rainbows and more rainbows

 I am not sure what has been going on this past week but we have had large rains while the sun is shining bright! One evening we had no joke at least 5 rainbows. They are still so pretty no matter how many I see. We had a first though, while this picture does not show it very well this rainbow is actually starting on the back deck of this neighbors house! It was amazing and lasted for at least 3 or 4 minutes. Just beautiful. Rainbows always remind me of my dad and on this night we just thanked God for sharing a bit of beauty with us.

this one almost seemed to be a triple rainbow, I kept waiting for the third to be more visible but it remained just an "almost".

red mulch

A little landscape redo. Removal of some fence and replacing it with a stone edge makes a big difference. The with a little encouraging I said yes to red mulch and by golly it looks pretty darn sharp! By mid summer hoping the Hostas are grown in a bit more.

6 years in the making

 Pete and I got this church pew 6 years ago as we were building this house. We had visions of how nice it would look after refinishing. Well it took 6 years and my mom coming into town for 6 days but it is done! I did not get a good picture of it before, but here it is.

 After a couple coats of striping and sanding and cleaning this is the in between stage. Lots of encouraging words from cars as they drove by. I think lots of jealousy as well.

The finished project! It turned out beautifully! I think it will become a strong part of many memories to come from this house. So grateful to my mom for all her help and guidance. She continues to amaze me each time we have the privilege of an extended stay with us.

PJ's graduation

 PJ and Brie had their last preschool program this year. As always it was a touching ceremony. This year it was extra special as they put the "graduates" in caps and gowns! It was a touching sight to see.

 The kids with each of their fantastic teachers. The patience shown by the kids preschool is amazing! They always have a very kind and gentle heart! We love them so much and while we are proud of PJ for "graduating" it is with a heavy heart as another of our own is moving on.  Brie on the other hand will be around for one more year and I am sure she will keep them on their toes once again.

 This is Gabriella's very best friend at preschool. They will be thrilled to be together for one more year.

One insisted on taking a quick family picture of us at the program. It was not a plan to have such coordinating outfits.  I do enjoy the red white and blue!

A

A very onery but most sincere THANK YOU to all the staff at St. Paul's for a wonderful year. May God Bless each of you this summer with much time of relaxation, peace, and joy!

So it was a very big day for the littles! Preschool program in the morning,  out to lunch, back to preschool and no nap, the running at soccer in the evening, it was just more than this little lady could handle! Poor Brie was passed out and did not wake for anything! If I recall she did not wake until 940 the next morning!

Maggie's "friend" party

I said earlier that Maggie choose puppies as her these for this year. Well we went

all out and the day went to the dogs!Pete again in his artistic way made a bunch of lumps of cake turn into a dog! A golden retriever I might add per the request of one 8 year old! The things he can do! our kids are very lucky to have such a great daddy!

Maggie had a great time with her friends! They did a lot of running from the second floor to the basement and up again. I am sure they slept well that night! These little ladies also knew how to scream, yell, and giggle! It was a very silly fun party!

They did some crafts before cake and ice cream.

 We also served fruit kabobs per a Maggie request as well.

After crafts, gifts, and cake then the big fun happened! We put garbage bags on each of the kids(fun right..?) the we got out the cans of silly string and sent them to the "meadow".  Oh my goodness the cans lasted only a short time but the memories and squeals will last a lifetime.  The kids had so much fun spraying each other and running away from each other. This just may become a friend birthday party tradition!

After the party was done these two besties were alone at last. This is one of Maggie's very dear friends who moved in April. They happened to be back in town for the weekend and we were able to coordinate a surprise for Maggie. She nearly had tears in her eyes when Brooklyn arrived first before the rest of the group. It made Maggie's birthday party complete to have Brooklyn with her again!

Maggie is 8!

 So Maggie is officially now 8! My mom, her Godfather Mark and Auntie Carol came into town to watch the last soccer game, have lunch and celebrate with us. Maggie choose a puppy theme for her birthday this year and asked Pete to make her a dog bone cake with cool whip for her "family party" and a puppy for her "friend party". She also wanted trick candles so I found "sparkler" candles which were a hit! Thank you to all who sent cards and gifts for Maggie she had a great birthday and is enjoying all her new gifts!

