{Spouse Appreciation, Feltwell Fuzzy, Mucky Race & Mother's Day........OH MY!}

{Spouse Appreciation}

Friday was a pretty fabulous day! I got to hang out with my good friend and we also got to do something very cool!!

(My flash was not on so I had to do some editing so you could see my face!)

Afterwards we went and got some sweet pictures of my friend and her son with one of the pilots, which just so happens to be hubby & dad. :) I also snapped this one of Blake.

And the boys got to play around on the "boy toys" for a while.

{Feltwell Fuzzy}

At the end of the 3rd Quarter, on Allie's report card, her teacher had written that Allison had earned a Feltwell Fuzzy. She had never received one so we weren't really sure if that meant that she had intended to give one to her and then forgot or if that meant she had plans to give her one soon. I told Allie I would ask her teacher about it, but she told me not to worry about it. So we just left it alone. Well, of course, when I got done with flying I had 2 missed calls from the school, a voicemail and a text message! The voicemail was from the acting principal telling me that Allie had received a Feltwell Fuzzy!!! I was sad I missed the call but they did get ahold of Derek. We are so very proud of our Allie Bug! She is always doing the right thing, a great leader in the classroom and I could go on and on!

{Mucky Race}

The girls ran in their first race this weekend! They were so nervous but had a lot of fun once they got going. They got put into the older kids race so that made them even more nervous. Avery tired out really quick. I think because she was really trying to keep up with those older kids. Allie did awesome! They had told the girls that they only needed to do 1 lap, but when Allie finished I think they forgot she was a youger one and they had her go on! She was sooooooo exhausted. I think we might have a little runner on our hands!

Thor was leading their warm-ups.

Derek ran too.

He did so well and then got stuck behind people in this ditch. There was no way to get around anyone once you were in there. He wasn't happy.

He came in 27th overall. That's all the heats combined. He was stuck in that ditch for a good 20-25 minutes behind everyone, so if he had been in the 1st heat I think he would have been in the top 10 at least! Great job!

{Mother's Day}

Oh, man. I did not even know it was Mother's Day weekend until Avery reminded me on Thursday. She was so sad to be missing school that day because supposedly that was when they were going to be making their Mother's day gifts in their class. I am such a bad daughter!!! Momma, I am SO sorry and I will make it up to you when you come visit in a couple short months! For now, I leave you with this..........

"Oh the wars would all be over

'Cause she'd raise us all as friends
And no one would ever wonder if somebody wanted them
Tonight would be easier
And our dreams would all be deeper
If the world had a mother like mine."
-The Band Perry, Mother Like Mine

I have the best Mom EVER! You are my bestest friend and I miss you like crazy! Happy Mother's Day!!

We didn't do much here. I slept in and woke up to some homemade cards and some beautiful gifts. All I really wanted to do was get some pictures with my babes since I don't really have many of them with me. The plan was to stop by one of the rapeweed (I know, the name is horrible but the loads of yellow flowers are beautiful) fields on the way home from church but two of them fell asleep. Derek was just going to wake them up and I said no and we went home. The picture ended up just perfect.

And this note from Avery is a keeper!

Teacher Appreciation

Our kiddos have been blessed with some pretty amazing teachers in the few years they've been in school. This is so crazy to say, but this has been the longest we've ever been at one school........so we have grown particularly fond of FES and the amazing staff there. It really is a great school. Both girls really love their teachers this year, not that they haven't ever loved any of their teachers. They grow so attached to all of them! They were excited to help me come up with ideas for teacher appreciation gifts. A lot of thanks to Pinterest for most of our ideas. They not only wanted to do something for their general teachers but for their specials teachers as well. So we had to come up with something that could work for anyone......FOOD! We went with m&m's because I found this cute poem to go along with them.

Obviously we had a lot more than that. I think there were 10. There are 2 specials teachers whose classes they really enjoy so we did a little extra for them. Plus we got Avery's reading teacher a gift.

