These kiddos ended their Awana year with a bang. They had so much fun. We are so thankful for the Awana program at Woodland Community Church and we will miss it next year so much.
Coco finished up her second year of Cubbies. She actually entered the program a bit early since other kiddos going into Pre-K will only be finishing their first year. Thankfully, our Awana switched to a new curriculum this year so even though she repeated year one of Cubbies, it was a new currriculum.
Cruzy whizzed through year two of Sparks.
Rowan did awesome for his first year in Truth N Training.
So proud of these kiddos!!! And whew, I think I'm finally caught up on blogging!
Miss Coco had a busy weekend showing off all the skills she's been practicing hard all year.
Her dance recital was Friday night. She did a tap dance called "I wanna be a Rockette."
She was slightly annoyed that her costume had no pink in it but was appeased by the fact that she got to wear lipstick.
Sis did such a great job! We are so proud of her.
This morning, Coco had her Gymnastics Exhibition.
Once again, her brothers were there to support her and share in her excitement of receiving a medal! She has come a long way in her gymnastics this year. We are so proud of her.
Cora Trampoline. You can tell which kid is here by the bright orange bow in her hair.
Coco and I headed to Disney to celebrate our friend Gigi's 5th birthday!
Gigi's Mom Mellissa makes the girl's the best princess clothes!
We started out at Akershus in Epcot for breakfast with the princesses.
We made a quick stop for ice cream!
Then headed to the resort for some swimming! Since it was Genevieve's birthday, her mom splurged and got a room at the Grand Floridian, one of the fanciest Disney hotels. Coco and I were lucky enough to get to bunk in with them.
After swimming, it was off to dinner with Daisy Duck and all her pals.
There's nothing like Disney tired. One of my favorite parts about these little girls trips is that I often get to share a bed with my Coco. Snuggles and watching her sleep are amazing.
The next morning, we headed to the hotel next door for breakfast with Lilo & Stitch. We also met up with some other friends who happened to be at Disney too.
Another pretty top made by Mellissa and perfect for breakfast.
We spent the day at Magic Kingdom and then back to the hotel for a little more water fun.
The girl's got all dressed up for Gigi's birthday dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Long story but Roger, who was home with the boys, ended up having to leave early for a quick business trip so Coco and I went back home on Monday night and then headed up to Disney again on Tuesday morning with the boys.
We really didn't want to miss a brand new character breakfast with Ariel, Rapunzel and their princes.
We headed back to Magic Kingdom to ride some of the boys favorite rides!
Rowan was due for a birthday party with his friends this year seeing as he hasn't had one since he turned SIX! His 7th birthday was spent at his great grandpa's funeral and his 8th birthday was spent in Illinois. When we found out that we would be moving in June, Rowan requested that he have an early birthday party so that he could celebrate with his FL friends and also so that he could have a special time to say good-bye. We thought that was a fabulous idea!
Sweet Siblings!
Rowa chose to have his party at SkyZone, an indoor trampoline park. Rowan and friends got to jump, play trampoline dodgeball, and go crazy for an hour and a half.
Afterwards, they had time in a party room for pizza and cake.
We are once again ready to pack up our lives and follow God's leading! Our move this time is a mere ten hours to Nashville, TN! We absolutely love so many things about Florida including the weather, the fact that we are close to family members, the ocean, and the copious amounts of things to do. We will be sad to leave it all behind but thankfully, its all just a short plane ride away! Nashville will, I'm sure, bring its own set of adventures and fun things to do but in the meantime, we plan to enjoy our last month here in the Sunshine State!
Coco Grace: Our Coco finished up her last day of preschool 4's and is moving on to Pre-K. I absolutely love that she has a September birthday and misses the cut off. Next year she will go to school the same hours as her brothers T/W/Th but will still be home with me on M/F. That makes me so happy! We are so proud of all the ways that Cora has grown this year. She has become amazing at writing and recognizing all of her letters. She has grown in her independence and has outgrown some of her shyness. Cora is a leader and is working on being a positive leader in all situations. This year was especially important for Coco as she grew in her maturity with her friends. Cora's class was made up entirely of little girls, which posed a lot of learning opportunities on how to be a good friend and how to include everyone. I've seen so much growth in Cora's ability to get along with others and her ability to put their needs before her own. I've seen this with her giving up toys that she was wanting to play with or letting others push elevator buttons even when it was her turn. Coco has such a silly, fiesty spirit and we just love her so much!
Cora adored her teacher Ms. Jen!
Now it's officially summer! I am so excited to have all my babies home with me. We have an extra exciting summer ahead but I'm so excited to tackle it all with my family.
The boys had their last day of school yesterday. I am so thankful for a wonderful year full of growth and learning. Both boys were blessed with exceptionally wonderful teachers this year.
