Father's Day 2011

We love him for all of these reasons and more!!

The kids and I were very excited to give this collage to Rick for Father's Day. I saw this idea on a blog somewhere and thought that it would be cute in Rick's office. Taking these pictures of the kids was a little tricky, especially Will. We also gave him a shirt that was hotly debated. Seriously, Ben and Olivia had very stong and differing opinions on what color we should get him. We finally decided a royal blue one.

For dinner, we had Daddy's favorite Cheese Grits with creamy Shrimp & Andouille sausage and for dessert, banana pudding. You would think he is from the south. After we ate, we took a very long Sunday walk (which is one of our favorite Sunday things to do). What a great day!!

End of School

I have no photographic proof that Ben was actually in first grade. I was looking back through some pictures and realized I have the first day of school pictures and the last day of school pictures and nothing in between. Ben's year consisted of making lots of great friends, continuing his love of reading, and being great at math. He still really dislikes writing and coloring of any kind but babysteps right?
The bus stop gang

With the school year ending it also ended my first year of being a room mom. All of the those cute parties and all of that hard work and not one picture of anything. Of course, I feel I could have done more but I think I did a respectable job. I know Ben has really loved having me their so often.

Olivia finished her last year of preschool. This is her on Wacky Wednesday, her second to last day of school. She has an August birthday so she is going to be the baby in her class next year. We (her preschool teacher, her soon-to-be kindergarten teacher and Rick and I) all think she is totally ready for kindergarten and she is so excited. My baby is gowing up too fast!

The Fish Fiasco

Some friends of ours in Chicago gave us a fish named Squiggles. He has lived comfortably in his bowl in Ben's room for the past year and a half. Last month I walked into Ben's room to find Squiggles floating at the top of the bowl. I knew that Ben and Olivia were going to be sad. Ben especially has been a little sensitive to death.
So what should I do? I decided to be sneaky!! I hoped that the kids wouldn't notice until that night when I had a babysitter coming. I had her come about an hour early so that I could go buy a new fish to replace the dead one. I told her my sneaky plan and to try and keep the kids away from the fish bowl. I picked a fish that looked similar to Squiggles drove to my friends house to pick her up, left the fish at her house, went to Bunco, dropped off my friend, picked up the new fish and went home. The kids were all snuggled in their bed when I got home and the sweet babysitter left.
I got to work. First, I flushed Squiggles down the potty. Cleaned the bowl, replaced the water and put the new Squiggles in his new home. I left the fish bowl in the kitchen for the night.
The next morning we all came downstairs. I was getting breakfast ready for the kids when Ben noticed that the fish bowl was in the kitchen.
He asked 'Why is Squiggles bowl in the kitchen?"
I said, "I was cleaning his water last night and I just left it down here."
At the same moment, we all looked at the bowl and Ben says "Is Squiggles dead?"
Yes he was!!! Dead as a doornail. The kids all started crying. As for me, I was just mad! All that work to end up with the same result...crying sad children!!

Some funny/sad things that the kids said that morning:

Ben - I don't think that I can practise my spelling words this morning because a member of our family has passed away.
Olivia - What do we do with Squiggles? I said "We can bury him or flush him down the potty." Olivia says - NOOOO, we can't flush Squiggles down the stinky potty, we love him!!!! Why would we flush him down the potty!!!!"
Ben - "Sometimes when I'm sad a new toy will make me feel better."

We waited until Rick got back in town (the kids thought that Daddy would want to be there for it) to bury the fish we had for less than 12 hours. Of course, the kids didn't know that real Squiggles had been flushed down the potty the night before and that we were burying an impostor. The kids picked a shady place under a tree in our back yard.