Birthdays and Sad/Happy Days

At the end of May we celebrated Grandma and Grandpa B's birthdays. 

 

 I wanted to add this picture of Claire since she isn't in the other pictures, but it's not the best :) I think she's wondering what the heck I'm doing taking her picture while she eats. 

 Grandma and the crazy kids - posing with one of the presents. 

 

 

We had a very terrible, sad event this summer.  Tom's dad, John, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the beginning of May.  By the beginning of June he had passed away.  John was such a special man, so kind and sweet - we all miss him so much.  Our family all came together at our house a couple of days before the funeral to celebrate John's life.  We all know what John would have wanted us to be doing -  hanging out in the backyard, watching the kids swim, and drinking a beer - so that is what we did. 

 Carole and John's sister in laws

 Mary, Cooper, and cousin Katie

 Jackson and Sarah

 My dad, Tom's sister Nancy, brother in law Chuck, brother Jim, brother in law Mike and cousin Katie. 

 The cousins spent pretty much the entire time swimming. 

Katie and Elizabeth

Katie is a second cousin of Elizabeth's - the girls had never met before but they had a blast playing and getting to know each other.  Elizabeth was so excited to finally have a girl her age to play with in the family!

 Zach was getting really good at all the boogie boarding!

 My mom and dad - such a good picture of the two of them!

 I had to add this picture - it makes me laugh every time I see it - look at Claire!! She's thinking who is this crazy holding onto me?! I was trying to take her from her mom but she wasn't having any part of that.  Now (two months later) she really likes me.  Then - not so much. 

 We had a nice dinner that my mom and dad helped me provide. 

 All the H ladies we could find - we might actually all be there!

 These pictures aren't great but they are from the reception after the funeral.

 The location was beautiful and Carole had a wonderful meal for everyone. 

 It was such a sad time, but at the same time so wonderful for everyone to be able to get together to celebrate John's life.  He would have loved to have us all there together. 

End of School

 A few days before school got out Ben's class had a kindergarten graduation.  I got a cake for the class - I thought it turned out so cute.  Who knew that Tom Thumb would do custom orders?

 Here's Ben after his ceremony.  I didn't get any good pictures of him walking across the stage or of the performance - I'm not sure what happened there? 

 After we got home Ben opened a few presents from the grandparents. 

 Elizabeth also had an awards ceremony. 

 She's receiving a medal for Eagle math excellence. 

 We then went back to class and the teacher had special awards for each of the kids. 

 Elizabeth loved it!

 The next day was the last day of school - whoo hoo!

 They were SO excited - I was too!

 I couldn't get that boy to stop his crazy looks!

 Oh man - picture time was over. 

 After school we did our annual running through the banner picture.

 And we had a swimming/ice cream party to celebrate the last day. 

We're SO glad for school to be done for a while...we know summer will be over before we know it! (in about 3 weeks!!)

Elizabeth's Last Day of First Grade

 Elizabeth's last day of school.  I can't get over the fact that she is done with first grade and moving on to second grade!  She just seems like such a big kid now! 

 Here is Elizabeth on her first day of first grade.  I see a big change in her!

 I wanted to make Elizabeth's teacher something for her end of the year present - one of my neighbors saw something like this on pinterest so I decided to do the same thing.  These are the rules that were on Elizabeth's teacher's wall - I just took them and put them on a canvas.  She is very into Disney so I added some characters to the top and bottom. 

 When the kids got home from the last day of school they came home to a sign to run through...

 and a party with some friends from school!

Whoo hoo for summer break!