PreK Graduation

 Also, as school comes to a close for this year....Brenna had her End of Year Program/PreK Graduation.  *sniff sniff*

She still has a week (ish) of school left, but officially 'graduated' from PreK last week.  It was really cute.  They sang songs, as a whole group, then some with their age class alone.  Their was a slide show, with baby pictures from the PreK kids next to their graduation photos...as well as all kinds of other photos.  They each got a 'diploma' and a bible verse their teachers picked out for them.  And afterwards a cookie and punch reception.  We have just loved having Brenna at this school, could not have hand picked better teachers for her, and will greatly miss all the folks there.  Her bible verse they chose could not have been more well suited - Matthew 18:4 "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven"


Here's some pics from the night...

First, the whole group....(Brenna's smack dab in the middle ;)...

Then, just the PreK kids (4/5 year olds)....

Brenna with her diploma...

cookie/punch reception afterwards...

Brenna with one of her BFF's and as of now, the one she will marry....Colton.  (and he's holding her new lizard for her...ahhh, what a gentleman)

The other BFF, Sophia...

We are really hopeful Sophia will be at Kindergarten next year with Brenna...*crossing fingers!*

With her two most wonderful teachers, Ms Betty and Ms Susan.  

Love the ocean hallway they made.  (and again, she's holding her new pet lizard)..

And some videos of their songs...











There were a few more of the whole group, but to not drown this post in videos, I'll skip to the ones of just the PreK kids... (the first line of this was "Kindergarten Kindergarten here we come..." my video didn't start on time)




 









And then Brenna getting her diploma. Again, my video'ing skills leave less to be desired. I started to late to not hear her name or her bible verse. Doh! But you can see on the screen her baby picture then flip to her graduation picture after...



 

Kindermusik Grad

Brenna had her final Kindermusik class recently.  She got her certificate of completion.  Hard to believe we are done....like really done....with Kindermusik.  After 8 years.  Brenna's been going for more than 5, when she was still in my belly!  Here's just a couple of impromptu iPhone pics from her last class...

Softball end of season

Brenna's first softball season came to a close last week.  Safe to say she loved it.  She's sad its over and she has no other games left and cannot wait till Fall Ball.  She started super early (before she was 5!!!) so I bet by the time she's Brooke's age (assuming she still likes it and wants to play), she'll probably be really good.  We'll see.  Here's some highlights...

She was so thrilled to get her own trading card!  Her end of season party will actually be a AT/DURING a Bombers game (the Bombers sponsored her team).  She will get to go to their opening game (with her family of course!), get announced on the field, pizza, cupcakes, the whole nine yards.  Pretty cool she got to play on this team right?  At that time, they will also hand out their trophies.  :)

Brooke's regular season is over too.  She continued to improve throughout the year as well.  She got more consistent with her hitting (which we hope will get even better w new glasses so she can actually SEE the ball) and was a part of a GREAT team.  Her coach is awesome, at teaching the girls and at making sure they have fun first and foremost.  All their hard work and most of all, their camaraderie pushed them to earn the spot as FIRST PLACE TEAM in their division!  Wow!  Way to go Cougars!!!  

Brooke was so fortunate to play on THIS team THIS year.  The kids (and parents) are all great and the girls really enjoy playing together...which therefore means they play WELL together.  

So, while they got their trophies for regular season (and end of year party is soon to come), they will get to play in the State Tournament in mid July waaaaay far away from here.  Kind of exciting and should be super fun to expose them to all this!  In the meantime, July is kinda far away...so their coach hopes to get them in some littler tournaments and scrimmages to keep them going and practicing.  They need money though!  So bring on fundraisers and sponsors.  Let me know if you have any connections.  ;)

Here's some highlights from her regular season play...

Dunking the coach with snow cones (who uses Gatorade anymore?? :P) after the win that determined their 1st place standing.  :)

Getting trophies...

#1 Cougars!

The top 2 teams, after their final (makeup) game, which the Cougars won by the way.  ;)  

My not so new day job

Just thought I'd share a little piece of my corner of the world.  Most of my photoshoots are on location, using natural light.  I'm not too typically fond of the studio look.  However, every once in a while (most often with newborns), I use backdrops, props, and extra lighting, etc.  I've perfected a nice little portable setup for that I think.  People buy these things!  And I've made one.  Take a looksy...

This particular setup was for a preschool school pictures session(s).  So.  I needed three backdrops, easy to get to.  That I couldn't change back and forth, cuz I'd be bringing kids in right after each other.  Sooo...on one side is a gray backdrop with a chair and toy box.  This side is facing the main light source if you notice (a wall of windows faces it)  The other side (that you can't really see in the pic) is just a solid green/blue/yellowish backdrop with no props...just a stool...that I used for closeups.  I could've rotated it around each time to get the best lighting scenario, but I didn't have that much time in between so I worked with what I had (used some reflectors), giving the best lighting access to my favorite setup.  So each kid (that ordered) got one pic with each setup.  Then, for the graduating preK kids, I had a solid black backdrop behind the gray that I could flip up and access quickly. (again on the 'good' lighting side)  The class pictures with teachers were taken against a wall that was brightly painted a solid color.  All done in one room and it went soooo well.  All of this is on my portable backdrop  holder that has wheels so I can move it and breaks down small enough to fit in my car...aka a clothes rack that rolls (you know the kind?  that you like to use at garage sales for clothes?  In fact, you can probably see it in the picture I posted a couple days ago from the garage sale...haha!  super multi tasker I am).  Yea.  Genius right?  Then I nab some of Brad's clamps to clamp down my fabrics and voila!  Perfect.

End results?  Well, I'll show my kid's pictures anyway to give you an idea.

Not a huge fan of this backdrop (the teacher preferred it to others I had though...and it was completely different to give parents a completely different look.....*shrugs*)

 but I did like the black and white versions of these (ea parent got a original and black and white).....

But I LOVE the graduation pics.  Awww!  My BABY is going to Kindergarten soon...

Here we go!

Remember me mentioning yesterday about my BABY going off to Kindergarten soon?  Well, it's official.  We went to the school and registered her....  sniff sniff....

She's so big.  She wanted to wear one of Brooke's smaller school shirts to register.  She wanted to take the papers in herself.  My BABY!

Garage Sale

A couple weeks ago, we had our seemingly annual garage sale.  We try to clean out every so often anyway.  This time we had beds to get rid of taking up space, so we totally threw this garage sale together in like 2 days.  I was soooo super busy with photoshoots at the time and had hardly any time beforehand to set up.  But we made it work and it turned out to be one of our most successful.  Success being measured by the leftovers.  We had hardly anything left over this time!  And it helped that we made just over $600!  Woo hoo!!!

Caterpillars

Brenna got her caterpillars in the mail recently and loves to watch them while she eats lunch.
It's amazing how quickly they get big!  We've done this before, but its still pretty cool to watch.  They started out like this....

And after only a few days they are like this!

 I think she's nicknamed most of them.  One of them is a bully she's determined that beats up the others.  Haha!  Since this posting, we've already noticed them all going into their chrysalises.  So soon we should have butterflies!

PS - still waiting on the praying mantis egg to hatch....