Hooray for Charlotte the Preschool Graduate!

May was a big month for Charlotte!

 I try to be a pretty objective parent- most kids aren't geniuses or Olympians.  I think it's our job as parents to encourage and to give them the skills to do hard things, but still be kind and humble. With that being said I was surprised at how burst-my-buttons-proud of Charlotte I was after her preschool graduation!

Mother's Day program- super cute flower!

Graduation program!

Garden stone and silhouette 

My sweet friend Kelli took the twins for a play date so I could go with just Miles.  He surprised me by sleeping in his car seat- he rarely does that anymore.  Matt and the grandparents were super sad to miss it so I wanted to have a free arm to record it.

So excited!

I teared up a little.  I was so surprised I don't really cry when I'm happy or proud emotional often (mad or frustrated yes).  These teachers are awesome!  I was constantly impressed with the things Charlotte was learning and the art projects and programs were over-the-top awesome.  They truly have a gift for this age group!

And this is why I was going to burst my buttons.  Mrs. McClure has something like 48 preschool students who were doing an easy reader program since January at their own pace.  Charlotte being my guinea pig child I thought we should read one book for a week and then turn it in.  She quickly informed me that other kids were getting TONS of books every day.  I let her get 5 a day,  she kept begging me to up the # and reading each book over and over so her teacher mom was sure she had mastered the new sounds.  By the end she was getting 20 books 3x a week, and then we started going to the library and reading my collection, after reading the teacher's set twice.  She would swoop in as soon as I was nursing and sit by me the whole time reading book after book.  I think Miles and I deserve an award for listening to every.single.sounded.out.word at the beginning.  It took a lot of patience and persistence!  After the first 50 or so her reading started to flow and the comprehension was much better.  I never pushed her to read even though I knew she was probably ready because I wanted it to be something new and exciting at school. Mrs. McClure's reading contest was perfect for Charlotte's personality.  She thrived with the positive recognition.  We had a lot of chats about doing your best but not bragging or making other kids feel bad.  It was a close race.  3 kids were neck and neck most of the time.  I kept telling her I was already so proud of her for learning to read and working so hard.  She's much more competitive than her mother, she wanted to the the VERY TOP reader.  That last weekend that's all she wanted to do.  Well 457 books later she did it!!! I really hope the other 2 kids weren't too sad about it. I honestly would have been thrilled with 50 or even less.  I was so impressed with how well she is reading and how hard she worked!

Charlotte and her new friend Pearl.  I love that she has the same old-fashioned name as 2 of my grandmas.

Charlotte and her carpool preschool friend Porter.  He is the sweetest boy, I honestly loved having him in our car every week.  Thanks for stepping up to the plate Porter and Emily when cousin Tanner and Auntie Kori had to move!

I sure love my Charlotte girl!  She has grown so much, and is over the top ready for kindergarten!

9th Anniversary- the temple, the dress, the dinner, the flu

We have a tradition to take the kids to the Mesa temple where we were married near our anniversary date each year.  This time we stopped at Nielson's and used one of Charlotte's free frozen custard coupons from preschool.  

Love them!  Love this place!

I had the wrong lens to get the whole temple and I didn't want to block the main door...

We stopped in the visitors center and listened to the presentation in front of the Christus statue.  One of the sister missionaries asked Charlotte what was happening in a picture of Christ healing a blind man.  Charlotte responded, "Jesus is unblinding that man."   

I was so sure the dress wouldn't fit this year.  Curse me for being so young and skinny when I got married!  It's been much harder to lose the last 10 pounds this time but despite being tight it did zip!  It did give me the motivation to do an ab challenge in June.  I wasn't sure I had ab muscles in there any more after all the stretching they've done in the last 6 years of having 4 kids!

The girls always love the trying on the dress tradition.  Charlotte asked me if she could wear my dress when she gets married.  Abby consistently tells me that, "Me and Auntie Marti need to find nice boys to marry." And Olly tells me he doesn't want to get married, "Cause I don't like to kiss on the lips, except you cause you're already married."

Matt had a terrible flu for a solid week or more- the week of Mother's day and our anniversary, poor guy!  He even took off a few days of work which he never does.  He even got the flu shot and I didn't.  He was actually home all day on our anniversary but in bed feeling dreadful.  We did go on a date but he was so miserable.  We tried Blue Lemon in Gilbert.  We were unimpressed- the food was very bland and the service was terrible.  It was also more casual than we were anticipating- definitely not anniversary date worthy.  The cake bites at Sweet Tooth Fairy, and having a night out were still worth it.  We went on a second date when Matt was feeling better to Roaring Fork in Scottsdale.  The food was awesome and Matt was feeling well enough to enjoy it.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Matt and I together!  Our available photographers are too small to trust with my camera!  I'm so lucky to be married to Matt for 9 years.  It's hard to believe it's been so long!  I'm angling for a 10th anniversary trip for next year.  I've been so trip deprived, I'm planning 3 separate trips to pitch to Matt and crossing my fingers one of them will work out!