Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Last ECFE Class

The twins' ECFE classes are finished for the summer.  I brought my camera to our last class to capture our memories and important people we've met.  I wanted to make sure I got a class picture and a picture with Kate and Matthew's and their first teacher.  

I am sad that our Friday class, Incredible Years, is over.  It went by too fast!  I have met some amazing moms who I've become great friends with from this experience.  I will definitely miss seeing them weekly at class.  I'm so thankful my county offers these classes for the kids and us adults, too!  It's been great for Kate and Matt to be in a classroom structured environment where they listen to a teacher or another adult, are around several other kids, learn to share and play with others, and separate a portion of time away from me.  Since I stay at home with the twins, I feel these experience are very important for the twins to have.

I am SO THANKFUL for Sherrie who was one of the aides in our class.  She was my saving grace for the parent/child separation portion.  Sherrie was the one person Kate felt comfortable with, and she could calm her down right away when I left the room.  She had the magic touch!

Kate and Matt playing with Sherrie at the beginning of class during free play.







This car garage was Matthew's favorite toy the whole year.  He played with it every class!


Art time!






Kate and Matt's buddy Jay

Friends Jay, Aubrey, and Izzy

The last month of classes Kate finally warmed up to the aide Norene.  She is also the aide in the twins' music class.  You'd think since Kate saw Norene twice a week she would have felt very comfortable with her earlier.


Fun with play-dough

Our class (minus a few mommies and toddlers)


ECFE teacher Margie and aide Sherrie (twins were sad to leave)


Matty and his teacher (too bad he wasn't wanting to smile)

I wish I would have gotten a picture with our Parent Educator, Susan, but the kids were being suborn and fighting pictures.  Susan was awesome and became a great source of parenting advice and resources for me. Susan attends the same church we go to, so I'm looking forward to continuing to see her.

I can't wait to start up more classes this fall!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Graduation - Way to go, Jenny!

The weekend of Mother's Day Kevin's sister, Jenny, graduated from college at the University of Northern Iowa.  Jenny graduated from UNI with a Biology major and hopes to further her education in Medical School in the future.  

We are so proud of Jenny's success at UNI both academically and on the UNI volleyball team.  We can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for Jen in this next step of her life. 

The four of us were able to attend the ceremony and grill-out afterwards to celebrate!

She Did It!




Aunt Jenny's 2 biggest fans!

Jen and her parents

Jen and Grandma Willms

Jenny and her boyfriend Drew

Proud siblings


Jenny and Grandma Bernhardt

Jenny and both grandmas

The proud family :)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

"Mama!"

{Mama}  
Love hearing that word! Celebrating Mother's Day reminded me how thankful I am to God for blessing me with these two little ones who call me Mama!  Spoken in the sweet, innocent voice of your children, it's the best word a mother could hear.  Truly in love!

my boy who has definitely stolen my heart!


Mother's Day 2013



{smooches from my 2 favorite munchkins}


Motherhood is definitely the best and most rewarding job, yet, the hardest and most challenging job all at the same time.  But like the rest of you moms out there, we wouldn't change a thing about this amazing responsibility we have been given the privilege of doing!

This year for Mother's Day, I thought it would be fun to think of a gift the twins could help make and give to their grandmas and great-grandmas.   I decided it would be fun to have Kate and Matt put their hand prints on a flowerpot.



Since it's a bit tricky to travel back to Iowa with pots already filled with flowers, I thought it would be fun to have the twins help plant the flowers with their grandmas.  Kevin had Friday off of Mother's Day weekend so we were able to travel back to Iowa on Thursday night.  This allowed me time on Friday to got shopping for planting supplies.  So on Friday morning, my parents and I headed to Earl May to picked out flowers with the twins.  Each grandma got a different type of flower and color.  The best part of our Earl May shopping trip for the kiddos was their popcorn!  Matthew chowed down!

Friday evening the twins planted their first pot with Great-Grandma Ilene.  Friday evening was the warmest day of Mother's Day weekend.  Matthew was more interested in "helping" than Kate.  She had more fun picking flowers and running around with Grandma Willms.  Matty absolutely loved digging and dumping the dirt into the pot with the shovel.  He worked very hard the whole time!

(Of course, I took A LOT of pictures this weekend!  I'll try and pick out my favorites without making the post too long of pictures.)


working hard with Great-Grandma Ilene

of course Great-Grandma Ilene got purple flowers as purple is her absolute favorite color! :)


Great-Aunt B helped, too!



Kevin and his grandpa Jim




Best Buds!  Katers LOVES her grandpas!

Great-Grandma with her grandson and great-grandson


{kisses}

tried getting a group shot afterwards

{two handsome boys}

Saturday morning Kate and Matt planted flowers with Grandma Joyce.  Matthew was definitely starting to get the hang of this planting thing.




got some help from grandpa, too



teamwork


Grandma with her two planting helpers



After that, the twins planted with Grandma Carol.









Pictures with grandma and her new flowerpot






such big smiles!

"You're funny, Grandma!"


I realized after the weekend was over that I didn't get a picture with Great-Grandma Willms with the twins and her flower.  So bummed!  I'll have to get one the next time we are back.


Flower planting was a lot of fun!  Having the twins participate in their gift made it all more special for me and the grandmas too!  Love making fun memories!