another great swim season!

our little swimmers had an awesome season!  both kevyn & natalie improved so much from last year!  and as it is with most sports, they seemed to be finding their groove just as the season comes to an end.  a few moms and i have vowed to find an indoor pool for these littles to practice in next winter so they can get a head start.  our swim team only has access to an outdoor pool and they typically start water training in april when it still very cold outside!  yet despite their lack of practice, our girls can still hang with the larger teams that do have indoor facilities.

because parents are required to volunteer at the meets, i didn't have the opportunity to get my camera out until the very last meet.  all the kids get marked first thing with their event #, heat #, and lane # on their forearms.  this is very helpful for the volunteers working the ready bench.  all the other body markings are to aid in optimal performance.  ;)  they sometimes get a little carried away...  

i love this set of pictures because it really shows how well kevyn has gotten with her dives by comparison to others her age.

kevyn is on the freestyle relay team for her age group.  at the last meet they smoked the other team by 30 seconds.  that's not an exaggeration.  i was just viewing the results online.  wowza!

much like last year, we still have to remind kevyn not to look for us.  and that we see her and she can look at us when she is done.  (it's really bad when she does the backstroke!)  she must have caught a glimpse of me taking her picture because i caught a few with her smiling.  silly girl.

nat has also improved so much on her diving...

...and her breaststroke technique!

way to go nat & kevyn!  so proud of you both and the awesome swim season!

~ becky

put a fork in us... we're done!

our last week of school was a doozie!  monday was a holiday.  tuesday we had neely's pre-k graduation.    

   

neely had such a sweet pre-k teacher.  she will surely be missed.  i can't believe that kid will be in kindergarten next year!  

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wednesday kevyn had a field trip followed by an ice cream party and then the schools end-of-year pep rally (or pepper rally if your kevyn).

funny story...  i had no idea where we were headed for kevyn's field trip until we were loading up!  i knew the name, but i thought we were headed to one town and was corrected by another mom as to which town we were actually going to.  and here's the kicker...  i thought i had never been there before until we were pulling up and it all started to look familiar.  i need a nap.

thursday we had kelby & nat's flat stanley party and then kevyn's kindergarten graduation that evening.

kelby & nat did such a great job on their flat stanley projects. ok, who am i kidding...  darren and i did great!  parents were invited to attend the presentations and we all high-fived and commented on how well we all did as parents.  it was really quite comical.  i was, however, really impressed at how well all the kids did with getting up in front of the entire class to present their project.  it was like they had no idea public speaking could even be considered scary.  to them it was no big deal.  i love that!  

at our school, kindergarten and 8th grade do a joint graduation ceremony.  while lengthy, the ceremony really got me excited for my girls and all they will get to do and become while at our school.  i REALLY like our school if you can't tell. 

another funny story...  (i can only say it is funny now.  it was NOT funny at the time.)  we had mexican food (kevyn's pick) prior to kevyn's graduation ceremony and although i knew before hand that enchilada's would be risky, i gave in and we went for it.  all throughout dinner jeff and i repeatedly reminded kevyn to lean over her plate, don't take big bites, keep her napkin on her lap, etc.  towards the end of dinner i thought we made it with only a few tiny and barely noticeable spots.  yay!  until we coached her again to be sure to lean over her plate to take a bite and she leaned right into her plate!  yep.  brown enchilada sauce all the way across the front of her dress.  crap.  i took one last BIG drink of my margarita, loaded up the girls, and raced to the house to change.   

we are really going to miss mrs. z.  we joke that she can teach kindergarten one more year (for neely) and then she is going to have to move up to a higher grade so we can double-dip.  thankfully we don't really have have to say goodbye to our teachers since we still see them every sunday in church and at sunday school.

and friday we had closing chapel, end-of-year awards ceremony, and then class parties.

see all those cute signs???  the ones my brain was determined to forget to send to the printer, pick up from the printer, and cutout and paste to a stick until 11 pm the night before?!?  yah, those.  welp, they are the same signs that my youngest accidentally dropped in a big puddle right before taking those pictures.  i wanted to cry, but all i could do was laugh.  so if they look droopy, its because they were.  and wet.  and i'm really thankful these pictures are taken at a distance and you can't see the watermarks.  geez, these kids...

and when the school bell rang for release at 11:15 AM we loaded up and hooked it to dallas for our cousins high school graduations.  whew!

