Dono's preschool graduation

May 16th was a very important date, Donovan's preschool graduation! He will still be going until late July, but they have the ceremony in May so they can include those kids who don't come to school during the summer. Donovan was very excited about his graduation ceremony. He practiced his songs and told Mimi and no one else about  a "special surprise" (it was a rose for the parents) and was super excited about his tie-dyed shirt they all made for the occasion. They even make their own graduation hats! The ceremony itself only lasted about 10 min and then afterwards we got to go upstairs to his room and visit where they gave us all a memory book the teacher had made for the kids with drawings and pictures and stories from their entire time at the the Berry Patch. Donovan started going there when he was just a tad under 3 so there were some pictures of a little squirt Dono. Very cute. All in all a good ceremony. One for the memory books!

Waiting in line for the ceremony to start. We only got videos of the ceremony so this is as close as you will get to the actual ceremony. Ameilia (wifey) is right behind Donovan

This might be my favorite picture of me and Dono ever. He was giving me a smooch after he gave me a rose. So happy my mother-in-law snapped this!

Dono had a pretty big cheering section. Toms parents and my dad were able to make it (my poor mom was working). I think he was pretty proud.

The happy couple!

Donovan and his teacher this year, Ms. Theresa.

My favorite of all Donovan's teachers, Ms. Carolyn. She made it up to the ceremony even though she had just had her first baby a couple weeks previously. She is a trooper!

Birthday parties

We did something different this year. We usually combine the kids b-day parties and just have one big one here. Now that there are so many kids and they are getting bigger every time we see them, we decided to do a really small family birthday party, with just our immediate family members and my grandparents, and then a kid party at an outside facility. We hadn't done this before because it just always seemed so expensive. But after this year, I don't think we will ever go back to having all the kids here. It was awesome!!

Not only did Donovan and Reese love it, but Tom and I loved it too because all we had to do was write the check. Seriously the easiest thing ever. We had it at Bounce-U and the nice thing is, is that our group gets the playrooms to themselves so no sharing with bratty kids we don't know who's parents are too busy playing on their phone to supervise them.  The party was a success and you can tell by Donovan's sweaty hair in some of these pics that the kids played hard. There were two party assistants that helped the kids play, took care of the cake and singing, and handled all the presents. Like I said, a dream for parents used to doing it all. Instead we just got to enjoy watching the kids and visiting with some of the parents for a little (aka our friends. Why do you think we invite their kids anyway? Just an excuse for the adults to get together).

These pics are in no particular order since the blog jumbled them all up when I downloaded them.  Enjoy!

Sticking their tongues out like true spawn of their father.

See the happy smiles on these parents? Heaven.

This was the whole crew minus Colin man, William, and Charlotte.

Reese and Claire were inseparable. Claire is 5.5 yrs old and wants a little sister (that she ain't getting says her parents) so her mom told her Reese could be her little sister. I think she really took to that because they are always hand in hand or right next to each other these last few times we have hung out together. Reese is pretty brave so she challenges Claire to do some things she normally wouldn't and Claire gives Reese all her too small clothes so it is a beautiful friendship.

See the above sweaty man! That's when you know the party was a winner!

Random things

1) Reese got her first hair cut last month.These are the before pictures. I didn't even bother taking pictures of the "after" as it pretty much looks the exact same, only less scraggly.

She did really well and held perfectly still. When we were walking in I asked her how she was going to ask the lady to cut it and she said, "like a coronation girl." I guess that meant she wanted to look like Princess Anna or Elsa from the movie "Frozen". When we left I asked her if she liked her hair cut and she told me no, because she didn't make her look like a coronation girl. I told her I could try to do that for her, cause I thought all that entailed was a braid and some sort of up do, but then she told me I needed to get ribbon for her hair as well. That sounds way out of my skill set but luckily Reese has a memory of a gerbil and hasn't mentioned this again since that day.

2) Reese is super strong. She told me she can cross the monkey bars at school and I will be damned if she didn't do it! Just got up there and went all the way across like she has been doing it for years. I think she might be part monkey. Below is the pic of her on a vine on mothers day on a hike her and I almost took. My mom's dad took my sister and I on a hike when we were little and I remember him letting us swing on one of these vines and I still remember how happy it made me. So when I saw this vine, I knew what I had to do. Up you go little girl!

