Duke Gardens

Our Week

We had a fun week of seeing friends perform in shows and recitals, hiding from the rain, planting our starters, and getting a Wednesday off of school for the teacher rally.  I'm really grateful that Nora adjusts to being carted around because that's basically her option--live with it or live with it.  She doesn't love the car ride, but we are learning some little tricks so that she isn't screaming for the entire drive (just a lot of it).  I maintain that there is nothing quite as stressful as driving safely at the speed limit with a screaming baby and at least one other kid in the car loudly asking how many minutes before the baby will be done screaming and how long until we get home and can we please switch to a new song and please will you turn it up louder (no! My ears can't handle any more volume!) and I want to tell you a story or a joke or ask you my new crazy question.  So now our drives begin with a prayer for patience and safety and also gratitude that the screaming baby every car ride has only been happening for a few weeks and not her whole life.  But since that's the only complaint I have about Nora, I am truly and eternally grateful.  This baby has been a dream come true in many ways and her calm demeanor is an incredible blessing.

The girls got to do some bedtime snuggles this week.  They've been waiting for the day she would cuddle with them so we had to document it!  Nora has been talking a lot lately and she made sure to favor both sisters with a little bedtime message :)

Lydia gave me a Mother's Day book with some special pictures and thoughts about me.  This page just cracked us all up.  I don't believe I've ever said these words in my life before last week...but we did say them several times this week :)

Andrew and I walk down to the bus stop together every day.  He looked so grown up and confident and I realized he and I just have one more year of doing this before kindergarten.  Yay and boo at the same time!  I'll miss my little buddy.  He's always full of stories and questions.  My favorite thing lately is that he will give me math questions and then spices it up every few minutes with something like, "What's green plus 3?" just to see if I'm really listening.  And yes, if you're wondering, the answer is "a green 3", not "a 3-eyed alien" or "a 3-headed dragon".  No, we are quite literal still.

Despite what her face looks like here, Nora does like sitting up for a few minutes at a time.  She's a strong girl and loves to look out and see what's happening all around her.

She Got a Golden Ticket!

I am so incredibly proud of Abby!  She was Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Kids and she was confident, animated, sounded gorgeous, and owned the stage.  I wish we could have filmed the whole show so she could see it.  It was phenomenal!

So Blessed!

This was a fantastically busy week where I got no errands done because we had fun kid stuff going...and with a new baby in the house, I only like to completely blow up her schedule so many times in a day.  But as busy and crazy as it was, there were some purely wonderful moments too.  I'm really proud of our kids and the good people they are!

Sam got us laughing out loud the other night when he came down like this.  He cut out the baby head from a diaper box.  His creative and silly side just cracks me up :)

We tried Nora's tummy time with siblings and a show on Roy's phone one night.  It took some effort, but she also ended up rolling over that night.  In the background, you can see the diaper box that Sam used for his baby face above.

This was Teacher Appreciation Week and I volunteered to pick up the 36 balloons from the store for the non-teaching staff at school.  It was hilarious to try to wrangle the balloons into the trunk on a day with some wind gusts.  Yet another time I wish I were an octopus.  But the good news is that we only lost one balloon that day.  I'd call that a win!

The kids and I made candy grams for their classroom teachers and the teachers who teach their Specials classes.  I think they turned out really cute and Abby and Sam were especially excited to be able to use the hot glue gun and organize the candy and words their own way.

The kids had their Fun Run at school this week so we went to cheer them on.  It was a warm morning, but these kids were motivated and each did more than the 35 laps that they were challenged to get.  I didn't get a picture of Sam in his Fun Run shirt, but did catch him after he'd changed (into an inside-out shirt :)

Abby's class earned Crazy Hair Day and Crazy Sock Day and decided to celebrate both on the day of the Fun Run.  Abby decided that in order to truly combine them, she should put crazy socks in her hair :)  All year, she has worn crazy socks every day.  She always wears mismatched socks and prefers them to be knee-highs.  It's her thing and she loves it.  

Look at this sweet Nora Grace!  She's the best baby and such a blessing!