Who is the giant boy? I feel like I sent a little boy into third grade and I got a big giant boy back. This year has been one of the greatest years for Rowan. His teacher Mr. Neuenshwander was amazing. He was really everything you could ask for in a teacher. He recognized Rowan's strengths and encouraged him in his weakness. He was also the calmest person I have ever met. This year, Rowan was challenged at problem solving especially in math. He met that challenge head on and improved so much. He also began to love to write. His creative writing, punctuation, grammar and spelling all grew by leaps this year. It's been so fun to watch. I have so many wonderful pieces of writing saved from this year. Rowan took a lot of responsibility for his homework this year. He memorized his bible verses, worked on his spelling words and did his homework each night without being reminded. Rowan loved playing football and kickball at recess, he loved his music class and of course P.E. This year was so full of growth and blessings for our favorite big boy.
Ahhh, sweet Cruzy! I love looking at his growth! Those long legs and missing teeth are turning him into such a big kid. Cruz had a wonderful, extra caring teacher this year in Mrs. Tedder. He loved her so much and he knew she truly cared about him. Cruz made huge strides in reading this year. He is reading more than a grade level above where he is age wise. Cruz loves math and is very good at it. He even won the Math award out of all the kids in class. We received several emails this year from his music teacher telling us how proud she was of Cruz and what a joy he was in class. He is very exuberant in all he does. Cruz did such a great job with all of his Bible memory this year. Thanks to Awana, Cruz already had quite a few of the first grade verses memorized so his teacher challenged him with different things to memorize. I also got a random phone call from Cruz's teacher one day just to tell me how funny he is and that he keeps her in stitches most days. I am just so proud of our sweet hearted, funny little boy.
Coco still has one more week of school left so I'm looking forward to some special times with my boys while she finishes up!
Rowan and Cruz had their Spring Concert last week and they did such an incredible job. The SCS music teacher has a background in choral music. Starting in Kindergarten, she teachers them 'rounds' which provides them with a groundwork for harmony and by first grade on up, she has them singing actual pieces of music with alto and soprano harmonies and melodies. I was pretty impressed with what she was able to do with a group of K-5th grade voices.
Handsome boys!
I was told by several teachers that watching Cruz sing is their favorite. He's very expressive.
What a Friend We Have in Jesus/Yesu Kwetu Ni Rafiki. It was my favorite to watch these kiddos sing this beautiful hymn in both English and Swahili.
This was Cruz's favorite called Festival Alleluia.
Rowan and the 2nd and 3rd graders did a fabulous job as well. Row just loves to sing and his voice is really beautiful.
Rowan tried out for the solo at the beginning of this song but came in second to his classmate, Ella.
This song is a bit slower but I included it because the kids learned it in Hebrew. It's a lullaby called Numi Numi.
All the K-5 kids came together at the end to sing one song together. Rowan and Cruz are both in the front row, only a few kids apart from each other.
The video isn't great but I included it anyway. This was a beautiful end to the school year.
Our Awana Club holds a Grand Prix every year. The kiddos are given wooden cars and then they are able to design them, sand them down, weight them, etc. The boys did this with Roger while I was in Dallas. Then all the Clubbers get together to race them.
Rowan won 2nd place out of all the TnT kids. He was very excited about the trophy.
Mother's Day Tea:
Cora's class put on a sweet tea for all of the moms. They sang us songs, made us gifts and had snacks. Cora was excited to get dressed up for the party!
Baseball:
The boys had a very fun and very successful baseball season.
Rowan: It was so much fun to watch Rowan in his first year of Minor League Kid Pitch. He really developed his skills as a hitter and became good at differentiating between strikes and balls and being patient while waiting for a good pitch. Rowan found his nitch on the field too this year. He is a great second baseman and a good third baseman as well. His team lost by one in the first game of the playoffs but they had a great season.
Cruz: Cruz had a challenging season this year. He is young for the machine pitch division plus he played on a team of all 8 or almost 8 year olds. Cruz's coach tried to help him with his batting stance but kind of messed it up. Cruz was so concerned in standing the way his coach told him that he went through a huge slump of striking out. Once he got comfortable again, he started hitting. Cruz has a really strong arm for a kid his size so he played third base and outfield quite a bit. It was fun to watch Cruz really learn some of the rules of the game and a huge bonus for him was that his team ended up winning the playoffs!
Field Trips:
Cruz got to have Daddy join him for his field trip the Mote Marine Laboratory. Florida kiddos get to go on some pretty cool field trips.
Pictures are always more fun with daddy!
Rowan's class went to Mote Marine Lab as well. They got to do a boat tour out on the ocean where their guides stuck nets out into the water and the kiddos got to see actual animals from the water. They saw sea stars, puffer fish and other fun things. Afterwards, Coco and I joined Rowan and his class for a picnic lunch by the beach.
Coco Tap:
Coco's dance recital is coming up next weekend so her teacher let the parents get a sneak peak of their recital dance. Super proud of Cora!
She's the super tall girl in the middle!
Mother's Day:
I had a beautiful Mother's Day with lots of eating out, a date with Roger and plenty of snuggles from my sweet kids. I got so many cards and notes. I felt so loved and special.
Okay, I think thats it for now! We have a lot of stuff coming up including the kids last day of school this week, Spring concert, dance & gymnastics recitals and last but not least, our big London trip is 15 days away!!! So much crazy but so much fun.
