End of the Year Awards & Field Day

Our girls all received the blue patch for the physical fitness awards.  This was Emily's first year receiving a blue patch and she was super excited!  Rachel was the only girl in 1st grade to get the blue patch and Caitlin got the blue every year except kdg and 1st.  Emily and Caitlin also picked up some reading awards.  In the entire school, Caitlin was the 2nd highest reader and Emily was the 8th highest.  Both the girls LOVE to read and this year Emily really stretched herself by reading some pretty big books.  It was fun to see all of them reach the goals the set for themselves both in academics and physical fitness.  Very proud of them!!

Field day was cool and very windy.  I brought Natalie and Lauren up to watch the girls but it was difficult to take pictures of them and hold a baby and watch Natalie run off.  Needless to say I didn't get many pictures.  The girls had fun though and it was a nice way to wrap up the end of another year.

One more award...perfect attendance of course!

We're always sad to say goodbye for the summer to our special teachers.  The girls adore their teachers and we are so lucky to have such wonderful mentors for our kids.

Mrs Barnick - Rachel's sidekick!

Mrs. Reuter

6th Grade Class heading off to a party

May Randoms

Natalie loves photo shoots so we have a few random pictures that we took.  This one was the week of her birthday and as you can see there was lots of activity and this kiddo was exhausted by the end.  Climbed up into Lauren's little bassinet and fell asleep. 

Here Natalie, Lauren and I had a picnic in the living room.  She let me do her hair and it looked so cute.  She normally never has her hair done because she doesn't "like" it.

I guess there was a slumber party in our bed and Brian and I were not invited.  If only we knew we would have this many kids we would've gotten a king size bed!

Bye Bye JI

This was Caitlin's last year at John Ireland.  Can't believe how those years flew by.  I can remember her first day of kindergarten when she wanted Brian to take her in, not me and I sat in the car trying to hold back tears.  I kept thinking she was going to be like me and want to stay home with her mom.  Not the case.  She was WAY more brave than I was at that age.  She's enjoyed every year at JI.  Every year her favorite teacher would be the one she had at the time.  She never complained about school work...she loved everything about school.  She was never afraid to try new things or be the leader of the group.  She's going to do super in 7th grade.  I have no worries that she will find her own way and do very well academically and socially.  She may be small in stature but don't let that fool you!  She's one tough cookie!

We love John Ireland and luckily have many more years there.  :)

The 6th grade girls....Kylie, Caitlin & Veronica

lectoring at mass

receiving her diploma

receiving an academic award from her teacher

Add caption

Caitlin with her teachers she's had at JI
missing was kdg & 6th

her photo board she made for the reception

Spring Program

The girls Spring program had a few hiccups this year.  The choir director ended up becoming ill for a couple weeks in April & May.  They had an small program for grandparents day featuring the band and then at the end of May when the director was feeling better the choir only performed.  It was again very good and the kids sing so beautifully.  Our girls LOVE to sing and perform.  It's so much fun watching them!T

Recital

As you can see our May fills up with lots of end of the school year activity.  Caitlin and Emily have been playing piano now for a few years and love it.  Rachel will join them next year when she's a 2nd grader.  We are lucky that our piano teacher only lives 2 blocks from us!

Heads Up Lauren

Lauren doesn't love tummy time but she's getting stronger and holding her head up because of it.  Natalie and Lauren had an impromptu photo shoot.  It was really me trying to capture a few of Lauren and Natalie feeling ignored so she'd pop her head in every once and a while!

Tongues

Eyes

Last Day of Little Lambs

Natalie loved preschool!  This was her first year and she did great.  Her teacher, Mrs. Voigt, has taught all our girls.  Natalie made a few friends and has even had a few play dates.  She's already looking forward to next year.

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Happy birthday to our eldest, an oldie but goodie. :)  Hard to believe she's 12 and graduating from 6th grade.  On her birthday it was 100 degrees and the day she was born it was 97!!  Caitlin is such a beautiful young lady.  She looks a little like me but has the brains of Brian.  She loves Science and Math, piano and singing.  She loves reading and running, setting goals and going for the prize.  She's very self motivated if there's a prize in store.  She is a pretty good helper around the house and with her sisters.  She's quirky and fun and she's really really smart.  We've been told kids grow up fast so enjoy them while you can and it's very true.  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we brought her home from the hospital and our lives changed forever.  We love you very much Caitlin!!

Brian surprised her with a dozen roses at school.  She was so surprised she could hardly talk.  She just couldn't believe it!  For her birthday dinner, Caitlin opted to go to Olive Garden.  It was pretty tasty even on a hot day like it was.  She also opted to have a friend party this year.  She wanted to get pedicures so I thought that was a good idea and she only brought along 2 friends.  I accidentally looked at the wrong price for the pedi's.  I thought it was $15 each and then they'd give 15% off if you pay cash, so it seemed like a pretty inexpensive, fun thing to do.  Well, when we got there I noticed the pedi's were $25 each.  ooops!  The girls did have a ton of fun and it will only happen this one time!  After the pedicures we headed back to St. Peter to make home made pizza's and cake.  The girls then stayed overnight and they all had a super fun time.

Mother's Day

The girls were so awesome this year!  They made me breakfast in bed!!  It was super yummy and they were very proud of themselves.  I was so happy that they all worked together!!  I was still sleeping, pretty soundly, when they came into the bedroom and said "surprise", smiling ear to ear.  What a perfect thing to wake up to..smiling kids and food I didn't prepare!  Breakfast in bed is fun but not always easy to pull off.  After they brought me my food they were hungry and left to eat out in the kitchen and there I was by myself trying not to get crumbs in the bed.  Brian found an awesome french toast recipe and it was sooo good.  Along with my breakfast they gave me a pedicure gift certificate.  Can't wait to use that one!!  Thanks girls and Brian!

Grandparents Day

At John Ireland the kids honor their Grandparents with a Spring program.  However, this year they had to reschedule the spring program because the choir director was ill and in the hospital.  So the kids did a much smaller version of the program and had the full band perform all their songs and the choir just 3 songs.  Afterward they served cookies and punch and the grandparents were invited to see the kids' rooms.  My mom was able to come for it and the kids did a great job.

Natalie's Party-Part 2

We continued celebrating Natalie's birthday along with Caitlin's with the grandparents and Godparents.  Natalie chose "Brave" as her theme and Caitlin just went along with it. :)  It was a good party with good people and good food.  One more party to throw and we'll be done with our May birthday celebrations.

Natalie's Birthday Celebration

Natalie had a great birthday.  She woke up to sunshine, had lunch with her friend Courtney at McDonalds, took a nap, opened presents (a special one from her sisters), ate noodles at Noodles & Co. and had dessert at Cherry Berry.  Now she's looking forward to her actual party with Grandparents/Godparent on Sunday.  The theme she picked out is Brave-and she wants a Merida cake.  Hope it turns out!

The book that the girls made for Natalie

Chocolate/Strawberries and Gummy Bears

Brian and his two look-a-likes