These two photos of Maggie are just funny and show her corky personality that we all love!! Your spirit is unmatched Maggie Jean and we hope you always stay true to yourself. We love you and think you are perfect just the way you are! Happy year 8 Magdalene!

soccer ends....

 Maggie had a good season, I think we even won a few games. She seems to really enjoy soccer and her coaches are super sweet.

 PJ team was not into an organized photo of the group. These guys just show up and play hard for 50 minutes. There is not much time of getting to know each other, the kids hit the field and are eyes on the ball kind of players. PJ really seemed to grasp the concept this year and made quite a few goals. While he does like to "fall" a lot, he does have some pretty good wheels on him.

This group of girlie friends will certainly miss soccer night as well. We pretty much do not see Makayla until the game is over. It is a nice break for here to have fun with some of her friends!

Miss Kelsey

We are happy to announce our summer sitter, Miss Kelsey. She comes to us from a small town and is very excited to hang out with our crew for the summer. She comes with lots of energy and we are hopeful for a fun filled kid kind of summer! Thanks to Kelsey for saying yes and we look forward to a great summer of wonderful memories!(we warned her she must take photos so the blog can go on, she said she loves to take pictures!)

hints of warmer days

Pete got me lilacs 5 years ago and this year they have really taken off and were in full beautiful bloom. It was so pretty to have a long the back of the fence line. They are continuing to really grow with each rainfall we get so we may have to prune a bit next year. LOVE THEM!!
It also have finally become nice enough to have lunches on the deck again. The kids just love eating outdoors.

piano

The piano tuner came in today and tuned the piano and now it sounds beautiful. She prompted my thoughts though when she asked what the piano's story was. I had to call mom and see if she knew its history, not for another blog post but rather to have it written down so as to have it in the future.  The piano's story: my folks bought the piano after seeing it in the classifieds. It was completely black and mom refinished it. We think they purchased it about 1981. It lived on the farm until 2003 when it was moved to Pete and I's first home, then it was moved to our rental in 2005 and it made it to the resting place in 2008. The piano was tuned regularly while at the farm and then did not get tuned again until 2013. In 2013 he had to replace one string/key, however the piano in his opinion was in great shape given the lack of care it had been given. Today the tuner said she tuned it to standard pitch and said once again it is in great shape. So in the end not much of a story but I can see this instrument ending in one of my children's homes some day and wanted to have written down what I do know.

excited

We have been searching for a summer sitter for the past 6 weeks or so. The kids requested the most fun and prettiest one! We have managed to find I think just the right one for our family. This was the kids reaction when we told them who we had hired. They were more than thrilled!! we are looking forward to more laid back days of summer and all the fun these 4 will be having with Miss Kelsey.

Nurse's Day

May 6th is Nurse's Day. Happy nurses day a bit late to all the nurses I am blessed to have in my life. I hope each of you had a great day. I had a surprise delivery and I was surprised to learn it was from a very sweet patient family. We have become friends with this family outside of my work and we feel very lucky to have them in our lives. Thank you for making my day!!

Bliss

My doctor gives me, his phone nurse and his wife a spa package for Christmas. We joke and call ourselves the 3 wives. It is a day of massages, manicure, pedicure and lunch. The spa labels it as "Day of Bliss". It is completely wonderful and awesome. This is our third year of this tradition and this year we made a day of it. We went to a girl movie and then out to dinner. It was completely wonderful and relaxing!! Thanks Dr. Shawn you are the best!!

May Day

 Happy May Day!! We assembled some clearance Easter bags with popcorn and candy that I had picked up after the holiday. We all put on our jackets because once again it was a very cool outside,  we headed to the neighbors to delivery their bags in secret. We managed to catch all of our May Day deliveries, no kisses were exchanged but everyone in the neighborhood were very happy.