We're Living with a Graduate, Folks!

While Friday, June 5th, was Jake's last day of school, Saturday the 6th was Jake's "Preschool Graduation Ceremony/Cookout."

It started off a little rocky, to put it mildly. Jake (4th from left with an Oprah ugly cry face on) did NOT want to sing the super sappy graduation song.

But, he then came around, perked up, received his certificate (with a little help from mama- hey, I won't do it for his HIGH SCHOOL graduation), and sang the closing song.





Such a sweet class with the sweetest teacher! Ms. Alex was in Jake's class when they were 3/4, left to start a new class, and then came back around (when his other teacher left) to send them off to Kindergarten. Jake loves her and his classmates so much. It was hard to explain to him that he was done there for the summer, and they were all going their separate ways in the fall. We have many playdates planned for the summer!



We were a little bit proud. :-)

Love that our family could be there, too!




Our "gift" for the day was a binder notebook FULL of Jake's art and achievements since almost his start at VK.

I opened page 1 and had to put it away for a while. (TEARS!) What a sweet memento and such an awesome reminder of how far Jake has come in 5 years.

So, here we are, 2 weeks and 2 days into summer after graduation. Jake is doing great...loving that he doesn't have to take naps anymore...and Chad is surviving with both kids.

And all that "extra" money from no daycare? Well, I just "donated" it all to Crown Honda for a new air conditioner and rear brake pads for the van. Yup. Easy come, easy go.

Freedom in so many ways...

On Friday, June 5th, Jake had his last day at Village Kids, and the Johnsons stepped away from a 10 1/2 year relationship...

I thought cake was a fitting parting gift...

This is the face of a boy who truly didn't comprehend how big this moment was for our family. :-)

I snapped a few pictures for memory's sake...





Thanks, Village Kids, Inc. for an amazing decade+ of love, laughter, kindness, education, and incident reports. We will miss you (but not enough to have a third baby), and wish you many more years of loving (other people's) children!

Sleeping on a Ball Field?! What?!

When I tell you you can do crazy, random things that you never even thought possible with the Girl Scouts, you should believe me!

 

Last weekend, June 5/6, Brooklyn's troop spent the night on a baseball field with 300-400 other Triad Girl Scouts. Like, yeah. Whoa.

 

We started the night like any other game night....only they let us have a Recruitment table set up with goodies and also flashed our logo on the jumbotron a few times. (Thanks, Grasshoppers!)

 

All the Girl Scouts participated in a pre-game parade and giant flag ceremony. They were TOO CUTE.

All the girls enjoyed the game with the general public in the stands, but after the last firework exploded, all non-Girl Scouts left the stadium and then it was PARTY TIME.

 

Since I already had a ton of fun with the girls the weekend before at Camporee, I shared the wealth with two other Girl Scout moms.

 

This picture made its way on social media around 2am. They were still going strong. :-)

 

They did finally give in and sleep some, but when the sun came up, the stadium staff kindly provided them breakfast and said goodbye. 

Thank you, Greensboro Grasshoppers, for another great collaboration with the Girl Scouts! You rock! (And so does this Junior troop!)

Swimming Lessons...Chicken, Airplane, Soldier

Thanks to Nanny and Grandpa, the kids are getting swim lessons this spring!

It took Jake a few minutes to get comfortable (and maybe a Nanny dropping him down into the pool to the instructor), but he did a great job. Brooklyn was very comfortable, but it was exciting to see her try new things and start to work more on technique.


Learning their first new stroke, affectionately known as "chicken, airplane, soldier."



Practicing that solder move. :-)

I can't wait to see what the learn over the next 6 weeks!

May Randoms

Here are a bunch of random pictures from May...

Happy Mother's Day to me...

And Happy 1st Birthday to Callie...

It was quite the celebration complete with a special guest!

The grandmas and I had an impromptu cousin date night with Jake and Claire while the guys played poker and Brooklyn was at a birthday party.

Sweet kiddos give me perfect pictures every once in a while...

We went to a family picnic for Brooklyn's youth group on Sunday the 31st, and the Kona Ice Truck came. Jake was beside himself!

Love our church family!

Jake and I also payed a visit to "Pops' Cross" at the church that day.

While I sat in silence and in awe of the fact that we have been without him now for 15 months, Jake wanted to see what bugs were hidden under every rock. I am so grateful for my children who provide me with comic relief when I need it the most. :-)

Well, I was sweating it there for a while, but I did manage to update all of May by June 11th. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Keep Calm and Camp Together

May 30-31 was Brooklyn's troop's Camporee with other local troops. Her troop needed an extra chaperone so volunteered was volunteered to join them. :-)

It was their first time sleeping in tents and that was an experience in itself...but we all survived and lived to tell the tale the next day. :-)

They started the day off with low ROPES/team building activities. And for those of you who say "ROPES?"

R ecreation: An Opportunity to Have Fun!

O bservation: Learn About Yourself and Others

P roblem Solving: Demonstrate Your Skills

E xperiential Education: Learn by Doing

S elf Esteem: Feel Great About Yourself!

Then, we ran into our favorite Cadette Girl Scout, who just so happened to have her troop staying in the unit adjacent to ours.

There is always skit/song time at the end of the evening with a campfire. The girls were soooo excited about this and spent a good amount of time writing, planning, and practicing.

After lunch and skit writing, they did fishing and boating.



A few songs after dinner...

Finally, the big moment arrived when they performed their original skit, "Girls Got Talent," at the campfire. They did AMAZING!

And my favorite part....S'MORES.

What an amazing group of young ladies. They continue to amaze me each time I see them work together and support each other. It's what Girl Scouting is all about, y'all.