The Turtle of the Day!

This past Wednesday was a very important day for Jenna in her Turtle classroom at school. It was finally her turn to be The Turtle of the Day!! She'd been anticipating this day for what seems like forever. You may be wondering what exactly it means to be the Turtle of the Day so I will explain. When it's your turn to be The Turtle of the Day you get to bring home the very special Turtle of the Day striped bag which contains a book to read and a worksheet to fill out telling some of your favorite things. Jenna put down that her favorite food is dinosaur egg oatmeal, her favorite movie is Dinosaur, her brontosaurus stuffed animal is her favorite toy (figured out yet what Jenna's into lately?), and Blackberry Farm is her favorite place to visit. More importantly, you get to bring home the classroom mascot...Speedy the Turtle...for a sleepover! This was very exciting for Jenna...and Speedy went everywhere with us when he got here...he ate lunch with us, went to carpool, took a bath, played in the backyard, got a ride in the stroller...he did everything with Jenna and she was so happy. He spent the night in her bed.

The next morning Jenna was very excited to get to school. She picked out her green turtle dress to wear for her big day and was looking forward to accessorizing with the special turtle necklace Miss Hollenbeck made indicating to everyone that she was, in fact, The Turtle of the Day. Jenna had been talking about this necklace constantly and couldn't believe it was her turn to wear it. She also got to bring in a show-and-tell item to share with the Turtle classroom. Jenna chose one of her stuffed dinos that makes crazy dinos noises. Her plan was to show her friends the dino and then surprise them by squeezing the sound box and making it roar (or whatever dinosaurs do). I'm not exactly sure how it all worked out, but she said that everyone liked her dino. Each Turtle friend in the class then gets to do a "one finger touch" of this very special show-and-tell item. At the end, the kids raise their hands and Jenna got to call on her friends one by one so they could either pay her a compliment or ask her a question about her dino. I was able to see this little activity play out with another child in the classroom when I volunteered earlier in the week and it was great. All the kids really seemed to enjoy learning about their other Turtle friends. :)

Jenna's favorite part of the whole thing was having Speedy visit. She was a little sad when she came home without Speedy after school that day. I explained to her that Speedy lives in the Turtle Room with Miss Hollenbeck and that he was off visiting another Turtle friends family now. Her exact words...she wanted me to "email Miss Hollenbeck to see what store she bought him from" so that she could get a Speedy too. It's hard to believe that she will be "graduating" from preschool and going to kindergarten this fall. Her time in the Turtle Room went by so quickly!

The Fine Arts Festival

We recently attended the Fine Arts Festival to view a very special piece of artwork made by Jacob. Our school district acknowledges spectacular work by hanging them all up on the walls of the high school and inviting the entire community to come and view them. Here he is proudly showing off his clown.



This is the second time that a piece Jacob's artwork has made it to the Fine Arts Festival. Last year, a frog painting he made in art class was honored at this special event. Good job, buddy!

Mother's Day

I had a fantastic Mother's Day filled with lots of surprises. Tom said that the kids were all excited to make the day extra special and they couldn't wait to get started. First, I woke up to a fresh, clean diaper on Nicholas...changed by big brother Jacob! He didn't think that I should have to change his diaper first thing on Mother's Day so he proudly took care of it. (Funny, he hasn't changed once since...can't blame him). Next, I came across a lovely little sign strategically hung at the bottom of the stairs so I wouldn't miss it...how sweet!

The sign says "Happy Mother's Day..We all love you!"
Jacob woke up "extra early" to get it done in time. :)

Since it was such a nice day we decided to open presents out on our porch. First they gave me beautiful flowers for our garden. It was cute because they took turns bringing them out to me....it was a parade of flowers! Other surprises...a bird feeder, a special purple watering can (picked out by Jacob...he made Tommy go to several stores to find it), and lots of beautiful handmade cards. Jenna made a cute Mother's Day craft at school that she just couldn't wait until Sunday to give me...so I received that surprise a little early.

After presents, we decided to plant all the flowers that they had just given me! I had lots of "help" getting them in the ground and pots. It was great family time.



We spent the afternoon picnicking at Herrick Lake with my Mom and Dad, Lis, Michael, and Yia Yia. Lots of people had the same idea as us....but we managed to get a table and just enjoyed being outside. After hiking around the lake, the kids had a good time (pretend) fishing and running around. It was great day...and I hope that you all had a nice day, too!

Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend filled with thankfulness, family, Easter egg hunts (four to be exact), and fun! This picture was taken on Easter morning. I think that each one of our kids had eaten one pound of sugar by 10am so you can imagine how hard it was to get them to sit still. Grandma Pagonis handmade Jenna and Marissa's Easter dresses. I just love them!

This picture makes Tom think of the Verizon commercial.
"How many bars do YOU have?"

We always look forward to decorating Easter eggs...it's a big deal in our house and everyone participates. I've been making Tommy dye eggs since we met...and he loves it, right honey?
We did camouflage eggs this year!

This Easter was a special one for us because we hosted it at our house for the first time! The kids were really happy to celebrate the holiday at home. There was a ton of food and everyone seemed to have a great time. Thank you to my family for helping me pull it off! After dinner we had a little egg hunt in our backyard. Each child had their own color egg to find. We're still finding cousin Anna's pink eggs in our yard! This picture of Nicholas sums up the whole day for him...he was constantly holding up a piece of candy asking if he could eat it...all day....it never stopped...he must have consumed his body weight in sugar that day.

Another highlight of the day....my sister, Melissa, and Rick announced their engagement! We are all VERY happy to hear this much anticipated news and we welcome Rick to our family. The wedding will be on October 4 (my parent's anniversary). I'm looking forward to a beautiful wedding and am having fun planning this very special day with my sister.

Congrats Rick and Lis!

We hope you all had a nice Easter!

Dirty Boy

This is what Nicholas looks like after an afternoon of playing in the backyard....



.....and this is what his shoes look like.....they never were quite the same after this day....

Two Tots in the Tub

Marissa and Brianna recently enjoyed a relaxing bubble bath together! Eventhough Brianna had already been bathed earlier that day by her mommy (I was babysitting her), both girls made it perfectly clear that Brianna would be taking another bath that evening. This time with Marissa...doubly clean! When I asked if they would like to take a bath they immediately headed upstairs together chatting about the "BAF" (bath). Funny that they both attempted to take their clothes off by themselves too....Brianna would have jumped in with them on if I let her. They had a good time playing and splashing in the bubbles...and the rubber duckies were a big hit....good thing I had two!!