Last Day of School

It's over for the summer. No more pre-K. No more driving 20 minutes one way to pick him up from school. No more piles of school papers.

If we really want to, we can just stay in our p.j.s all day! Whoopee!

The PreK Days

As PreK winds to a close for Garner, I'm left with many thoughts about the last year. I'm a tiny bit sad, partly apprehensive to all the changes coming next year, and a largely proud of my son. He has really grown over the year. Every day I see more boy and less baby. He was my first child, so there is a particular heart string that gets plucked each time he passes life's growth stages.

We knew that preschool would be good for Garner. He was needing more to occupy him than I could provide or teach with two other children in the house. I'll never forget the night he sat at the dinner table and basically told us the whole story about Moses and Pharaoh and the 10 plagues (hand gestures included). Not only has he done well from an educational stand point, but preschool also helped him with other life skills and social behaviors too.

Here are a few photos of the past year.

First Day of School



Day at the Farm




Birthday



We will have a few more photos of the last few days of school and I'll post them then. For now a mom is just feeling rather nostalgic...

Love Notes

Little notes with crayon scribbles, stickers, hearts and stick people. He signs his name in such a childlike way... G - backwards 'a' - tiny r - n - giant little e - tiny r.

A seashell covered in heart stickers. I piece of sea glass covered in smiley face stickers. A single picked dandelion.

These are Garner's love notes.

This is his way of showing me love. He likes to shower me with these love notes made from whatever he can find. He never keeps any for himself. He always gives them to me.

From this I know my son has a generous heart. Even though he doesn't want to share his toys sometimes. Deep down he really is compassionate. He longs to show and receive love in this way.

Lord, Help me to remember to love as deeply as my own son.

Pull-Ups and Pee Pee

Hallelujah! Braden peed in the potty last night. First time ever. There is light at the end of the tunnel... now to see if he will keep doing it... We bought Pull-Ups. He reluctantly put them on. But when I told him he could be like Garner, he seemed happy with that.

It starts.

A Family Blog

As if I needed another thing to do on my list of things to do...

However daunting my list is, I'm always looking for something to distract me from what I actually should be doing. One day this past week a new friend shared with me that she uses her blog postings to help her recall stories for her scrapbooks. She simply highlights the text from her stories, pastes them on a page and print. Then she slaps them in her book of memories and moves on with life.

Then it dawned on me.

I never take the time to write down those adorable little things my children do. However I email everyday and I'm already used to blogging. So perhaps when I actually put my scrapbooks together (often years after the fact), now I can just go back and remind myself what happened and when. So if I'm really being honest, I don't really care if you read this or not. It's really just to fulfill my own selfish desires.

So here we are. Now we have a family blog. Anyone can sign up for the feeds. You'll get an email any time I post a new blog. See photos of our adventures and more. Can't wait to get started.
Amy (and Darren, Garner, Braden & Annabelle)