Mackenzie finishes up 2nd grade

I figured since I had a post about Jenna's graduation, I needed to have a post about Mackenzie's accomplishments as well!

Her last day of school was this past Monday, but Friday before that they had an awards assembly to honor the kids in 2-4 grade who had made "A" honor roll, etc. Mackenzie ended up earning a certificate for having the highest GPA in her class for the year, which means she also made "A" honor roll the entire year. We were very proud of her accomplishments!

Mackenzie with some of her friends:


Not a great picture, but here she is with her certificate for making honor roll:


With her teacher, Mrs. Smith:


Last day of school:

Before & After

We've been working on window treatments to dress the house up a bit before we sell. Thought I'd share a couple before & after pictures with you.

Our bedroom











The dining room

Would this stress you out?

Just a day in the life of the Palmers! :)
My girls were helping me out by shredding a TON of papers today & while I was downstairs cleaning, the boys got into the bag of shredded papers & had a blast (not sure where the girls went?!). I guess it's a good thing it's just paper, right? It could be worse.

Jenna graduates

Today was Jenna's graduation. I can't believe I have 2 kids that are done with kindergarten now! Here's some pics from this morning:


Getting ready to ride the bus for the last time this year (yes, she was crying....she was mad I wouldn't let her take her jewelry box to school)


The entire kindergarten bunch:


Getting her diploma:


Some of her friends from class:


Her teacher, Mrs. Lee

The funniest poem!!

Mackenzie told me they had to write a poem today at school. This is what she wrote:

My mom is like a bee
because she is almost always busy

My dad is like a lizard
because he is lazy

My brother, Trevin, is like a monkey
because he climbs on everything

My sister, Jenna, is like a dog
because she is always hungry

My teacher is like a dolphin
because she is very smart

Alligator

I don't think I ever told about the alligator we had in the river in Riverside. A couple weeks ago a 6-7 foot alligator made it's way into the sleugh (channel) in downtown Riverside. One of the news channels showed up to do a story on it, and lots of people from Riverside showed up to watch to see what happened. Mostly those "in charge" stood around and talked about what to do, but they wouldn't do anything while everyone was there. My opinion is that they didn't want everyone to see them make fools of themselves, but they claim it could be dangerous if the alligator decided to come up on shore. They cleared everyone out around 6:30 p.m. and said they were going to bait some traps & try to capture it that night to re-locate it somewhere else. I wasn't the least bit surprised to find out the next day that they hadn't been successful in capturing it, and it had left the sleugh. I did read later that they saw it again in the next couple days over by the apartments we used to live in. I have never heard for sure if it was ever caught (I highly doubt it), but I have heard rumors that someone shot it. We'll probably never know for sure, but I do know that I will think twice about getting in the water around here :)

Tom tried to take the girls swimming last week over by the apartments by where they used to swim when we lived there before, but they were smart & said "No Way!" I can't believe he even tried to get them to swim there!

Here's a couple pictures from the big day...

Landscaping pics

For those that asked, here are some pics of the landscaping we did while my parents were here:

Easter egg hunt pictures

Here are some long overdue pictures from some of our Easter egg hunts:

Snow

We did get some actual snow this winter down here in Alabama! I was impressed. Of course the kids went out to play in it. This was Trevin's 1st time out in it to play.

It's always fun to play on the trampoline in the snow:


Sometimes it just takes too much time to come inside to go to the bathroom:


Building a snowman:


Trevin playing in the front yard:

Catching up

I think I can finally put some pictures on here! As I was looking through the ones on my card in my camera, I realized I forgot to tell about a couple things...

The first thing is that Jenna had her tonsils and adenoids taken out & tubes put in again back in January. She did OK as far as the pain was concerned, but this poor kiddo had a heck of a time keeping anything down. She ended up getting dehydrated, and having to get some IV fluids. Once we did that, she turned a corner, and after a week out of school, she went back. Phew!! Glad that's over!

Before surgery:


Right after she got back to the room:


Arriving home:


Her favorite spot for a week:

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I got an awesome gift! A purple Dell laptop! Our computers have had tons of issues the last few months with viruses, etc, so Tom broke down & got me a new laptop. YEAH! Now I can probably start putting pictures up again soon (as soon as he gets all the software on here).

Besides my laptop, the girls made some wonderful things at school & church for me. I thought I'd share some of the stuff that was in their cards/books.

I'll start with something Mackenzie made me about a week ago that she gave to me early because she was so excited about it. She made it one day at home when she was home with a sick Tom and Jenna. (That's another post for another day) She took an empty cream cheese container & covered it with paper & a bow. I opened it, and she had written a poem and it had a chocolate chip cookie in it. Here's what the poem said:

I love just looking at you
watching what you do
I love kissing you and
holding you tight
I love all the things you do
I love the way your eyes
seem to grab my heart
every time I look at them.
I love everything about you.
And here is a cookie. (I think she added this herself!)

I asked her where in the world she got that poem from, and I kid you not...she told me she googled it! Who knew that an 8 yr. old knows how to google things??? Not sure what website she found that had that sweet poem that was probably meant for 2 people in love, but it was so sweet that she thought of me when she read it! :)

Ok, next she filled out a paper at school about love:

Love feels like "my mom's hugs"
Love smells like "purfume"
Love tastes like "my mom's homemade chocolate pie"
Love looks like "my mom"
Love sounds like "a gentle song"

And lastly, she filled out a paper about me:

My mom always says "I love you"
My mom looks pretty when "we go to church"
My mom likes to cook "from her cook book"
My mom makes me laugh when "she reads me a funny book"

Jenna also made a little booklet at school with some poems about mom and a paper about why she loves mom. Here's what she had to say:

My mom's name is "Ruth"
My favorite food she cooks is "cimanon toast"
Her worst punishment is "spankings"
My favorite thing she does is "push me on the swing"
The funniest thing she does is "tell jokes"

Overall, I had a good mother's day. We enjoyed our dinner out Saturday night to avoid the crowds on Sunday. The kids all did fabulous at dinner! Made it very enjoyable!!

One last funny thing from the day was this funny comment during lunch:
Jenna: "I just can't stop singing!"
Mackenzie: "Are you in opera mode?"