{Testing...Testing..}

My wonderful husband bought me a new Flip video camera last week!!! Emma has her Kindergarten graduation tomorrow...and I just couldn't imagine not having it saved forever!!! So tonight I thought I would give this a try. Hopefully I'll get good seats tomorrow...and I can share some of her program with you soon!!! :) Don't forget to pause the music @ the bottom!!!

{Field Trip}

Emma's class recently went on their last field trip of the year!! We packed a lunch and headed to St. Joe. We had a picnic by Lake Michigan, and then went to a local children's museum. It was a fun ending to a fantastic year!!!

Madison, Emma, Natalie, and "little Madison"

(that's what Emma's classmates call our Maddie!)
Playing on the beach

Emma's Class

Emma and her amazing teacher....Mrs. Rus!!!

Can you tell that she absolutely LOVES her teacher???

Fun at the Museum....

"Bubble Girl"

Phil testing his reflex skills...

BTW...there not to hot!!! :) Love ya babe...but I have to be honest!!!

The Local News reporters... :)

And last...face painting!!! We were a little bummed that there weren't professionals around to do the face painting. Phil gave it a try... And of course Maddie wanted a butterfly! :)

Emma kept it simple for me...

A cat, I can do...a butterfly, not so much!!! :)

{Sports-A-Thon}

Emma's school does a fun-fundraiser every year in the spring!!! The kids gather pledges from relatives and friends, and then ride around the school parking lot for 2 hours. Emma did 67 laps...which isn't bad considering the kindergartners had to work twice as hard with their little training wheels!!!! :)Maddie helped me count laps! :)
Water break!!

Emma and her friend Natalie

This was my "team!"

I helped keep track of their laps for the afternoon.

Yummy treats after a long afternoon of riding!

{Hey...Goat}

A few weeks ago we went down to Indiana to visit some friends. They live on a cute little farm, and have chickens, a cow, a horse, and Phil's favorite...goats!!! :)

Phil took this opportunity to live out his life long dream of milking goats!!! :)

First he wined and dined her....

Then...he started gettin' friendly...
:)

She agreed to take a picture with him...but she wouldn't look him in the eyes!! :)

Thanks Coughlin's for a fun afternoon!

{Mother's Day Gift}

Phil and the girls surprised me with a White flowering Crab apple Tree for Mother's Day!!!

The also bought me a hanging basket for the back yard...and new Mulch (yes...this made me excited!!!) for all our landscaping projects!! More pictures to come!! :) Some day it WILL look like this!!!! :)

Awana Awards

The girls were involved in Awana again this year. They enjoyed going with Nana and Bampa every Wednesday night....Thank you Mom & Dad!!!

Maddie was all business with her Cubbie vest on...actually I think she's mad b/c we made her wear the vest. She was anti-cubbie vest this year!!!

Cubbie bear was a little to close for comfort for our friend Audrey!

Maddie showing off her Cubbie ribbon!
Maddie (again...no smiles) and her Cubbie leader...Miss Monaaaaa
( you have to say it Oprah style!!!...it makes it so much more fun!!! :)

Next it was Emma's turn. She started Sparks this year!! She loved learning new and challenging verses. She says she enjoyed game time the most!!!

Cousin Luke...

Emma receiving her award

So proud...

Quick pics after the program

Finally...somewhat of a smile out of Mads!!

I think it was b/c we just told her we were heading to Culver's for dinner/ice cream!!!! :)

{$9.00}

Over the past year, I've been working really hard to help save our family money...especially when it comes to grocery shopping!!! I have been amazed at how much you can save with a little research...and a lot of black printer ink! :)

I don't usually share my finds...but when I came home one afternoon (after dropping off my purchases earlier in the day) Phil had arranged my items and taken a picture...so I thought I would share it!!

We have: 100 single boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese (which will make for great food donations in the fall) and 20 boxes of Capri Suns. 10 pouches in each box...so 200 pouches!!! That will come in handy this summer and also in the girls lunches next fall!!

Grand Total of $9.00

The mac and cheese was on sale, and I had coupons.. but the big bonus was that each 5 pack of M&C had a coupon attached for a free box of Capri suns!!! So I basically only paid for the M&C, which ended up being $2.25 for 5- 5 packs of m&c and 5 boxes of Capri suns. I did this 4 different times during the day and ended up with a basement full of deals!!! :)