May Merriment...

May (like every other month of this year) has seemed to pass with the blink of an eye. I spent the first half of the month telling everyone that Brody's birthday was next month! Up until last week, I was still responding, "next month...no wait - next week!" For some reason, I could not remember that May had actually arrived!!




Of course, with its arrival came the end of Alexa's first preschool year...a moment of mixed emotions as we reveled in her accomplishments, yet regretted saying goodbye to two very awesome teachers who did an excellent job with their eleven very young three year olds. Alexa was one of the youngest with her August 2nd birthday, but the "oldest" in the class did not turn 4 until May 14th!

Because we all (as parents) felt their teachers had truly shaped the lives of our children, we wanted to do something special to show them our appreciation. Each parent decorated a piece of fleece with their child's name. Most put a handprint or footprint and included either a thank you message or a meaningful scripture. I then took all eleven pieces, as well as a twelfth piece embellished (thanks to my mom!) with a class photo and tied them together, creating a fleece blanket. As you can imagine, the teachers loved it (why is it you know you got it right when a gift makes the recipient cry?!)

I thought perhaps the end of the school year would mean a slower pace, but apparently something in my being rejects the thought of "slowing down" so a week before school ended, I decided it was time Alexa's room reflect her new preschooler status. We retired the nursery decor that had adorned her walls for the past three years and introduced a new incredibly GIRLY theme! This also meant that the dresser would need to be redone to match the new theme. Many of you may remember my dresser from college whose drawers included such random paintings as a sunflower on a camouflage background and a road through the sky...I looked for the photos that documented this stage in the life of the dresser, but I couldn't find them (alas, they may have fallen victim to the computer crash of 2005). What you may not have know is that the photo below is the very same dresser and that adorable baby (just agree with me!) is yours truly at 12 months.

Here are the photos of the dresser with the nursery theme (which, embarrassingly enough was NEVER finished) and the new decoupaged look!

And the rest of the photos of the room redo....although a rental, our landlords have allowed me to paint, although we went with a more subtle color than the PINK my daughter would have preferred cover her walls...


Here's a few photos of my little "beauty" playing outside...


And a photo I snapped after noticing it had been too quiet in her room - it must be tough being a princess!


Notice the precious smile on my son's face in this photo? Too bad that's the look I get every time I tell him "no"...like here when he wanted to eat the chalk...

His new favorite past time is dumping the dog's water bowl on the floor and splashing around in the two inches of water that seems to pool on my floor as a result! You wouldn't believe how many towels I've been washing lately...he is making amazing progress though and now plays peek-a-boo, patty cake, and when you ask, "How big is Brody?" he'll raise his hands high above his head to hear you say, "SOOOO BIG!" And still so sweet! :)

And the last photo for this post...in preparation for his "big day", Brody had his first haircut on Wednesday, May 23rd! He didn't even cry!!