End of School Fun

What a great school year! Sophie has done so well in kindergarten and has loved the experience. I am so thankful when I think back to how nervous I was to send her off on the first day of school. I guess we will be going through all those feelings again in first grade as she'll be starting a whole new school then. We won't worry about that today though :)

On Thursday they had a promotion program that was really cute. Then all the kindergarteners went to the park to play.

Sophie got to come home early with me so we decided to go swimming at Miss Shelley's house. The Waltons joined us for our first official swim of the year.

Today was the last day of school. Sophie had a hard time saying goodbye to Mrs. Hernandez. She has been such a great teacher and answer to prayer.

They had a pizza party and then played games.

I didn't take any pictures tonight, but we started off our summer with our first visit to the Swim and Racquet. We met friends for some fun swim time and pizza.

We're looking forward to a GREAT summer!

Little Ballerina

Sophie had her first dance recital on Sunday night. I wasn't sure how she would do since she doesn't really like to be in front of people. She loves to dance though and did a great job. We weren't allowed to take video or pictures during the performance and she had to change backstage, so the only pictures I got are of her getting her flowers.

Grammy and Bumpaw escaped dance recitals with their own girls but couldn't escape them entirely.

James and Cindy were so sweet to come sit out in the heat to watch Sophie. Such special friends!

Sophie and Sweet Caroline

This is what John Curtis thought about it all:

Don't ask, I have no idea!

Sophie was all tired out but so proud of her flowers. She kept saying, "I've never had flowers of my own before." They may be the reason she stays in ballet. You don't get flowers when you play soccer!

Firefighter JC

This is how John Curtis fell asleep Monday night. We took it off him since he sweats like crazy when he sleeps, but he came into the kitchen with it on Tuesday morning.

So this is how we went to the grocery store.

It is not unusual for him to go to the grocery store in his P.J.s on Tuesday morning since we go at 7:30 after I drop Sophie off at school. Getting 2 people ready by that time is often my limit. I guess it is pretty authentic since firefighters often jump out of bed and throw on their gear to fight fires. That is basically what John Curtis did. Thankfully there was no fire to fight at HEB this morning.

Dick and Jane's Mom Never Had Chaos

On Saturday afternoon I was enjoying a nice long nap. The screen door was open, the rain was falling, and I had no idea water was invading my house. When the kids got up I went down the hall to get something out of the closet. Under my feet I heard the strangest squishing sound. I looked down to see water seeping in between the planks of our wood laminate floor. The leak was coming from the refrigerator on the other side of the wall so after turning off the water we got to work as quickly as possible trying to save our floor. Alas, it was all in vain. The boards cannot be put back down and our floor was discontinued 3 months ago. So we will be getting a whole new floor in our living room and hallways. The good news is we can move the good floor (which is most of it) into our bedroom and I can get rid of the yucky old carpet in there. So the last few days have been spent with plumbers, water removal people (whatever you call them), and insurance guys coming in and out of our house. Fans have been blowing so loudly we had to put the closed caption on during the Survivor finale. My fridge has been in the middle of my kitchen. The kids can't use their bathroom because it is so dirty and the fan is so strong it blows them over, and some of my floor is missing.

May is the month I had dedicated to spring cleaning my house. I've been going room to room cleaning every surface, baseboards, and carpet, and cleaning stuff out. Some of it was wasted effort due to the water, but I've been trying to continue this in the midst of the craziness because the kids will be out of school soon and then it will be impossible. Life at the Sandlin house has been a little chaotic. It is all a little annoying, but I'll take my small inconveniences any day. The Facebook and blogging world continually remind me that we have friends serving all over the world living in the midst of war, natural disasters, sick children, and lost jobs. I have to keep a little perspective about my silly little "problems".

So Monday afternoon when a thunderstorm blew in, I took my book on the back porch to breathe for a few minutes. It was very refreshing. It didn't take long for the kids to join me. John Curtis can't pass up a good rain.
Sophie on the other hand stayed as close to the wall as possible. She went to her room and grabbed a book so she could read like Mom.

Can you tell what she's reading?

Look familiar?

Fun with Dick and Jane! I used to love these books. My grandmother gave me some old books when I got my first teaching job. When I was cleaning out Sophie's closet I came across them. Now that Sophie can read them I decided to put them on her shelf. So this is the book she grabbed.

Evidently it was never supposed to cross the border. The copyright is 1956. My dad was 4 years old so those could be his scribbles.

I love the pictures. This one kind of reminds me of me and my mom baking with the kids:) The girls in my family are so domestic.

Here Mom is sewing peacefully and is never impatient when the kids disturb her work. I bet Dad is coming in to tell her the fridge is leaking and he has to pull up her spotless floor.

A nice family dinner. I'm glad to see that Dick and Jane didn't know how to sit in their seats any better than my kids do during dinner.

What a happy family!

Mine is too, minus the dresses and ties.

End of School Performance

John Curtis and his class did a little program for the parents on Monday followed by lunch together.

Walking in with his bubble in his mouth

Feeling a little shy

Zooming o'er the enemy

Yes Sir!

You are my Sunshine

Receiving his gift from Ms. Jemiper (Jennifer)

A Wet Little Boy

Playing in the rain on Saturday

Playing in the sprinklers on Sunday

Field Day

Sophie's school had Field Day today.

She loved the sack race.

The Shoe Race

As I was helping out and filling up water guns that morning, I thought Sophie would never take part in this. The girl loves to swim, but hates playing in the sprinkler and getting sprayed on water rides. She's hated this since she was a baby. So I was pleasantly surprised and so proud of her to see her taking part in this and having fun.

The fun continued....

And then she got sprayed in the face and it was all over. The tears started and she decided to sit out. She sat the next one out, too. It was the water balloon toss. Having a balloon full of water bust on her is not this girl's idea of fun. So one of the dads got a game going with her. He would hand it to her and she would toss it to him. I'm so thankful that they modify in public schools.

Then we got to have a picnic. What a fun day!

Mother's Day Singing

I had a great Mother's Day. Taylor and the kids served me breakfast in bed. I got some wonderful homemade cards from the kids. During church John Curtis got to join Sophie in singing for the first time. I took a long nap after lunch and spent the afternoon reading and watching the kids play in the back yard. Taylor made a wonderful dinner with shrimp and fish, salad, rice, and corn on the cob. I didn't get great video of the kids singing. I apologize for the shakiness of the 2nd video. I was trying to move to to where I could see better. John Curtis was hidden during most of the song. It was pretty chaotic with all of them up there, but very sweet.