Day 2 of Summer Vacation

1 box of Legos + 3 boys of varying ages x a little creativity=hours of fun together

PRICELESS

If only they always played together this well..............

Preschool Graduation Day

The big day has arrived.....Aiden's preschool graduation! What a bittersweet moment. The reality of him actually going to kindergarten in the fall has hit. He is not a little guy anymore. 5 1/2 years ago when he was born, I was enjoying all of my little guys, only one being old enough for school. I thought the days of all 3 being in school full time were light years away. Then I blinked and here we are. I'm afraid to go to sleep for fear of waking up and having them be ready to graduate high school and college. It's not just the realization that they are growing up so fast, but also the fact that I will be entering a new phase of my life and it scares me. For the first time in 12 1/2 years, I won't have kids at home with me. I don't know if I like that feeling. Waaaaay back when, I had plans of how things would fall into place once the boys were all in school. Now that the time is here, I'm rethinking things a lot. Thinking about what I want, what works for our family, what will keep our family as a whole the happiest and running smoothly, what is best financially. I had faith that things would fall into place, and slowly they are. I'm starting to see what I will be doing and feeling good about it. I'll fill you in as things progress a little more. :)

So back to today. The kiddos looked so cute dressed up and they put on quite a cute little production for us. I missed the graduation caps that Noah and Drew wore back at their graduation, but that's ok. Aiden even had a line from a poem to memorize and he did it just fine!

I had a hard time getting all the kids in one photo. He had 18 kids in his class this year and they were such a cute, well behaved class. I was impressed.

Singing one of their songs.

Receiving his diploma from Mrs. Steinkamp

Waving the ole diploma at us as he walked out the door. I think he was pretty proud of that!

Enjoying a celebratory snack of cookies and punch.

Big brother Noah got to come down for the ceremony. (Thanks Mrs Benner!)

Grandma Paulette and Grandpa John

Grandma Tunie

Me and my little sunshine. Dad had to dash out to get back to school so I didn't get a picture with him, I was bummed.

Aiden & Mrs Steinkamp--she is an amazing teacher with the most creative ideas. She's earned quite a reputation since she moved back to Quincy to teach here. Both classes for next year are already at capacity with a waiting list for each. That speaks highly of her!

Aiden and Mrs Blickhan--she is the teachers aide and we love her too. Both women are so patient and loving with the children. You can not ask for more!

The outside of the diploma

The "official" document.

He's ready for kindergarten!

It's just hard to explain to him that it will be a full 3 months before he starts! Let's enjoy summer vacation first shall we?? :)

Pictures From Mother's Day

Mother's Day and gorgeous weather....we HAD to take some pictures!

After church we went to Grandma Tunie and Grandpa Ken's house. Todd and his Dad cooked us a DELICIOUS lunch. So much better than trying to fight the crowds somewhere. Todd made me Bourbon Salmon Skewers. Mmmmm, my baby knows me well.

Drew and I out on the deck.

Me and my Mr. Noah
Love this sweet smile on Aiden.

The Cardinal. Drew was all over the backyard taking pictures of him. Had to post one of them for him.

Our best attempt at a group shot.

Grandma Tunie and her Grandboys

Tunie and Her "Babies"

Our last attempt at a group shot.

Then we headed to my mom and dads to visit before my mom headed to work. I'm mad that we forgot to take pictures while the rest of the family was there. I would have loved one with my mom, my 2 brothers and me as well as one with mom and all 7 grandkids. Another time I guess.

Grandma Paulette with my boys (and Maggie who decided to pick that time to stand on the picnic table!)

Me and my Mom (and Maggie once again)

It was a wonderful Mother's Day, my boys were so sweet to me, reminding me once again how awesome it is to have 3 boys that love their mommy. My hubby spoiled me with food and housework. The boys made the cutest gifts for me--I'll need to take some pictures of them. It was a busy and relaxing day.

Mother's Day

These 3 beautiful boys.........

call me MOM!

What better gift could I ever ask for? Last week Aiden kept asking me who my favorite son was. I kept trying to explain that I didn't have a favorite, that I loved each of them for their uniqueness. How could I explain that I love each of them the most? For their similarities, for their differences, for the little things in them that are so special to me, the parts of them that are like me, the parts of them I wish I were like, everything about them.

Even on the hardest days, the ones where they frustrate me to pieces, I would never, EVER exchange the gift of being their mom. I am so incredibly blessed with these three for so many reasons. I love being their Mom.

Roller Hockey

After many attempts, I have decided it's near impossible to get a good picture at roller hockey. Between the constant, quick movement and the terrible lighting, everything is either a blur or dark. I managed to get some usable ones from Drew's last night of hockey. They had a winning season and it was exciting. You wouldn't believe how fun it is to watch 10-13 year olds play roller hockey--very intense!