I didn't take pictures of everything and I'm super sad I didn't get a picture of the girls holding their gifts like I did last year. Allie's original plan was to give her teacher her gift today (Friday), but she said she could tell her teacher might be a little jealous when she was giving gifts to her specials teachers and not her so she ended up taking it sooner. :) Avery decided that she needed to space hers out and take something to her teacher every day "because that would make her feel more special."

Loving these mini clipboards

For Avery's Frogtastic teacher

And then I saw this printable and knew I had to do something with it for Avery's teacher. I have never seen a teacher so obviously display that they truly love what they do. She really is a great teacher. Heck, she's even Blake's favorite teacher! I kid you not, you ask him who his favorite teacher is and he'll blush and whisper, "Miss Kautz." It's so cute.

Lots of notes and cards and a few more gifts and goodies. We love spoiling teachers! They deserve it.

And....it makes it even more worth it when they show how much they appreciate being appreciated! Lots of kind words in person, emails and handwritten notes. =)

South Wales

We waited until the last minute to plan our trip to see the tulips in Holland......and by the time we got around to looking for a place to stay there really weren't any places left. Soooooo, we decided to check out South Wales. Of course it rained pretty much the whole time, but guess what, we still had a great time! Northern Wales is still our favorite. No matter what though Wales will always be one of my top places in the UK.

Chepstow Castle

Playing hide and seek. They wanted me on their team because I am the best at finding hiding spots, but they said I had to move faster. I told them they needed to take my heavy bags then! 

Found you!!!!

Castle Coch

This castle is now one of our favorites!

Caerphilly Castle

This castle had a kid's quest. We love the castles that do that. Keeps the kids entertained and they learn something as they do it. If they were answering their questions right it would lead them to a goblet and then they would match the shape of the goblet to the 3 goblets on their paper. If they were correct they would get a prize.

Our hotel was in Cardiff, right on a wharf. We fed the ducks after breakfast.

Brecon Beacons hike. 5 miles to some beautiful waterfalls. Avery walked the entire time with very little complaining. This is huge! She started to tire out at the end, but I got her mind off of it and we actually ran the last bit of the hike! Blake pretty much walked the entire time too. Derek and I did carry him a little, but not much.

Someone didn't really like being behind the waterfall.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I have to add a couple things in here that have been said recently because they are just too good to forget.

Blake is always telling me he wants to marry me. The other day he came up to me and he was so excited, "MOM!!! Look, I found a ring (as he holds up a big plastic play ring). I can marry you now!" Me: "Awww, Buddy, but you need a ring too." Blake: with a sad face, "Oh, okay." Then he goes running to look for another ring. A few minutes later...."I found one! Now we can get married!" I told Derek about it when he got home and he told Blake, "Mommy is already married to Daddy." Blake: "Nope. She married me." Derek: "No, you can't marry Mommy. Daddy is married to Mommy." You could see Blake's heart break as he fell to the ground and just sobbed!! Broke my heart, but so sweet too.

Derek and Allie had a night out to themselves last night for soccer while I stayed home with Avery and Blake (Avery wasn't feeling well). A little back story, last week at their soccer game they were getting smoked.......the teams are so uneven it's not even funny, but that's another story. Anyway, our sensitive Allie was getting her shirt tugged on by a boy on the other team (turned out it was my friend's son). When she came off the field she was so mad and said, "Why does everyone have to treat me like a dog?!?!" I tried to explain to her that while pulling on her shirt isn't showing good sportsmanship, things like that will happen and she just needs to be more aggressive. It just really, really bothered her. Well, last night after the game they saw them and Allie said, "Oh no! There are the dog walkers!" Derek had no idea what she was talking about and he told me the story last night. I died!! Obviously she was referring to her being treated like a dog. I have no idea how our kids come up with some of the things they say. So funny. 

You Never Know

I have no idea what day it even is. They are all running together. We have been going non-stop and I am so, so tired. I took a quick break from the go-go-go today and came across this video again. It gets me every time. I relate SO much to this....like every single detail of it! "Sometimes you may feel like a failure, but you never know all the good you do." The part that really gets me though is when the Mom is reminded by her kids about the prayer. Our kids are always reminding us of this very thing. Often I am so tired and just done that I tell them to do it. They always touch my heart every single time.