May 27

Our pool is open!!!  And since school is still in session for most schools here, we pretty much had the place to ourselves today!  I was afraid the water would be cold, but it was surprisingly pleasant.  Looking forward to lots of days spent here this summer.

May 26

We are back home now, but before we left, we were able to get a picture with Daniel's dad and Daniel and the girls.  Daniel's dad slept most of the time we were there, but every once in a while he would wake up and  talk or play for a few seconds with the girls.  I'm so glad we were able to go and spend time there this weekend!

I wish the picture was better quality, but it was the best I could do with Isla being uncooperative and using my phone.

May 25

On Sunday, we got to hang out with our friends BJ and Kellie and their kids.  I think it has been over a year since we last saw them, which is too long!

Ava was sad to discover that Audrey is now taller than her.  Even on her tiptoes, Ava just wasn't quite as tall.

We all enjoyed some ice cream together.

Then we went to play on Kellie's school playground, which is the coolest playground ever!  Isla loved this circle swing/thing.

Kellie got a picture of all the kids together here (except for Isla, who was not in the mood for pictures yet again).

May 24

We spent the weekend in Indiana visiting Daniel's family.  Daniel's dad was recently moved to home hospice care.  I was nervous about how the girls would do in the house with him there.  I was afraid they would be too loud or obnoxious or disruptive to his sleep, but they did a pretty good job.  We had a nice visit.  It's sad thinking that there may never be another visit with him.

On a happier note, Daniel's mom got tickets for us to see Mary Poppins at the Beef and Boards dinner theater!  So much fun!  Considering that we are planning a Mary Poppins themed birthday party for Isla this weekend, it was perfect timing.  Our niece Mariah went with us.

May 22

Tonight was Audrey's first dance recital!

This was a non-costume recital (they rotate between costume and non-costume every other year), so I think it was supposed to be more low key.  But I found the whole recital process to be stressful!  From putting Audrey's hair in a bun and getting all the "wispies" to smooth down flat to putting makeup on her to volunteering to help backstage (never again!).  Whew!  I'm glad it's over.

Our pre-recital photo shoot:

And at the recital:

This one was from dress rehearsal:

For the most part, she seemed to know what she was doing, and she seemed to be having fun!  Every time I got a glimpse of her face during the recital tonight, she was smiling!

May 21

Today was Audrey's farewell ceremony at preschool, kind of like a preschool graduation.  All day long she kept saying, "I just can't believe I'm done with preschool now!"  I know, Audrey, I can't believe it either!!

 The kids sang some songs.

I'm including a video of one of the songs.  Audrey was in the back, and we couldn't zoom in on my phone.  So it's not the greatest view.  But I figured at least the grandparents would like to see it!

At the end, they played the graduation song, called each kid's name one at a time and had them pose for a picture.  (I wish I could go and push that hair back behind her ear!!)

The school also put together a video presentation with pictures of each kid.  They included pictures from both years of preschool for the kids, and I was really impressed that the school had kept and organized multiple pictures of every kid from every year of preschool.  Here were Audrey's slides.

Audrey with her buddies Isabelle and Anna.

And with her teachers:

May 20

Isla's favorite pajamas are her "animal" pajamas, and she let me take a picture of them tonight!  They are a pair of size 12-18 month footless pajamas that she just doesn't want to stop wearing.  They do still fit her fairly well since they are footless.  If they had feet, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't fit her anymore.

She's just too cute!!

May 19

Today was Audrey's last day of preschool!!  Crazy!!  She still has her farewell ceremony (graduation) coming up on Wednesday, but today was her last day of class.

After school, they had a family play day on the playground with popsicles.  It was super windy, which made taking pictures kind of tricky.  Here is Audrey with her best buddy Anna.  These girls were in class together both years of preschool, and they are pretty much inseparable.

Last year they had this same event on the last day of school, and I got pictures of the girls sitting on this bench eating their popsicles both years!  It looks like they have both grown over the past year, even Isla!!

And while we are comparing last year to this year, here is one of Audrey standing outside the yellow room on the last day of school next to one from today where she is standing outside the blue room on the last day of school.

They grow up so much in a year's time!!

It's crazy to think that Isla is going to be starting in the yellow room next year.  I'm not sure how she is going to do in a school setting.  I'm actually pretty nervous for her, as she is so shy and does not like anyone to notice her or pay attention to her or even look at her sometimes.  It will be an interesting adjustment, I am sure.  But my hope is that Isla will adjust well to going to preschool, just like her big sister!  Audrey has some rough times during her first semester of preschool, but then she overcame it all and grew to love going to school every single day.

May 18

Today was piano recital day for my students!  I'm so proud of them (all fourteen of them!), as they all worked really hard and did a superb job playing their songs.  I couldn't have asked them to play better at all.

We had a movie theme for this year's recital, which was a lot of fun!  Everyone played a song from a movie.  The highlight of my day was when one of my older students played Married Life, which is the song from the opening scene of the movie Up.  If you've seen the movie, you know that the scene is amazing and very, very sad.  (If you haven't seen the movie, then you need to go watch the first ten minutes right now!).  The student playing this song sometimes has trouble playing with dynamics and musical expression; she likes to play everything loud and fast.  I told her, that at the end of this song (the part where it is sad), her goal was to play in such a way as to make someone in the audience cry.  She looked at me like I was crazy; but she did work on adding more expression to the end of her song.  And today, I had a lady come up to me at the end of the recital and tell me that she was sobbing at the end of the Up song.  And I was such a proud teacher, because my student reached her goal of making someone cry!  

May 17

I spent some time cleaning the house today and decided to take before and after pictures to show my progress.  I just love before and after pictures, and I figured it would be motivation to keep me cleaning.  We've had a really busy week, and then Daniel was out of town this weekend, and I'd like to blame these things as the reason why my house was so messy.  But, let's be real, my house looks like these before pictures quite often, even when we are not too busy to clean!

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

Dining Room Before:  (it wasn't too bad compared to normal)

Dining Room After:

I enlisted the girls help to clean their rooms.  We hadn't cleaned their rooms in a long time.

Isla's Room Before:

Isla's Room After:  (Isla's room is due for a little makeover.  I'm waiting until we switch from the crib to her big girl bed, then we will take down all the random stuff she has hanging on her walls.  But I may never switch her to a big girl bed...)

Audrey's Room Before:

Audrey's Room After:

Living Room Before:

I did clean up the living room.  But then it got a little messy again, and I didn't bother to take an after picture.  We really "live" in our living room.  It is the hardest room to keep clean!