First few weeks of summer

These first few weeks of summer have been very busy! My mom officially retired and completed her last week of school after 34 years of teaching at the same high school.  We surprised her at Francescas and celebrated with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  I truly give my mom credit for her work ethic.  All those years of teaching, and she still managed to look on the bright side of her job and never complain.  Most days I think she truly enjoyed her job, her co-workers, and students. I truly mean it when I say that my mom always put 100% into her job and 110% into our family. I know my mom being a teacher was the main influence in my sister and I becoming teachers.  (Or, maybe it was just the summers off...ha,ha..)  CONGRATS MOM!!

On that note, I officially finished the school year! It was a great feeling to pack up my classroom knowing that I will be off for the whole year. I know it probably won't really hit me until the fall when school is starting again.  Here is a picture of me on the last day of school.  Ray had flowers and a balloon waiting for me when I got home.  So sweet!

I have been really busy these first few weeks.  I had a garage sale which went really well.  I really cleared out a lot of things that I wanted to get rid of, made some money, and donated the rest!  I planned to have my garage sale on  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and I was happy because the first two days went great and then it rained on Saturday.  It was a lot of work, and I was so happy to have my mom's help, but it was worth it!

Last week, Ray and I took Kenley to Wisconsin Dells for 4 nights.  We had a great time and were going non-stop the whole time we were there.  I don't know how Kenley kept up without any naps during those few days.  I was exhausted by the time we went to bed each night!  We went to the water parks, the deer park, the little zoo, exploratory museum, mini-golfing, and on the duck boats.  I think Kenley was at the perfect age to start being able to enjoy these things and the highlights for her (and us) were anything to do with the water and feeding the deer and a giraffe.  It was a really nice little get-away for the three of us.  I was so happy that we got some time together before the baby is born.  Next time our family vacation will be for four!

 

 

 

 

 

We started Mom-and-Tot swim lessons this week with Katie and Kayla. Unfortunately, they have already been cancelled 2 days because of the weather, but we are hoping to be able to finish out the week. I'm enjoying my days off so far, but I think I over-estimated how much I would be able to do each day with having a toddler and being 8 months pregnant! Things are getting tougher physically and I'm really tired even though I have been able to sleep in. Can't believe less then 6 weeks until I meet the new man in my life!

Room Reveals

I mentioned Kenley's transition to her new Big Girl Room a while ago, and I finally have pictures to post!  Kenley has been doing really well transitioning from a crib to a bed, and she has only gotten out of bed once or twice in the middle of the night.  There have been a few times that I've had to sleep with her, but mostly because of thunderstorms, or a few days when she was sick.  I think she really likes her new room, and she has been spending more time playing in it lately.

As for the baby's room, I love the way it is turning out. I will take some pictures when it's finished. I didn't think I would like a "boy" room as much as I loved Kenley's room, but I do!  I think it is so cute and perfect for our baby boy.  I love the neutral colors, and a combination between an animal, abc, and number theme.  I love how involved Ray has been with making the kid's rooms perfect. There is something really cute about seeing your husband get excited about a pink ceiling fan, and spending hours looking at crib bedding sets until we both agreed on the perfect one.

We also turned our laundry room into a laundry room, office, work-out room, and pet room.  How the smallest room in our whole house got turned into accomodating so much seemed impossible, but we made it work!  It might not seem very impressive, but it's fuctional and works for what we need it to.  We are happy with the results, and we have done a lot of clearing out and re-organizing to make it work.

We even managed to clean out our garage a few weeks ago, and I am planning to have another garage sale soon.  I am planning on selling a lot of Kenley's baby stuff even though it makes me really sad.  We just don't have room to be storing everything forever for the "what if" of having a 3rd child.  Which, I realize could lead me to a whole new post, so I will leave it at that for today!