Peachy's Kindergarten Graduation

Friday was Peachy's last day of kindergarten. We not only survived her first year of school, but she thrived and we loved seeing her grow and learn.

The school did a small program for the kindergarteners in the school gym and followed it with the closing service for the entire school. She was pretty excited about her "congraduation." She was very blessed in that both sets of grandparents were able to make it in addition to one aunt.

I have to admit to getting choked up a few times during the day. I wasn't so sad to see my little girl growing up, but more overwhelmed by the wonderful year she had. She easily made the transition to attending school all while dealing with moving to a new home in a new state.

She quickly made friends and really grew so much over the last nine months. Her teacher was so so so awesome.

She had a bigger class of 19 kiddos and on the last day when I was thanking her teacher she was sad that they were all moving on.

We are all looking forward to summer break, but Peachy is already excited to be attending first grade next fall.

Striding with Shortcake

Three months ago, at his first birthday, Shortcake wasn't even crawling on hands and knees, much less cruising the furniture. All of my kiddos are late walkers and I am really okay with that. Right around his birthday, however, he did figure out how to get to a sitting position on his own. The crawling on hands and knees followed that. 

Then he started to pull up on things. He was getting very proficient at cruising, but was still not confident enough to take any steps. Even if I stood right in front of him, he would go from standing to crawling to reach me. The next step was to stand up in the middle of a room without holding on to anything, but still no steps. Around two weeks ago, he took his first few tentative steps. 

He continued to build confidence and is full out walking! He started with his arms up in the air for better balance. Now he just holds on to his pants while he walks around. (Or whatever else he can find to hold on to and walk.) It is such fun to see him taking off after his sisters with a smile on his face.

For the Love of Fabric

Last week I was able to sneak in some fun creating and sewing. I had three baby presents to put together in addition to a birthday gift for Peachy. I spent a decent amount of time picking out fabric at the local Joann Fabrics. (Especially considering the fact that I had Shortcake and Cream with me.)

I really love fabric. I love seeing what is all available and then putting it together in combinations. I don't think that I have ever mentioned on here, but I worked at a quilt store in high school and college. It maybe wasn't every student's dream job, but I loved it.

My favorite type of customer would come in with a pattern and let me choose the fabrics with them. It was like shopping without spending the money, but rather getting paid to do it. When I sit down to work on a project, I probably spend more time than necessary choosing fabrics.

I just enjoy the process so much! That is also why I don't mass produce the items in my shop. I like to create unique creations, not a bunch of the same. And then, it is such a joy to see all of my careful decisions come together in a great finished product.

Backyard Spring 2015

When we purchased our house, it was the end of summer/beginning of fall. We immediately both fell in love with the awesome yard and outdoor space.

There is a good sized front yard with two birch trees, but the true gem of the yard is the backyard. There is a nice lawn area around the house, but beyond that it is a little more wild and natural with bushes and trees and lots of other fun features.

I would love to talk with the previous owners and learn how they designed the yard and what it looked like when they were caring for it. Since that doesn't seem likely to happen, we will just have to see what comes up and decide what we want to do with it.

We are enjoying seeing what is coming up and deciding if it is a weed or plant. I went out and took some pictures a couple of weeks ago when the spring growth was really just starting. Since then, it has really greened up and grown. I will have to take some more pictures later to show the growth and change.

Mr. Cherry worked throughout the evenings of a week to prune and trim and just clean up after the fall and winter. He is still a bit overwhelmed with the work he could do back there. I leave that kind of yard work to him.

We have been loving spending time outside and enjoying the peace and calm our backyard offers. And we can't forget to mention the covered patio!! We have been enjoying as many meals as we can in the comfort of the shade with the added bonus of not needing to vacuum up after each meal!

Weekend In the Rearview

We had a wonderful weekend filled with all kinds of celebrating. We started on Friday night with a trip to Famous Dave's. (This was partly because we knew we wouldn't want to face the crowds on Sunday with a family of five and also because I didn't want to cook! Ha! Win, win.)

Saturday we headed over to our nephew's first birthday party. It is so cool to live much closer to much of our family now and be able to celebrate and get together more often.

There was plenty of outside play time, including dandelion gathering.

His momma (and maybe daddy, too) put together an awesome monster themed party. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins so much. Cream was asking to go back the next day!

Sunday may have been Mother's Day, but it was also this little girl's 6th birthday!! She was born on Mother's Day and it was so special to celebrate the day with her again. We kept things very low key. We went to church, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, grilled a pizza for supper, opened gifts, made school birthday treats for the next day, and just hung out as a family.

Oh, I almost forgot!! I snuck out of the house in the morning for a jog and along the way I saw this.

It is hard to see, because I didn't want to get too close, but there was a doe and two fawns on a path just down the road from our house. I can't be sure, but the fawns seemed so fresh and new. I am hoping the one laying down was just resting. Such a neat sight on Mother's Day morning!
I hope that you were able to enjoy a great weekend as well!!