While we were here... watching this important event of Mason's...

Ms. Willow was at our local Pet Kennel... we were all a bit nervous... first time the fur baby had been away from us and we didn't want her to think we'd left her. But it seems Willow had a good time and she was so excited to see us... she was jumping and wiggling around with big smiles.  We were just as excited to have her home too!

The kennel gave us her report card for her visit... so fun!

and then they also attached some photos of her visit... love it!

She was a tired girl when she came home, she just crashed. Today she's back to her favorite spot... soaking up the sunshine on the deck.

Hard to believe another year of school has come and gone.  Two cute kiddos excitedly headed off to school one August morning...

And then in a blink of an eye two cute kiddos headed off one May morning to school... one being her last walk to elementary school and the other, his last walk with his sister to elementary school and the last of third grade...

Hard to believe he's NINE!!

Happy Birthday Little Bug... we love you so!

All three of them have gotten into Minecraft gaming... in fact last weekend they said they EACH had to have their own copy so they could play together... after much begging and pleading went on and a handful of chores were accomplished it was bought.  After it was all set up on the 3 computers I thought... "This could work out well for me... I might have a moment to escape to my neglected office for some crafting!"

I have extra leverage for room cleaning as well... love it!

I had to run over to school this week after hours to take a picture of the front for a project I'm working on and Little Bug wanted to head over with me.  While I was snapping a few pictures he immediately went over to the dandelion patch...

Talk about a time warp... I was instantly transported in my mind to him as an almost 2 year old doing the same thing...

Be still my heart... hard to believe the "baby" is 2 days from 9 years old!!

We are down to the last few weeks of school and instead of things winding down they just speed up... make that warp speed at times.

Starting with Mother's Day just a week ago... Ainsley was on the couch with a fever and determined to be at school the next day... she hasn't missed a single day for 5th grade and is determined to win the perfect attendance bike!  Stewart was on the couch with a pulled back from digging up the sprinkler pipe in the backyard... and I spent the evening making apple pie muffins for Ainsley's classroom. A perfect day taking care of my family... my favorite place to be. The only thing I requested was no dinner making... Jimmy Johns subs for dinner for 3 of the 4 McFarlands.

Monday was Ainsley's state report presentation which consisted of a diorama, a poster, her researched report (which was mentioned earlier this month), state reflected treats, and a 5 min presentation.

She was quite pale and still had her fever but she wanted to head to school... I do so love her determination when it comes to school!!  Poor thing, when I asked her how she was later in the day she said, "I didn't eat any lunch and just laid on the slide at recess"  She did a great job on her report... I snuck in her classroom to hear her present it.

The fever went away a few days later and she was back to her usual self just in time for Crazy Hair day at school...

Friday the kiddos did their last piano recital for the year... nerves got the best of Little Bug and he forgot part of his music but he continued on and finished strong.  We said goodbye to their Piano teacher... who is retiring... now to find someone who was just as good!

Kiddos wanted to do a duet again with Daddy... love that he enjoys doing them with them as well!

Saturday was the Birthday Party for the Little Bug who will be NINE!!  It was funny... his classmate also had a bday party on the same day... at the same place... but thankfully right before Walker's.  So for FOUR hours the boys played lazer tag and games to win tickets!!

He's big into Transformers so of course we had to have a Transformers theme... here's his invite...

Birthday cake...

It was a small group this year 6 boys... but whether its 6 or 26 the noise level is just about the same!!  Fun times...

Stewart won a jackpot of 1000 tickets so with combined tickets at the end of the night... Little Bug was excited to be able to trade them in for a snake that was as big as he...

I think Spring has officially arrived at last...

Although I love seeing everything in bloom... the never ending yard work season has begun. As well as itchy, sneezey noses for Little Bug and I.

Oh my what a week... so very glad to finally have the weekend here to recuperate!!

This week Ainsley had 3 hours of homework just about every night !..not to mention her state report was due... she had 2 ISATs to study and take, get her AR reading goal and of course there is the commitment of Volleyball and Piano.

This was the scene...

I'm typing up her State Report... she's using the online dictionary to get spelling homework done and Stewart is figuring out how to do her math assignment so he can explain it to her later... and looming in the foreground... science and social studies homework.

Oh my seriously... 3 hours of homework each night plus all the mentioned above??? It was seriously ridiculous... 11 year olds should not feel such stress or have this much stress put on them!! She had many late nights and early mornings! Luckily she has good parents to sit with her and help her figure out what to prioritize, encouraging her to keep on track, being able to answer questions and giving her the talks of, "It will be okay... we will figure it out... r e l a x... just do your best that's all that matters."

Onto the weekend of making the state report poster, presentation notes and shoebox diorama.

We spent majority of the weekend outside getting a start on the outside projects... and soaking up the sunshine.  Making Ms. Willow a happy girl...

She loves when we are all home together... and are all in the same spot!

Walker was a happy boy to have a wee taste of upcoming summer... sprinklers and getting wet.  We turned on the sprinklers for the year and yes you will notice that we do have 2 different colors of mulch... started adding new brown mulch to the front yard beds... 20 bags and then we ran out... had to go back to Lowes later in the day to finish up.

We had our first big casualty by dog this past week.  Too much of this was going on...

and right under their noses Willow was having an awfully good time trying to get their attention by playing with Walker's shoe and since someone didn't put said shoes away or didn't let her know it wasn't hers she decided to play a bit more...

And the velcro tab was just too tasty to leave alone and down the throat it went... evidently this is what finally got their attention. There was lots of shrieking, "Willow ate my shoe!!" and "Bad girl etc".  Little Bug was less than thrilled to learn that it was his own doing and was at fault for not paying attention nor putting the shoes in the laundry room when they were taken off. We told him well too bad you'll have to wear them... since the velcro was actually holding them on the foot, they fell off every time he took a step and so we reluctantly went off to the store.

Got the next size of shoe and much to his disapproval once you get into size 4's it's time for "big kid" aka non velcro shoes... punishment enough he'll actually have to tie them... something he's not thrilled with at all!