May 17 is finally here!

May 17 finally came! Lyla has been looking forward to this day for months and months. My family was in town and Eric's family came Friday night. Saturday morning while I got the food ready for the party, Eric took the girls and his family to Pinkerton Park for the City of Franklin's "Touch a Truck". It was something about the City of Franklin's Streets and Solid Waste Department. I'm not really sure, but, they got to get in several big tractor-type things.


As you can see, they're not afraid. They'll do most anything.
This tree was some kind of sprinkler. That was pretty neat.

They had fun at the park. They got back just in time to put the burgers on the grill.

Graduation Day

Our little baby is now ready for kindergarten! I can't believe it. It seems like just last fall I was taking her to preschool for the first time. She was only 8 months old when I started teaching preschool and she starting going too! She couldn't even crawl yet! Now she's 5 years old and ready to go off by herself all day long for 5 days every week! She keeps telling me that in kindergarten she will go to school for 5 days and then only have 2 days off. It's going to be an adjustment for me to get in the school mode. While your kids are little and you stay at home you have such freedom to have such a relaxed schedule. We did have preschool 3 days a week but on Monday and Friday we could do whatever we pleased, including not getting up at 7am. It will also be an adjustment to have Lyla by herself all week long. She depends a lot on Grace for her entertainment and so do I. I want to make the most of this summer and really try to enjoy our time together. It won't be long before I won't even have her to myself during the summertime. It really does go fast! Everyone says that but it really does and you don't even realize it's happening until it's gone.

Here are some pictures from the graduation ceremony at preschool on Thursday. It was very sweet! Grace was looking forward to this for weeks in advance. They really practiced a lot at preschool to sing their songs and say their poems and verses just right. She didn't understand why she couldn't take her cap and gown home to play dress-up with. She doesn't understand why I can't just go buy her one at Wal-Mart to play with either. She did receive a child's bible, her tassel, and a certificate of graduation. My camera didn't take very good pictures because of the lighting so I'm only including the after-shots. A friend of mine that has a better camera is going to give me her pictures of the actual ceremony on cd. I'll post those when I get them.

So very proud! Big Sis and Little Sis...Lyla kept asking when it was going to be her turn to go up on the stage.
Best friends...Grace, Addie and Grace Dyer...We need to keep in touch!
Her new dress, a graduation gift.
Best friends...Grace, Abby and Noah...They've grown up together since babies. We'll have to save this picture for their high school graduation!
Abby and Grace, they're so proud of their new Bible.
Mimi, Grace and Papoo...They made the trip to see the graduation and for Lyla's birthday weekend. It's always nice to have them in town. I get so much done!
Grace, Eric, Lyla and Jenny

The First Scooby Party

On Tuesday we had Lyla's friend party at our preschool. We invited her class to stay after school to play on the playground and have cupcakes and scooby snacks. Lyla loves Scooby so everything this week is centered around that theme for Lyla's big 3 year old birthday. She's been looking forward to this since Grace's birthday in January. Here are some of the best pictures of her party at school.

Thank you to all of our great preschool friends! Lyla loved playing with you and sharing her Scooby cupcakes with you. We appreciate the fun gifts you brought to Lyla as well.

Don't mind the panties

After the play on Saturday the girls wanted to play together, of course. Anytime they see each other they expect to spend the entire day together. So, Reesi stayed over for a while. They rode bikes, played dolls, colored and then ended up in the backyard just relaxing. It was too cute not to get a picture of. They were just laying there in the shade picking 3 leaf clovers "for good luck". Ahhh...the carefree days of childhood..........

Which reminds me of something funny Lyla said the other day. We were riding in the car and out of no where she said, "I'm hatin' bein' a kid." I say, "What? What are you talking about? Why do you hate being a kid?" She says, "It's irrwitatin' me." (translation-"irritating") She cracks me up.

Sleeping Beauty

On Saturday Joni and I took Grace and Reesi to see a production of Sleeping Beauty. It was really fun. The girls loved it. I think the mean fairy was their favorite. Joni asked me twice when the 7 dwarfs were going to be coming on and I thought she was joking. About 3/4 of the way through the play she finally figured out there aren't 7 dwarfs in Sleeping Beauty! She was mixing Sleeping Beauty of Snow White together! I thought that was so funny. I can understand not really knowing the story of Sleeping Beauty very well, but I thought everyone knew the story of Snow White! ha ha ha Anyway, we had lunch outside at McDougal's after the play and then went home. I have always loved going to see plays so I hope to pass that love of the theater on to Grace and Lyla.

Moment's with Mom Project

Every year at preschool we have something made to give/sell the moms for Mother's Day. We actually send a note home to the dads giving them the opportunity to purchase a special gift for the moms. In the past we had a photographer come take "face shots" of the kids in a candid sort of way. Then she put the pics in a matte and wrote a bible verse on it. Everyone loved them. The pictures were always great. A couple of years ago she quit doing it though. Fortunately for me, my director thought of me when she was deciding what to do for the preschool moms. She actually asked me to paint a canvas for all 90+ moms! I didn't think I could get that large of a project done in just a few weeks so I suggested the frame in the above picture. So, last year was my first year for this preschool project. Everyone really loved them so I was given the opportunity to do them again this year. Last year the Asst. Dir. took the pictures but this year we had a photographer come take them. So I ended up making about 87 pictures frames this year. They match last year's frame but with a different verse. Everyone seemed to love them again. My painted canvases and picture frames can be seen at www.jennygardner.smugmug.com.

Moments with Mom Two's Class

We had a "Moments with Mom" party in Lyla's class at preschool too. She made a handprint for me on a tile that was very sweet. I actually teach the other two's class at our preschool so, unfortunately, there's no surprise in it for me. It was still sweet. The card was made in Lyla's Sunday school class for Mother's day.