He wasn't too thrilled to pose for a picture in his gear, so I snapped one really quick.

That's him in the front going towards the puck. I can't believe how far he has come in the 2 years he has played. He has scored almost every week and some weeks, multiple times!

He's the blurry one in the front. Notice the score?? Drew's team is the '6'.

Drew's hockey team.....with their 1st place medals! Woohoo!! So exciting for them!

We're done with hockey until late fall. I know Drew will be anxious to start up again.

Easter Moments

We had a wonderful 5 day Easter break even though the weather didn't cooperate too much. I didn't get all the pics I wanted due to camera mishaps but managed to still capture quite a bit and "borrowed" some too.

Saturday we dyed our Easter eggs. The boys loved using the clear crayon that came with the kit to draw and write on them before coloring them. We even had an egg that looked like a Poke-ball. Imagine that!

Saturday night was the big Klauser family Easter up in Mendon. Grandpa Ken always puts on a big egg hunt for all of the kids. Funny how he didn't start doing that until he had his first grandkid. :) It's only for kids up to age 10 so Mr. Drew was too old again....he helped take pictures though.

Easter morning we had Noah and Drew in our bed before 7am and the 4 of us were lying there waiting for Aiden to wake up! He finally got up at 7 and the boys rushed out to find there baskets and eggs. We only managed 2 not so good pictures of that. Todd and Drew then dressed and headed off to the Vet's Home to meet the other Scouts to help push all the residents in wheelchairs over for mass. I took the younger 2 to mass a little later in the morning and then we all headed to my parents for brunch. They had an egg hunt in the backyard for the kids but my camera battery was dead by then.

Aiden wanted to pose with the tree.

Going for the holy look.

Our attempt at a family photo. :)

My mom and dad with their 7 grandkids. (borrowed from my SIL Beth) I just love this photo!! So special.

The whole Bozarth clan. Maggie even snuck her hairy butt in there. :)

That evening we headed to Todd's parents for dinner and one last egg hunt.

We had a yummy meal over there and then spent most of the evening playing Dance Central on their Xbox Kinect. So cute and so funny watching the boys learn all of these dance moves. They had a blast though.

Back to the real world today but we enjoyed our relaxing 5 day break together. How blessed we are to have our families near to share it with.

Happy Easter

Did you catch the Easter Bunny leaving you goodies?

Our Version of a Jack-in-the-Box

Catching Up.....again

I feel like life is always about trying to catch up.....I'm doing good to just hang on for the ride. This is just a smidge of what we've been up to the last few weeks. The boys had Art Night at school in March. Each grade focused on one particular artist and tried to create art similar to the artist. The preschoolers learned about Picasso. The face on the left below is Aiden's recreation of a Picasso. Not too shabby. We also had the yearly Pinewood Derby race for Scouts. Noah made his car to look like an orange popsicle. Pretty cute idea I have to say and he got 1st in his age group. Another kid in his group actually beat him but he got 4th place out of all the age groups so Noah got the 1st in in his age group. Confusing for little ole me.

I've posted about Drew's birthday and the birth of his "birthday buddy", cousin Luke but I realized I hadn't posted any pics from his bday party a couple of days prior. Drew is a hockey fanatic and loves the St Louis Blues so Todd made him a "St Louis Drews" cake.

Love the expression. I can just hear him saying "Don't you dare take a picture". He should know me well enough that I'm going to take pictures anyway. :)

His brothers and cousins made him a birthday card. So sweet.

That night we got to watch the cousins for awhile. This is how I like to watch a movie. 7 of us cuddled on the couch watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. (and watching Drew play Pokemon on his Dsi)

Drew opening his Electronic Arm from us. He built the arm all by himself and it has a controller he uses to move it and pick things up. I think I have a future engineer on my hands. He loves building and creating and he's all about the electronics and solar power lately.

This past weekend I attended a Mary Kay Career Conference in St Louis with some of the other ladies in my unit. We had a lot of fun and learned sooo much! It was a VERY inspiring 24 hours. (sorry the pic is blurry, it was the only group shot I got)

Sunday night Todd and I met up with some friends and saw Bret Michaels in concer for the 2nd time in 6 months. It was a great concert once again and Bret told the audience he loves it here so much that he wants to come back in late fall, early winter for another concert. Woohoo. I am there!

Aiden has been the one with a large social calendar lately. He's had 3 birthday parties in 3 weeks and has another one coming up in another week. Here he is at Gem City gymnastics. Those preschoolers had a ball there and loved that big foam pit. Aiden would run and jump into it doing a "cannonball". My little wild man.

Looking forward to the hot weather coming this weekend. I have to work then meeting the family out at the cabing. I can't wait to get pictures of all of the kids out there.