McKay's Kindergarten Graduation

 My baby has graduated from Kindergarten!  It's so strange not to have any more kids going to Kindergaren!!  It was so cute seeing his whole class in their graduation hats.

 Standing by his buddies.  He loved Garrett and Caleb this year.  They always chased the girls together (so he told me).

 They sang some songs and did some poems and were pretty much the cutest thing ever.

 Oh we have loved McKay's teacher Mrs. Stephens.  She is an awesome Kindergarten teacher and has taught McKay so much.  He also had a teaching assistant named Mrs. Catia.  She's also so wonderful.  She lives in our neighborhood so we have been able to see her at the pool this summer and McKay has loved it.

 Giving Mrs. Stephens our gift for her.

Showing daddy the memory book he made.

Settee Reupholster

 I have a random room off of my kitchen called a Keeping Room.  Apparently it's a southern thing.  I have wanted to put a Victorian couch in there forever, but they are super expensive.  I saw the above couch on Craig's List but it was too expensive for the condition it was in.  I knew I'd have to recover it.  I waited until it came down to $150 and then I was sold.  I have only reupholstered one thing before and that was a simple chair so I was a bit nervous.  

 The deconstruction always takes forever and this settee was old so some of the nails just disintegrated when I tried to pull them out.  Josh had tried to make sure that it came from a smoke free home, which the seller assured us it did.  Not until he was driving home with it did he know they had lied.  It smelled so bad.  I doused it in vinegar and sprinkled baking soda all over it and let it stil for a while.  Luckily the smell came out.

 Now the fun part!

 I just thought this couch was so fun (but a little tricky) to recover.  

 I really love how it turned out!

Before and after.  Now I have a winged back chair to do...

Palmer Choir Trip to Charlotte, NC

Josh and I were a little nervous to send Palmer on the trip his choir group was going on to Charlotte, North Carolina  Luckily, the buddies that he has in the group are good kids so we felt a little better about it.  

 Notice all of the girls in this group...to say Palmer has a few fans would be an understatement.  Every time I would pick him up from choir there was a gaggle of girls around and some of them 8th graders!  I wasn't sure what I thought of that...

 The went to something called Festival in the Park.  They competed against other schools from the south who had chosen to come at an elementary near an amusement park called Carowinds.  After the competition they went to the park.  They ended up taking first place, which they were thrilled about.  Mrs. Grizzle his choir director is so talented and has good things for their chorus groups this year.

 The kids Palmer hung out with (including a girl from our ward and her mom, which I was thrilled about).

 The "Dab". Taking the country by storm (I will be glad when we are done with it...)

 Sad to say it rained a lot while they were at the amusement park, but I think they still had fun.

It's crazy to see Palmer growing up and I am grateful for his desire to do as much as possible.  He's turning into a well rounded kid.  He isn't doing choir next year, which I'm disappinted about, but I am sure he will fill the year up with lots of other things.  He really has had a great experience in chorus and chamber choir this year.  

Atlanta Zoo

 Our library system has a great program here where you can watch a video on the zoo and then get 4 free tickets to visit the zoo (we only had to buy one extra because Lincoln wasn't there).  I put our name on the wait list when we first moved here and two years later...we finally got to go to the zoo.  Oh well, totally worth the wait to get in for free!

 These three look like they are going to break into a dance number any minute.

 Cooling off in the mud.  

 Snakes like this always remind me of Harry Potter. 

 Giant pandas.  We were pretty excited to see these guys since it's not very common to see them even in the zoo.  We saw some in the zoo in Seattle, but the boys were little then and didn't remember it.  Too bad they were so tired (the pandas not the boys).  

 Farm animals.

 This bird was so cute!

 Hunter is always trying to get rides.

 He was pretty successful on this outing.  

 Bald eagle.  I'm always amazed whenever I see one.  I'd love to see one in the wild.

 Lots of people gettin' rides.

I sure love being with these people.  We missed Lincoln though!