End of School Activities, Grandpa E, a Pig, and More

Our May turned into it's own version of December. Whew! When May finally wrapped up I felt like we had run a marathon race. It seemed we had an event, celebration, visitor, trip, etc. every few days during the month. Here are the highlights from our very busy month of May. It was a whirlwind but lots of fun!

End of the Year Awards for AWANA

Eli was in Sparks this year and loved it. 

My 4th grade class had a special visitor, Louie the Pig. 

Backseat riding in the back of Daddy's Jeep with this cutie

"Take a picture of me, Mommy!" 

Eli chose this picture location while we waited for supper one night. 

Grandpa E came to visit for a few days. 

We loved getting to spend time with him. 

We went to our favorite hiking spot with Grandpa E.

We loved getting to show him the waterfalls. 

Treats I made for Eli's friends on the last day of school.

Ready to pass out his treats. 

I pulled up all my pansies and snapdragons so I could plant my summer annuals. 

I selected a few to put in a vase on our table. 

Left: Eli on the first day of Kindergarten.

Right: Eli on the last day of Kindergarten.

It was such a fabulous year for my little guy. He grew academically and stretched his reading skills. He was one of two kids in his class who was able to start Accelerated Reading in Kindergarten this year-normally the kids don't start it until First Grade. His handwriting and sentence writing improved a lot! I loved reading through his journal he brought home and seeing how much he progressed every week with his writing. He began taking spelling tests and passing them with flying colors. In math, he started addition and subtraction and did most of it mentally. We were super proud of all his accomplishments. Not only did he grow academically, but he grew physically as well! He lost four teeth in Kindergarten this year! Next year he'll start First Grade with some big grown-up teeth :) All in all, it was such a great year for Eli. His teacher and aide were just precious and took great care of Eli all day, every day. We loved having them!

Last day of school for Eli. 

Girl's Night Out with some of my favorite people in the world. 

The students' last day of school was Thursday, May 21st, and that morning each class had their end of the year programs. Eli's class performed a "Zoosical" and each kid had to dress up like a different animal. Eli was a snake and Cooper was a tiger. Finding a snake costume was not easy at all so we did the best we could being it was the end of May and Mommy was DONE. He was a rare blue diamond rattlesnake and he loved it :) That's all the matters!

Cooper and Eli developed such a sweet friendship this year. 

Sarah and I loved watching the two of them together. Sweet boys!

Zue-Zue came to watch Eli's program and he went home with her afterwards.

They had a great time!

Friday, May 22nd was the last day for teachers. Our day consisted of getting all our furniture off the floor,  covering everything for the summer, and completing all our end of the year records. It always amazes me that in a matter of minutes I can dismantle a room that took me weeks at the beginning of the year to put in order. Such is the life of a teacher. I'm sure it'll take me the better part of two weeks to put everything back the way it was when summer is over.  

On our way out the door on our last day, Sarah and I took one last picture. What an incredible, amazing, blessed, and wonderful year it was for both of us in Fourth Grade. The entire year flew by so quickly and I can't believe our first year in Fourth Grade is over. I am so thankful that I had this chick by my side and we were able to wade through the waters of Fourth Grade together. Both of us are still amazed how we ended up together again, but I know it was definitely meant to be. I'm looking forward to many more years with her as my teaching partner :)

Sarah and I left school, had lunch downtown, and then did a little shopping before parting ways. Eli was having a Mammy day so I stopped by the library real quick before going to get him. Summer for me means reading and I was so excited to get started! 

That was our May in a nutshell. Lots of activities, lots of memories, and lots of fun. Now we're looking forward to all the fun that summer brings!

A Hiking We Will Go

One Sunday afternoon we were sitting at the house with no plans for the rest of the day when I suggested we go hiking.  Recently several of my friends from work had driven to this place in Mississippi called Clark's Creek and had a fun time hiking and looking at waterfalls. Yes, you read that correctly...waterfalls! Now granted they weren't anything like you would find in the Smoky Mountains but they were decent size for this area! It didn't take long to convince Eli and eventually Josh, so we loaded the car up with our hiking gear and headed to Clark's Creek. It was a good little drive for us from our house, but it was perfect for a day trip. 

We parked the car, paid the $3 fee in the Honor Box, and set out on our hike. We were ready to see some waterfalls! It always amazes me when we go to Mississippi how hilly and beautiful it is and Louisiana is just so flat. The woods inside the park were beautiful!

The trails had a lot of steep inclines and I was a little worried about having Eli with us-I was scared he might get tired-but his little legs were troopers. It was a great learning opportunity for him on how to judge where to step and about taking his time. Before too long, we found the creek that would lead us to our first waterfall. 

The primitive trail that had you follow the creek bed was going to take about 4 hours if you did the entire thing. It also mentioned that it was for more experienced hikers. If it had just been Josh and me I would have done that, but since we had Eli with us we stuck to the regular trail and just followed the sound of water. I told Josh I want the two of us to go back soon so we can explore the primitive trail. I think it'd be fun to follow the creek bed through the park. 

We found the first waterfall and I took a picture of Josh and Eli at the top of it. Then we walked down the stairs near the falls, took our shoes off, and played in the water for a little bit. I could have stayed there the entire time. It was so beautiful and peaceful!

Our feet were already wet so we decided to follow the creek for a little bit and see where it led us. 

It led us to the second waterfall with quite a large drop-off. We took a picture at the top of it and then climbed the stairs nearby and got back on the trail. 

That green speck down there is someone on the primitive trail climbing over the boulders. 

Definitely not something I want my 5 year old doing!

According to the map of the park there were several trees in the park that were over 100 years old. They weren't exactly marked but I'm pretty sure I found at least two of them. Their trunks were huge and they were so tall. It renewed my desire to go see the trees in the Redwood Forest one day! 

We could have stayed longer, but my littlest hiker was getting tired by this point. We'd probably spent close to 3 hours exploring and we still had a long drive home. We found a comfy swing with a gorgeous view to rest for a little bit before hiking the rest of the way back to the truck. We had lots of fun and will definitely come back again!  

Great Smoky National Park Hiking Trip

Back in the fall, Josh and his friend, Beaux, planned a hiking/camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. They both love hiking, if you can even call it hiking. What they do is like hiking on steroids. It's more like hiking up extremely steep trails with a 50 lb. backpack for 10 miles a day, eating meals from a pouch, and sleeping in a tent for a week. Who wants to go on the next trip? :) They started planning their trip back in the summer and by fall they had everything arranged. Josh was really looking forward to it and couldn't wait to go. Then the unthinkable happened. The exact week they were supposed to leave our wonderful government decided to shut down. I mean, what are the odds? Josh and Beaux were so upset. They thought about changing their plans and hiking in different state parks instead of the national park, but they both knew it wasn't what they really wanted. They ended up just waiting to see if the government would reopen. It took awhile, but everything FINALLY worked out and they were able to go. Josh came back with some amazing pictures that Beaux took and I just had to share them. Some of them look like they came right out of a magazine. 

My husband made it back home safe and sound and in one piece. He said it was a very tough hiking trip, but the views were amazing. I'm so glad he gets to go on these trips that he enjoys. Maybe on the next one I can tag along :)