Tyson as Salvador Dali

Remember how our buddy Tyson recently had his first paid modeling job in a Bealls ad?  Well, now he has finished his first television commercial!  Check it out :)

Our Buddy Tyson

Remember our little buddy, Tyson?  There's been pictures of him throughout this blog for the past three years.  Here's a picture of him with the girls from our most recent visit with him.

Recently, he had his first paid photo shoot.  We know someone famous :)  If you live in Florida, you may see him in the Beall's ad this weekend.  Check out his picture on their website.   Good job, Ty!

A Day on the Farm

Fun at Tyson's

We were able to visit one of our best friends yesterday. I completely forgot to pull the camera out while Jaxson was there playing with the kids, but did get pictures of Tyson and the girls.

Feeding the fishies.

Remember how scared Ella was of this lion?  This time she couldn't wait to see the lion and climb all over it.  Amazing what a change in three months!

The kiddos played a game of soccer.  Arin was the ball hog *ahem*

Arin helped Ty's grandma plant flowers.

Snacktime!

Group photo ~ this is ALWAYS the biggest challenge!

Thanks Lynn & Tyson for a fun playdate!

Photo Bloopers

We just arrived home from spending close to a week with my parents.  Whenever we go home, we like to get together with my friend, Lynn and her family.  We always try to get pictures of our kids together, which usually doesn't work out so great.  This time, we were taking pictures about seven o'clock at night, on a day that the girls had not napped, due to being out of our normal routine.   Do these make for nice display pictures?  No.  Do they make for a good laugh?  I think so!

We weren't just snapping natural pictures, we were actually trying to get the kids to all look at us and to smile.  I have a new found appreciation for children photographers!   This is the best picture I got of the kids together.  Yeah, it's not that great either.

Lion, Eat Me?

My friend's mom recently acquired a very large marble lion statue.  We had told Arin about the statue a couple of weeks ago and she was anxious to see it.  We were finally able to go to their house for a visit.  Like I said, Arin was very anxious to see this lion, so she kept insisting that we go to it. As I was putting Ella's shoes on her, she kept saying, "Lion, eat me???"  Poor thing had anxiety about the lion before she even saw it!

Arin was thrilled to see (and climb on) the lion.  Ella wanted nothing to do with it and stood a far distance from it.  You can see why, it is massive!  Ella is just a tad shorter than Tyson.

So Many Friends, So Little Time

One great thing about being a stay-at-home mom is when Andrew needs to travel for work, the girls and I get to go too.  Earlier this week, we all headed to Florida.  Andrew had training the first part of the week and the girls and I had a lot of fun catching up with friends that we haven't seen in several months.  It was a short trip, so we booked several activities each day.

First, we met up with a few people from our old playgroup.  The kids were so cute together.  We first met this group when Arin was about 18 months old.  It was so great to see them as we've only seen them once since we moved a year ago!  The kids played awesome together and the mamas had a great time catching up.

Then, we met up with one of my best friends from high school.  Always great to get together with her.  Her son is only six days older than Ella.  He's such a sweetheart - so cute and so smart - makes me want a little boy of my own!

Then, we met up with another friend.  She has a farm which the girls love to visit.  They love seeing and feeding the animals.

Lastly, the girls' Uncle Todd drove up to visit them.  They were so excited to see him.  He suggested we go to Chuck E Cheese, which the girls loved!

We had plans of seeing my sister and her boys, but they got sick and we had plans of seeing my mom (we did get to see my dad), but she was in NY part of the time and on vacation with my dad the other part.  We had such fun with our friends and hope that it isn't another year before we get to see them again.

End of the Season Library Party & Picking Strawberries

Our friends, whom we haven't seen in several months, invited us to a playdate.  First, we went to their library's storytime party.  They have an awesome librarian.  We went to their library one other time and had so much fun!  Storytime has ended for the season, but will return again next school year.  We hope to be more active with that library in the future.  It is much farther to drive, but well worth it.

Today, the librarian had prepared a Mother's Day craft (and snacks) for the kids.  Each child was given a terracotta pot, which they decorated with flowers cut from magazines.  Once they were finished gluing the flowers (they used Mod Podge), each child was given a flower to plant in the pot. 

I helped Ella decorate her pot.  Then, I walked by Arin to see how she was doing.  She told me, "Don't look, Mom!  This is a surprise for Mother's Day.  You just go and relax!"  Of course, I couldn't wait to follow those awesome orders! 

Once we were finished at the library, we went to our friends' house for lunch and playtime.  It was so great to catch up with them.  The first time we went to their house was last year.  Strawberries were just in season and they let the girls pick a few, though they didn't have a lot of strawberries, because it was the first year they had planted them.  This time, the strawberries were back in season and they had quite the bounty of berries.  The girls loved picking them.  They picked and ate the sweet, juicy berries.  They did save a few to take back to the house to wash for a snack.  I cut the tops off and the girls devoured them as quickly as I could set them in front of them.  It was amazing, but I was happy they were enjoying such a delicious, nutrious (they are organic, heirloom strawberries) snack.

End of the Year Party

Tonight was our homeschool group's end of the year party.  It was such a great evening with our friends.  We ate and ate and ate!  We ordered pizza and each family brought a side or a dessert.  There was so much delicious food! 

The kids played and then each child had the opportunity to present something that they had learned this school year.  The kids were precious!  We had little ones reading, reciting memory verses, singing, sharing research papers and so on.  Arin was excited to get in front of everyone, but quickly decided she did not want to talk.  It didn't take her long to warm up to the idea though.  She read words from her heart tiles and she also gave answers to verbal addition and subtraction problems.  As shy as she was at first, she did not want to leave the front of the room and she wanted to know when it'd be her turn again!

Ater each family presented something, all of the kids got together to sing "You've Got a Friend in Me".  They were adorable and seeing them all together brought back memories of when I was a child and I sang in our children's choir at church.  I remembered loving those times and I could tell by the smile on Arin's face that she was also enjoying herself.

We had rented a wonderful facility for the event.  It was right next to a playground, which the children loved!

Shortly after having Arin, while were were still tossing around the idea of homeschool, I decided I would start her in kindergarten at the age of four.  As the years have gone by, I have continued to hold on to that plan.  We agreed that we would start at four and tailor the curriculum to Arin's needs, possibly dragging it out two years (through what would be her official kindergarten year as well).  As I was getting ready for the party today, I realized that I will have a kindergartener this fall!  Most of the time, she seems so mature for her age, yet at the same time, it is so hard to believe (and a little sad) how quickly she is growing up!