School's Out for Summer...

It's official - Quinn and Sullivan are done with school and summer has begun!  Friday marked the end of the year and no year would be complete without pictures to commemorate the event!

Here are the most recent Kindergarten graduate with her third grade graduate sister!

Seems like it was just yesterday when we were taking this "first day" picture...

And loading them all onto the bus...

Here is a "first day" of school picture of Quinn...

Notice no glasses at the start of the year.  I hardly remember Quinn without them!  

And her "last day" of third grade picture....

Next year, she will be the oldest in her school.  

Fourth grade just sounds so old - when did she grow up so fast?!

Here is a "first day" of Kindergarten picture of Sullivan...

And her "last day" of Kindergarten picture...

Boy, oh boy, has she changed.  Not only in appearance and academically, but in spirit too.  She entered Kindergarten apprehensive and a bit scared.  But in time, Sullivan has done a complete 180 and is the social butterfly of her classroom.  

She had a dear, sweet, extremely patient teacher this year!  

Here is Sullivan with her teacher, Miss Williams on one of the last days of school...

We will be forever grateful to Miss Williams for all the love and support she has given Sullivan Grace this year.  

Sadly, we didn't get a picture with Quinn with her teacher at the end of the year.  Mrs. Head went on maternity leave about a month ago.  But we are forever grateful for Mrs. Head as well.  Her dedication, expertise, and kind spirit didn't go unrecognized!  She played a huge part in Quinn adjusting so fast and so well to her new school and for that we are eternally grateful to her!  

I have a feeling that we will blink and the summer will be over.  The start of a new school year will begin and then we will be looking back at these pictures saying, "Remember when?"  

Memorial Day Weekend...

Memorial Day itself was pretty low key around here.  The girls didn't have school so we played outside and hung around the house.  But the weekend itself was plum full of fun events.

Ryan was out of town last week and didn't get home until late Saturday night.  So Saturday day the girls and I stumbled upon a miniature golf/arcade place just down the street from our house.

Sullivan had never played before and it was quite apparent after her first swing that 18 holes of golf might be about 17 holes too many!  This was evidenced by her grip in the picture!

The first hole was a bit rocky until she got the swing of things and learned to control the club a bit.  But after the first hole, all was pretty smooth sailing! Quinn was an old pro!

The girls had a blast on the course and it wasn't busy at all so we could take our time and redo some of the shots that we wanted to without holding anyone up!

After playing golf, we headed inside to the arcade (sadly no pictures) to play games.  It was a mini version of Chuck E. Cheese, but again without the crowds.  It is the girls' new favorite place.  Mine too if I don't have to go to Chuck E. Cheese ever again!  They asked the second we got in the car, "When can we bring Daddy back here?"

Score one for us.  

Our neighborhood pool opened on Saturday.  While the weather outside on Saturday was beautiful, the week prior to it had not been.  Which meant I knew the pool water was going to be FREEZING!  Sullivan and Quinn begged to go swimming.  I tried hard to explain that the water was not going to be comfortable to swim in - that they wouldn't want to go swimming for long. But after hearing them beg for far too long, I realized the only way they were going to comprehend what I was saying was to experience it first hand!  So off we went....

Turns out Mom knows best.  The water was FREEZING - like Polar Bear Plunge freezing.  Like Ice Bucket Challenge freezing.  Like ice bath, hypothermia freezing.  The girls swam for a few minutes, then spent a lot of time sitting out in the sun to warm up.  But they were by a pool on a hot, sunny day.  They were in heaven.  Again, they asked, "When can we bring Daddy back here?  Tomorrow?"

Score another one for us!  

After sitting in the sun all afternoon, we worked up an appetite.  We had pizza for supper - because why not!?  The girls asked to have a picnic in the living room so they could watch TV while eating.  To carry on the fun-filled girls weekend, I couldn't say no.  They had a blast having a picnic.  Not sure why, but I guess that doesn't matter!

Score again!

 

Baseball...

After the whole softball/baseball fiasco and not getting Quinn signed up for the right group, I was worried that Quinn was going to have a miserable season.  After all, it is hard to be the only girl on an all boys baseball team.

 Here she is practicing in the middle of the field with her teammates.  Kind of hard to pick her out - but she is the one in all the colorful clothing (blue pants)!!!

Quinn has quickly adapted to the team and is definitely holding her own out there She hit 4 "home runs" in the home run derby last week.  Of five pitches sent her way, four of them ended up in the outfield.  So.incredibly.proud.of.that.girl!!!

She got her jersey the other night and is now a VERY proud Cubs player!  Player #2 - Quinn McKenna!

Doesn't she look adorable?!?!   

She is enjoying baseball so much that she is actually bummed that it was cancelled on Memorial Day!  So overjoyed at her stick-to-it attitude!!  

Fun with Flags

Nana told the girls that while she was here that she would get them a small gift.  The girls had both initially been set on getting a plush craft pillow from a local toy store.  But plans abruptly changed, especially for Sullivan, when we visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

While at IMS, the girls visited the gift shop to look for a keychain or a pin or something small from Ryan and I.  But Sullivan fell.in.love with a set of miniature flags.  The flags are a replica of what is used on the track (checkered flag, caution flag, etc).  

When Sullivan asked to have them, her mother told her no.  When Sullivan asked her father for them, the answer was the same.  No.  BUT when a sad little Sullivan had a couple of silent tears stream down her face, her Nana couldn't take it!  Nana told her that she would buy the flags, but that would be her one gift from Nana. 

