Last Day of School

The last day of school always comes with mixed emotions.While we are sad to leave our teachers and friends behind, we are also so excited for our fun-filled summer days, hanging out together. I know I can't wait for summers with the kids but we will definitely miss Miss Connie (James' preschool teacher) and Ms. Dalia (Haylie's 1st grade teacher). Both of them were such great teachers and we felt incredibly blessed to have these two teaching our kids this year. We hope we always get this lucky with teachers. 

James LOVED his first year of preschool at Small Wonders and Mommy loved volunteering in his class and watching him learn and grow. Miss Connie was the most fantastic lady and we will miss seeing her every day since James will be going to Junior Kindergarten next year. The last day of school festivities included Miss Connie presenting each child with a special memory / photo book and sharing sweet things about them.

At the end of our time we got to present Miss Connie a gift. Since I was the Room Mom for the year I had the opportunity to organize the gift and we chose a cooking theme since Miss Connie likes to cook. Everyone pitched in for some various cooking supplies but my favorite part was this apron. We drew some circles on it and each child decorated their own little face / person with Mis Connie in the middle. It turned out soooo adorable and I think Miss Connie really loved it. She was in tears between that and the card with all the nice comments from the parents. Such a great way to end the year!!

James' is going to miss his little girly friend Brooke: 

We are going to miss Miss Connie:

I don't have as many pictures from Haylie's last day of school but we definitely loved Ms. Dalia. I enjoyed volunteering in class and getting to know her and Haylie loved having her as her teacher. We will miss her for sure! 

Life is good...

...at the cabin. Memorial Day at the cabin has become somewhat of a tradition for our family and we love the time spent playing with sticks and dirt, eating s'mores and relaxing in the sun!!

That he is...

Yay for Uncle Micah

Reading stories to the slumber party girls...

Leadership

So proud of Micah who recently graduated from the City's Leadership program. Micah is a great leader and this was a well deserved opportunity and moment to shine for him!

Allergies

Allergies have really hit us hard this year. We have started giving the kids regular allergy medicine now since we have had a couple horrible allergy attacks. Thankfully it is helping but the last few scares have definitely not been fun!!

 Haylie's scary allergy attack at the park caused her eyes to swell up so much:

When James gets allergies, he gets asthma. Thankfully we finally got our own breathing machine to take home so we don't have to race to the hospital for treatment. Asthma is so scary:

Yee-haw!

Momo and Papa volunteered to watch the kids overnight - yahoo!!! Or rather - yee-haw!! Line dancing with friends...

Cousins

Fieldtrip

I'm so thankful to be able to go on school fieldtrips with my babies. I love spending time with them and seeing them interact with their friends at school. James' preschool class went to Fairytale town and we had the best day hanging out and picnicking in the park with everyone.  

His favorite thing today was the castle - just wanted to look at the pictures of the knights and pose like them...

Tar Pits

While in LA for Mother's Day weekend, we had some free time and decided to visit the Brea Tar Pits. It was fascinating to learn about all the animals who had decided from the tar. As we walked around the campus there were even little bits of tar seeping through the grass and cement. Definitely an interesting adventure. 

Mothers

Micah's parents were planning on coming to Sacramento for Mother's Day but unfortunately, just when they make plans - something keeps coming up with Sharon's health. We are praying all of this gets better quickly as it's quite the ordeal they have to go through spending time in the hospital and the constant scares of things going wrong. Instead of Sacramento, we spent Mothers Day at the hospital in LA after Sharon had a cardiac arrest this weekend, which was a significant scare. We are thankful she is alive and truly thankful, especially this weekend, for such a great mother to still be in our lives.

I felt bad not being able to spend Mother's Day with my Mom but Nicole and I did plan a special gift for her earlier in the month, which we were able to give to her when we got back from LA. We had these photos taken and made into canvases for her:

And here are my very own flowers that Haylie made me for Mother's Day. In the card, Haylie wrote:
"Dear Mommy - I love you so much I can't take my mind off you! I like the way you treat us with respect and kindness! Thank you! Love Haylie."

Tea with James

James' preschool held a lovely event in honor of Mother's day. James and his class sang some songs and we enjoyed a little snacks together. We are so thankful for his wonderful little Christian Preschool and his teacher Miss Connie. We really adore her!

Open House

We can't believe Haylie is in 1st grade already! Last year when we went to the Kindergarten Open House we also had a chance to walk through the 1st grade room to get an idea of where the kids would be in a year. We were so impressed with the writing and the big projects in the classroom. It was amazing this year as we visited the same classroom and saw Haylie's work that looked just like all the work from the previous year. She has come such a long way. We truly love her sweet teacher Ms. Dalia - she is so encouraging to Haylie and I just love volunteering in class with her.

Age 6

And dreaming about her wedding already...

Boys and Girls

Haylie what are you doing?
H: Organizing photos into my scrapbook. 
James what are you doing?
J: Taping my foot.

Orphan Care

Several years in a row now I have attended the Christian Alliance for Orphans Conference. Luckily it was in Southern CA this year so many friends were able to attend as well. I never walk away from this conference disappointed. It is an incredible wealth of information and pure inspiration. It's an amazing thing to be in a room with 2000 people who are passionate about the same things you are. What a wonderful time learning and growing these few days...

"LOVE has nothing to do with the lovability of the other person." At the Safe Families for Children national conference. It is an incredible ministry and it's an incredible experience to be in a room with a group of people who believe and act out biblical hospitality by opening their homes to children in crisis for nothing in return. Humbled and honored to be here. (John 13:34)

Rick Warren: "there are 163 million orphans in the world. What is God's plan for all of that? We are His plan, always have been and always will be." Psalm 68:6 He sets the lonely in families. 

Geoff Moore was there!!! So cool!!!

Francis Chan is always amazing!!!!