Pre-K Graduation

So first I have to apologize for being so long gone from the blog.  It has been super busy with baseball, scouts and we spent the 4 day last weekend in Berlin.  It was a fantastic trip and I have tons of pictures that I haven't even started going through.  I know not like me, but I haven't had much sleep, so I had to get a little sleep this last week.  :-)

So backing up a little, last Thursday the 23rd, Michael had his pre-k graduation.  They have been practicing for this for months now.  The teachers worked so hard to make it wonderful and it did turn out so great!!!  I volunteered to go in early and help set up, so Michael and I arrived at 8 am.  He was so cute he told me we had to run because he might miss graduation.  He also choose his outfit for the day.  I told him to dress up in something nice and he wanted to wear a tie, like his brother did, so a tie it was!  Well the teachers planned everything for graduation except what to do with 21 five year olds while they were decorating the stage and setting up.  The parents dropped the kids off at 8:30 and it was a mad house!  So I stopped helping and started entertaining.  So we did a bunch of songs, a few games and were able to make it until they were ready to practice.

 

This was Michael practicing walking down to the stage - all smiles, he was so ready for this day!!

 

Each kid made their own self portrait, Michael's is the farthest one on the right

 

Before graduation - Michael loves doing the pouty lip, mostly he says because it makes Mommy smile.  He makes Daddy do it to so my smile is even bigger.

 

The cake that was made from their graduation picture - they are all so cute!

 

Here Michael is sitting and waiting, by this time he has been here for over 2 hours and ready for the show to get on the road. 

 

We are now heading to the stage for real this time - he is excited about it!!  Oh and I have to tell you I tried to get him to tuck his tie inside his gown but he said no way he wanted to wear it on the outside.  :-)

 

During the graduation the kids did 7 or 8 songs in 3 different languages, did the sign language alphabet and recited a long Dr. Seuss poem.  It was amazing!!  I have video, but still haven't figured out how to get it up here.  Michael, above, is walking out to tell the audience what he enjoyed about the school year.  He said the pie eating contest and learning about birds.  They also had to introduce themselves and tell us what they wanted to be and Michael said an artist.  After the graduation he was talking about making video games though.  ;-)

 

Here is Michael getting his certificate from the head lady of the CDC.  She is a real sweetheart!

 

Michael and Mr. Santos!!  Just today Mr. Santos said he wasn't sure what he was going to do without his man Michael :-)  He sure does love those kids!!

 

Happy graduation!!!  They are so cute

 

And of course one with Mommy - Michael said I looked pretty in my dress

 

So yes you can see this is not at the actual graduation, but I was there the day they did the graduation pictures and wasn't sure if I would get one with the teachers, so I took this one there to make sure I took one!!!  It really was a fantastic graduation!!!  They put their all into it!!  After that we went out to lunch at Burger King (Michael's choice) then he and I took off and went swimming with a few of his classmates!  A great way to end the day!!! 

I have to apologize about my lack of posts lately, with the baseball games and everything life has been pretty busy.   On Mother's day it rained and Michael really, really wanted to take his scooter in to the dinosaur park.  So I told them the first time it was sunny we would head out there.  Tuesday was our next sunny day, so after AJ was done with school we headed to the dinosaur park.

 

It was such a great afternoon, the weather was perfect and we had the whole skate park to ourselves!!!  Which was really good for my sanity and also for the boys safety.

 

We spent quite a long time there, they had been begging me to go there with their scooters.

 

They were working on "tricks" during the afternoon.

 

After they were done with that they wanted some ice cream.  I actually think AJ saw somebody else there with ice cream and so he said he was done so they could get some.  Mommy is a sucker though sometimes.  :-)

 

They love playing with this water area.  There was a German boy who didn't speak any English but really loved playing with the boys!  He talked to them the whole time, on the skate park, here and the rest of the afternoon.  It is really cool to see that even if you don't understand verbally they still play well together.  The mom spoke a little bit of English so we chatted for a little while and exchanged numbers. 

 

On Saturday we had a really, really busy day.  We started out with two baseball games in the morning.  Michael's game was at 10:00 am, AJ's pictures at 10:15 and AJ's game and 11 am.  So I had to be in two places at once again, but it worked out well.

 

Michael playing third base, ready for the ball.

 

Michael had some great hits at his game.

 

running so fast his feet are off the ground

 

I couldn't help it, he is just so cute!

 

Then when Michael's game was over we were off to AJ's game.  He is also playing third base ready for the ball to come.  It is really amazing how much different the games are between Michael's and AJ's.  For Michael's team, there are no outs and it is a little slower paced.  AJ's team can actually get people out, but everybody still gets to bat for both teams. 

 

AJ hitting the ball - he did a great job!  He hit every time he was up!

 

Michael wanted to take some pictures at AJ's game and here is one of them that he took.  It was a little cold so AJ kept his coat on while waiting to bat.

 

Right after AJ's game we headed to the KMCC to meet with some great friend's that came over from Belgium.  It was so great to see them and chat, it has been way too long since we saw them.  It happened to be some police week, so they had some fun things outside the KMCC. 

 

 

The boys in the MRAP

 

The boys getting down and a better view of the MRAP

Kellee couldn't get a good serious photo of the boys, so she went with silly instead!  Gotta love those boys.

 

These two boys look so grown up, I just can't believe it.  After that we headed straight to a birthday party at Kinderspiel.  The boys had such a great time!!!  And they ran off some great energy!!  I also was able to have some good grown up conversation!  It was a win, win for everybody.

 

Today we went to the last Awanas meeting.   They had their awards ceremony.  It was neat to see all the accomplishments that so many kids had.

