Bring on Summer!!!

Today was the kids last day of school! Bring on summer fun! 

This was them on the FIRST day of school at the end of August. 

Last day of 4th and 2nd grade! They both had really great school years and amazing teachers. They look a bit more disheveled on the last day compared to the first day! Ha!

Porters 1st day and last day side by side comparison. Funny how much darker his hair is now. It will be lightening up soon! Looks like he grew a couple inches. 

Stella's comparisons. She definitely had a growth spurt this year! I've never had to buy either kid a new size during the year, but mid-winter Stella outgrew all her uniform pants and shirts and I had to buy all new. Will be interesting if she goes up a size before school starts in the fall or not. 

To celebrate the last day of school we met up with a bunch of friends for bowling and a trip to Dairy Queen. 

Yesterday I went to have lunch with Stella and her posse. P didn't want to eat lunch with me! LOL!! But that's because he can't have a friend sit with him  (and his guest) until he's in 3rd grade. (strange rule!) he wanted to be able to sit with his friends, which I TOTALLY understand!

Beautiful rainbow outside our backyard a couple nights ago. 

We are redoing our deck. Porter has been helping Mike out a ton! They are so cute together. I will do a blog post on the deck when it's finished.....it may be a while! 

Memorial day weekend was a bit rainy. We decided to check out Flix Brewhouse to watch a movie. Its a newish place in Merle Hay Mall that brews their own beer and you can order food and eat while watching the movie  it was pretty fun! Stella and I saw Pitch Perfect 2 and Mike and Porter saw Tomorrowland. 

The night before was a BIG milestone! Mike and I left the kids at home for about 2 hours and went out for dinner and drinks on our own....without paying a babysitter! Crazy!!! The kids did great! We were home by 8:30 and although we won't be making a habit out of this just yet.....it's nice to know we can occasionally go out on our own. :-) 

Stella made this little basketball girl in art class. 

We have 3 peony bushes in our yard. I LOVE peonies!!

Clash day and crazy hair day for Stella's class last week. 

A couple pics from Porter's Cub Scout Camp out. They ended up having to come home at 11 due to severe weather. But P still had a great time!

Busy start to May! :-)

We've had a fun and busy start to May. It's always a busy month with school winding down. 8 days left for our kids.....NOT that anyone is counting!!!

Stella's CHORO group had their musical and they voted on 4 different musicals and 101 Dalmations won. The kids have an amazing music teacher and always does such a great job with their concerts and musicals. This ended up being super cute!

Stella posing on the set. 

During the musical. 

Poor Rex!!! Wahhhh! Kitty got into a nasty cat fight one night when we didn't come home. He ended up needing surgery on his tail. He's no longer allowed outside, he's not too happy about that right now! This was right when he got home from the vet. 

On happier news, Stella ran her 5k for Girls On The Run. She did great! She had been sick that week, missed 2 days of school so she was a bit nervous about the race, but she finished strong! Next year she can be in track, so I doubt she does GOTR again unless they offer it again in the fall. 

This was them right after crossing the finish line. 

Cousins! They all did such a great job! And Porter was a good cheerleader for them! LOL! Stella has turned into a major tomboy and only likes to wear "long shorts WITH pockets," her words! 

Mike and Stella

The next night one of our good friends had extra tickets for the ICubs game through her work and they were in the Sky Box! Super fun! We went out for dinner as a group before then headed to the game that started at 7:30. Porter with 2 of his classmates, Leo and Austin S.  

Cubbie Bear came up and paid them a visit!

Stella and Averie. Averie is in 1st grade and the girls ADORE each other. I've given her a few bags of clothes that Stella has outgrown and every time she knows that she is going to see Stella she wears Stella's clothes, even tho they are a bit big on her. So cute! 

Ball field very pretty at night with the Capitol in the background. 

Porter's birthday was Monday. 8 years old!!! Crazy! And as an added bonus they didn't have school Monday due to teacher in-service! Lucky kiddo!

Tearing into his gifts!

