Ramblings of a Grandmother: Two Birthdays, Three Field Trips and Two Graduations

I can't believe it is ~~the end of June~~ July and I never blogged about May. YIKES

The schools here have a Patriot Program

Depending on the students age

they have a checklist of things to do to qualify

as a Patriot.

Jennifer and I both volunteered to work

with students in the half hour before school.

Proud to say Ella, Sami and Jack all

completed the program

which qualified them to go on a field trip to

Ft. McHenry where Francis Scott Key wrote

what we now know as our National Anthem

Of course Jennifer and I went along.

We unfolded and then refolded this huge flag

Our two groups

It wore Ella out!

Can't leave our littlest one out.

She is small for her age and slept swaddled

which meant she was in the cradle for a long time

We had to move her to a pack n play in June

I do think this is her favorite place to nap though

On to the birthdays

Miss A and I have birthdays a week apart

So, while we were at the beach

celebrating my worship Mom week end

we celebrated hers too

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On the way we passed a little petting zoo.
She is so enamored of animals
Any animals

These are the outfits I got for the kids for our ocean picture this year.
Shawn and I had the kids while The photo shoot was getting set up.
Looking forward to seeing those, THOMAS.

Another first for her. She called it the big water.

Boardwalk Fries

The rides at the boardwalk are still a favorite thing of all of us
even though they are starting to outgrow them.
This year Charlie and Michele decided to stay for the entire week.
Their first real vacation as a family.
Of course Jen and I and three kids stayed with them.

Our girls, They are 5, 4 and 4 in this picture
By the end of June they will be 6, 4 and 5

Before they made it to the beach Charlie and Michele
took a detour to a Farmer's Market for fruit and veggies for the week

Now that we all live in Maryland

you wouldn't think it would be special for the cousins to see each other

There is just something about hanging around in the evenings and

then waking all up together.

It makes my heart swell to see how our big kids love our Miss A
So proud of them all

and how the cousins all love each other

Of course the beach, by far, is everyone's favorite.

Almost everyone's. It makes PaPa a nervous wreck

And now she is three

Ella will be 11 in a couple of weeks.

We got a chance to go to the outlets

and I got her some new Cons

You may notice she doesn't have on her glasses.
She asked Aunt Nenni (Jen) to hold them for her at the beach.
When Jen went in the ocean she forgot she still had them on her head
until the waves swept them away.

"There is sand in my sandwich"

The Candy Kitchen

PUTT PUTT

The Girls

Pizza Hut Buffet

One of Papa's favorite things

Painting nails

Even in the rain we had fun

High Hand Touch (Give me five)
Great time at the movie

Making our own pizza

We stopped at the Candy Kitchen on our way out

The car was packed to the brim for the ride home.
Good thing we are only 1 1/2 hours away

Exhausted after a busy week

The fourth grade went to DC on their field trip
and Jennifer was picked to go with them

She gets tired so easy.
Good thing Aunt Nenni was there to make sure she took breaks

Love when I get a morning with my redheads

Then it was my turn to go on a field trip.
Back to the library but thus time with Sami

Then we walked over to the park for lunch and play time before going back to school

Lily didn't have a graduation but a closing program with poems, songs and dances

where they showed us all that they had learned.

She'll be in Kindergarten next year. She recognizes all her letters both upper and lower case.

She counts to 30, can zip, knows 12 shapes and all her basic colors.

These two are from the first day of school.

She hasn't grown much so she could wear the same dress
that Mommy made for her

Sami had a graduation where they crossed the bridge to First Grade

Jack, along with all the other First Graders was there to welcome the kindergarteners over.
Good for us. Ella was able to be there too and Daddy was the official school photographer
for the event. On a side note Wyatt finished Kindergarten in another school and did not have any kind of ceremony.