Luke's Big Day(s)

Last Friday, Luke graduated from Kindergarten. It was such a sweet little ceremony. They sang some songs, quoted Scripture they had learned and read little stories they had written about themselves. Luke had read the most books in the class. 84! That is quite a accomplishment for him and doesn't even include all the books he's read on his own here at home. Mrs. Varn, who is retiring from teaching this year, wrote a little thing about each of the students on the back on their diploma. She really knows her kids and hit the nail on the head with each one of them. Here is what she wrote for Luke:

Luke is the oldest in his family. He has done a great job at Holloway House. He is a very good student always doing neat and thorough work. He is a deep and methodical thinker. He finished every Holloway House key chain and has become a great reader. Luke also has a creative mind and is very able to build some great creations with our bristle blocks. Luke is rather quiet and humble but has a mind that is always working. I will miss you, Luke but you will love first grade. Congratulations.

Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life. Proverbs 22:4

What a great teacher!


The Class of 2021!


Can't you just see his excitement? lol


Luke also lost his first tooth on Wednesday! Finally! He already has the new ones up behind his baby teeth so it was high time to get them out. No, we didn't do the tooth fairy. He's almost seven and is already in on the know. However, he did receive a dollar with the information that the next is worth two dollars and so on until we reach 5.

I'm Not the Fun One

I am not a "fun" person.

I am not creative when it comes to games.

My strengths definitely lie elsewhere. I'm task orientated. I'm not fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-what-creative-play-idea-can-I-come-up-with-today person. But yet, I'm finding that I'm going to need to be a little more like that.

I like to take the kids for walks. For bike rides. To go to the park. I like to cook and bake and instruct them in the art of pulling weeds. I like to read books (currently we're reading The Horse and His Boy). But I'm not into the whole make believe thing. I'd rather not pretend to be an army man. I get distracted when I play cook with Abby. The toys all over the place distract me and I end up picking up when I had originally purposed to sit down and play. Mike is the go-to person in our parenting combo that does the make-believe play. He's the one who dresses up like a gun slinger and runs around the yard with Luke. He happily lets Abby cook for him. The kids adore it and him. They informed me at lunch today that Dad is the one who plays with them. I always have something else to do - like changing diapers and cooking or doing laundry. So I purposed, really purposed, to play with them today. Abby and I did some play cooking. Of course, I was slightly appalled at her choice of drink - lipsa (or something pronounced like that) - a concoction of salsa and cotton candy, but I went with it. Luke and I are going to play checkers after rest time. Should I not try to win? And Libby, well, Libby is still pretty content with playing ball in the backyard so that shouldn't be a problem.

The ironic thing is, the church asked me to help out with game time for VBS this year. I informed the woman asking that I was not fun but I was willing. So even if I'm not the fun one, at least I'm willing to try to be....

And the chosen tree award goes to,..

A variegated Norway Maple!

On Saturday, we went on over to our favorite garden center - Culver's (not to be confused with the fast food joint). They seem to have the best plants for the best prices (here read: not the cheapest but the best quality for the lowest prices). We went to finally get a tree for the front yard and for my Mother's Day gift. Thank you for all of your votes on the previous post of this matter. After seeing ornamental pear tree after ornamental pear tree and seeing the size and cost of the tulip magnolias we decided to forgo both of them.

I was thinking an elm (a dutch elm disease resistant one). Mike still favors maples. I wanted yellow color in the fall. There are so many red maples in our neighborhood, it really isn't funny. So, Mike watched the kids on the playground set and I went out hunting for something to work.

I avoided the maples and went to look at what else is available for shade trees. I found some elms and I liked the size and the prices of them. Then I thought I'd check the maples out anyway. There I found a tree I was intrigued by. It's leaves are variegated, meaning they have green middles and are edged in yellow. I liked it! And the sign said it has a warm yellow fall foliage - another plus. The price was reasonable too. Mike finally came over with the kids and we looked at the two choices I had it narrowed down to. We decided on the maple.

It looks great in the front yard! We read that it will probably loose it's variegation over the years but we are okay with that. Norway maples are also not looked favorably on on the upper east coast because they can be somewhat invasive. However, Norway maples are on the recommended shade tree lists for Iowa so we feel okay with having it.

A Star is Born

Abby got to dance in public for the first time last night. She did a great job! She knew all the moves and was quite the leader of the pack. She also got that sparkle in her eye - the one she gets when she knows she's cute and everyone is paying attention to her. Here she is in what I and another mom call the "saloon girl" costumes. There really is a whole other sub-culture that I was completely unaware of - I think it is closely related to the pageant culture. Interesting.