Graduation Songs

For some reason the videos cut off the very ends of the songs.  Deachi & I are going to work on them some more, but I thought I would go ahead and post.  So cute:

One Small Voice

God Bless America

Corry's Graduation Poem

Here is a poem which was a collective effort of Corry & her teachers Mrs. Nolan, Mrs. Hochstein, & Mrs. Acuff.  This is what was read during her graduation ceremony on Friday, May 27, 2011.

I am from The Woodlands, Texas

From the same house, but I am an Okie through my parents

I am from Grandma Connie & Grandpa Jack,

From Grandma Chebs and Grandpa Bob

I am from Merrick who reads me stories

And sometimes she makes dinner for me

I am from Jimmy who reads me stories

And sometimes takes me to school

I am from Drew who wants to play with me

From Calyn my cousin who plays with me too

I am from all the colors of the rainbow - red like a rose, orange in the clouds sometimes, yellow in the sun, the green grass, the blue sky, and the sky that is purple sometimes

I am from chicken alfredo that my dad makes

It tastes good and I am happy

I am from Sweet and Sassy to get my nails done

From wearing pretty dresses to school

I am from cats and kittens

I am from Children of The Woodlands

From the writing center with pieces of paper,

Envelopes and crayons

I am from the sandbox, lying in the sand

Embracing every part of me

I am from Mrs. Nolan.  She's the best teacher in the world

From Mrs. Hochstein who helps me with some stuff, I like her

From Mrs. Acuff who is very nice

I am from number sentences, the plus sign

The minus sign and equal sign

I am from books I read like Late for Soccer

And A Walk for Pickles

I am from books I have heard like It Looked Like Spilt Milk

I am from the stories I told and the dramas that followed

A Dog and a Cat, The Fairy, The Cats, Princess and the Fairy

I am from music and motor where I hear  music and screaming

I am from greeting my teachers with a smile every morning

From politeness and manners, from helping clean up centers

From playing with new children on the playground

who need a friend

I am going to Powell Elementary and it's going to be fun

Where lunch will be in a different room

And I'll learn even more math

I am going to be a teacher

And teach kids how to count and read

I am from God, His special child

I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:14

We have the ceremony recorded which is absolutely precious, but we are having techincal difficulties getting it off the cameras.  Hopefully soon...

Here are a few pictures from her big day.

The procession

Mrs. Nolan reading Corry's graduation poem "I Am From"

Receiving her diploma

A happy little graduate

The receiving line

Corry & Mrs. Hochstein

Hugs from Mrs. Nolan

Getting signatures on her graduation dog

Such and emotional day.  So proud of our big girl's excellent report card & all the sweet things her teachers had to say about her.  Can't believe she's heading to first grade in a few short months.



One busy, exhausted mama!

I'm dead meat - but I'm posting anyway.  Why do I keep volunteering for stuff?  I'm worn out.  I'm so ready for a break from packing lunches, doing homework, organizing projects, etc, but at the same time, I don't want any of it to end.  I don't want my babies to grow up and move on past Kindergarten & PreK.  These last 6 years have sped by at lightning speed.  Where is the pause button?

We loved watching the girls dance in their first big recital last Saturday & then topped it off with a big surprise party for Mom's 60th afterward.  We were so excited to have Aunt Sandi all the way from North Carolina to help us celebrate!

This week I've been working on compiling the letters & pictures Drew's classmates have made for their teachers, and with my mom & Deachi's assistance, have put them in scrapbooks for the teachers.  They turned out really cute.  And while they are not quite at detailed & overdone as my mom's normal scrapbooks, I think they do a  nice job of displaying the kids works of art from the heart, which was the whole point.

Tomorrow both kids have their end of year parties in their classrooms.  Corry's class will be dramatizing a book they have been reading & will have the class set up as a movie theatre.  Me & my big mouth volunteered to pop up enough popcorn for 50-60 people which means I will be getting up at the crack of dawn to get said mission accomplished.  The very difficult thing for me is that Drew's end of year party is at the exact same time.  Since I cannot be at two places at once, Jimmy will go to the first half of Drew's party while I attend Corry's & then we will switch so we can both enjoy each child's class.  Did I mention that I also volunteered to bring ice cream to Drew's class tomorrow?  At least that was something I could purchase & just freeze.

