Happy 5th Birthday Ben!

 Last week this boy turned 5! I can hardly believe that my baby is 5. Lucky for me he still likes to have hugs and kisses and would cuddle all day, so he doesn't feel too grown up yet! 

 Lauren got him a Ninja Turtle Sword, probably his favorite gift!

 He finally got the fish/frog aquarium he'd been wanting! 

 Muffins, berries, and whip cream for breakfast, his favorite! 

 Later that night the whole family came over for Ben's birthday dinner!

 Oma & Opa got him his very own set of golf clubs!! He LOVES them! 

 ready for the course already

 Ice cream sundaes for dessert

 I love how Lauren is blowing in the background. 

 Celebrating with all his favorite people! Lucky boy! 

Happy Birthday sweet boy, we love you to the moon and back! 

Father's Day

 We started off Father's Day with gifts and breakfast at home. 

 Then drove up to La Conner for lunch with the Kok's. 

We ended the day with dessert at our house with my family. Just forgot to take pics. 

It was a great day celebrating all the great dads we are lucky to have in our life! 

Gym Extravaganza

 A few weeks ago Lauren and Hadley had their Gymnastics Extravaganza! 

They were both so cute and had so much fun showing off all their skills! 

 Lauren's teacher came to watch her perform! Lucky girl. 

 It wasn't a competition, but all the girls got to go up on the blocks after and receive medals. They felt pretty cool! 

My 1st kindegarten class graduated

On Monday my very first class of kindergarteners graduated from Eastlake High School. Boy, does this make me feel old! It was so neat to see my students all grown up and ready to conquer the world. One of my favorite students was the speaker and another sang the National Anthem. Afterwards I got to talk to many of the students and hear where they are going to college and what their plans are. I'm so proud of all of them, crazy how fast that 13 years flew by! 

One of my favorite things said at graduation was this, "Be thoughtful, caring and kind. It won't protect you from all of life's hardships, but it will make looking in the mirror a lot easier." 

So so true. 

Note

Found this note in Ben's room the other night. 

They crack me up! 

Incase you can't read it it says, "Tonight I am going to sneak into your room and we are going to tell stories all night." 

Last Day of 1st Grade!

 Last day!! 

 Last hug and kiss from Ben at the bus stop- next year he'll be getting on with her! 

 I went in this morning to give Miss Nahcheri her end of the year gifts from the class. She was so emotional and sweet. She loves her students so so much. 

 One little girl even started crying because she was so sad to say good-bye. So sweet. 

After school we went out to lunch with friends! 

Yay for summer!!! 

Pictures from the week

 Carson & I got a few hours to ourselves so we went to Flower World and saw the animals and bought tomatoes to plant. He was so cute with the animals. This sheep was "baaing" and he kept saying, "the sheep is crying". He is the cutest. 

 He told me he wanted to ice cream and I kind of can't tell him no...so we went to Menchie's. We picked Ben up at his friends house and he joined us, Carson was glad to have Ben back. He missed him and kept pointing to his car seat saying, "No Benny friends house, Benny sit there." 

 We've had amazing weather for June and it's been as high as 80! It's fabulous and the kids are loving playing outside with the house. I love watering the concrete:) 

 Lauren's school carnival was the other night and she and Sadie dressed as twins:) 

 Found this huge sea star on the boat on Saturday! It was mid meal too, so cool. 

 A smaller one too. 

And that was our last week:) 

*Well the things I chose to take pics of. I didn't take pics of the tantrums, Lauren not going to bed until 10:30, or the large amounts of talking back and arguing we've been experiencing around here. Gotta keep it real:) 

Survivor Mud Run

 On Saturday I did the Survivor Mud Run with a couple friends. It's a 5k with 23 obstacles that have you jumping, crawling, and climbing through mud! 

 Kevin & the kids came to take pics of us through some of the obstacles. It was so fun to see them as we were running. 

 Some of the nets and tunnels made me feel a little panicky (I don't like feeling trapped) but I made it! 

 So incredibly muddy! Lauren couldn't get over how disgusting we were...though she also kept asking if she could do it too! She would be in heaven jumping through this mud! 

 Climbing the walls was a good challenge for me since I'm so scared of heights. 

 I was proud of myself for not freaking out on this one! 

 We did it!!!! 

The beer garden even had cider! So awesome! I had the best time, can't wait to do it again next year!!