Busy time of year...

The end of April is usually the last of my steady pace of life for the year and this year has been no exception! Kenzie had her last tumbling class on 4/23 and her teacher invited parents in to observe. This is definitely not Kenzie's favorite class because there is so much downtime between her turns at different activites. But she stayed with it until the end and that's all we ask. She will definitely be returning in the fall to begin her 3rd year of dance. THAT, she loves!! We're looking forward to her recital on June 2nd!

Come one, come all! It is at 10:30 am at the Cannon Center and admission is free!

This past week, Oak Elementary celebrated 25 yrs! All week the teachers and students worked on decorating their hallways in different themes. Then on Friday the classes rotated around to the different activites outside each classroom and hallways and enjoyed an in-house field trip! Back in 1987, when the first group of students started school, the classrooms were finished, but several other parts of the school including the office and cafeteria, were still under construction. So we decorated the office in "caution" tape and barricades and original blueprints! I had several of the little kids ask if I was Bob the Builder's sister!

Lunch with my Kenzie!

2nd/3rd grade hall was the Seasons and life cycle of the Oak

K/1st grade hall (including Kenzie's class) used the book
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to plan their activities and decorate!

Mrs. Barsch, Mrs. Ohl, and Mrs. Keegan made this awesome quilt!

Oak Acres was created by the PTA years ago and had fallen into ruin. So in anticipation of celebrating 25 years, the 5th grade teachers and several PTA volunteers revitalized it! It's beautiful! A WONDERFUL outdoor classroom for the kids!

Kenzie and her classmates planted several flowers in the "Acorn" garden!

She loved pretending the gazebo was her stage!

Saturday was the Community Celebration so Brian and Caden joined us at Oak for the day! We took them on a tour around the halls inside, then enjoyed activites outside and

hot dogs and birthday cupcakes (of course!).

Before

AFTER!!

Burying the new timecapsule. The original one was badly decomposed
and you could barely tell what anything was.

Hopefully this one will hold up better!

Kenzie and Ethan didn't stray far from each other all day!

Caden enjoyed playing in the sprinkler while his Daddy and sister finished their naps that afternoon!

Happy Easter!!

What a beautiful weekend to celebrate our risen Savior!

Brian and the kids were with Grandma and Grandpa in Branson to prefish for his upcoming Bassmaster tournament, so I went home to Ripley to spend some quality time with my parents and work on the 2011 home movie! We reassembled back in Memphis saturday night and celebrated Easter Sunday together. Sorry, no pictures of the basket hunt, but I took video! Then we hustled to get ready and get to church on time. After a great service and awesome music, we decided to take some pictures up the hill from our church. There's a big barn and acres of trees. Everything was so GREEN!

Then we got home and had an egg hunt! Afterwards we took much needed naps!

Family portrait time!

We had originally scheduled the session to be for Kenzie's 5 yr portraits and Caden's 18 mth, but then I thought, "We need a big family portrait with Caden and Karis in it!". The last time we had a family picture made, I was pregnant with Caden and we battled through tornados and flooding to get our family picture made! The weather was MUCH more cooperative this time! The kids did great, no tears or tantrums, but as usual, anytime you have distractions...you never know what you're going to get! But out of all of the pictures taken, I thought these were the best!

Karis Joy 1 yr

Kenzie Elizabeth 5 yrs



Caden Tanner 18 months
(before his haircut!)



My hair looks bad and Brian has a goofy grin, but aren't my kids ADORABLE?!!

Karis was really amazing! It took her a little while to warm up to the photographer,
but when she did she really turned the sparkle on!

Caden's FIRST haircut!

We took Caden to Sport Clips yesterday afternoon for his FIRST haircut!! He was AWESOME!! He flirted with the stylist and liked the cloak and loved all the basketballs around the building! Anytime she wanted him to look down, I held a smartie down low and he'd look down to take it.

I miss the curls, but that area was just getting so long, I needed to get it cut so the top and sides could catch up! He looks like such a little man now!! It was a GREAT experience! Oh! And with the coupon from our City Savers book, it was FREE!

BEFORE

Happy boy!

Saving a little piece of smartie for later ;)

AFTER

He'll definitely be back since she gave him a sucker!