Friday Corry has her Kindergarten graduation at Children of the Woodlands.  I'm so sad to see her private schooling end.  We have loved Children of The Woodlands.  They only went through Kindergarten, but this year they announced they would be starting a pilot year of 1st grade.  Unfortunately since Jimmy & I will already be keeping Drew at COW for transition, our private school budget was stretched to the max, and Corry will be heading to public school...unless of course money starts growing on trees or raining from the sky.

Here are a few pictures from the last week or so....much much more to come soon.

My sassy little princess in the ONLY pair of shorts she will wear

Corry getting ready to head to dress rehearsal

Calyn getting ready for dress reshearsal

Corry's "messy bun"

Calyn was zonked before we got home from the recital

Some Dautrichs & Howards at Mom's party

The birthday girl with Noemi & Jason

60th parties will wear a dude out

Mrs. Y's memory book

Mrs. Minter's memory book

Sample pages from the book by Braelyn & Calyn

Sample pages of the books by Chase & Drew (Drew wrote the entire alphabet on Mrs. Minter's thank you)

Yikes...almost a whole month

I'm a slacker, plain and simple.  I vow to do better since we have tons of exciting things on the horizon!  Corry & Calyn have their big dance recital this weekend..Aunt Sandi is even coming all the way from NC to watch them in action!  How special for our little ladies!

Next weekend Corry graduates from Kindergarten!  Yikes!  She'll be off to first grade & gulp....public school!  Drew will be ending his pre-school career and will begin "transition" in the fall (a special little program for kids who just aren't quite ready for kindergarten yet).

The weekend after a special little Missy will be turning 6!  Can you believe it?  She is beyond excited to have her birthday party at Potteryland, followed by a family party on the 4th.  Then Grandma Chebs will be celebrating a birthday on the 5th!

The next weekend will be our last free weekend until the long anticipated trip to Hawaii!  I cannot wait to get there and just enjoy relaxing in the sun & on the beach with our family.  I can't wait to see the kids experience the beach & all the beauty Kauai has to offer....I am not really looking forward to the flights there & back, but it will all be worth it!

What have we been up to over the last month?  Transitioning nicely into being a family of 4 people & 2 dogs to 8 people & 4 dogs.  It's really been a pretty smooth adjustment.  Lots of dishes, laundry, and crap accumulate, but it's all good.

Our microwave broke & our dishwasher had a rust issue at the bottom, so we've decided to begin replacing our white appliances with stainless.  Lucky for us, Fridgidaire makes a fingerprint resistant stainless finish, so in enters the microwave & dishwasher.  In 6 months, when these are paid off we will add a range.  Hopefully by the first of next year we can replace the refrigerator.  So right now, we're a little mix matched, but it's a start!

The kids have enjoyed the warmer weather - we even made our first trip to the neighborhood pool.

Here are a few pictures to recap the last month.

Corry with some of her school friends after a birthday party at Sweet N Sassy

Max wanted to try out the princess tiara

Silly goose

Corry & Fenway at the crawfish boil.

Calyn & Mahalo (I know that's not how you spell it but I'm just too tired to look it up)

Great Grandma with the Paynes & Dautrich kiddos

Corry loves her Uncle Gary!

TEEGINS!

Beautiful Abby

The Graduate - Congrats Mr. Engineer In Training!

A little bit of clevage at the graduation party

Corry making a special card for Grandma Chebs

Celebrating mother's day a week late at Northshore Park - Uncle Olech couldn't be left out of the action.

The old, taped up microwave

The new stainless microwave

The old dishwasher

The new, quietest dishwasher in the world.  Okay - I can't verify this, but it is VERY quiet.

I will try to redeem myself with the blog posts, but no promises.