Life MORINteresting: Finishing Strong

We are so proud of our Ellie for designing this bookmark for March is Reading Month. The cherry on top was that her bookmark won in the first grade contest!!!!! Each reader in the 1st grade received a copy of Elle's bookmark to take home.

Mother's Day! I got to spend my Friday afternoon with this little cutie for Mother's Day. We had a half-day at my elementary school so I was able to leave a little early to make it to Drew's Mother's Day Lunch at his preschool. This big guy keeps getting bigger and stronger each day but he will always be my little baby. I love you with all of my heart Drewie.

This little button...

I got woken up by this crew on Mother's Day with lots of hugs and love.

Harlow stopped by!

Elle was Daddy's little helper, helping him install a new door handle in the car...

Luke heard back from the White Sox and he received all of these souvenirs to get ready for our baseball trip!

In Luke's Reading Research Club at school, he picked to research the country of France. He worked so hard researching all of his information, categorizing and sorting his research, organizing it all on the poster, and he did it all by himself (with just tips for using Word).

We were pretty proud of this guy! Especially because he had to make those tough decisions not to play with friends etc. and to "git 'er done"!

The life of having a summer birthday. You get to celebrate early before school's out!

We have had lots of rain, LOTS this spring. Another rainy weekend and to the movies we go to see Aladdin. We sang every song we knew at the top of our lungs!

For Ellie's last soccer practice, Ben always has the parents play vs. the kids. We all had a blast!

Drew and Caleb were making their own fun on the sidelines.

We all brought our bikes up to practice so afterwards we went on a family bike ride downtown for ice cream! Helloooo, summer!!!

Ellie with her gal pals, Callie and Emily.

Baby girl is Ellie's very favorite. One night Drew was feeling a little down and asked Elle is he could sleep with her. Sweet sister said yes and this is how we found Drew asleep. Baby Girl is one loved pup.

One of Drew's best buddies from NC3, Brennan, had his birthday at the Y. Ellie even got to come along.

Coach Dad and Ellie and their team. It was a fun season!

Aunt Cathy and Gigi came to cheer on Ellie!

After games we usually have a "shoot out" on Luke as the goalie. My turn!

Our kind, smart and wonderful Riley graduated from Stoney Creek and is off to design school. Here we are at her open house.

More fun with Callie roaming around downtown!

These 3 and their Wiffle Ball. Here they are after school one day. They set it all up and let the game begin!

Elle making it to 1st base.

Ellie has had such a fun year in ballet and tap this year! Below is her end of the year "report card" from her dance teacher.

We are so proud of you, Ellie!

I was able to take a half day from school on Tuesday to pick up Elle early from her school. We got her dressed and ready for dress rehearsal at Troy High School by 4:00!! Ben was at Luke's baseball game and Drew was over at Auntie Meg's house. We have definitely hit the stage of divide and conquer.

Flowers from Papa and Gma Cooley...

We are FINALLY getting air conditioning in all of the classrooms at my school that I teach at. However, due to the construction, the last week of school was spent packing up our classrooms, covering bulletin boards, I even brought my whole classroom library home. Here are my sweet 3rd graders, all packed up, and ready for the bell to ring! Wahoo! Momma's on summer vaca!!!!

Not only was it my last day of school but it was also Drewman's last day!!! He will have one more year of preschool at NC3 because of his January 15th birthday he doesn't quite make the December 1st law to start kindergarten. We'll see you in the Fall NC3!

Drew his 2 BFF's Brennan and Patrick. The special thing about Brennan is that when Luke was at NC3, Brennan's older bro Jack was also there AND they were best friends as well!

Brennan graduates and is now off to kindergarten in the Fall!

These sweaty boys after the bike rally to the park and preschool graduation. Patrick will be back with Drew in the Fall.

On this last day of school, Ben came home from work early. The above pics were actually sent to me from Brennan and Patrick's mom so Drew was still at school. Ben and I were at home and we decided to surprise all of the kiddos to celebrate the first step to summer! We drove up all of our bikes to their elementary school and picked them up at dismissal for a bike ride! We rode all around downtown and then surprised Drew by picking him up on bikes for his LAST day of preschool! On our way back, we had dinner outside at Penny Black! We can all give a big cheers to that!!!

