Cameron's Art

I love this boy's art. He even used this deceased lady bug as a model. We come home on Sundays with the most darling drawings.

Watch Out Paul Blart

The kids slept over at Tiffany's last night. Aaron and I had a nice dinner with friends and then came home and crashed from all this pool work (well, mostly Aaron). He's been waking up early each morning before work and digging sprinkler lines, wheelbarrowing dirt, and prepping the pool for completion. He is a hard worker that one!

Tiffany texted us this morning that Annie prayed over the pancakes and said, "We are so grateful that we have each other and that we are best friends". Melt my heart!!!

Cousin play time!

Following some work around the house, we all headed to Jacksonville to complete one of Tiffany's 40 by 40 tasks. Over the past year she has created a list of things she's wanted to do before she turns 40. With her birthday in just a few days, we scheduled to go on a segway tour.

Let me say that this was so incredibly fun! We had about 45 minutes of training, then a two hour tour, which was rather fascinating.

We ate lunch and got the kids from their weekend long play date. Following a few errands we took the kids to the marble store to cash in some of their first week's earnings. I'm glad they could experience a "spend day" so quickly after we started. Now they are even more motivated to keep working!

Nadauld Daily Five

We came up with a new chore system, inspired by our little brunch on Monday. We are paying our kids for their weekly chores. Hopefully they will get a better idea of how to save, budget, and pay tithing as well. So far, the kids wake up and cheerfully do their tasks. We named it the daily five, although Cameron just has four for now. They also are required to do regular family chores on Saturdays without payment. They have one chore each week that they choose from a jar (like garbage, dusting, setting the table, garbage, windows, bathrooms, etc.). This makes it pretty easy for them and it means that every two weeks my bathrooms are sparkling! Then they can spend their money on the last Saturday of the month...we can go to a store, shop online, or they can buy an "experience" (like a friend party or a trip to do go carts at the FFC) for a certain amount of money. If they do their daily five four or five days during the week then they get double their earnings. If not, they earn a dollar a day. Mary gets paid a little more because she has two instruments. She is really happy about that. It's pretty easy for me really and it is keeping our house very tidy. I'm loving it so far and I hope it continues through the summer.

Eddy's Angels

When Andrea pulled in this evening to pick up Mary for a play at the Britt, she realized that the bird she hit on her way into our driveway was a duck. After some prying, the stuck duck flew off in an embarrassed frenzy. Mary had the best night with her friend Eddy and his ladies. I think we should start calling them Eddy's Angels.

The ABC Countdown

Noah's grade is counting down the days until the end of school with an ABC Countdown. Today was K (kooky hair day). Only 15 more letters (school days) until Z, zip up and go home! I'd say Noah's hair turned out pretty kooky. After school (and a good shower to get off the hairspray) we went to Estelle's preschool graduation. The wind down is in full force around here.

This is the "PLEASE stop taking photos of me" face.

Mary's DARE Graduation

Today Mary graduated from the DARE program. She wrote a beautiful speech, unfortunately she was not selected as the class presenter. These are all good life lessons and opportunities to congratulate her friends who were chosen. I am so happy with all her hard work completing the program and thrilled that she enjoyed it as much as she did. The program focuses on drug and alcohol resistance and treating others with compassion and kindness. At MRE, this ceremony is in lieu of an elementary school graduation. So, it is kind of a big deal for them. I can't believe she off to middle school in a  few short months.

Allyson's Baby Brunch

Today we celebrated this sweet friend's baby bump. These are some of my very favorite people.

Look at us learning how to use a self timer.