it's that time of the year...

When I can sleep in an extra 5 minutes in the morning....

When packing the girls' clothes each day is easy-peasy because they can wear anything (sandals, spaghetti-strap shirts, dresses, shoes w/ no socks).....

When I don't get a call anymore every Mon - Fri at 2:14pm on the dot....

When the structure of our evenings is replaced with whim....

When Nana falls asleep by 7pm because she's so tired from watching 3 kids for 10 hours a day...

Summer is officially here!

Not the official season, not yet, but the school year ended yesterday so we're in a summer state-of-mind. Mallory still has preschool 2 days a week--- so my Grandma gets a tiny break, having only 2 rowdy kids on those days instead of 3. But summer, for us, means flexible bedtimes, sandals everyday, movies at night after bedtime, lots of playing outside, lots of bikeriding, and lots of adventures!

So on the last day of school, Mariah (who "graduated" from kindergarten) had a little performance and her teacher handed out certificates to all the kids in her class. I didn't have time to go thru each photo and cover the faces of the kids, and this is the only one I could get of Mariah where she wasn't surrounded by friends:

This is the gift I made for her teacher:
And tonight, Mallory graduates from Preschool. I want to cry just thinking about it. For lots of different reasons too. Obviously, because it means she's growing up and I don't have a "baby" anymore. But also because I love that preschool so much and it's been part of our lives for most of the last 9 years, and I will miss it.

Mallory did NOT want to participate in the graduation photo-shoot that is sort of a tradition....I did it for Arissa (when I sent out invitations for the ceremony), I did it for Mariah (when I got lazy and did it too late so they ended up being 'announcements' after the fact), and I wanted to do it for Mallory too (I have even less time now so it's just going to be announcements after the fact, more photoshop than paper-crafting). But she wasn't havin' it! After much persuading by Jesse, we got her in the outfit and out the door, and took these shots:

I made gifts yesterday for Mallory's teacher, the teacher's aid, and the principal/office staff. I tried to embroider/sew/quilt these gifts since that's the craft I'm into at the moment, and doing several projects in a hurry made me realize:

I am a horrible seamstress.

I really am. I don't have enough patience, so I always end up half-assing it and my projects never turn out right. Oh plus I'm really bad at math, which apparently is very helpful in quilting, especially when you're freehanding it without a pattern. You'll see what I mean when I post the pics of the gifts that I made for the preschool teachers. I really get frustrated with myself!


But here's what I made as a graduation gift for Mallory....I made it yellow to match her graduation gown:

I even crocheted the little diploma in his hand. :o)