Project Life 2012 - Week 21 (part two)

May 22

Class party day!!

As room mom, I was charged with the task of planning the class party. Since I'm not really a big party girl, myself, we went the low-key route. And guess what? We had a blast!

The party involved chicken nuggets, chips, juice boxes, Popsicles, free play and water balloons. Oh, the water balloons!!

He paused for a second to let me hug him :)

These water balloon pictures crack me up! I just kept clicking and got the best faces!

 Good poses too. This looks like a bowling pose to me.

 Oops. He's a little wet :)
I couldn't believe it, but the kids actually played 'pass the water balloon' without just pelting each other! What a good class!
Oh, and one of the boys in the class declared 'This is the best party EVER!' so I guess it was a good time :)


That afternoon I took a few pictures of Bennett coming out in carpool. Turns out, it was the last afternoon carpool for us. 
I've been wanting to take these pictures for a while now. 
Here's the deal. 
I'm always (ALWAYS) in the first 3 or 4 cars. He knows it. He expects it. But he always looks and makes sure. Then he patiently waits for permission to come to the car. They always tell him he can go, but he will NOT go before they tell him. Wonder where he gets his love of rules from? :)

He's always so happy coming to the car. Usually he's got a smile on his face and he's talking to himself about something funny that happened during the day. Sometimes, by the time he gets to the car, he's just out-right laughing. 
I love him!

Here he is looking to make sure (I think) that it's really me :) 

Here's when I say 'Hey handsome!' and he replies 'Hey mom.'. Then I proceed to ask how the day was. Sometimes he tells who got in trouble (never him, by the way. Not once this whole year :) 
Other times I have to ask more detailed questions to get information. Sometimes I just get something about too much homework or how fun GRC was.
But picking him up from school is always a thrill!


Ok, part 3 coming right up...

Project Life 2012 - Week 21 (part one)

May 20-26, 2012

On the Sunday, the 20th, Bennett's baseball team had an end-of-the-season pool party.

The boys started out with a little swimming.

 This is a cool sign that our team mom made for the games - Bennett is the last one on the left. Go Cards!

 Coach Kevin called all the boys up one at a time and gave them their trophies. Bennett was SO excited!

The the boys each took the coaches' trophies and passed them down the line, each boys saying something special about the coach. Such a great idea!

In case you haven't gotten it yet, we had a GREAT baseball season. Did we win the championship? Nope. Far from it. But, we had great boys and parents on our team and we had a great time. That's all that matters!

May 21-23 

The last week of school. The last week of 3rd grade. The last week at our OMES. 

I'm not gonna lie - I was an emotional mess this week. 

So thankful for all of the good times. 

So sad to be leaving this wonderful place.

And, to be honest, a little scared of the 'unknown' - the new school next year.

But, that's what life is all about, right? Moving forward. Growing. Looking forward to new adventures. (and please keep in mind that I was the ONLY one in our family that was feeling anything other than pure elation at the thought of the end of school :)

So, without further sappiness (I'll TRY to spare you, but I can't promise anything!), here are the last week details:

The book we made for Bennett's teacher:

Bennett wrote the title page :)

 Bennett's pages

And, just to show you how funny Brad is - earlier this year, Brad went in to the class to talk about the heart. Apparently, while he was sitting ever-so-calmly in Mrs. Hardy's chair (which was like a director's chair) the chair fell apart, leaving Brad to crash to the ground. This made quite an impression on the class, as evidenced by the fact that he was mentioned numerous times as 'The funniest thing that happened in 3rd grade'.
Good job, honey!

This is getting kind of lengthy, so I'll break it up into 2 posts... stay tuned :)

Project Life 2012 - Week 20

May 13-19, 2012

We started off our week with Mother's Day (remember, we had already had cake on Saturday), and it was a great day! Bennett and Brad fixed me breakfast in bed, showered me with cards and gifts, and we headed out to church. 

After church, we celebrated every mom in our family by going out to brunch together at The Tavern. It was a great time!

 Evie and her mom (Gigi!)

 Bennett and my mom (Nana!)

 Bennett and his mom (me!) 

 Bennett and Brad with his mom (Mooma!)

After brunch, we had a nice laid back afternoon. Yea!

On Friday, the 18th, the third grade too a field trip to DeSoto Caverns. I was so happy to be able to go too! I had never been to the caverns before, so it was all new to me! And, as an extra bonus, the sun stayed away, so it wasn't even all that hot!

