornings with Starbucks & books at the pool, walked the Strip down and back and back and down, marveled at Cirque Mystere (with front row seats no less!), went up to the top of the Eiffel tower at night, watched the Bellagio water fountains several times, rode the NY NY rollercoaster, ate amazing steak at Stack...and just had a fun, relaxing time.  It was pretty awesome.

Reese & a Bug

Reese's class got a visit from "Bruce the Bug Guy" today.  Happy day! 

I've been putting in a lot of hours for the last few weeks - 55ish/week...and let's just say, being a workaholic is not really my style.  :-)  One week Scot was gone too...which really added to the fun. Last week was better and this week should be closer to 45. 

Scot is in Dayton, OH for the month taking a training course for foreign service type recruits.  So, I don' know how much blogging I'm going to get to, I'm so far behind already.  Boo.  We'll see how it goes...