Our first day of summer....

Warning: Lots of pictures!
So we wanted to do something fun to kick off our first day of summer! The kids decided we should go to the beach! We all love the beach, mostly {to be perfectly honest...I always liked the beach as a kid and teenager...in my older age and as a mom though I have become a tad bit paranoid. Being worried about little fish nibbling at my toes and being so stressed about it, swimming is no fun has made being at the beach all about a chair and an umbrella for me! Call me crazy but I enjoy swimming in a pool where I can see the bottom and will know ahead of time if something is coming towards me to get me! Also, watching my kids have zero fear of the water and just go running head first into every wave and heading further and further out to sea makes for a not so relaxing day at the beach! So I actually took one for the team on this outing! I did get my feet wet and then had a good time in my chair, under the umbrella watching the kids have fun...and whenever they went further out than I liked instead of watching and holding my breath, I closed my eyes and just went to my happy place! I think that our family will require many more trips so that my kids can enjoy childhood and hopefully won't have this same crazy paranoia I do!! Lucky for me and the kids, Shawn doesn't have even the slightest crazy paranoia I do!}
Kyler was racing the waves into the shore...this is the direction I like! :) ...towards land!
Kyler is always a great sport about posing for the camera for me! Oh, how I wish all my kids wanted to sport their cheesy grins and still have every moment captured on film!
This sweet smile came after threatening to take pictures of him while he slept if he didn't give me some beach shots!
Kailee and Shawners...we went to Stewart Beach in Galveston. The beach that Shawn usually likes to go to is still closed from damage and unsafe conditions from Hurricane Ike...so we went here instead. I liked that there were bathrooms and showers to rinse off in! {Shawn is all about ruffin' it and makin' do with what you've got or what you can find...me, not so much. So this was a good beach for us...he thought I was having unreasonable expectations to ask for a bathroom nearby!! I know...asking for a toilet instead of sand and a piece of kelp is such a demand!}
splashing in the water with your brother...what could be better!racing the waves and each otherTy loved laying down and letting the waves crash into him!Kailee...she had a lot of fun...her and Austin swam way out! I don't know how far I was in my happy place!There was alot of this...brothers hanging out in the waves having fun and chatting with each other! There is something really neat about watching the kids get along so well because they have this love of the beach!
Austin just chillin'Seeing how far they could dig down to find the little sand crabs that make the little air bubbles in the sand! :) They never did find one...but they dug deep looking!This is Shawn patrolling the beach towards the end of our trip. We saw 2 dead jellyfish on the shore. We were close to the lifeguard station and there were about 15 people that went for jellyfish stings while we were there. We decided to end our trip a little earlier than planned because so many people were getting stung. It seemed to be happening all around us so we thought, better stop before our luck ran out!While we were drying off and getting ready to go Tyson said he couldn't leave without making a sand angel! Thank goodness for those showers!

Kyler's first tooth fairy visit

Kyler was soooo excited last week when he realized he had a loose tooth! It finally fell out while he was wiggling it on his last day of kindergarten! {He is the first child of mine that lost any teeth before first grade!} After it fell out, we took pictures, put it in a baggie so it wouldn't get lost and sat down to finish our movie. He sat next to me on the couch and turned to me about 15 times and kept saying "I can't believe I lost my first tooth, it's so special!" It was cute! {{There had been a video we saw on AFV and this girl left a crumpled up piece of paper cuz she wanted to keep her tooth and the next morning when she woke up instead of $$ she got a ticket!}} Kyler told us over and over he wanted to keep his tooth but he would give it to the tooth fairy cuz he DID NOT want a ticket. :) He got a dollar from the tooth fairy and a note that said he could keep his tooth cuz it was so special to him! He was thrilled...he is now saving for what else?....a Transformer!Can you see that tiny little thing in his hand?He fell asleep on the couch during our movie with his tooth in hand!! :)

Tyson and Kyler's turn

walking in to the graduation music
getting his diploma from the principal Mr. Nash
Ok...same as before if you don't like bragging mom moments...read no further just skip to the pictures! Kyler's up first, his Kindergarten Completion Ceremony was yesterday morning. He looked soooo cute. The kids all sang 3 really cute songs. They each received their "diploma" {they actually just get a rolled up piece of paper that they drop in a basket after their turn on stage...they get the real thing once they are back in their classrooms} It was so fun to see all those cute kids all dressed up and getting a diploma! picture with Robert the Lion
After the ceremony was over we headed back to the classroom where all the kids and I gave Ms. Rigling her gift. The kids were awesome and kept the secret these last 6 weeks so Lisa didn't know what we were up too!! We gave her a card and a gift certificate and a paper bag album with pictures of all the kids! It also had answers to questions I had asked the kids one afternoon when we kicked Ms. Rigling out of class. Like "Things she taught you" {my favorite answer to that was always go to your right bathroom}, "Things you will miss" {my fav, we will miss loving her cuz we love her}, "Things she did that were funny or silly". The kids had so much fun helping me I will miss them all too!!Kyler and Ms. Rigling...we will miss having her for a teacher!!

