End of the school year!

I haven't blogged in FOR.EV.ER, so I decided to share some photos from our end of the school year.  I cannot believe this school year is over.  I think it was the fastest year yet with all four at the "big school!" Add to that this whole moving across the state thing and we have a lot going on.

Here's a few things we had going on towards the end of the school year:

Jenna and Brody had their first ever piano recital!  They did awesome.  Brody was cool as a cucumber and Jenna was her regular nervous self.  That being said, they both introduced themselves and what they were playing and I was very proud of them both.  We will miss Mrs. V, our piano teacher, oodles next year!

 

In May I was able to accompany the twins on their field trip to the Blank Park Zoo.  I am so fortunate to get to go on field trips with my kiddos and I definitely don't take that for granted.  Blake was obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with riding the dang camel!  I have no idea why, but that's all he talked about, so an over-priced camel ride is what he got. 

May means track and field day for the kids.  This year with Jenna being in fifth grade, she was on a different day than the boys, which was such kind of awesome.  With multiple kids I'm running around like a crazy person trying not to miss anybody, which I always do.  Jenna had a great day! This girl and her long legs have taken a sudden interest in running.  She has more of Aaron's speed than I thought, I think!

 

 

 Bowen is a long jumper.  Yes, yes, I know he's only six, but I'm placing my bets now.  He got up there and killed it.  He had great form and the eighth graders who were working  were like, "Whoa.  That was a really good jump!"  I love these pics I got of him soaring through the air. 

 

I always get a kick out of the kids trying to do the high jump.  They literally get over it any way they can.  It cracks me up!  Brody's  big feet knocked the bar over.  This one also likes the running thing. Who are these children?!  Surely, they can't be mine. 

Brody won the 60 yard dash, coming from behind to win.  At the end, with a big smile on his face he told me, "Mom, I think I ran so fast because I really had to pee!"

 

Blake didn't get a ribbon for running, but I was so proud of him.  He hates being the center of attention  and usually has a meltdown when everybody is staring at him.  I was concerned he would get behind and quit running, but he didn't!  Small victories, folks.

 

 The twins started t-ball!  Six years in the making and lots of older siblings' games and it is finally their turn.  Burdorf and Burdorf are doing awesome. 

 Aaron had his final presentation about leadership for a couple of professors from UNI.  He compared leadership to a kidney and it was a very well thought out, emotional, personal presentation.  I was impressed and teary!  I'm so proud of him for reaching this goal!  Seven years in the making and having to put it on the back burner to put family first.  We celebrated with a date night at the Big Steer in Altoona. 

Bike rides and walks are the name of the game with all this nice weather!  The twins and I got caught in a rain storm, but were rewarded with this beautiful rainbow. 

 Jenna's TAG project on Mars.  Yes, I know she looks 16 and I'm not ok with that.

 Poor Mr. Blake has been fighting impetigo three times!!!  Ugh.  I don't know if it's his immunosupression or if it's just that hard to get rid of, but we're ready to be done with it.

 With Aaron's new job, he umpired seven games at the end of May and then cancelled the rest of his season.  One super cool thing he got to do was umpire the West Marshall game when they played at Duane Banks Field at the University of Iowa.  Go Hawks!  We all headed down to cheer for the Trojans and the umpire! ;)

 I'm sure the pitcher has good form, but I like looking at that professional looking guy in blue behind him! haha.

 After the game we got to take pics on the field and Brody was stoked to get a foul ball.

 This one is hard.  The last day of school.  Our last day at West Marshall.  I get teary thinking about how many wonderful people there are in this school district that have been so good to my kids and our entire family.  West Marshall has set the bar high for Shenandoah.  Thank you, thank you to you all who have impacted my kids, my husband and our entire family.

 The night after school got out was also the first farmer's market of the season.  You may not know this about me, but I love farmer's markets!  They are my summertime fave.  They had the life flight helicopter on-hand and we asked a million questions, of course.

 Our local firefighters are awesome.  Seriously.  They let the kids try on the gear and Fire Captain Blake was ready for anything!

 HUGE homemade bubbles, anyone?!  These were crazy cool.  Brody and Jenna totally got the hang of it.

 Look at that thing!  It was pretty messy when it popped though.

 This is what I want to be doing all summer, but alas, packing calls.  We spent a couple days acquainting ourselves with our new community and framing out a bedroom in our new place for Jenna.  I prefer reading and popsicles, but there's so much to do before our move on June 24th!

Good stuff about this week....

It's Friday night.  Aaron is at the football game taking photos for me for the paper and I'm home with the four kids watching a Harry Potter movie.  We decided we didn't want to take them out in the cold.  When I was thinking about what I should write about tonite, I thought I might do a recap of the week at our house. 

Here's some good stuff that happened at the Burdorfs:

1. Jenna and Brody started basketball last Sunday!  They both play through the Upward League in Marshalltown and have for a few years.  Coach Dad is the coach of both teams, so we'll see how that goes. ;)

2.  On Tuesday, the twins and I delivered Meals on Wheels.  I've done it once before and when they asked for volunteers at church, I knew I wanted to help out again.  It was great to see how much the older folks liked seeing Blake and Bowen!  We signed-up for a couple more days this month and I  look forward to it!

