Cause for a Celebration

Poor little Karsy.  Her birthday hit right smack in the middle of all the moving chaos:(  Of course we still made it special, but I just feel like some things were overlooked that normally wouldn't have been.  Luckily she wasn't phased at all...I guess it's things that only mom notices.  She requested chocolate Pop Tarts for breakfast.  I think my girls ask for these, because any other time I won't buy them.  We were already taking apart beds for the movers, so she had sort of a make-shift bed on the floor (which is where she sleeps 90% of the time anyway:)

Emmrey made her this little sign with messages from all of us....she even hung it on the wall for Kars to enjoy while she ate her breakfast:)

 She opened gifts from her Grampas & Grammas and was delighted with the money and new PJ's she received!! Then it was off to a 2 hour practice for Wyoming Children's Honor Choir with Bailee.  Kars has really matured ...not too long ago she would have really pitched a fit about all of this, but she was a good sport about having to spend part of her birthday at "school" and Bailee made sure they sang to her just like last year.

She also got Friend LEGOS from Emmrey.  These two LOVE to build LEGOS together.

 And an iTunes card from Bailee..

Her big gift was an iPod Touch.  Now we are pretty conservative when it comes to electronics for the girls, but Kars had asked for one half way through the school year and when Mark told her she would have to earn and SAVE (the hardest part for her) some money to put toward one...that is just what she did.  We have never seen her stay so focused and determined to save for something, and it led us to believe that if she wanted one that badly...and it wasn't just a passing phase, maybe we ought to get her one for her birthday.  Needless to say she was thrilled!!

 I asked her several weeks before her birthday how she wanted to celebrate and the only thing she was sure about, is that she wanted to spend the day with her closest buddy Mason. So I planned a Downtown Scavenger Hunt.  They had to find 11 random items in 11 different stores, take a picture with/by item, and complete it by 3:11. Of course, it poured that afternoon:( but we made the best of it anyway!

They had a great time..despite the rainy weather.  I think these 2 could have fun together doing absolutely nothing:)

The original plan was to have the last item be on the miniature golf course where they would them play a game of golf.  However, the weather forced us to make the last stop at the candy store where they picked a treat to go the movies to see EPIC.  Then we all went to dinner...Karsyn's choice...Bubba's:)  This is how the 2 of them looked most of the meal.  Under normal circumstances this would be prohibited, but we cut her some slack since it was her birthday!

We went back home and had Root Beer Floats and chocolate cake pops ( Bailee rescued my "stuck in the pan again...no matter how well I thought I greased it" cake disaster and turned it into cake pops)

She had a great day doing just what she wished for.  Mason had decorated her gift bag with these factoids.  I thought it was pretty darn cute!!

 

Seems like just yesterday we were greeted like this after (or during) naps.  Karsy Lu has brought us 11 years of pure joy!! 

We love you so much little lady:)

Happy Birthday Beans

My brown-eyed girl turned 11 today....where has the time gone?

I love you to the moon Eva Lu!!

Cake Boss

Karsyn has really taken a liking to cooking this past year.  Simple things....especially eggs:)  She also really enjoys Cake Boss and DC Cupcakes along with her little friend Sage.  The 2 of them decided that they wanted to make brownies the other day and Karsy asked if I had a mix (yes, that is typically how we do that sort of thing;)  Well, I had no mix and so they pulled out a recipe and made them from scratch.  They actually did pretty well and Karsy informed me that she may want to open her own bake shop some day:)

End of the Year

The last week of school always becomes so busy!!  It seems like all the fun was crammed into this one week.  Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but it puts all the activities you want to be involved with in the same week...making it crazy!
 So here is a mishmash of pictures from the last week:]

Teacher Gifts

These have become a tradition

Field Day

Emmrey and Hermione

Teacher vs Student Dodge Ball

 One last time in front of the Sunset sign....yes I shed a tear [or two]

Bailee spent a lot of time with these girls:]

  

Last day Awards Celebration....Emmrey got an award for Respect
and Karsyn received the National Physical Fitness Award.

Karsy and Mr. McCarten

Emmrey and Miss Billie Jo (Whitman) who helps Hermione

Emmrey with Mrs. McFadden her long term substitute (and my friend;)

Emm with Mrs. Kleersnyder (who is on maternity leave)

Kindergarten trip to the Humane Society

Emmrey and her Pardner' Lane {this is where the cowboy hat fixation came from}

And finally...Emms lunch box with EVERY note that was sent to her during the year.

 How adorable that she kept everyone.  I would see them in her little pocket every time I made her lunch.  There was no way I was going to throw them out...even when they had "lunch" on the corners.  You can only see about half of them...what a little sweetheart!!

Whew....we made it!!  It was a busy but oh so fun week.  One that was hard to say goodbye to:)

Friendship Fiesta

The end of the school year is always tough for me.  This year it was compounded with the fact that not just the school year was coming to an end:(  I decided that we not only needed a little celebration ...but we needed an excuse to get the girls together with some of their close friends.  I was going to call it a Farewell Fiesta, but went with Friendship Fiesta to make it more of a happy occasion rather than focusing on the sad.

 We kept the food simple with nachos, fruit cups and Churro sundaes.

After they ate, they played some group games the girls came up with like Spud and Human Knot.  Then we did a photo booth of sorts so they could have pictures with friends.  We did a group photo first...

Emmrey's Amigos

Karsyn's Amigos

Bailee's Amigos

Then we also did individual (pair) shots.... We broke out the sombreros and the kids had fun with it!!

And what fiesta would be complete without a pinata?  That was a lot of kids to go through and Mark was giving them 3 swings each.  I decided even the little ones had to be blindfolded.

We barely made it through the line...and that was with some serious spinning and yanking of the rope on Markos part:]  But we did get there ...barely!

It was a fun little get together...the weather was nice so luckily we could hold it outside...since inside is turning a little scary.  I will miss all these kiddos.  They have been so good for our girls in so many ways!!
ADIOS;)

{coming to terms}

Lately our house has been a torn up mess!!  It is making me crazy, but in a different way than it normally would.  I am trying to come to terms with the reality that we really are leaving.  It has been so hard!!  You would think that knowing this was coming all these months would somehow make it easier...but it hasn't.  As it has approached, it has become harder in many ways.  I had a day last week where I cried ALL.DAY. LONG.  I dropped the girls off at school and cried all the way home.  Some friends stopped by to visit and I cried the entire time:(  The girls from church did a surprise going away party that evening for us [me and Bay] and I cried some more. ...whew!!  So the mess is not so much aggravating as it is a sad reminder of what is happening.  It is strange to see your life be packed up in boxes.  It is hard to not become paralyzed with the memories that flood my mind as I clear out a room or closet.

This was Emmrey helping me pack the playroom.  I had things out to sort through and suddenly it turned into play:)

Special O

Bailee just finished her second season with Special Olympics.  She practiced with the team twice a week for about 5 weeks and attended 2 meets this year.  She traveled to Riverton for the Area Meet and the following weekend she went to Laramie for State.  She was a busy busy girl, but she LOVED every minute of it. 

She volunteered with her neighbor/friend/mentor Michaela who is off to UW this fall, and was once again the go to gal for Khari who is pretty attached to Bay.

It is so cute to see her interact with the team.  Coach Sarah commented to me that she and Michaela are a true rarity...it takes a very special personality to work so well with these athletes.  I think Bailee has found one of her callings in life and I could not be more proud of her!!

Our Cody Team did so well, they even made the front page of the sport section:) 

We are already looking into possibilities for her to continue with this when we move:(