Drew chugging. Root beer!! Root beer, people.

Our sweet and loving neighbor Miss Jan is moving from next door. She has grown so close to our children, especially Elle. Our kids would go over their to play, for ice cream, pajama parties, and Ellie loved to swing with her on her porch swing. We are so sad to see her go but happy for her in this next stage of her life. She gave us her keyboard and now we are thinking piano lessons soon??

Recital day is here!!! Ellie performed a tap routine this year! We are so proud of you, Elle. You are up there on that big stage, front and center, leading those dance moves with a smile on your face. You are a natural, strong and beautiful girl!

Proud baby bro! (Luke was at baseball!)

Look at you Ellie, showing everyone how it's done! You shine bright!!

This dance troop!! I love how Madelyn is hugging on Ellie. SO sweet.

With Miss Kelsey, Elle's dance teacher.

The next day we were able to hang out with our bestie Laney!!

We love seeing these girls be able to grow up together!! Just like their mamas.

The day that Laney was here, Ben and Luke were off to baseball tryouts for the tournament team. Here Luke is with the guys from his Little League team that were also invited to tryout. Fast Forward: Luke and John not only made the tournament team but they were place an age group up. Meaning, that instead of playing on the 9U team, they will be playing on the 10U team! Way to go, Lukie!!!!

Luke had borrowed the catcher gear from his team and Drew wanted to practice with it on. Cutest catcher ever!

Speaking of baseball...THIS was the game of the season. It was a night game against the Fireflies. Luke pitched. Luke was 4 for 4, including a double (proud mama stats) and they played until almost 9:30 at night! They usually play 6 innings but because of the tie they had to play 2 extra innings! 8 innings in and we won!!

The boys taking a minute to "pray" before going into extra innings.

They boys watching on intently.

I LOVE when they huddle up themselves to get each other pumped. GO, Lug Nuts!!

WE won!!

The final score 18-14. Our team scored 8 runs in the top of the 8th inning! We got them with a strike out in the bottom of the 8th. Our boys threw their hats, ran the field, tackled each other, lifted up our pitcher...AHHHH, so fun! This was our first game like this and I will always remember it.

We were still taking pics when we got home! We were all so pumped!!

Tuesday of the last week of school for these cuties. For Mr. P.'s (our principal) birthday all of the kids wear ties to school to celebrate.

I love being home to get these two on their bus.

After they were gone, Drew and I were off to pick up breakfast for Drew's Preschool teachers as a small thank you for all they do. Drew wanted to stay for a bit and even got to sit next to Mr. Todd during morning meeting as the special guest.

He is STILL talking about this. Teachers. They are so special and loved by our kiddos.

When we got home, Drew packed Luke's b-ball bag, set up the wiffle ball game in the backyard, and played by himself for a long time. I was going to go out there but he was honestly having so much fun pretending I just let him go!

The next day we were off to Ellie's end of the 1st grade Hawaiian celebration!

Ellie with Ms. Davis, her 1st grade teacher!

That afternoon when they got off the bus, I surprised them with a trip to Yate's Cider Mill for free doughnut Wednesday! They decided to go into the river with clothes on.

Summer is here! I was totally OK with it.

On Thursday, we were off to their school again but for Luke's end of the year 3rd grade celebration! I was in charge of corn hole but it started raining hard so we all moved the activities inside.

Luke was so excited to have Drew there and I think he was excited to have me there but I will tell ya, I think this was the turning point for Luke where he was too cool for mom.

Having fun at corn hole!

Luke helping Drew make a shot. Everyone cheered when he made it! So sweet.

On the way back to the car, I teased Luke if he was too cool for me. Right away he said, " NO, mom!" And he took a pic with me. Still my baby. Maybe just not in front of his buddies. :)

He titled this pic for me...

In many ways the end of the year seemed to take FOREVER to get here. However, looking back the year FLEW by. How does that happen?! But here we are. The LAST day of school! The theme was Detroit Tigers! The last day of being a 3rd grader and 1st grader!!!!!