Workin’ at the Car Wash

This silly boy makes me laugh!  He took his car washing job very seriously….safety first!

Grace Graduates

My Gigi girl has graduated kindergarten!

Try as I might, I couldn’t keep from tearing up as I watched my big girl sing her heart out at her ceremony. 

We had made the decision to send her to kindergarten early after much discussion with teachers.  We know now that we made the right choice – she had a fabulous year!

(I totally look pregnant in this pic.  I assure you I am NOT)

Grace and her teacher, Mr. G

After the ceremony, we headed off to Hoffman’s Playland for an afternoon of fun – a Sacred Heart tradition!

Grace and her friend Collin rode the Scrambler alone!  I love the action shot below!

Congrats to all the kindergarten grads….first grade, here we come!

My Daredevil

Over the weekend we went swimming at a friend’s pool.  This was the first time we had taken Liam swimming (he has gone a few times with his babysitter) and also the first time he used his PuddleJumper vest.  He loved it!!  He was jumping off the side like crazy.

Then he pointed his finger down to the end of the pool and said. “Mama…jump.”  I looked down and realized he wanted to jump off the diving board!  I wasn’t sure whether to let him!  However, this child has no fear….he has already conquered the jungle gym and the tallest slide at the playground.  This will be the child who gives me grey hair!

So we let him jump!  My little 21-month-old baby.  And he did it dozens of times and loved every minute!

Father’s Day Fun

For Father’s Day, we went to our favorite little beach on Lake George with my parents and sisters.  We had tons of fun!

Swimming…

Splashing…

Jumping…

and chasing butterflies!

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!  You are the best!  We love you so much!

Recital Day

Today was Grace’s very first recital with the Boland School of Irish Dance!

We were so excited for her big day.  The first half of the show had the groups dancing to “fun” songs, most of which were more upbeat, contemporary music.  Seeing the traditional Irish dance set to the fun music (Call Me Maybe!) was really entertaining!

Grace’s group did an adorable dance to “Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho” from Snow White.  She’s in the lavender shirt below in the middle.

The theater was a photo-taking nightmare, but I did my best!  The low light plus a wiggly Liam on my lap made for some fuzzy photos.  Liam, by the way, LOVED the show.  Every time the dancers left the stage, he’d say “More!  More!”

For the second half of the show, the dancers performed to traditional Irish music.  Grace did amazing!  She was so focused.

My big girl!

Nanny made a very special cake for her special day! 

Unfortunately after all the excitement of the day, Grace wasn’t feeling so well…my poor girl came home with a fever and headache and couldn’t even enjoy her cake :-(  Hoping it passes quickly and she’s feeling better soon!

We are so proud of her for doing such a great job with dance this year.  Looking forward to many more recitals!

Here’s a video of Grace’s second dance routine….it’s veeeery tiny, but she is in the front row, all the way to the left.

Orange Belt

Seamus is now the proud recipient of his orange belt in TKD!

He has been practicing hard and we are so proud of his accomplishment!

Sparring during his exam! 

His instructors were able to modify his sparring gear to fit him correctly.  The torso and helmet pieces fit fine, but the limb protection is slightly different than what the other kids wear.  Devon cut some length off of the mouthpiece and that fits better too.

A happy orange belt!

Great job, Seamus!

Free as a Butterfly

Each year the kids get to watch their own butterflies grow in a butterfly garden.  We send away for the caterpillars and wait for them to arrive in the mail.  So exciting!

We watch them grow from tiny caterpillars, to BIG caterpillars, until they finally attach themselves to the top of their containers and turn into cocoons.

After all the cocoons have formed, we take out the small paper that they are attached to and hang it from the top of the butterfly garden.  And then we wait for butterflies to emerge!

Here are the empty cocoons.  We actually got home just in time this weekend to see a couple of the butterflies struggling out of their shells.

Once the butterflies have practiced flying and their wings are fully stretched out, it’s time to set them free.

And there they go!  I unfortunately didn’t capture the actual butterflies here, just the excited looks on everyone’s faces!  (Oh, and please know it was about 60 degrees right here.  Bathing suits and no pants…apparently that’s how we roll.)

Off they go!  It’s always very exciting to watch!  A fun spring project if you are interested – Live Butterfly Garden.