the merry merry month of may

Oh how we love cousin time

Campfire and Outdoor Cinema

Cause every kid needs a picture with the fisher price phone

Cinco de Mayo sistas

 Joey and I brought these dresses back when we went to Mexico on the cruise in January

and....the traditional cinco de mayo sonic hamburger picnic :-)

Luke's field day

Mrs. Dowdle's class (Luke is bottom left)

Luke's wrestling between races buddies - Jackson and Dillan

Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day brunch at Kate's - Amanda, me, Sheri and Kate

One weekend in May - Joey went to Mississippi with other members of our church to help with clean up after a tornado. 

 picnic and swimming at the rec center while daddy's in MS

And who is this little girl with STAIGHT hair?   (straightened by request although it about broke my heart)

 Kindergarten Celebration

Luke had to say goodbye to his very awesome Kindergarten teacher - Mrs. Dowdle. 

You might remember that in my post in August "School so far" Luke was working on adjusting to school.  He continued working on that for most of the year :)    

He had a few trips to the principal's office - all pretty innocent stuff and boy did he work hard to be a good, well-behaved student.  Not an easy task at his strict school.

But Mrs. Dowdle was so extremely loving and I could tell she just loved that little rascally Luke with all her heart.  Which definitely puts a mother's mind at ease.  We met together a few times and came up with a pretty good system for our man Luke.  And by the end of the year he was coming home beaming every day with accolades and stars and smiley faces from the teacher.  I'm so very proud of Luke.  His preschool teacher and kindergarten teacher used the same phrase when describing Luke.  "He has such a good heart and really cares about those around him"  That said - they also said "he's extremely impulsive" Also, there are many conduct grades on a report card and though he struggled with about half of them -  he did great on the ones I care about most - like "puts forth best effort" and "respects authority".  He breezed through the academic stuff and came out of kindergarten as an awesome reader.  He's a great kid and he LOVED his Kindergarten year.  The last couple days were optional but he begged to go.  He loved being with his teacher and his friends.

 Luke's goodbye card to Mrs. Dowdle. 

I LOVE YOU - illustrated by Luke Hale

I love you more than the whole wide world (world crossed out - heart with mrs. dowdle in it)

I will miss you forever and I will never forget you.  The end

6 year-olds singing about dreaming big, their future and getting a little R&R over the summer:

oh and a tiny bit of field day footage 

Lukesendofkindergarten from katiehale on Vimeo.

After Kindergarten Celebration (with my 38 week pregnant belly)

 Luke's best friends from Mrs. Dowdle's Class - Jackson and Dillan

Luke's buddy - Graham

And there has never been a kid who loved a yearbook more than Luke.  He spent hours going through it explaining to anyone who would listen all his friends and teachers.  He even slept with it.  One morning I woke up and found him in Maryanne's crib telling her all about his first year of Elementary school. :)

 Saying Goodbye

In addition to saying goodbye to his kindergarten year - we also had to say goodbye to dear friends.  Max Meacham - who did 3  years of preschool with Luke and Graham Bate who spent many playdates with Luke while Sheri and I hung out --- both moved away.  Their dads were done with their residencies and they moved on.   I remember when Sheri and I moved here together 6 years ago and she told me Berkeley's residency was 6 years I thought - wow that is a long, long time.  And now it's over.   It flew by.   And I am still here. :)
Here are the kids having their final memphis playdate.

Calvin Meacham, Graham Bate, Luke, Lucy and Max Meacham

Sheri's last book club :(

held at Davies Manor Plantation 

Amy Vanderlinden, Amanda Cremeans, Kate Wilson, Gianetta Schauerhamer, Leslie Ginn, Mindy Sturgell,
Sheri Bate, Tanya Bradsher, Katie Hale, Alicia Wood, Anita Fairbanks

giving Sheri her book (2 days before Frederick was born!)

 I made it like a yearbook - like she was graduating from Memphis :)  it was so fun to make and even more fun to give it to her.  That Sheri is sure a good one. I will miss her so much.

Lucy also finished up her school year of JOY SCHOOL

She got an award for "being a dedicated artist"  

She was always the last one working on her projects - she's got lots of good concentration and is very careful and deliberate in her artwork.  (and I'm her mom but I think she's really talented)

Here's something she drew today that I thought was cute:

[joy school grad pics]

explaining our family flag

Daxton Hauck, Helen Robison, Jackson Austin, Alex Bate and Lucy Hale (the nonconformist)

Here is a video I put together of their Joy School year for our little graduation party: 

joyschool2014 from katiehale on Vimeo.

ok, so - that was May