Most of the pictures that I took have all of Bennett's friends in them, and since I don't want to share those here, I'll just share this one...

After we toured the caverns and played in the maze, the kids got to pan for gold! Bennett found lots of great little stones and even some (fool's) gold! 

It was a great day for everyone!

Project Life 2012 - Week 19

May 6-12, 2012

Brad came home on Sunday and we were happy to have him home! Of course, it was right back to work for him, so we got right back into the old routines pretty quick :)

On Tuesday I went to Bennett's class and took pictures of the kids for a little project for his teacher. Bennett is always so happy to have me at the school - which makes me happy in return! I'm so glad that he doesn't shrink away and try to pretend that he doesn't know me (at least not yet, anyway ;)  He assures me that he'll never do that... we'll see!

Here is Bennett's picture for the book. (more on the book in a later post :)

On Saturday, Bennett bought me a cake for Mother's Day from Publix. We couldn't wait until Sunday to eat it (in fact, a strawberry got eaten before I could even take the picture!!)

 I love his 'extra touches'.

 He's so cute!

So, after eating cake, we had a baseball game and guess what... Bennett got ANOTHER game ball!!

 Way to go! 

(I'm not sure, but I think that this must be a 'game ball' record of some sort!)

And finally, on Saturday, I finished this puzzle.

Sure, it may look easy enough, but it took months (no joke - literally MONTHS!!) to get this puzzle done. Kim and I worked on it a bunch and then I was just determined to get it  completed - one piece at a time!  

Word to the wise: Dollar Store puzzles may be cheap, but they are HARD!!

Now, what do I do with this puzzle? I can't bear to tear it up, so it will sit like this under a bed for a while :)

Project Life 2012 - Week 18

April 29-May 5, 2012

This week, Brad went on a diving trip, leaving Bennett and me to fend for ourselves (for the 2nd week in a row, I might add :)

While he was gone, I cleaned out his closet. Look!! There is carpet in there! 

And Bennett drank grape juice out of a wine glass

(since Brad was eating fancy meals on his vacation, we decided to be fancy here too!)

On the 30th, I finally remembered to take a picture of Bennett's birthday wish on the marquee outside the school!

And, on Saturday, we had another baseball game!

 We didn't win this one, but we still played a pretty good game :)

We miss Brad, but Bennett and I did pretty good on our own. Bennett took his 'man of the house' duties seriously, taking care of any bugs and helping me take the garbage down the hill ;)

Project Life 2012 - Week 17

April 22-28 was a good week. A little bit calmer week, which was really needed!

We had to say good-bye to Bennett's baseball lesson coaches because they were heading off to play for the season.

 PItching Coach, Todd is headed to the New England Barnstormers

 Hitting Coach, Jeff is headed to the Michgan Beach Bums. 

We are really going to miss these guys - they have helped Bennett SO much over the past 6 months! They make him work hard, but are very kind in the process (which is not the norm, I am learning...)  We hope that they have great seasons and can't wait to see them again in the Fall!

On Tuesday I hosted a PTO luncheon at my house. Simona came and helped me make sure that the house was in tip-top shape (thanks Simona!) and I had everything ready in plenty of time. I think that the meeting was a success! Too bad I waited until we were about to graduate from the elementary school to have everyone over :)

Finally, on the 26th... 

although it is blurry and not a good picture...

Bennett got to play 3rd base!!

He was super excited and did a great job!

Way to go, buddy!

Project Life 2012 - Week 16

Coach Kevin had a great idea for after practice on April 15...

let's hit water balloons!!

Can you tell how much fun this is??

Sure, you get a little wet.

The boys were ALL smiles :)

We couldn't convince Bennett that opening his eyes would be the easiest way to hit.

Good swing!!

On Wednesday night (the 18th) the Cardinals played Bennett's first coach's team and we won!! Just at the end - just one run - and guess who made the winning run? 

Bennett did!!  Yippee!!

Another game ball! Way to go!!

On Friday, April 20, I took Bennett to his first concert!!

We saw Chris Tomlin at Samford. It was awesome! Loud. But still awesome. (and who is the smartest mom ever that brought earplugs? Me, of course ;)

There really aren't words to express how happy my heart was to be able to praise God with Bennett at the concert. Seeing my baby with is hands raised - well, there really is nothing better.

What a busy, fun week! We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many loving, talented, creative people!