Talent Show and "Graduation"

Apparently here there's this thing called "4th Grade Graduation". It's actually their last year of elementary school since all 5th graders go to their own school.....but it STILL is funny to be the big deal that is made when 4th graders finish.

Aleeya and her best friend.

Aleeya always complains about being short. I for one am VERY grateful she is because in EVERY picture/concert/school gig she is on the front row (I was always on the back). And the fact that this cute girl in orange was dead center made it even better to watch them sing.

 The elementary here does a Talent Show and all acts have to try out in front of their class in order to be in it. That takes a lot of guts! Iris and Aleeya said they wanted to be in the Talent Show together but I didn't really hear anything else about it.

Next thing I know they told me they made it into the show and have their song all picked out and practiced.

I was actually so proud of them.....since they even moved around a little while singing while not many in the show did.

I was especially excited to see Iris who typically does NOT like any attention on her.

Here is their whole song performance.....I love how you can see Iris getting more and more comfortable with it as the song goes on.
(Aleeya is singing the boy part and Iris the girl part of "Breaking Free", a High School Musical song)

ROYCE entered the show as well!!!! I could NOT believe that one, but he and his buddy worked on the song Dynamite during recess I guess. Apparently they HAD actions and when the actual performance came they stood stone still like this....Royce expression never changing. 

Aleeya sang "Stand by Me" with two of her friends as well. 

It really was such a fun show.

Critters

There is constantly interaction with critters or small animals since everybody loves them......

well except the cat that "adopted" us that we had to make it QUITE clear I didn't like coming home to find it had snuck in and gotten on my counters. 😖

BUT for the most part I'm okay with them......I mean how many moms would hold her kids' frogs for them in her hands during a baseball game am I right?!

Here's the latest lizard

Iley's face!😂

Wynn doesn't LOVE frogs/lizards as much so she was gone.

This video of Wynn with a different frog cracks me up.

We usually have a bin outside that has critters rotating in and out. "In" when they catch them and "Out" because they always escape....and then on constant replay.

ONE sight that just melts my heart is seeing a kid just be a kid outdoors. Royce LOVES to fish and loves to be independent. Here he is with his fishing pole and he biked down to the creek to fish. He has only ever caught something once with his pole (and my left over pulled pork....go figure) but it still doesn't stop him from trying.

I kept wondering why he carried his school papers and lunch box in his arms. Then I asked him and he said, "I need my backpack for fishing Mom". :)

Seeing this kid ride down the street with that giant pole sticking out is just the cutest thing to me.......just don't walk too close to him on his left. :)

Aleeya is an amazing artist. She can look at any illustration and copy it so well. She drew this Razorback on her lunch sack for her field trip after just looking at a Razorback picture.

At-homes

LUCKY for me, I get to stay home with these four girlies during the day.

And STAY HOME I do.

Life gets rather busy driving to and fro and noisy when everyone comes home that I enjoy staying home as much as I can during the day and just enjoy the simplicity of these four girls.

Sure they are messy and cry sometimes, but they really NEVER get bored of playing together and "exploring" or "playing teacher" or "house" or singing or.....you get the idea.

I don't let the littles handle my blog books, but I let them look at the chatbooks (Instagram pics) all they want. They love going through the little books and seeing their faces.

(When you stay home all day you can dress and look as homeless as you want!)

Three girls snuggling watching a show. 

The babies don't even last through the opening credits..... that's not even long enough to take a shower!

I'm not sure HOW I ended up with the two older girls being the two with the largest personalities right now, but I did.

No one can pull a scowl better than Evie.

But these two are the sweetest buddies. Their relationship is so cute yet I think Everly will be fine when Kellyn goes to kindergarten in the fall as well. Everly loves some alone time about as much as I do but  when she DOES choose to play with another person, it's usually Kellyn.

When there is a school event or program during the day I NEVER take the kids. Either Brooks goes or I go.....even I realize taking these four to some inside event would be suicide let alone take away from whatever is going on.

BUT when Aleeya had her 4th grade track meet (once a year) I knew that could be a place the kids could still run around.

(The orange speck in the back right is Iley running back and forth)

Aleeya had been telling me for WEEKS how she was the fastest girl in her school but it was fun to see it on display against all the other elementary schools in the area. 

She won her 300 meter dash, and in the relay they got second.

This girl puts her WHOLE heart and soul into anything she does. Running especially.

The whole event turned out pretty easy...... thanks to the fact that I could keep us as separated as possible. :)

But really, HOW cute are my little foxes??!?!?!

(Wynn on right)

Muddy Month

Brooks has ALWAYS wanted a nice front lawn. In his mind we needed a sprinkler system so we wouldn't have to keep moving around a sprinkler at all times of the day.

He ALSO thought doing it ourselves would be the best idea and cheaper. The main reason he wanted to do it by ourselves ("ourselves" meaning the boys) is for the boys to learn the skills and also give them a chance to earn money through hard work.

Brooks had Camden do all the measuring and math stuff too. Here Brooks is going over his work.

They rented a trencher for a day to get all the lines dug.

 Brooks was trying to do it in turbo mode since he has scouts that night (he is over the 11 year old scouts at our church).....even through the rain!

 Well maybe he went a little TOO fast.......because he clipped our main line to the house. And it was gushing out on the street.

 Scouts ended up being cancelled....and some good friends of ours came to fix the issue (which is nice because those hours without water + the muddiest kids were SUPER duper fun for me).

The natural gas lined was knicked as well. 

There were some places they didn't have time to trench so the boys dug and dug. 

