She's 12!

Happy 12th Birthday Olive!!  These 12 years have flown by so fast.  You've been along for the ride of nearly all of our family adventures.  You lived in 4 different states, 6 different houses, different school, made friends in many states and have always been up for any adventure that came your way.  You have made parenting easy and helped us learn how to do the job.  We love you and are so proud of you!

Olive loves bows, teddy bears, volleyball, her friends and all the accessories.  She’s got a plan for everything.  If you need a shopping buddy or a helper, she’s your girl.  She works hard and sets her own goals.  The future is bright for our favorite girl.

Last Week of School Favorites

The last week of school was BUSY.  We all had events and we all finished on different days.  We packed in the fun and the memories.

My last day of kindergarten was also my 10th year of teaching milestone.  I learned to love kindergarten!  It's the sweetest age, the kids come in ready to learn and I'm so happy to be there.  I can't wait to not be a newbie teacher next year.

Last day of 6th grade.  She's ready to be done, but feeling sad to wrap up her elementary school years.

Last day of 3rd and thrilled for Summer.

Fletch won the friendliest friend award which felt like a big deal when you changed schools and had to make all new friends this year.  He's a sweet guy!

He had a great teacher this year!

Honor roll, Tech award and friend award.  Go Fletch!

Leo's PreK teachers surprised us with graduation pictures of the kids.  He looks so grown up!

Last day of school and ready for lots of home days!

Since all of our schedules were different, I was able to volunteer at Olive's school on her last day.  I helped serve pizza and worked a game station.  It was so fun to see her with her friends.

My favorite 6th grader!

The school planned tons of fun things for their last days.

I got some sweet end of the year gifts and gift cards.

Leo had an end of the year program.  He knew all the words and the motions.  It was adorable.

Big year for both of us - me learning how to be a teacher/mom and him learning how to be in school full days.  It was a great year for both of us.  We are SO excited to go to kindergarten together next year!

So proud of Leo and how well he adjusted to going to school this year.  He learned so much!

Whew!  We needed this week to recover from last week!  We are all so excited for Summer :)

6th Grade Graduation

Olive had her 6th grade graduation ceremony last week.  It took some serious scheduling to be there because it was my last day of school and a busy time for all of us.  Thankfully, we made it happen and Kevin and I were there to support our favorite girl.

It's hard to believe Olive is headed to juior high!  I only cried once during the ceremony :)  It was sweet to see her cute friends graduating, too.

I loved seeing the little kid + 6th grader picture slide show for each class.

Olive worked SO hard this year!

She earned a distinguished medal for earning straight As all year.

She took honors classes and still managed to keep her grades high.

She was on the Mathletes team and earned 2nd place in their division.

She worked in the preschool and was a 4th grade tutor.

She was nominated to be on the school Kindness Crew.

And she volunteered to do several Canva projects for her teachers.

Her teachers have always had the nicest things to say about her and this year was no different.

Olive is a super student!

She found one of her buddies.

Favorite teacher photo op.

Graduation nails.

Her homeroom teacher. 

Throwback to her 4th grade teachers.  We weren't allowed in the buildling much that year so I was thankful they took end of the year selfies with their students.

Her #1 favorite teacher of all time.  I could go on and on about this wonderful lady, but simply she inspired Olive to work hard, challenge herself and always believed in Olive.  5th grade was amazing because of her and her dedication to her students.

I planned a simple and sweet graduation dinner for Olive at home.  She didn't want anything big - her favorite meal with a few graduation surprises.

The graduation Squishmallow yeti was a hit!

She's so excited for the next chapter - junior high!

4 Field Days

We just wrapped up four fun field days and the weather mostly cooperated for all of them.

Olive's was first.  She was chosen as a volunteer for one whole day for the younger kid's field day and then had hers the next day.  She loved to help the little kids.  On her big day - It rained and poured and then the sun came out.  She participated in flippy cup, wheel barrow races and tug of war.  Her class brought home the big trophy and bragging rights.  Thankfully, Kevin could be there for her all day.

Besties since 3rd grade.

Field Day #2.  The rain stayed away and Fletcher had his first field day at ECS.  He had a great time with his buddies.  Kevin got to be there and watch him play.

My class got to go have field day with the preschool and look who I found!  Leo!  He was so proud to show me his field day shirt.  We were in different groups going through different stations, but it was so fun to bump into him throughout the afternoon.

The popsicle station was a BIG hit.

So much fun, but so exhausting.  I'm glad to have these fun days behind us.

Trader Joes Favorites

Our closest Trader Joes is 90 minutes away in Louisville, KY.  We brought a big cooler along on our road trip with the intention of filling it up at Trader Joes.  Our plan worked perfectly.  I bought a fair amount of frozen things which kept the refrigerator things perfectly cold in the car cooler until we got home that night.  We got to try many new things and can't wait to go back.  The friendly staff laughed when we told them we were from Evansville.  Apparently they have met nearly everyone from Evansville shopping at the store.

I'll show you all the things we got and give our review.  We spent $100 and got tons of food.  I bought a $3.99 oversized canvas tote.  It held our whole cart full with just a few items to carry out.  It worked out perfectly for our cooler/road trip situation.  I will probably leave it in my car so I'm prepared for our next trip.  Kevin also wants you to know that the beer options at Trader Joes were awesome!  He found a lot of rare, local and unique beers to try.

We enjoyed all of the frozen dinners!  It took 3 packages to make enough for a family dinner.  They cost about $4/package.  We'd definitely get the penne again.  I served it with grilled chicken.  The kids said the rigatoni was a little too green and less fettucini than they were hoping for.

The Bulgogi Beef had far less beef than the picture showed, but it was good.  We added some sauce to add flavor and probably wouldn't repurchase it.  Kevin was hoping it would be really flavorful and it was pretty mild. The corn was yummy!

Yum!  I added eggs when we ate it as a side for dinner.

All of the produce was really good and fresh.

The salad kits were AMAZING.  We'd likely go back just for a salad stock up.  We got to sample the Sweet Chili Mango Salad in store.  It's a little spicer than I prefer, but the rest of the family loved it.  Fletcher would tell you that he doesn't like salad, but he LOVES this salad.

Both delicious.  I'm craving Casesar salad every day thanks to this kit.

Kevin grabbed this to shred for taco night.  Yum!

The tiny cookies were fun, but we probably wouldn't repurchase.  Olive thought they might be fun in a trail mix or on top of ice cream.  The boys LOVED the PBJ dippers.

Kevin loves this kind of BBQ sauce.  No one else does, but he's excited about it.

We have a running list of Trader Joes items to try and make sure to buy items for our next visit.

What is your favorite Trader Joes must haves?

Leave them in the comments and I will add them to my list.