Sullivan instantly perked up and the frown disappeared.  I tried to clarify again, that she wouldn't be getting anything more from Nana, even if we went to a toy store or somewhere else to get Quinn something.  She understood.  She was good with it.  Those flags were going to be hers!

And hers they became!

Sullivan had an absolute blast with the flags, cracking them out of their package the second we got in the car and playing with them.  Her excitement with the flags reminded me of another person who had a fascination with flags...

Anyone who has watched Big Bang Theory on TV knows how quirky and obsessive Sheldon can be.  Sheldon had a stint where he recorded several episodes of Sheldon Cooper presents Fun with Flags. His fascination with flags was amusing - almost as amusing as Sullivan playing with Indy race car flags!

Sullivan's obsession made me think of that, and who knows if Sullivan will create her own flag show.  Stay posted... you never know!  "Fun with Flags by Sullivan P." just might happen.

On a side note, Quinn went to Barnes and Noble to get a book for Nana's gift.  There MAY have been a WEE bit of buyer's remorse on Sullivan's part.  She was more than sad that she wasn't able to get a book.  

But I give Nana all the credit in the whole world for sticking to her guns, because it KILLED her to see Sullivan so sad!  Killed her.  The sadness only lasted a short while though and Sullivan is back to loving her flags again!  

A Terrific Visit...

This past week, Nana and Papa made a visit out to Indy to see us!  Nana knew that the girls had started their spring sports and she wanted to see them play.  

So shortly after arriving, we headed to the baseball field to watch Quinn.  It was Quinn's first night at what I thought was supposed to be softball.  Turns out she is playing baseball.  Long story. 

That said, she was the only girl on her team.  Their are a couple of other girls, but they are not on her team.  She was disappointed at first to be the only girl, but got over it pretty quickly when she saw that she had just as many skills as the boys did!

The happy spectators...

The following night Sullivan was supposed to have soccer.  Their soccer team had a special event that night though where they played 'foot golf" at the local golf course.  Essentially, it is a cross between soccer and golf!  

Before the game...

We walked the course and Quinn even got the chance to play with Sullivan's teammates.  

Foot golf was a lot of fun for them!  

On Friday we made our way to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway...

There were practice sessions going on for the upcoming Indy 500 next weekend.  It was a lot of fun to watch them race around the track - and really quite amazing to see their speeds exceed 230 mph.  Craziness.

It goes without saying that Nana was in heaven at the track!  She really enjoyed it!

The girls also enjoyed being at the track.  They had never seen anything like it before and it took a little getting used to the LOUD noise of the race cars.  They were good sports throughout the whole afternoon, but were often seen doing this....

Who can blame them?!

On Saturday we had every intention to make it to the zoo.  We even loaded up the car and headed that way.  There were dark clouds in the sky hanging over us, but Ryan was insistent that they "might break up."  Turns out that they didn't!  At all.  

So we put Plan B into action and headed to a nearby movie theater to see Home - an animated movie about a group of aliens taking over Earth.  We hadn't been to this particular movie theater before and were taken aback when we walked in.  

Each seat was a recliner.  Like an actual full fledged recliner.  Super duper fancy and super duper comfy.  

So comfy that Nana and I just might have dozed off for a minute or two!

As usual, it was terrific to see Nana and Papa.  We are so thankful that they were willing to make the trip out here to spend time with us!  

Flashback Friday...

The weather is getting nicer out here,the sun is shining and life is good!  The girls and I planted our flower pots about a week ago and we are now enjoying the beauty of our gorgeous flowers.

Here are some flashback moments from a previous flower planting adventure (circa May 2012)...

 How doesn't just love these beautiful smiles...?! Love those babies of mine so much.

 I just love this time of year and so enjoy planting flowers with the girls - a yearly tradition that is sacred to me!

Bird Watching...

My neighbor friend, Cheryl, had surgery this past week. My other neighbor Jen and  went to visit her one afternoon after she got out of the hospital.  And because all of our kids love Ms. Cheryl as much as we do, they were insistent they come along to see how she was doing.

When we were getting ready to leave, Mr. Matt (Cheryl's husband) was talking to the kids about the bird's nest right above their front door.  He explained to the kids that the babies were about to take their first flight.  Jokingly, he told the kids that they needed to army crawl across his yard to get close enough to watch the action without the mama bird noticing.  We all laughed and that was that.

Jen and I got busy talking as we walked back to our houses and turned around to find that we had lost the kids.  Sure enough, we found all four of them like this...

Yep. They were all army crawling all the way across Ms. Cheryl and Mr. Matt's front yard.  They were going to see those birds take their first flight if it killed them!

A Sign of Summer

We have been blessed with summer-like weather for the past week or so. The shorts have been unpacked, coats packed up and the sunscreen has been definitely need on a few days. Glory hallelujah!

The neighborhood girls, mine included, were set on having a lemonade stand this weekend. The only problem was no one had any lemonade to sell. Slight problem. 

Sullivan, the problem solver she is, scoured our pantry for "something to sell to the (invisible) people."

So with Kool-aid packets in hand and a pitcher of water, the business was formed! The neighbors pitched in popsicles too and with that the business expanded. That's how it happens, folks!

Setting up for the big sale...

The neighborhood entrepreneurs... 

L to R:  Avery, Sullivan, Quinn, Savannah, Landree, and Carly

There was not a lot of foot traffic on our block, but that didn't deter these determined girls! Some rode around on their bikes attempting to round people up. The sweet FedEx guy stopped to help the girls out. Such a kind man.

There was even a teaser on their sign to lure people in...

"Pet the puppy for free!!" 

These girls' spirits were not broken, despite the unfavorable turn-out. They are already talking about next time and what they are going to sell!