Saturday, May 14, 2016

Jason's last week at Preschool





Lined up outside about to go in for his last day of school party.









Singing Old McDonald

          



Silly teacher Stacey!


Getting his Preschool certificate.

        



Making his Teacher gifts.

My Teacher is Awesome
by: Jason
A picture of him
&&
 A Starbucks gift card in these cute Starbucks Teacher cups.

We found the printable HERE!


He got to check all the boxes for each teacher.





He fits in his cubby!




Teacher Stacey is ALWAYS trying to eat him. In fact he wrote that the thing he'll remember most about her is that she "always tries to eat me!".



AND...
All his Teacher's signed his copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go book. *happy face*
So fun!




The FIRST and LAST day of school this year.
 Hard to tell but he is wearing his Batman shirt on both days!
I hadn't realized how much he really changed till I put these pictures together.

We've had a busy and exciting year.
Here's to a busy and exciting SUMMER!





Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Mother's Day Weekend 2016


Mother's Day weekend was pretty amazing.
 Matt just finished Spring semester at School and the Farmer's Market opened Saturday!

Me and the two big kids got an earlier start than dad and Tucker and headed to the first Farmer's Market of the season. We found asparagus, raw honey and some yummy cookies! After the market we ran over to Dutch Bros for some coffee. The kids call what they get coffee but they really get steamers or frosts, SO, if you ever hear the kids say they are drinking coffee it just isn't true, I promise, (unless you hear it from Jason and then it might be true because he is always stealing sips of mine because he actually really does love coffee!).

After coffee we headed back to the house to pick up dad and Tucker so we could go to the park and play (dad's idea). When we got home dad had made brunch, pumpkin waffles and omelets. We ate and then made our way to Lawson Gardens, a place most of us had never been to before. It was fun walking around blowing bubbles with the bubble wands we  had brought. Ava chased the poor ducks and Jason climbed on everything. Tucker wanted to get down so bad but because he tries to eat literally EVERYTHING, I held him while we walked around and explored.








Then we went to the park across the street for some serious playtime. Matt played harder than the kids but it was okay because he brought his portable fan and spray bottle to help keep himself cool. He was pretty proud of himself for that. The kids had fun chasing and spraying each other and everything else at the park. They climbed trees, went on the swings, raced and did a pretty good job not dying on the weird spiderweb plaything. Jason did fall through the twisted monkey bar structure  and hit his head and neck but at this point I think we have learned that we just can't go anywhere without Jason being nearly mortally wounded.


One of my favorite pictures from our day together.


Little man loves to swing!

After like 3 hours of playing (!) we ran to the store to grab some steak so Matt could make us a yummy steak dinner with homemade french fries. Mmmm, my favorite!

The bummer is the next morning (actual Mother's day) Matt and Ava woke up sick *sad face*. Even though Matt wasn't feeling good he still was a big help around the house (unasked at that). Jason and I were able to do our shopping for the week and for Jason's special Monday night dinner while Matt, Ava and Tucker napped back home.



My Mother's Day gift from Ava. She gave it to me Sunday night after dinner. She was so excited and told me she worked on it for 2 weeks! lol, she is still learning about time. She told me her teacher said it would make me cry... She was pretty proud of herself when it actually happened.


... and The kids' Mother's day Cards this year. We have so many mommies between our 2 families that we ended up making and sending out 9 cards!
 These were a little time consuming but oh so cute! Ava did most of the writing and glued all the grass in the pots. Even Matt helped cut out some of the flowers. We learned that Ava can cut flowers out a lot faster than daddy! She is a pretty good helper when it comes to crafting!

...and I got a Mother's day card from my sissy!


Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Jason makes Chicken Enchiladas and Chocolate/Vanilla Cake

Jason got to plan this week's Monday night dinner and boy did he go BIG!

He chose Chicken Enchiladas, spanish rice, refried beans and then a 4 layer half chocolate half vanilla Cake! 

Chicken enchiladas are his absolute favorite right now. Which is great because he wouldn't eat chicken willingly for ages. I did not help him plan the meal at all, the only thing I did was help convince him to make his 10 layer cake a 4 layer one. He came up with half chocolate and half vanilla so there would be something everyone would like (Ava's not a big chocolate fan).

We did our shopping Sunday afternoon. Before we even got to our first store Jason had passed out. He usually does this on our shopping days silly boy. Our first stop was the Co-op for some yummy treats and some medicine stuff for a sick dad and Ava. Then Dutch bros for my large iced Mother's day Kickalater for $3.00! I was pretty excited about that one. Jason got a birthday cake frost, Mmmm. Then Winco for all the main stuff! I love my one on one time with the kids each Sunday.






We baked the cakes Sunday. I always like to bake my cakes the day before to break up the work a bit. Good thing too because we had a lot to do for Jason's dinner night.


Jason found Teddy Grahams while we were shopping and saw these cute snacks on the back of the box and he insisted we make them at home! Aren't these soooo cute?


The look pretty cool!


Putting in the mini chocolate chips... See, I even let him leave them all piled in the middle and not evenly distributed throughout! I am improving!! lol


One thing I have noticed already even just 2 weeks in, is that both kids are very excited and loving during the time we are cooking together. Both of them at one point grabbed and hugged me. We did probably plan a little too much for Jason but he still stuck it out and did the work even when he was ready to be done. Then they were both so proud to serve their food to the family. 



Tada!
 The finished product. Jason was definitely most excited about his cake. HE LOVES CAKE, well he loves any kind of sugar really... but cake is at the top of the list for sure! He could NOT wait to dig in.


We actually scraped out real vanilla bean for the vanilla frosting!



Tucker hanging out with us while we cook and clean.
I LOVE THIS BABY!

                             

He was able to do a lot without my help which is good because he didn't want my help!
"I don't need help". Was something I heard a lot that day.


SO much FOOD!



SUCCESS!
I asked him what he wants to make when it is his turn again and he said "Chicken Enchiladas forever!".


Mmmmmmmm, CAKE!



So glad we have enough leftovers for tonight's dinner. I am ready for a little break from the kitchen after all that!