Brutus

Evie's kindergarten teacher is so creative and lets each child in their class have a turn being "lucky buckeye" for a week. They have a special activity that they get to do every day such as; making a poster, bringing in pictures, show and tell, estimation station (where they can put whatever they want into a plastic bag and the class guesses how many items are in the bag), and bringing Brutus home for the weekend. In case you don't live in Ohio, Brutus is Ohio State's mascot, he is a buckeye. On Monday the "lucky buckeye" gets to share what they did with Brutus over the weekend. Here are some pictures of Eve with Brutus.

We love to go to our church's historical sites every year at Christmas time. They put on a phenomenal display of nativities. This year there were over 600! There is no charge to go and you don't have to be a member of our church. Eve took Brutus with us and Evie dressed up like an angel.


Riding in the car with our Brutus and Brutus from school.

Apple Farm

This fall I was able to go with Eve and her class to an apple farm for their field trip. It ended up being a beautiful day! The kids learned about apple trees and how the farmers harvest their apples. Then they were given a taste of apple cider, Yum!

Kates

I really can't believe my daughter turned 11 this year! It is really crazy and hard to wrap my head around! Next year she will be able to start participating in our youth program at church which is CRAZY!


School started the day before her birthday this year. Kates was super excited to start another year and be able to see her friends on a daily basis.

Kaitlyn's cake was not my best looking cake this year, but it sure was tasty! She requested chocolate cake with ganache frosting, she is definitely my girl!

Instead of a party this year she opted for a sleepover with her two best friends. We had to do them on separate weekends because of scheduling conflicts. Lauren was able to come spend the night on Kaitlyn's real birthday. We did a bunch of crafts and had cake!

School's Out For Summer

getting off the bus on the last day of school

Our bus stop crew

The kids are officially on summer break! It has definitely already felt like summer because of the hot days we've been having and pretty much every night at either Kaitlyn or Reuben's baseball games. I love it! (I didn't get to the bus stop in time to get a picture of Kates )

Undercover Turkey

Eve came home with a homework worksheet that had a picture of a turkey on it. The instructions said that turkeys don't want to be caught this time of year so please help your turkey with a disguise so that no one will be able to tell they are a turkey. Eve immediately thought of dressing her turkey up as a princess. This was a "family" project, so I helped a little. I love projects like this!

School Halloween Parade

On Friday the Elementary put on a parade around the streets surrounding the school. I love this yearly tradition to see all of the cute kids so excited and dressed up in their costumes.

When Eve woke up that morning she could hardly contain her excitement for the parade. She was convinced that she was going to be able to ride in a truck and wave to everyone and throw candy. (She has watched Kaitlyn and Reuben in our town's Memorial Day Parade for a couple of years and thought that this parade was the Memorial Day one.) It was pretty cute.

Eve wanted to be Ariel this year. I totally lucked out and found this costume at our local grocery store for $3.99! (I love a good deal!!) Reuben had a hard time making up his mind this year. He ended up being four different things, one costume for each party/event we went to. Luckily he used stuff we had at home because this had potential of getting pretty expensive. So, at school he dressed up as a spy (suit coat and Ryan's fedora). Reuben did such a good job blending in that I didn't get a good picture of him during the parade. This is the best I was able to get.

Lucky Buckeye

Eve was Lucky Buckeye in her class last week. (kinda like being star student) Her wonderful teacher is a HUGE Ohio State fan so she has made her whole classroom into an Ohio State theme. Being Lucky Buckeye, Eve was able to make a poster to hang in the classroom about herself on Monday, bring in pictures to show on Tuesday, bring in a bag full of stuff for her class to estimate the number of items which were inside of the bag on Wednesday, on Thursday she was able to show and tell, and on friday Eve was able to bring Brutus home for the weekend and write a journal entry of what they did together to share on Monday. So if you having gathered by now, being Lucky Buckeye is one of the best things ever! It was a fun week!

First Day of School

School started this week at our house! One of the kids asked me if it was still summer even though they are going to school now. It is kinda confusing with the beautiful weather we've been having here. Growing up we always started school on the day after Labor Day and for some reason it felt like fall. Not in August though,it is definitely summer time still.

This year we have three kids going to school! It seems crazy that they are old enough to start.

Yes, my little Evie is in kindergarten now!!!! For some reason it just seems like she really is too little to be going to school all day now. It is so hard for Ryan and I to see these kids grow up!

Big brothers are the best! Eve asked Reuben to help her up the "Big Steps".