3.  Aaron reffed three nights of volleyball.  It seems like the season just started, but tournaments have rolled around.  Time flies!

4. I learned how to drive a tractor this week! I have never ever driven a tractor before and it started off pretty bad, but I figured it out pretty quickly.   I did tillage three days this week for a couple of hours each time.  I couldn't do it all day, but I enjoy the quiet time and listening to the radio station that I want to listen to! ;)

5. Brody got a 100% on his spelling test (Jenna doesn't get hers back until Monday, but she feels confident about it).  Man alive, I wonder how many hours we will have practiced spelling with our four kiddos by the time they are all done with school.  Ha!  It's a nightly routine.  Also, Blake and Bowen got to make applesauce at school and informed me it was really good.  

6. A weekend with not too much on the schedule - yahoo!!

First Day of Preschool

Guess what?!  My babies are officially preschoolers!  They had their first day on Thursday.  We had been talking it up all week and they did great.  I was really so proud of them.

 

 When we pulled up, Bowen was excited and Blake was a little nervous I could tell.  Luckily, it was a staggered start, so there wasn't many kids there.  They went right over to play with the tractors, barn and animals.  Blake was putting on a good face here...

 Bowen told his teacher, "I'm not gonna cry!"  That made me laugh. He didn't either and I was so thankful Bowen was there for Blake.  Look at that smile below - Bowen was ready to go!

 

As I texted Aaron afterwards, "There were no tears!  And the boys didn't cry either! Haha!"  

Getting to drop them off at preschool together meant more to me than you could ever possibly know.  Every thing that seems like a small step, is really actually a huge step along this amazing journey for these two amazing boys! :)

Buh-bye Summer; Hello new school year!

Dear Summer:

Thank you for being so good to us.  You rocked.  Seriously.  After a winter from hell, it was just what we needed. We're sad to see you go summer, but a new school year started today, so thanks.  For the fun.  For the memories. 

Signed, The Burdorfs xoxo

A photo recap mostly via my Instagram account. :)

 

One set of twins is nuts, two sets is just crazy!  Always happy to visit our friends the Bodammers. 

 Garage sale chairs.  Spray paint.  New-to-us kitchen chairs.

When your mom's the editor at the paper, that means attending small town festivals.  This particular weekend, the boys were lucky enough that some of the drumline kids left their drums laying around.  They were in seventh heaven.

 I promised the two oldest they could have a few friends over for a summer party since with all the hospital stays, they didn't get to have birthday parties.  Shaving cream.  You can't go wrong with shaving cream!

 Who would be crazy enough to take out four kids under the age of eight golfing?  Right, us. :)

 A stop in Independence, Iowa, on our way to the Field of Dreams.  Road trippin'.

 The kids and I headed up to Mankato solo in July to celebrate McCoy's first birthday.  New tradition: baseball and softball.  So, so much fun.  My best memories of my childhood are on a field.  If I can pass that on to my kiddos, I think I'm doing something right.

 The races!  Randomly one Friday night we went to the races in Marshalltown for the first time.  The kids' piano teacher goes because her husband races.  It was a good time!  Extra cool, they got to go to the pits after the races.

 Reading.  I did lots and lots of reading.  In fact, Jenna and I had a reading contest this summer as per our summer list.  I think I ended up reading like eight or nine books, which is a ton for me.

 Some of our summer nights consisted of things like this....

 The Blank Park Zoo.  A 80 degree day and some family time.

 

The Iowa State Fair!  We love to go every year.  

After back-to-school night, I had to make a quick trip to Marshalltown, so we stopped at DQ for some cherry dilly bars to take home.  Cheers to the end of an awesome summer!

 

 This morning was NUTS!  I'm so out of getting kids ready for school shape!  Because I'm always honest with you, I have to tell you this story.  In the midst of chaos, Jenna wanted me to do her hair, Brody was arguing with me about wearing these "fancy" clothes instead of "sporty" clothes, Blake projectile puked on the kitchen floor and I was trying to make Brody some french toast bites all at the same time.

Long story short, Jenna's hair got done, I didn't give Brody a choice on what to wear, the kitchen floor got cleaned up and we got these annual photos taken before we loaded up the mini van for school.  I dropped the kids off and headed home to get Blake's meds done for the morning.

 For some reason, I opened up the microwave and saw...Brody's french toast bites.  Brody didn't eat breakfast on the first day of school.  What kind of mother doesn't feed their child breakfast on the first day of school?  Especially the child who is constantly hungry?!  Apparently...me.  I kept waiting for the teacher to email or the school to call me about it.  Thankfully, they didn't. 

Tomorrow is a new day!  A day where I will feed all my children breakfast! :)  Here's to a great school year for Jenna in third grade, Brody in first grade, the twins in preschool (starting next week) and Aaron teaching. :)