My sweet daughter...

Grace picked me these 'flowers' outside today. She was so proud of them and almost crushed when I asked her to please take them outside so they wouldn't blow all over the house. She wanted me to put them in a little vase, so out of mommy guilt I did. Aren't they lovely?

Ok, so while I was posting these pics, she yelled to me from the kitchen "Mom! I put some purple and yellow flowers in there too!". Add some Creeping Charlie, a few yellow dandelions, and Wham-O, a bouquet!

Good day for a swim!

Yesterday the high here was 87 degrees, with at least 185% humidity, it was awful! Needless to say there were some bad storms in the evening...Rich worked from 4pm-3am and has to go back at 2 pm today. Phyllis and Dick were in town and staying at the Heartland Inn, so the kids went over in the afternoon to swim in the pool. They had a ball...thank you Grandmother and Grandpa! Here is the gang in the garage (they were working on the lawn mower, and trying to stay out of the heat!):

What's wrong with this picture

Maybe Ben should take a few more spelling lessons. I emptied his backpack tonight and his spelling folder seems off for some reason.

Matt's 5th grade graduation & Ben's class play

Today was a big day for programs. 5th grade hosted a breakfast and awards program this morning for the big graduation to middle school. They sang 2 songs, gave out a few awards and showed a slide show of the kids. Matt got an award for getting the National Physical Fitness level in gym. He also participated in Safety Patrol. They made silhouettes and wrote a few things about themselves.

Then Ben had an afternoon play and open house. He was the coveted part of Snake in The Tortoise and The Hare. He pronounced all his S words with drawn out ssssssss sounds, which got chuckles from the audience.

It was very cute. Then they had cookies and lemonade and shared some of their schoolwork. They get out of school on Wednesday already....how is it possible the school year is over already??!!

And the new American Idol is!

David Cook! Yes! We were all rooting for him, but thinking that David Archuleta was going to win it tonight. The night couldn't get much better after George Michael sang....he was my favorite college crush singer you know. He looked a bit older, paler, and with an odd looking toupee upon his head, but he could still sing like it was 1988! Then to top off the night David Cook won! Very much excitement in the Kinney household.

I was hoping his eyeliner wouldn't run when he was crying at the end. He and Seacrest looked like they took matching eyeliner classes before the show....hope it was waterproof.

And Paula, what a mess she was, as usual.

All in all a good show! I'm definitely buying a David Cook CD when it comes out!

Lucy and her bear

This is Lucy's favorite toy. It's a stuffed black bear, and most of the time she has it in a headlock. She has to have an edge over someone I guess :)!

Ben and his crystals

Ben and I have been working on his crystal growing kit the past week. We've gotten 4 done so far...he really loves working on this and is so proud of his output. We did the purple and red geode's today, and then we'll have 3 more to grow after that. He's taking these to school tomorrow.

Jeffrey and Ben

Ben's best friend Jeffrey spent the night with him last night and the boys went with us up to Grace's game. Jeffrey just got new glasses, so now the pals can match even more! Jeff's parents have invited Ben to go up to Minnesota and spend a week at a cabin the last week of July. They love each other like brothers, but they can also fight like brothers, so I hope they can stand each other for a whole week! I think they'll have a blast...what fantastic memories they'll remember from this trip!

Good kids!

T-Ball game today...

Next week I'll remember my No-Doz and 44 oz. Mountain Dew. And my sunscreen. And my sunglasses and hat. I'd forgotten how long and tedious T-Ball is. Each player on the team gets to take a turn at bat, and there are no outs called, so everyone gets to go around the bases too. Fun for the 5 year old! Really mind-numbingly long to the 40 and up crowd. They were extra cute.....Grace wondered why all the girls on her team had pink gloves and hers was tan. She did pretty well though. When a ball was hit (tapped) off the tee she would follow the big pack of same colored shirts to try and get the ball...and twice she came out of the dogpile with the ball in her hand, so she's definitely got spunk! They each got one turn at batting, and one inning out in the field. Grace had fun though, she may be on the athlete track.....I think her competetive skills will take her far! She's the little maroon one in the pics BTW.

Can't you just smell them??

Thank you Grandma Cathy for picking us some lilacs and lilies of the valley today, they smell SO good!

Last day of preschool...forever!

Today was Grace's last day of preschool. I realized it was mine too. There will be no more Kinney kids in preschool, it's big kid school from here on out! Wow, I'm old.

They had Fun Day today for the last class...here are a few pics.

Happy Mother's Day!

To my mommy, Cathy; to my Mother-in -law Phyllis; to my sisters-in-law Heidi, Kelley and Ana; and to my aunts Jensine, Carol and Linda. I hope you were all treated like the special people you are :).

We had a good day! I got to take an uninterrupted nap, which could have been THE gift of the day. I also got some nice cards from my boys, and Gracie drew me several pictures. Rich got me a new tripod for my camera....and I'm going to read up on how to use it because hopefully we're going to get a new digital Canon Rebel XTi for our anniversary/birthday presents. So excited!

Fun at the farm!!!

Today was farm field trip day at preschool. I volunteered to go, so we all headed to the Griffieon's farm north of town to see the cute little baby animals. There were 2 baby lambs that were adorable....one of them was licking Mrs. Neumann all over the face. We also saw some 3 day old kitties and a cow that was born without eyeballs...he used his hearing to sense where to go. They also got to sit in a tractor and take home some corn. Fun all around!

Getting ready for T-Ball

Grace's first t-ball game is Saturday. She's been practicing her throwing and catching, and now batting. Rich bought her a tee and a bat today, so she's been a-swingin' all morning! She's a determined little thing, that's for sure!

Grace's Mother's Day gifts

In preschool Grace made me 2 Mother's Day gifts. The first is a marigold plant in a laundry scoop that looks like a wheelbarrow. Last years marigold grew to be about 4 ft tall, so we'll see if we can outdo that this year! The other gift was a page about mom. She drew a picture of me, then answered a few questions. Good to see I'm only 30!

Gracie's preschool program today

Gracie's preschool class had their Mother Goose program today, they sang and performed some nursery rhymes. Grace got to play the wood block and stick...she was the Tick Tock noise in Hickory Dickory Dock :). So cute!

Tyler's award

There was a program at Tyler's school today for the kids that got the Presidential Award for academics (3.5 gpa or higher). And Tyler got one! We're very proud of him, he's a great kid and does very well in school. And the certificates even had GW's signature on them...bonus! Here he is at school and afterwards with his award.

Yay spring!

The trees and flowers are in bloom, I'm so excited! The pretty trees that line First Street are all blooming now, it's really beautiful! I'm not sure what kind of trees these are (I think some kind of pear?), but they go a ways down the street.

Matt's music concert

Matt had his singing concert last night, and boy was he thrilled (See first pic)! His eyes are still bothering him, so he spent most of the time rubbing them. They sang well...the band also performed and aside from some, um, screechiness did ok too. Joel, there is a picture of little Garrett there just for you...he was behind the humongous bass drum, too cute!

What a beautiful day!

We had such a nice day today...74, sunny and a bit breezy. Grace and I played outside this afternoon for awhile. Matt stayed home from school because his eyes were still really sore and itchy...I think he has some allergies because going outside makes it worse. Here are a couple of pics of Grace today...one with our neighbors tulips and one doing a cartwheel, she's getting good! I tried one and about killed myself.