He's not a big cake fan so we had brownies that night to celebrate instead. 

Happy Birthday, Buddy!!! May all your wishes come true!

Poor Rex still recovering, curled up on my lap. He looks huge here! 

Porter had his friends birthday party at The Old School Pinball and Arcade Game place in Grimes. The boys had a BLAST! Highly recommend! It was so funny as parents came to pick up their sons they all got sucked into playing games from our childhoods. I asked one boy if these games were as good as an X-Box and he replied, "no, these are a lot harder!" LOL! 

The shooting games were popular with this crowd!

Finishing their meals and getting ready for Krispy Kreme donuts! 

Just finished blowing out his candles. 

Got up,early Friday to get my run in before P's field trip and Stella's Biome Fair. It was pretty foggy and just beautiful! Plus this gave me an excuse to stop for a minute to catch my breath while taking pics. Haha!

Porter's filed trip was to the Sculpture Park downtown and the Art Center. 

Then to a park for a picnic lunch and a couple hours of play time. This was probably more fun for them than learning about art. Haha!

Left there and headed to the school for the 4th grade Biome Fair. Stella had desert and was mad bc she was told she has to paint water around it and she said that made no sence bc desserts are not surrounded by water....I agree, but told her to roll with it. It turned out really good! They did this 100% at school, except making the clay at home. 

Proud girl! And as a bonus she has her last Out Of Uniform pass to use that day that we bought her at the school auction. 

Porter's 1st Communion and a bit more

Last Sunday we celebrated Porter's 1st Communion! He was SO excited!! We were blessed with wonderful weather and being able to celebrate this big milestone with our families. 

With the banner he made, right at his level!

Stella and Porter both had the same 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Berrie. We looooove Mrs. Berrie! Love this pic of the 3 of them!

With our priests, Fr. Dolan and Fr. Ray. 

Porter didn't want to take any pics with friends afterwards. All he was focused on was getting home and changing into play clothes. At least I got one pic of him with one of his besties, Tommy. 

With Nana and Papa. I feel so bad I didn't get a pic of him with Steve and Linda. They were a bit late getting to our house and by that point P had been changed for a while and I was so busy in the kitchen it didn't even cross my mind. We will have to create a reenactment!! 

We also had his family birthday party at the same time. He got a set of golf clubs from Grandma and Grandpa. 

He looooved the $20 he received!!

The next day, Monday, Porter's class had a field trip planned at the Iowa Hall of Pride. It was really fun! Here he's the umpire and calling the pitches strikes or balls. 

Being goofy with his friends. 

Tuesday was their 3rd baseball game....still hoping to win one!

Wednesday was Stella's field trip to Hy-Vee Hall. I had zero clue what this field trip was all about, but let's just say it was loud, very very very loud. But lots of fun. 7,000 5th and 4th graders from all over Iowa. I ran into the MACHS group! 

Stella and Berlin

Stella and Ally

They set the world record for the most people doing jumping jacks in one place for 2 minutes!

Backing up a bit, the Monday after Easter we didn't have school so we headed to the mall with my buy one, get one free coupon for their favorite, Auntie Ann pretzels. 

Then to a movie. I wanted to see the Disney movie Monkey Kingdom that was out for Earth Day. The begged and pleaded for Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. You can see how popular this movie choice was....

(and yes, it was really that bad!)

Our good friend Jeff turned 50 on Thursday. We went out for dinner with 3 other families to celebrate. We were all laughing as it was time to leave, the kids behaved sooo good, but at the end one got ahold of an iPhone and ALL the kids were gathered around it. LOL!

Porter had his 2nd grade biography fair on Friday, he was George Washington and loved every minute of it.  

This morning was his Boy Scouts troop turn to pick up trash along a road in WDM. He was very proud that he picked up 39 cigarette butts! LOL! But the big excitement was the Gardner snake they found!

Both kids have friends spending the night tonight. Stella and Ella before mass. They wanted to wear cat shirts and black leggings. LOL! Ella's 1st time going to a Catholic mass! She was pretty confused!