Last day of school

 May 29, 2015 was the last day of school here.  Our little Tamlin is officially done with Kindergarten and is a First Grader!   He finished the year with high marks  (mastery) in just about everything.  We are so proud of our little man.

 He's excited to have more fun in the pool and swimming in the lake.  But, he says he'll miss riding the bus and playing with his school friends.  He's favorite thing about school this year was gym class and computer class.  He also said his favorite event was the singing/ dancing show the kindergarteners did, which was followed by a party.  I was lucky enough to attend this event and it was uber-cute.  Like all kids, he was so proud that his mom came to watch him perform. When asked what he learned that he liked the most, he answered "Ten-squares, because it was what first graders were learning." 






Jude will continue in the same room at pre-school until the fall, but they all still celebrated the end of the "school year."  They'll have more play/ fun structure throughout the summertime.  My how my little Jude has grown through this year!  He's progress report had many high marks too, with him recognizing letters, numbers, and shapes.  He is still my passionate/stubborn little man, but just as bright as his brother.

Drawings by Jude...Family photo at the top, drawn in May 2015

Self-portraits at the bottom...January 2015 and May 2015.

  Jumping with excitement to start the summertime!

Cousins at the beach

We celebrated Jude's 4th birthday on Memorial day weekend.  Shelly and family were able to come out a day early to spend some time with us and let the kiddos all play together.   It was a beautiful early evening, so we decided to walk on down to the beach.  We love the beach, and take just about any excuse to go down to the water.  Baby Elizabeth hadn't seen sand and waves yet, and we wanted to give her a great first experience.  When we told the littles that we were going to the beach, we had to interrupt their dress-up play.  This didn't bother them!  Doesn't everyone go as superheros to the beach?

The capes are all made by Aunt-Shelly...with Jude's was whipped up in the past 24 hours as a quick birthday gift.  I like this shot, because they all have the same head tilt as they walk :-)  The kids insisted on bringing shovels and buckets for making sandcastles.  Baby Elizabeth got a free ride in the stroller...which also double as portable storage for the random things the kids wanted to bring back home.

Our beach is small, but nice and our local neighbors enjoy using it for recreation.  Jude immediately fell to digging in the sand with his digger-truck.  Tamlin started hauling water to make castle molds.  Ciearra checking out the water and helped Tam.  I had to remind them all that we did NOT have spare clothes so there should NOT be any swimming.  I knew as soon as the words left my mouth, that Tam would get wet...accidentally...and he did slip into the water within 10 minutes.

 The water was pretty calm with only small waves lapping the sand.  The temperature of the water is still pretty chilly, not quite foot-cramping cold, but still toe-curling cold.  I was good just wading in far enough to cover my sandals.  The kids all went in to about knee-high. 

And Elizabeth?

She's the serious baby...just watching everyone playing and watching the waves and watching the birds and touching the sand and grabbing the rocks and watching the kids and watching and watching and watching :-)  It was great to watch her pick up a rock and then drop in quickly when she saw another rock that she thought she wanted.

 The fresh air and walking tired all the littles out.  The walk homeward was a bit slower and meandering, but we made it back for some dinner, play, and bed.  Happy times for all.