~becky

dance recital + surviving the blue bell famine of 2015

anyone else in central texas sick of the rain?!?  it seriously has rained everyday for the last three weeks.  historically, by memorial day we are praying for rain in church as many in our rural community are farmer or ranchers and depend on rain.  this year we are praying the rain stops.  our area has been hit hard by severe weather and flooding.  thankfully, we haven't directly been affected.  my prayers go out to all those who have been affected especially those in the wimberley, tx area.

this weekend natalie & kevyn had their dance recital.  they did so good and looked so cute on stage!  their class performed two routines - one ballet and one tap.  they performed their ballet routine to the perfect nanny from the mary poppins sound track (so sweet!) and their tap routine to abc by the jackson 5 (such a hoot!).  kevyn gets so into her routines and really feels the music.  i love watching her!  and nat looks so cute concentrating to get each step right.  

we really enjoyed their teacher this year and kevyn can't wait to start up again in the fall.  nat is still undecided.  ;)

if you follow me on instagram (there should be a link in the sidebar or click here) you would have seen that we've created a summer bucket list.  we have four days of school left (woohoo!) and can't wait for the sun to come out so we can start enjoying our summer!  our chalkboard is full of things that we came up with as a family and include a campout, a lemonade stand, going to an aquarium, and hosting a bbq on our new patio.  that patio has not been completed yet so completing the patio is also on the bucket list.  ;)  also on our bucket list are smaller items like decorating cupcakes, making chalk (pinterest to the rescue!) and making ice cream.  being the overachievers we are we decided to go ahead get started by making ice cream. 

i'm not going to lie...  it was pretty darn good!  and it gives me hope that i will survive the blue bell famine of 2015.  

~becky

natalie's 7th birthday

i'm a little behind on this post...

natalie turned 7!  can you believe it?!?

and we now have to refer to her only as natalie.  not nat, or nat nat, or nattie.  or any other random nickname we come up with.  only natalie.  she's definitely growing up.  ;)

in our small town your pretty much stuck with having your party at your home, the park, or the bowling alley.  natalie decided to have her party at the bowling alley this year.  no complaints from me though...  bowling alley parties are super easy!  

the girls patiently waiting for neely's ball to make it to the end...

for some (ahem, neely), you get applauded when your ball actually makes it to the end.  who cares about how many pins get knocked down.  ;)

we didn't really keep score.  in fact, we didn't even really play games.  the kids just all took turns trying to knock down the pins.

of course bowling is only a small portion of what you actually do at a bowling party for 7 year olds...  you also spend WAY too much money on games that you are much to young to play for a fair chance of winning.

my sneaky eldest took all her report card money and tooth fairy money that she had received the week prior and cashed it in for coins for the games.  nice kelby.  i only found out when she asked me for $7 to buy a yo-yo at school (a fundraiser) and i reminded her about her report card money and tooth fairy money.  things got really awkward really quick.  

i think we could have bought the darn horses for the amount of quarters we put into this thing for these two...

happy birthday sweet girl!  i hope your day was super special!

(now if y'all could all just quit growing up i would really appreciate that!)

~becky

natalie the knight!

our local rotary club in conjunction with the first knight program held its first knighting ceremony in early october.  natalie was chosen from her class to be knighted.  yay nat!

her school recently sent home a letter stating that all knights could wear either their medal or make a tabard to wear to future knighting ceremonies.  you know we couldn't just let her go to school with just her medal, so granny sewed up a tabard for her to wear.  how cute is she?!?

can you believe that there will be a year that all four of these girls will be in high school together?!?