So a quick Kyler recap...he learned to read this year and LOVES it, he got his first loose tooth 2 days ago and is anxiously awaiting the "fall out" so the tooth fairy can visit. He is excited about being a 1st grader and wants to swim all summer long. Also it just wouldn't be a Kyler story without mentioning that YES he still loves all things Transformers and he made me mark the calendar for June 24th when Transformers 2 comes out! :)

Alright....Ty's turn. I went to his classroom before his awards so we could give Mrs. Wagner her gift. He was to anxious to wait till after!She loved the book, the card and her pedicure certificate!
Tyson and Ms. Wagner
...next year Ms. Wagner won't have a classroom she will be a 'something' {the name escapes me} coach and be working with all the classrooms throughout the school. Although Tyson hopes to see her alot in 3rd grade he told me that he needed to make an appointment with Mr. Nash so he could beg him to please just let her be his 3rd grade teacher too!! :)
Tyson won a few awards yesterday. He won an award for Excellence in Music! He was so excited about that. He also won the Academic Royal Achievement Award which means that he had an A average in each subject area the whole year!! Way to go Tyson!!!

Tyson got baptized this last year. He started violin and has really excelled at it! He is a super good reader and he LOVES science. He is so funny and quick witted! I am going to have fun with him this summer. He is going for the first time to cub scout day camp this month and has almost completed his Wolf Badge!!

kailee's solo

Thank you soooo much to Leah for grabbing a quick little video of Kailee's solo at the Pop Concert! Here is the link.... Kailee...I will post some pictures and more about it when I have a little more time! She rocked....she sang so awesome!!! :)

the end of the year....

goofin' around before the awards

It is that time again...end of the school year and all the awards my wonderful kids have gotten! If you are not into the proud, bragging mom thing then don't read any of this post! It is my right though cuz this is my blog after all and I love my kids way too much!! I am sooooo extremely proud of how hard they work each year in school!! I know that the brains they have came from their dad! Kailee knows that when she has Math homework you go straight to dad...in fact one night when Shawn was out of town she came to me with a math worksheet and said "Mom I need help!" I looked at her and said "Did you want me to stamp the edges of that or put some glitter and stickers on it to look pretty? Cuz that's all I got for ya girl!!" We laughed and she went and called her dad! :)

So Austin was on the Honor Roll this year...no easy task...you have to maintain a 3.5 GPA or higher the whole year. {{yeah austin}} He also was in the top ten students in 6th grade (about 300ish total) for AR points. {{that is a reading thing...you get points for taking quizzes on books you read!}} He had about 260 points! Also...he got the most points in all of Ms. Moore's classes 286...so she gave him a new basketball!! If you want to know more you will have to google it! We are just over the top proud of Austin this year...on top of all he has done to keep such good grades he has learned to play trombone this year and has really excelled at it! He has been a den chief for Tyson's Wolf Den. He also has been ordained a Deacon and is keeping himself worthy to pass the sacrament each week at church! If I do say so myself he has turned out to be quite a handsome young man!! I would say cutie....but he wouldn't approve!! :) Way to go Austin you ROCK!!!Kailee's turn!! She of course got her awesome Choir award last week...Outstanding Choir Student in 7th grade. {see post below for more deets on that} She received an award for her participation in Destination Imagination. You will have to google that too. That was a great experience for her. She also found herself on the Honor Roll this year! She worked extremely hard all year to keep good grades and was self motivated to do so! I am especially proud of her for realizing how important her school work is and keeping on top of it! This year she was a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz at one of the local high schools...she also started taking voice lessons so she can continue to use that beautiful voice of hers! She will be performing "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus ion tomorrow night's POP Concert! She was recently called to be the president of her Beehives class! She is a phenomenal young woman and would make any mom proud!! ** One last thing....last night at the awards ceremony it struck me right away how proud I was of Kailee for looking so cute in a super modest way! I was shocked at how little clothing some of those young girls were wearing!! Great Job Kailee for setting a wonderful example!! :)

Miss Kailee

Kailee had her annual choir banquet this last Friday. They do awards and then have a DJ afterwards to dance and party with all the choir friends. She looked so cute. She did her makeup and I helped her with her hair...she had a new dress, cute silver flip flops and some silver earrings. She looked gorgeous!! I didn't go with her to the banquet...she said don't worry about it mom I won't get any awards. Shawn was out of town so I would've had to take the boys with me and it would've been a whole thing...she understood!
Anyway...our awesome Miss Kailee ended up getting the "Outstanding Choir Student Award" for 7th grade. Each grade level gives one to a boy and a girl. I can't believe it...well I can cuz we think she is phenomenal!! I am so bummed we weren't there to cheer her on though! She got a trophy with her name on it! It was so exciting! Anyway...here are some super cute pics of her before she left for the banquet! :)

Tyson's violin concert

This is when he was walking in and caught sight of us in the audience!! All of us were there...I am really proud of all my kids that they love to go to each others "things" and support each other! Kailee, Austin and Kyler were all very proud of Ty too!Shawn told him "Show me your violin."

Tyson had his first violin concert a couple of weeks ago. He did phenomenal! He has been working very hard this year!! He was so excited to play for us...we had lots of "pre-concerts" in the days leading up to the real thing! He wants to continue playing next year. He wants to be the worlds best violin player! :) What a sweet little guy!!

Kyler

It just doesn't get any cuter than this!!! {unless you count my other 3 kiddos than it does} but for now this is just pretty stinkin' cute!