The Steeds: June 2013

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Preschool Graduation

Andrew and I finished off our preschool year the last week of May. To commemorate the occasion we had a graduation ceremony and party the last day. Since I was leading things, I didn't get any pictures of the ceremony with their cute homemade grad hats and performing their songs and pledge. But I got a picture of the puppets we used for our puppet show, Snow White and the Seven Preschoolers. Snow White is my co-teacher, Jennifer, and the handsome prince is her husband, Bishop Anderson. Guess who's the evil queen?

Snow White and the Seven Preschoolers

"Once there was a beautiful Princess. She was the fairest in all the land. But the evil queen was jealous of her kindness and beauty and banished her from the castle. Out in the wilderness of Cedar Park the princess met seven small but kind preschoolers: Emme, Andrew, Carson, Claire, Reese, Riley, and Benson. The preschoolers took her in and taught her how to build and imagine and dance and the princess taught them how to share and read and count.The preschoolers loved the princess. They gave her hugs and made her fantastic crafts and the princess was grateful and gave the preschoolers stickers and snacks.

But one day the evil queen found the princess and was even more jealous to find her surrounded and adored by the cute little people. She put a potion in some brownies and left them for the princess. The princess fell into a deep sleep and the preschoolers were sad (both because they missed the princess and because they wanted some brownies). They built her a fantastic block case so they could still look upon her smiling face. One day a handsome prince found the princess and woke her with the kiss of true love. The preschoolers cheered up the queen and invited her to play and taught her the Golden Rule and they all lived happily ever after."

Then it was party time. We headed to the backyard for some water games,

snow cones,

car racing

swingset fun

and turning the mini pool into a mudbath

I miss this cute little class. We had a fun year.

Sleeper

Emma sleeps weird but I'm just glad she sleeps. She used to be my insomniac that would be in bed but would stay awake super late thinking about stories, relatives she was excited to see, upcoming holidays, school, friends, and so on and so forth. She could never turn her brain to rest mode. So if these crazy positions help her sleep, so be it.

Sweet Boys

My sweet little boys. This is why I love taking pictures, I can capture these sweet moments and look back on them again and again so when the kids are screaming and fighting , I can look at these happy pictures and remember why I love being a mom and that I do indeed love my little terrorists. But pictures are also therapeutic when the reverse of these pictures is going on. When I walk into a room and the whirlwind of destruction that is my children has come through that room before me and Andrew, half-naked and covered in marker is standing there, I can grab a camera before I loose my cool and capture that moment as well because I can see amidst my rage, humor in that scene that I may or may not be able to laugh at right then but at least be able to view the situation as something that I can and will be able to laugh at. Like the time Andrew cut my hair, I thought "this will be something to write about" and through my horror I saw humor and a story to tell for years to come. If it weren't for cameras and blogs, Andrew may no longer be with us.

Heritage Festival

Back in April we went to the Hertiage Festival over at Milburn Park. We really lucked out moving so close to a park that holds so many community activities and events. It's got a fun playscape, a pool where we've done swim lessons, holds free outdoor movie nights several times a year where we just walk over with a wagon full of blankets and pillows and enjoy some fun family time, they have concerts, 4th of July fireworks, and other fun events like this Heritage Festival. Sometimes the biggest thing that stops me from going to do fun things with my kids is the logistics of getting to a place (directions, how long it takes getting there, parking) so I love having this stuff just around the corner from us.

The kids toured the firetruck and met the firefighters. We had just come from Weston's baseball tournament that afternoon, go Nationals!

Then we headed to the petting zoo. It's a small, temporary set-up but they had goats, sheep, mules, tortoise, a camel, a zebra, and a little kangaroo (in his own seperate cage). My kids really like petting zoos and animals in general.

Emma, my little animal rights activist, saving the world from goat-hefting toddlers

Maisy joined us.

Pony ride

Bounce houses and slides there too. This is after we found lost Andrew who headed in a different direction to another bouncy structure and we spent a good 10 minutes searching the crowds for the little wanderer.

Yee-haw!

Miss Maisy

Sometimes (but not often enough) I babysit my niece, Maisy. She's cute and fun and we all adore the little munchkin. I love seeing my children taking sweet care of her. And her and Andrew are a hoot.