There are so many times during the day that my kids just make me laugh.  It truly is one of the best parts of parenting, just laughing with your kids.  Last week Juliana noticed an old necklace of Steve's.  She said he should wear it, and he said he doesn't want to anymore.  To that she replied, well you should just call Good Ol' Tom.  For those of you who are not familiar with Good Ol' Tom, he's a guy on TV that does one of those, "send in your gold and I'll send you cash" outfits.  He's super dry and his commercials, well lets just say they are far from entertaining.  But I guess he gets his message out when a seven year old takes notice.

This week there has been a lot of talk about people in hollywood with their being several deaths.  Juliana is interested in Michael Jackson, since his songs are constantly being played, but before his death she had never heard of him.  Also this week, Billy Mays passed away.  Now let me tell you, that one has hit Juliana hard.  She is upset and is worried about who will sell Oxy Clean!  I think it's a sign of the times when she's never heard of Michael Jackson, but is very familiar with an infomercial actor.

T-ball season has ended.  Tyler had a lot of fun picking flowers, jumping around.... um I mean Tyler had a lot of fun playing T-Ball.  It's not always the most exciting game as there's a lot of standing around and waiting, but when you get to bat, well then it's all worth it.  He loved his team and his coach too.  Of course Steve was his coach and I think he found himself being more of a referee most days.  At one point he said it was more like a circus than a baseball game, but what can be expected of 5 and 6 year olds surrounded by their friends.  

Here are some pictures to remember his first season:

We had a fabulous week full of changes in our house.  First off the kids finished the school year.  They both got wonderful report cards, although they both have issues with focus, but overall everything was positive.  They are now officially 1st and 3rd graders!  It's hard to believe, feels like only yesterday they were toddling around the house, now they are moving up so quickly in school, I am afraid to blink.  

Tyler mastered riding his bike without training wheels this week.  A few weeks ago he was starting to get the gist of it, but we've been busy and it's been rainy so he hasn't been practicing.  The other day the sun came out and we headed outside.  Within five minutes he was riding up and down the street on his own.  Now he just has to work on stopping. Right now he just rides into the curb and bails, he does it well though, never gets a scratch.  Juliana also started riding her big bike she got from Gigi and Lenny last summer.  She was very happy to see that she's grown enough to touch her toes to the ground.  

The other big news in our house is we got the kids a kitten for their end of school year gift.  Our other animals were all here well before the kids, and although Miles the cat and Lucy the dog tolerate the kids, they aren't best friends with them.  We also have Austin the cat who is terrified of them.  So I went to the animal hospital my sister works at and adopted a six week old grey kitten and the kids named her Summer. Today is the first day of summer so it seemed appropriate.  She is absolutely adorable and I can already see that she and the kids are going to be best buds, and after all, that's the best part of having a pet.

At our tag sale on Sunday Juliana and her cousin Erin decided to collect money for charity.  They worked together and had a plan on what to do.   They sold cookies and lemonade and all the money went to St. Judes Children's hospital.  They made signs and were very cute about it.  Juliana decided if you bought one drink you could get free refills, but only with your original cup.  You should of seen all the kids riding around the neighborhood on their bikes holding onto their paper cups.  That girl is going to own a very profitable business someday!

Whew...  what a weekend!  It all began with Tyler's last t-ball game of the season.  Every time his team went up to bat, he hugged me while he waited for his turn.  I told him, real baseball players hug their mom, I know it won't be that way when he's a teenager, so I'll take all I can get now.  Then we had the girl scout picnic for Juliana, it was great fun, at a state park, the kids had a stream to play in and Juliana was covered from head to toe in mud.  But she had a smile on her face the entire time, so who cares if she resembled the swamp thing.  This morning we had a neighborhood tag sale, so much work, then Juliana left for a birthday party, Tyler had a play date, and Steve and I got ready to host a neighborhood bbq.  It was great fun, but we are all so exhausted.

Last night when I was putting Tyler to bed he was reading to me, he was doing so great and I was so excited for him.  I told him I was proud of him and he said he was proud of himself.  It was a great Mommy/Son moment and I tucked him in and gave him a kiss.  I left his room feeling so happy and proud of him.  A minute later he bumped his head, so I went in to comfort him.  Well as I was doing that I noticed behind him on his wall was his name, written twice on the wall in huge letters.  Needless to say, my warm moment was replaced with stern words of why we don't write on walls. 

I picked the kids up from school today and as we were getting in the car I mentioned that there is only one more week of school.  They both got sad looks on their faces and said that they don't want school to end.  Juliana said 2nd grade is the most fun grade ever, and she doesn't want to go to third and take her cmt's.  Tyler said he wants to go to school forever and ever, even when he's dead, he'll go to Dead School.  And that was that.

Also they both had field day at school this past week, it was cold and rainy, but they and all the other kids in school had a blast.  I'll post some pictures. 

How many more days?

School is almost out for the summer, we are counting down the days.  Only 8 more days to go... that's not counting the weekend, I can never remember if your supposed to count that.  The kids are excited for the summer.  Juliana is sad to be leaving her teacher and the second grade, she loves it, and isn't so keen on change.  Tyler, well he doesn't look back, he just goes forward, and that's that.  I personally can't wait, I love the summer, the heat, and most of all having the kids home with me everyday.  We have so much planned this summer, but also have days planned to just sit around and do nothing.  Well not nothing, there's always something going on in this house, but nothing scheduled.