May 19

Hello May and the last days of school before summer!  Little Sweetie has had a BUSY month...our neighborhood swim team started up and now, all of sudden, it's like life thinks we need to be a prepandemic levels of activities.  I'm not ready for this!  I kind of liked the slow down.  But oh well, here we go!  Thankfully, we've been working to take on our new activity as safely as we can.  Momma and Daddy might be vaccinated, but Little Sweetie and Big Brother aren't yet.  But "risk management" is pretty much our middle name after the past year!

Swimming has started off great and we're so happy Little Sweetie is doing it again.  She loves it, it helps 

her meet more kids in the neighborhood, and it's helping strengthen her swimming ability.  We already see how much improvement she's made!

Practice time!

     

     

Time trials!

     

Showing some WILLPower and posting two PRs at her first meet!

With life slowly working it's way back to some type of normal, I am glad we can enjoy some of the things we used to.  Little Sweetie didn't get to experience Field Day last year when schools closed, so I was so glad she got to this year!

Hula-hooping queen!

And we got to go to our first birthday party in awhile!  And nothing could have been more fun for these girls than a cat-themed party.

     

Happy birthday T!

As the school year closes, so does our Girl Scout year.  I am so glad we were able to find ways to "make it work" and enjoy our time together as a troop!

Learning the phases of the moon with Oreos!

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Nature Walk at the Botanical Gardens!

     

Painting "telescopes" and listening to a presentation by Michelle Obama to all Girl Scouts!

We also have been sticking to some of our usuals to keep us busy as well!

     

     

     

With Swim Team, finding time to cook with Little Sweetie has been tough, so I am glad we found a night for her to make these "Shamrock" eggs!

Sometimes if you just give her the space to make a mess, she has the most creative play and entertains herself for hours!

Little Sweetie had a big treat today...she had school off and Big Brother didn't, so she had a special date with Dad.  They were supposed to go golfing but it got rained out.  Instead, she got to go rock climbing for the first time and she LOVED it!

     

A great Daddy-Daughter Day!

Height and Weight

Little Sweetie is big and strong at 54.4 pounds and 48.25 inches!

Everything about this girl makes my heart sing.

Personality

She's just fun and funny.  We're continuing to work on our "yet" mindset as we find that, after doing so well in school this year, she gets a little upset when she gets challenged.  But she's determined and curious and we can't wait to see how much she matures this second half of 7!

Developmental Milestones

Little Sweetie's standardized tests came back and she's doing well in all areas!  Now to keep that curious learning mind busy and challenged with new things.  

Trying out some No Stress Chess with Daddy!

Working on sewing a stuffed kitty cat!

Fun Tidbits

I had such a beautiful Mother's Day this month.  Little Sweetie decided she wanted to send me to "Hawaii" as my present, so we made a pretend beach and packed snacks.  We eventually got chased back inside by mosquitoes, but I felt all the love her in create gift!

My ticket to Hawaii!

     

My travel companion and I had a wonderful trip!

 

Happy Mother's Day to me (in case you wondered, Matching Family Pajamas are one of my love languages)!

Little Sweetie officially finishes school tomorrow and then gets to have a special week of fun activities with Daddy and I before Big Brother gets out of school.  Here's hoping the weather cooperates to let us get them in!

See you in June, 

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma

April 19

Hello April and Springtime!  We've been making the most of the beautiful weather and enjoying our family time together.  Since we didn't get to spend Spring Break as a family because of Big Brother's clinical trial travel, we decided to focus on family time during the long Easter weekend.  We were able to go on a Nature Walk, pick strawberries, celebrate Easter, and take some bluebonnet pictures (there weren't a tone of bluebonnets, but we tried our best)!  Finally, since Big Brother had school on Easter Monday but Little Sweetie didn't, we took her golfing for the first time!  

     

Great nature walk at the Spring Creek Greenway!

     

     

Lots of fun picking strawberries at Atkinson Farms!

     

     

     

All those strawberries then meant it was time for some strawberry jam!

Then it was time to prepare our hearts and minds for Easter!

Easter art!

     

Easter cookies!

Easter Bunny pictures!

Coloring Easter eggs!

     

Some spring flower painting!

And then it was Easter morning!

 

We came down in our Easter pajamas to see that the Easter Bunny had read Little Sweetie's letter and eaten a carrot!

     

     

     

Hunting hardboiled eggs inside!

             

      

Following scavenger hunt clues to...

...her Easter basket!

   

Such a generous Easter Bunny!

Outside plastic egg hunting!

My favorite little bunnies!

And then Momma made us all get dressed up and go take "bluebonnet" pictures...in a field with barely any bluebonnets...but hey, it's the thought that counts, lol!

A couple posed shots...

     

A few reality shots...

Family selfie...

...and, finally, a picture of the playground bribe I had to implement in order to get her in a dress for the pictures!

Big Brother had to go to school on Monday, but Little Sweetie still had a day left of Easter vacation, so we let her pick whatever activity she wanted to try.  And it turns out that Daddy might get a golfing buddy!

             

            

A great day with our little golfer!

She even got to have some special craft building time with Daddy!

Other fun things this month included Girl Scout time and lots of gardening!

Yoga and zen garden session!

Virtual cookie taste test!

     

Attempting to start an apple tree seemingly, planting a pot of wild flowers, and checking on our vegetable garden!

We also got to go cheer on L at his baseball game this month!

God-sibling love!

And some really big news, Little Sweetie's class was in charge of one of the school Masses this month.  Not only did the entire grade get to sit in the choir area and sing, but Little Sweetie got to be one of the readers at Mass!  She did a wonderful job.

     

Love faithful and joyful heart.

Height and Weight

Little Sweetie is big and strong at 50 pounds and just over 48 inches!

Personality

Happy and opinionated, confidant and curious.  Every day with this girl is an adventure!

     

Scientist Sister checking out some geodes!

Developmental Milestones

Still doing great in school (though we still talk about taking our time and checking our work!) and showing fantastic math and reading comprehension.  She actually has her first standardized tests this week, so we're interested to see how where her developmental level is.  She also keeps growing and growing...where did my baby go???

Another tooth lost...slow down baby girl!

Fun Tidbits

Check out these AWESOME siblings.  I will never tire of pictures of them (or of making them wear matching shirts).

     

So much love.

May will bring the end of school and our summer adventures.  We need to start making plans for camps and activities to keep us busy!

See you next month, 

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma