Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school for Tyler's 3's class.  He is doing 2 more weeks of "summer school" so he will still be going until mid-June, but not all of his classmates or teachers will be there, so today was the end of year party.

The moms all got together to give the teachers giftcards but we also put together a little book for each teacher.  The book had a photo of the class, and then each child had a card to put their photo, write their name, and answer 3 questions about their favorite things about school and their teachers.

It turned out ADORABLE!!  I didn't snap any photos before I wrapped them, so I tried to snap a couple at school, but I was super rushed and trying to keep an eye on Gavin.  The pics did not turn out well, but you can get the idea.  It took a little leg work to get the cards prepped, but then each mom just glued a photo on and we asked the mom to write EXACTLY what the kiddo said.  The answers were SO cute!

There were lots of cute answers, but I can only recall a few off hand.  In general, the kids mostly said that they learned about letters and seeds (they just finished crafts last week about how things grow from seeds).  They also learned about Jesus and "how to say sorry."  Their favorite things about school were playing, "nuffin," letters, and mostly the bikes in the gym :)  Their favorite things about their teachers were that they are (in their own words) kind, they teach me letters, and they read books to me.

We are blessed to have found the worlds best preschool.  The teachers truly love the children, the children know it, and everyone there loves Jesus.  Hooray for another great year at Sonshine.  I can't wait until Gavin starts in the 2's class next year.

Best Buds Jonas & Tyler

Jonas, Tyler, & Almost kindergartner Rowen ... 3 buddies

The sweetest woman on earth, Teacher Nancy.  :) 

Teacher Nancy & Teacher Paige (who I don't know what I would do without ... she has nannied for us one day a week all year and she is absolutely incredible; we could not be luckier)

Our cute memory books --- see above text but but basically I gave two cards to each mom in the class.  They pasted a photo on one side and had their child write their name (some did it on the photo side, some on the back) and on the back were 3 questions where the mom wrote exactly what the child answered.   On the back of the first page I pasted the class photo.  Teachers Nancy and Paige just adored these sweet gifts and the kids were SO proud to give them to them.  It was a very sweet moment.   

Even Gavin knows what it means if it's a "cow day."  A cow day is when the photo of the cow cookie jar is out on Teacher Patty's office.  The kidsline up as say, "May I Please Have the Cow?"If they use these good manners, they get some skittles.  Teacher Pattydoes not let go of their little hands until they look her in the eye and say"Thank You!"  Gavin says, "Cow.  Ease??"  "Ank-U."  Too sweet.

The famous Cow.

I love the way Patty just holds their hand to help them remember to say "thank you"
without having to actually prompt them.  I do this all the time with my kids
now, and they really respond well to it.

We love teacher Patty, Sonshine director.  We just can't say enough about her and

this school.  Thank you Lord for what a blessing Sonshine has been to our family!

T still loves his sink tubbies :)

Baby Booty

A quick pic of some sweet tootsies.  You are too cute Baby Annalise.

Low-Light Class

On Sunday Hannah and I took a low-light photography class together that we had bought as a groupon.  I had a great time!  It was my very first ever photography class, and the teacher loved that I brought my "Canon T1I for Dummies" book along with me ... yes, I'm proud to be self-taught for dummies, haha.  I never ever ever pretend to be anything other than someone who loves to take pictures of my family, so don't think I'm trying to get all camera fancy :)  But, we really had a great time learning more about low-light photography.  The class was at the Portland Art Museum, so here are some of my shots.  While I would always rather focus on an interesting or artistic subject, my objective here was actually just to have the correct exposure in the various lighting settings.  

 

This one just looked cooler in B&W

The instructor hinted that if you have to take a photo through glass, you may as well try to incorporate the reflection into the photo.  I like the result; I think it looks cool.  

I took several shots of this image at different exposures, and this one is actually under-exposed (correctly exposed for the flourescent lit subject rather than the room) ... but it ended up being the one I liked the most, go figure.   That's what I like about photography ... it's so subjective.  I like it, it's my blog, so this is what you get :)

I love repetition in photos.  This one was really tricky since it's lightbulbs, but I think it turned out cool.

After I got home, Gavin decided not to nap :(.  Oh well, it gave me a MOVING TARGET to practice some of my low-light skills on.  Ugh, toddlers are the hardest things in the world to photograph!!!  At least the art museum shots prove that I do know how to focus a camera :)  Most of these are a teensy bit blurry but G is just too quick!  Thankfully he is cute to me even out of focus.

As shot ... I promise, no editing at all (I was tempted to pop them out even more in with some editing but I wanted you to see how blue they really were, no tricks!) ...  those eyes really did come from this Italian mama.  It still surprises me (and I LOVE THEM).  

Baby Annalise

It's Mother's Day, and I have a whole hour to sit in bed with coffee, breakfast, and the computer.  I have been so spoiled this entire week for Mother's Day!  All week Matt has been working hard on my gift which is raised planter boxes (leveling them in the ground was a bear).  They are all set and ready to go for our little Jordan family vegetable garden.  Let's hope this brown thumb can maneuver her way through some lettuce, tomatoes, peas, etc.  Even if it does not end up being the most productive garden, I'm excited about it because I have been wanting to do one for years, and now Tyler is old enough to really help.

Kelly had her baby!  Annalise Corinne is precious!  She is smaller than the other Klos girls and has tons of hair.  She is one cute, cute baby girl.  Here are a few snapshots.  

Stink Eye

Congratulations Kelly on a third perfect daughter.  You are a great mom, and I love that I get to walk the road of motherhood with you daily.  Well, my hour is up ... time to rally the troops to get started on the day: church, lunch with the grands, and planting my veggies!  Happy Mother's Day to all of the hardworking moms.  ~ Jessica