 

 

Michael up getting his award.

 

Here is the certificate that he received.

 

For Sparkys they went up when their name was called.  AJ finished one book and started his second book.  There are three books total for Sparkys and they are supposed to have three years to do it, but we didn't do it last year, so he is on track to get them all done in two. 

Here he is with his certificate and ribbon for completing the first book.  I am so proud of him!!  He really did such a great job and a lot of memorizing!!  I am really hoping they are going to want to do it again next year.

 

Michael being goofy - he cracks me up

 

The two boys with their certificates.  We have another busy week ahead of us and are going to Berlin for the four day weekend.  David is also getting back today from Scotland.  From the little I heard from him he has had a FANTASTIC time!!  Hopefully he will have some time to post pictures and write about his time this week. 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was great!!!  We started off by heading to church.  I asked the boys to dress in something nice, not sweats and

 

AJ picked out a shirt and tie - he looks so handsome!!

 

The boys and I on Mother's day.  When David asked Michael what they should get me for Mother's day he said "What she wants"  David asked well what does she want.  He said love and big hug - so this is his big hug for me!!!

 

Then we went home to change and we were going to head to the dinosaur park for a little while.  Well while I was putting things in the car the boys were messing around and broke the glass on the bathroom door.  Well it is not that it just broke, it fell on Michael's hand and his hand was stuck between two big pieces of glass.  One cut was so bad it needed stitches.  Luckily we have a FANTASTIC friend who is a nurse and he had some of the glue they use instead of stitches and we didn't have to spend hours in the ER. 

 

 

You can see the glue on the pinkie and he has cuts on both hands.  He is a trooper though and we headed to the dinosaur park with band aids on many fingers and a lesson hopefully learned for the boys after the many, many warnings of not playing with the bathroom door.

 

 

The boys acting silly

 

Loving brothers - they are too sweet!!!

 

The kids were so excited to head into the dinosaur park.  The bad part of the deal was that as soon as we got in there it started to pour down rain, I mean really pour.  So we had to turn around and change plans.  I had promised Michael ice cream since he was so brave with his hand, and we didn't get it there so off to the commissary we went to get ice cream. 

 

We then headed over to Victor and Porchea's house where the boys were going to make us dinner. 

 

 

You have to wonder what he is thinking right there.  :-)  The boys did all of the work in the kitchen while we girls relaxed, had a glass of wine, and played Phase 10 with a Twist.  We had so much fun giggling and laughing!!!  I think the boys were having fun in the kitchen too.  They were very creative with the dinner. 

 

 

This is one of the desserts that they made.  The red bowl is made out of chocolate so everything is edible on this plate.  David asked his Captain to make them and they were delicious!!!  They even cut out heart and star shapes out of the pineapple!!

 

Here they were trying to get our attention to tell us dinner was ready.  We were too busy talking, but finally headed in.

 

Out dinner - doesn't it look wonderful?!?  The plate in the middle on the right was all chocolate covered fruit and it was delicious!!!  I enjoyed everything about this meal, especially that I didn't have to cook or clean!!  It was FANTASTIC!!!

 

The four of us sitting down and eating and yes there are no children here - they ate their food before us so we could have a quiet, hot dinner.  :-)  It was a day full of smiles and laughter, just what I LOVE!!!  Thank you my wonderful husband and Victor for making it such a great Mother's day!!! 

Mother's Tea

On Friday in Michael's class they put together a Mother's tea.  Michael asked me to stay for the whole class and volunteer.  It was fun, the kids had show and share and then played in centers for a little while.  Michael LOVES the block area.  That is usually where he goes if he gets chosen first.  There is a limit on how many kids can be in each center.

 

Here is his car that he made.

 

His classmate made a couple of ramps and Michael's car worked really well on it - it is nice that they  play so well together.

 

The boys made bow ties to wear for the tea party, it was so cute!!!

 

Michael enjoying his treats at the tea.  The girls made hats to wear and those were cute also!! They also made a card for each of their moms that was a teapot.  Michael made mine with glitter and wrote it all by himself!!

 

After school Michael's friend invited us to go try out a new park, one that they really love!!!  It is a really, really cool park!!!  One that I added to my favorites on the GPS.

 

This is part of a big ship that has a sand pit inside it.

 

They had a climbing rock there which it took all of 10 seconds for Michael to find.  :-)  He is my climber!! 

 

This was fun toy and it spun around really fast!!

 

They had a zip line there too!!  Michael was a little hesitant the first time because the one in Ireland went really fast, especially when AJ pushed him.

 

But then he found out it was a little slower and wanted Mommy to push him faster and wouldn't get off of it!  He LOVED it!!!

 

They also had a basketball/soccer area.  The hoops are regulation so Michael couldn't make it in, but it didn't stop us having fun!

 

Here was another one of the toys there, Michael has a bucket that he used to make a sand castle on the wood.  This park had so many different things that we didn't even use everything there.  Good excuse to go back!!  AJ heard about it and wanted to go soon.

 

There was also ducks there, so of course we had to feed the ducks

 

there were baby ducks there too, they were really cute!!!

 

On Saturday the boys had baseball games.  Michael's game went great!!  It was windy and a little cold, but the kids were nice and warm and had a great time.  During AJ's game I was really glad I brought an umbrella because it poured down rain for about 5-10 minutes, I mean a downpour.  Luckily AJ's team was up to bat and he had just made it home so he was able to stand under the umbrella and not get completely wet.  But AJ did great, had some fantastic hits!!  He is really getting good at batting.  Then we headed over to a friend's house for a great BBQ!!