3) Donovan has a girlfriend. Like super serious stylie. Her name is Amelia and they met at pre-school. I first learned about her several months ago. She is adorable and blond and I love her because she LOOOOOVES Dono. Like loves, loves. She writes him love notes (see below), calls him "Donnie" (a nickname I HATE but like when she says it as it is too cute), plays well with Reese (sucking up to the future sister-in-law, I like it) and always comes over and says hi to me (sucking up to the future mother-in-law, I LOVE it). They hug goodbye some days and even give each other "kissies". Dono talks about marrying her, and when they move in together, and even has told me that he is not going to let her work on a crabbing boat like on the show "The Deadliest Catch" as it is too dangerous for her. I think they are going to be really sad when they have to say goodbye later this summer :(

4) Dono talks about himself in the third person and I love it. As in "The Dono wants to go to Culvers for dinner." and "Ohhhh, the Dono likes that." It's not all the time, but enough to be funny and not annoying.

5) The other day Lou got out into the garage as the kids and I were getting ready to leave for school/work. I loudly said, "Dammit Lou! Get back here!" To which I hear an angry response from Reese, "Dammit Lou!". I told her that was an adult bad word and that she cannot say that word. She told me very convincingly, "No, I didn't say 'dammit', I said 'JAMmit'" Sure you did sis. Sure you did.

Happy belated third birthday Reese!

So this girl is big stuff now.  Homegirl's birthday was last tues and she had a really good day. She started off waking up with lots of balloons in her room, just like her brother did. She assured me that when it is my birthday, she will blow up lots of balloons and put them in my room. So thoughtful of her.

Then it was off to school where she got to share treats with her friends in her class. She has just recently gotten moved up to the 3 yr old class and seems to have transitioned no problem. Now her teachers are Ms. Kim and Ms. Jackie. Ms. Kim said she was "more than ready" to move up a classroom so that made me feel good. As we walked into school that day kids were telling her "happy birthday" right away. So sweet!

That night she got to pick what she wanted for dinner (she turned down the a favorite McDonalds for food from home in a shocking turn of events). Then she opened her presents, an Ariel and an Aurora dress. Dono had given her some glass slippers that morning so she was all princessed out!

Doing a curtsey.

Reese at three gives us a run for our money. These are a few of my favorite recent Reese stories:
- We had 2 cars at Donovan's baseball game and afterwards the boys left together and the girls left together. I gave Donovan the one water bottle we had for the ride home and Reese was NOT happy about it. She wanted to know why he got it and not her. I told her "Because Donovan was playing really hard, so he needs to drink more than you do."  She replied with an extremely whiney, "But Mom, I was sitting really hard!". I had to ask her what she was saying a couple times before I realized what she was saying. Too funny.

- Reese watching Petey and Lou playing and chasing eachother. "Mom, they're chasing theirchother."

-Tucking her into bed on her birthday I told her I had to go as I was going to do yoga. She then told me she does yoga at her (pre)school too with her friends and that her teacher, Mr. Ian (a very macho- soccery dude) is the teacher of the yoga. I was impressed with his progressiveness and then she showed me some of her yoga moves, which looked like downward dog. Then she told me "Then Mr. Ian says 'orange' and we go like this (indicating moving a hand to another spot). Then Mr. Ian says 'blue' (same thing)". So I said, "Is your yoga called Twister?" Reese: "YEAH!!! That's what our yoga is called!!!" Love her

She is so spicy, confident, funny, pain-in-the butt, sweet, stubborn and wonderful. Happy 3rd birthday to our little boss lady! We love you! 

First baseball game pics

It is the eve of Donovan's second baseball game so I thought I would finally get around to sharing the pictures of his first game. I am fully aware that I have just uploaded WAY too many pictures but this is my blog so I don't care. Look at this little leaguer, he is the best!

Not many of the kids on his team shared his level of concentration so I think he is the real deal. I think I saw cardinals scouts there jotting notes about him too.

And of course, the main cheerleader. She spent most of the time flirting with our old neighbor Trevor but she let us enjoy the game so that was nice.