Hope's last day of school, and field day!!

We had a big day today!!

First of all, Hope had her last day of school today!! My big girl has taken to school beautifully, she just L-O-V-E-S school. She actually cried when she realized she wouldn't be going back for a while, I know that come August she will be chomping to get back.

Here she is first day.......

And her last day......Gotta love these glasses ;)



I was wearing her out with pictures. She told me to "stop it, I'm ready to go." :-)And Pierce had field day today at school.

HOLY MOLY it was HOT. I volunteered, and helped with kids of all grades, and in between breaks I would go find Pierce's class and take obscene amounts of pictures. That's what I do.
First up was a transfer water game....
Object was to fill up buckets with water by transferring from one kid to the other.
Pierce said this was his favorite :-)
Sack races!!
He fell down a few times. That jumping in a sack is hard work!!
We took a little shade break to cool off, and we started talking about what they were doing next. I told him, "I think you'll be doing tug of war"
And by golly, he broke into push ups. HA HA!!! Developing his upper body strength so he could destroy the competition ;)
It's pretty cute to see all these little kindergartners giving it all they have!!
Pierce was digging deep.
They actually won the first two, and then they had to compete against the other winning team.
Even the teachers got in on it :)

By the time they finished with tug of war, they were WIPED OUT.
One last water break, and then I had to leave. It's been fun having these experiences with Pierce, it makes the whole 'sending your child away' more bearable. However, I am really looking forward to having them both home with me for the next couple months :-)

A seriously good start to our Memorial weekend :)

This is the weekend that officially kicks off summer, and we are enjoying it! I am really looking forward to summer break with the kids, I'm not a huge fan of summer heat (yes, I know that makes me strange) but I love summer for the kids. Swimming, staying up late, ice cream, bare feet, you know all those things you look back on with fond memories :) Anyways, we've been having some fun this weekend.....

We took the kids Friday to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Paul and I love the first one, it along with Tangled are my very favorite. Seriously, there were a couple times that I laughed so hard I thought I would cry, and the kids enjoyed it too ;)

We also decided we would take the time to get Pierce riding without his training wheels. He could have mastered this sooner, but we just needed the time to work with him ;) Daddy did lots of coaching, and I was cheering him on....

Within a couple minutes he was a champ!!!
He had a few spills, but we had him padded up like an NFL player, so all was well.

My big boy finishes up kindergarten this week......time is not my friend. :(

So, the other big thing this weekend???

Look who came for a visit!!! Yea!!! It was so nice to have some time to hang out with my BFF and do what we do best :) Shop and eat of course. We started with a yummy Mexican lunch and celebrated her birthday :) And thank you Paul, for keeping the kids so we could have some grown up time!!
I showed Tracey around Bowling Green, of course taking her to some places we could shop....or just browse.....
I myself had never been to these two places, cute stuff!!
We shopped all.day.long. We even bought matching sunglasses, because we can do that now since we don't live in the same city ;)
AND THEN WE CAME ACROSS THIS SALE. Oh my word!! At Gymboree this weekend everything was 12.99 or under, did you hear that?? EVERYTHING WAS 12.99 OR UNDER. We both went into crazy mode. Tracey pushed me out of the way, I returned a pair of shoes just so I could use more money, it was shopping at it's finest. After we finished our pillaging, we lost our mojo, we had such a mad high from this sale that the only thing left we could do.....
Was eat of course :)
And I also made sure Tracey experienced a Gigi cupcake :) We actually split this one, oh HEAVEN.
Last picture before Tracey headed home...... Did you know that Tracey is friends with an Asian girl? Yes, that's me part Asian. Seriously, every time I eat too much rich food with a lot of salt I wake up the next day Asian.
Thank you Tracey for coming to BG to spend some time with me :) Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!!!

Hi, my name is Gretchen, I am directionally challenged.

To say that I am directionally challenged, is a nice way to put it. Anyone that knows me well, knows I am inept with direction, it's just a plain old fact about me, and it stinks. It's always slightly embarrassing too when new people have to learn this fact about me.

Brittany, a friend of mine here in BG (we both go to Jazz and same church) has asked me if I would like to do a BOOT CAMP with her (like outside, running sprints, planks, old school stuff) and I'm up for the challenge so I agree. I arise at 5:15 in the morning, slap on a hat, a little lip gloss (because I'm vain like that) and head out to meet her. After driving around for like 25 minutes, it dawns on me that I have no clue where I'm going, my pits start to sweat, and I realize I have to break it down to Brittany, that I wont be showing up. I could go on and on with stories such as today ;)

So tonight, I load up the kids and say "let's go to a new park" I was sure I would find it tonight so a repeat doesn't happen on Thursday. Of course I took my camera, so I thought I would share my cute kids....:)

Please pray for me that I survive boot camp!!! ;)

'Dreaming of Summer'

I'm dreaming of warm sandy beaches.

I'm dreaming of days by the pool.

I'm dreaming of fun in the afternoon,

and week after week of no school.I'm thinking of swimsuits and sprinklers,

imagining lemonade stands.I'm lost in a daydream of squirt guns and ice cream,

and plenty of time on my hands.
I'm picturing baseball and hot dogs,

envisioning games at the park,and how it stays light until late every night,

and it seems like it never gets dark.--Kenn Nesbitt

New camera and the zoo.

I've been wanting a new camera for a long time, actually I want two cameras. I wanted a new small pocket camera, and eventually I want to get a fancy shmancy one. This week I got point and shoot Canon, and been acting like a regular paparazzi. I take an obnoxious amount of pictures anyways, but trying to learn all the bells and whistles takes it to a whole new level ;) I love it!!! :)

Take a look at my (usually) cooperative subjects.

The colors on this camera are just so much better!!



Actually I spared you MANY of the pictures, but you know that's not the end, right?? We decided to take the kids back to the zoo today since Paul would be home for the day. It was a hot day, and SOOOO crowded, but we still had a good time. The main reason my kids love the Nashville Zoo is for this right here.....It really is an impressive playground, and after getting extremely hot, little man was ready to cool off :-)
And yes, normally I would not add many pics of the animals, for two reasons...1) My previous camera didn't zoom in very well and 2) I would rather bore you with my children. BUT since my camera is new and all I just had to go overboard ;)
Daddy was sweet and went with Hope today :-)
My sweet babes, with their binoculars.


Hope's favorite animal, of course because it's pink :-)


And just to prove that I still exist.