I will miss sitting outside in my fabulous backyard with my kids at night watching them chase fireflies!
our backyard garden
and the beautiful drive to Lancaster
and being in a small town with big town amenities and close to so much
the schools
the school summer enrichment programs that watch your kids for 3 hours a day & they have FUN!
the seasons
fourth of July at the hospital
chocolate world
having an amusement park right up the road
Cocoa Castle
bike riding to Gelder Park
Bullfrog valley park "creek"
all the history around here
day trips
our pediatrician and SAm's doctors
a few people our Home teachers B &C, my visiting teacher A, quilt lady C, canning lady S, candle gal L, the lady I used to visit teach G, pto K, running CH, good thing BFF C already left or I would be too sad!

I won't be sad to leave
my smallish house (just the backyard is Great!)
not so friendly people
going to church and feeling like I am in high school not quite fitting in
however I LOVE the primary here and went in on Sunday with Maggie b/c she was fussing...that is where I cried, my heart is there. I love those kids and can certainly feel the spirit.
being far away from family
Chris missing his roots
the residency way of life, aka being Dirt poor
sometimes the crowds and rushing around

only 6 more days :(

Hershey School Musical

Emma's class put on a show the Hershey School Musical (Sam calls them Hamical) it was cute...she was in the nerd group and whatever kind of the same thing as the movies, there were jocks and skateboarders. Then they all got dressed up or had props as to what they want to be when they grow up (emma a ballerina) so it was like the movies but they personalized it and talked about what they learned this year and favorite memories. She is still shy at times and I was so pleased at how well she knew her lines and spoke out, her confidence had grown so much this year. She has a wonderful teacher too. We will miss Hershey Elementary next year!! so here is a sampling of the million pictures I took....

a little slide show was playing in the background...that is always my favorite part of these end of the year things.

all the kids were seated at a long table for autographs of the program. cute

Nollie had his check up today, he is 24 1/2 lbs (25%) and in the 75% for height. I can't remember inches right now.

so last weekend the girl's had their dance recital. The day started out well, we got some great yard sale deals (except the mean lady who sold the girls a video camera that does not keep it's charge, if it worked it would've been a steal at $15) blah blah

so we get home and start to get ready and I fix Anna's hair which she immediately takes out because I made it "too puffy", then she tells me she needs tights still. I get angry and angrier because "why couldn't she have let me know that when I asked days before, do you need anything for the recital?" I turned into a monster and said some things I regret and she told me she wished I weren't her mother. Emma says those types of things, but Anna never has...it really hurt. I would have wished the same thing if I were her too. So finally we get to the dance store and get tights, and then rush to the grocery for some water and snacks, then we are almost at the theater and I ask Emma if she has her ballet shoes. She looks through her bag which held so many things otehr than her ballet shoes, mary Pippins would be envious, but NO, no ballet shoes. Again I loose it and did not handle the situation very well. I drop them off and try to decide if it will be quicker to buy her a new pair or rummage through her things at home to find them. First I need to go get a ticket (b/c we have found you get a much better seat this way and for cheap) of course this lady has an issue in front of me...tick tock, I am quite aggravated! I do try to call Chris, but he does not pick up! So I get home and find her shoes and get out to the car, oh just about out of gas and the van is not so reliable....here come the first drops of what will be a big storm. I hurry to get some gas and back to the theater and by now it is POURING rain and I cannot wait it out because Emma needs her shoes and the show is just about to begin. I run with no umbrella and get her shoes to her and get to my seat just in time. I am soaked and dripping wet and annoyed more than anything, just smoldering MAD but sitting in a great seat though. The show begins and the first number was good and then the next are all the little teeny girls, and then I just loose it and I am crying like I moron because it seems like yesterday that my little girls were that small. These moments in life are all too precious to argue and fuss about things that do not matter, to make my ladies feel bad about silly mistakes is wrong. before I know it they will be all grown up and while I know every memory cannot be wonderful, I want to try my best to make more good ones than bad.

I have unloaded the 500+ pictures from the camera for the last week or so, yikes!, there are so many it makes me crazy that they are not organized better in files, but not crazy enough to do anything about it, just enough to be a little annoyed. So here is what has been going on look little Henry Nolan turned TWO last week, I am always saying I worry he does not get enough attention being sandwiched in between Sam and Maggie and it is eveident in the fact that he doesn't even get his own post about his birthday...he is such a sweet little guy, cute and cuddly and a great sleeper and he rarely fusses unless Sam is annoying him or he wants his "B" that is for blanket. he is a boy of few words. why is this blue and underlined? he seemed surprised with all the attention. (you now can buy shirts with the sleeves already cut off for you in case you were wanting to get your man one like Chris' for father's day, it's HOT!! you will be the envy of the neighborhood as your man struts his stuff while mowing the lawn in it)

I really need a lot of help keeping this house clean for any potential buyers (not sure if there are any of those!!) my kids may think we are breaking some child welfare laws, but I think we're ok

see how happy he looks

Maggie can now take off her bows, this one looks like it is weighing her down

Gettysburg

the fun Land of Little Horses, nice and small and the horses and donkeys just walk around. It is very cute, hopefully your kids won't be terrified like crazy lunatics like some of ours were. that part wasn't so much fun as it was annoying.

Nolan with his white trash cheap $1 bottle, I couldn't bring myself to buying the pricey ones because I do not love the environment enough. no, it isn't watered down Kool-Aid in there (I am not a big fan of koolaid just cheap bottles that a two year old is clearly TOO old to be drinking out of, they are really for his baby sister but he likes them and his teeth are already messed up from thumb sucking and maybe it makes up for the fact that his is often forgotten in the middle of the other two kids)

since Maggie doesn't have teeth yet we though letting her have a rock candy was alright

this was a cute little alpaca, I wish we remembered the tip about getting the fence out of a picture so I could have nagged Chris about it.

they all took a horse ride, but if I put up all the pictures it would have taken way too long. I was sad that Sam, who loves horses (now we konw only pretend ones or if they are really far away) wouldn't get on. he looked at the giraffe birds instead (emus)

you can't see the scary horse that was laying on the ground about to get him here

all better just had an itch to get to

running from the mean old minature horsey

better times at the playground
mesmerized by something cool on the tv Anna at her orchestra concert/chorus show

Emma was too sweet to share this PeekaBoo petite with Maggie, but I had to take it away because I am a mean mommy

getting ready for Anna's piano recital, I went solo to this one so unfortunately no pictures there,

she is pretty mad that she can't get this other shoe off
just chillin eatin a lemon those bunny ears are still hilarious in this and the other 100 pictures

Maggie loves to roll around all over the floor, and gets stuck in lots of places, and she gets mad...here we just pulled her from out under the bed.