I didn't get to take a picture of this one... but Kaitlyn is in Middle School this year!! Am I really old enough to have a kid in middle school? Kates seems to be loving it. Some of her highlights are decorating her locker and switching classes.

Fourth Grade Celebration

In our town Elementary School only goes through fourth grade. So, for the fourth graders which are graduating from Elementary School they have a celebration/ceremony. They receive diplomas and get to watch a video that was put together with a skit and lots of pictures from the year.

Kaitlyn and her teacher. Mrs. Dugan was gone for about half the year because she was on bed rest and then gave birth to two beautiful girls.

Kaitlyn and Lauren, one of her best friends from school.

Preschool graduation

Eve's preschool had a cute graduation last week. They sang some songs and then each received a diploma. Eve was pretty proud! Really can't believe she is going to start kindergarten next year. She still seems like my little girl.

I didn't find out until after the graduation that Eve's other teacher didn't make it to the graduation because she had a mild heart attack that day and was at the hospital. We are so happy that she is okay and back to her self now!

Kaitlyn's debut on T.V.

I don't like to blog out of order of when things happen... But today Kaitlyn and her class were in a segment in the news. If you watch it Kaitlyn is in the scan of her class she is wearing mostly pink and sitting in the back.

First Day of School

Here are the kids waiting for the bus on the first day of school. There is Reuben, Madelyn, Kaitlyn and Michael. We are lucky to have great neighbor/friends at our bus stop, that are the same ages as our kids in school. Little Link snuck in the picture too. The kids were super excited to start another year and love their teachers so far. (I really like them too!) Evie was lucky to make it into preschool. She was on a waiting list so we were super excited when she got in. I haven't taken any pictures of her there yet but she can't wait to go there everyday. My little kids are growing up way too fast!

There's No Place Like HOME

We're back!  After staying at my parent's for the last month we arrived at home today.  Ryan did a rotation at a hospital in Tacoma, Washington for the month of July.  So, the kids and I stayed at my parents, which live right outside of D.C.  It was such a fun month, keep a look out for some posts coming soon!  It was a wonderful month and was SO fun to be able to be with my parents!!!  But I cannot explain how nice it is to have a husband home again and to know that he is not scheduled to leave anytime soon for another rotation!

Third Grade Concert

Kaitlyn had her third grade concert last night!  The theme was "Lights, Camera, Action!"  They sang the theme from Sponge Bob Squarepants, Hot Chocolate from Polar Express, The Candyman, and more.  It was really cute and the kids did a great job!  Kaitlyn has been looking forward to it for over a month, so it was really exciting for her!!

Lauren, Kaitlyn and Abby

Teacher Birthday

Today we celebrated Kaitlyn's Teacher's birthday .  It really isn't until August but we celebrated it today since she has a summer birthday.  A wonderful mom in the class pulled it all together.  Each of the kids had a letter, which all put together spelled "Happy Birthday Mrs. Thomas".  Each of the kids was assigned their letter in advance and was asked to think of things about Mrs. Thomas which started with their letter.  They all said them out loud.  It was really fun!   

I made some cupcakes for the class.  What is a birthday party without cake??!

Evie decorated some graham crackers.  

Her beautiful masterpiece!

Last Set of Finals, Forever!!!

One of the most exciting turns of events happened to us just a couple weeks ago.  After nearly 3 years of school with 83 hair-pulling, ulcer causing exams and countless quizzes, I finished the classwork portion of my schooling.  It is truly amazing to finally be at this point.  It seems like it has been such a long time coming.  Now I start the intense clinical training portion.  I spend my remaining time in school (14 months) in clinical rotations.  I am currently spending the month at the VA hospital here in Cleveland where we are given a great deal of experience with diabetic patients as well as a variety of other conditions.  I look forward to the coming year as I hope to be able to apply the things learned in the previous three. 

Thank you to Kristen and the kids for your support through the years.  I could not have done this without you all!

February 13th

Yesterday started off with Kaitlyn waking up super early because she was so excited that her field trip was that day.  She had been anticipating it all week!  The play was awesome!  The play we saw was Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.  It was so fun to be able to go with her class and see how excited the kids were!  The way back to school they were singing some of the songs from the play.

We topped off the day with a date to the Melting Pot.  Words cannot describe the goodness that we had there.  It was definitely a treat to be able to go.  Ryan and I were celebrating our 10th anniversary of when he proposed to me and Valentines.  I can't believe that ten years has flown by!  I feel so blessed to be married to my prince charming and look forward to many more years!  Our wonderful friends Stacy and Matt joined us for dinner.  We look forward to our monthly date nights with them!!