 By the end (a month later) we just wanted the stupid sprinkler system done! The wiring and electric stuff were finally finished but the filling in the trenches felt like the worst part!!! All the dirt was so matted down from stepping on it, rain, etc that it was hard to find enough dirt to fill everything in!

I'm just SO relieved to say it is finished and the sprinklers automatically coming on at 4:30am. YAY! Now we need this zoysia grass to grow back in.

Now don't ask me if we were to do it all over again if we would've done it ourselves!

Branson

No, the title is NOT a typo.....it really is about "Branson" and not "Bronson". :)

Brooks had a test/work trip he had to do near Branson for a few days and I HAPPENED to have picked up a phone call to a time share presentation vacation package last fall. So we scheduled our REALLY cheap trip (+time share presentation) during the same time so I could go too!

a HUGE thanks to RA and Pat for coming back out and watching the crew and driving them to their endless activities.

It may sound like I'm getting jipped having him gone for the morning and early afternoon but it was absolutely perfect!

You see Brooks has a REALLY hard time (Read: "incapable") of just sitting and doing nothing. "Nothing" could VERY well be my middle name I never knew of. 

"Nothing" on this trip means sleeping in, reading two books and sitting in the hot tub. SUPER dreamy.

Then Brooks came back around 2 and he was ready to get going.....which was fine for me after I had a relaxing morning! 

We went golfing.

Well HE went golfing.....I'm just there to drive the cart and check him out.

The next night there was this SUPER big and dreamy storm.....loud loud thunder and lightning out my window (they kicked us out of the hot tub haha)....which was PERFECT to curl up and read.

It turns out that we were on the outside of a pretty big storm going through Arkansas and southern Missouri with tornado watches. When Pat got the tornado watch warning she said we might have to drive down and peel her off the ceiling. 😂

We went ziplining!

It was really fun. My lousy abs DID have a hard time trying to flip me back over from upside down though. 

The outing I was MOST looking forward to  was THIS!

A dinner and show with Broadway/movie and show tunes isn't TOTALLY Brooks' gig, but he KNEW this would absolutely make my day/vacation/LIFE!

I used to watch the musical Showboat with my sister growing up and MAN, did I want her there! Not that I didn't totally enjoy being with Brooks or anything, but the appreciation levels are different. :)

It was FREEZING outside and the weather was still bad on the lake that we couldn't even leave the DOCK. So kinda bummer about not getting to cruise around Table Rock lake but we still got to be ON it and enjoy the show/dinner.

Brooks was quick to find someone to ask his bazillion questions to. See the "Restricted area. Crew only" sign on the door Brooks is knocking on?

Someone DID in fact come out and Brooks got to ask all his questions. #everlearning

Totally awkward picture of me trying to take a selfie so you can see the stage and set-up but the show really was SO SO SO good. the voices were AMAZING. The tap dancing so FUN and I didn't want it all to end.

The food was good. Brooks said it tasted like cafeteria food at the hospital but lucky for ME, I LOVE hospital food!

We got home in the evening (on Emerson's birthday) and heard all about the adventures RA and Pat had while we were gone. Those two are rock stars. REALLY!

My favorite story from home was when Bronson told me that he would occasionally hear Grandma gasp. Like she would walk into a room where the babies had made a mess or turned on water someplace or whatever and let out this audible gasp that Bronson could hear in the other room. 😂

I came home to my house cleaner than ever though which cupboards, walls, light fixtures and everything wiped down. 

It was SUCH an amazing break! I loved it ALL!

April birthdays

I turned 37.

WHAT?!?!

37 SOUNDS a lot older than 36. It's crazy.

My birthday was on a Saturday and the night before Emerson insisted we go out so I could buy my favorite muffins that he could bake for me in the morning. And when I say "night" I mean I should've been in bed already. But Emerson was so sweet about it and tried to be so quiet in the kitchen making them. 

Breakfast in bed brought by Fabio..... I mean Emerson.

He WANTED to come in earlier, but Dad made him let me sleep longer. He confessed later that he did it because HIS birthday was coming a week later and really wanted breakfast in bed too. :)

Ahhhhh, NOW I get it.

Brooks and I were out of town on Emerson's birthday morning but got back that night.....in time to give him his camping gear for our BIG 12 year old.

THANKFULLY Grandma was here and made his day pretty special with extra things I wasn't even PLANNING on doing. However, I DID leave his junkbox so he didn't have to wait for that. 

 (Bronson's face 😂)

I had a bunch of "cool" ideas for Emerson's party, but he ended up wanting just to get his close friends (our neighborhood calls them the "biker gang") together and playing football and kickball with pizza and ice cream.

Everly.....or as we call her "Belch" also had a birthday and turned FOUR!!!!

there was no question what she wanted for her pinata!!!

 Push pops are one of her favorite things to talk about......let alone probably near the top of her actual FAVORITE THINGS.

 Speaking of gifts and favorite things......well, I probably better include the pictures of Bronson's lunch he forgot (AGAIN!) at home. Brooks ran home to get it to swing by the school and I mentioned casually, "You know we should wrap his lunch in a diaper and THEN put it in his brown paper sack." To that Brooks responded, "Who needs a brown paper sack?!?"

Brooks took Bronson's lunch and placed it like so...

Then he masterfully wrapped it up like he's so used to doing.

And wa-LAH! I diaper lunch JUST for Bronson.

 The lady at the front office always smiles when she sees Brooks and said, "I always can't wait to see what you'll bring into him next."

One day Bronson will learn not to forget his stuff........