Great--Here Come the Waterworks!!

Ashley's third grade class recently held their annual Manners' Day. Ms. Dennison does things a bit differently from the other classes. Instead of doing it near Valentine's Day, she turns Manners' Day into an impressive Mother's Day program.

Both kids and mothers came dressed up. They covered groups of desks with colored butcher paper to look like mini tables, then decorated them with tissue paper flowers made into napkin holders and lollipop bouquets. We had a little buffet complete with mini sandwiches and giant strawberries. We got cute pot holders hand-stenciled with butterflies and wrapped in decorated brown bags. We even had our pictures taken in front of the specially decorated Happy Mother's Day bulletin. Thanks, Ashley--and Ms. Dennison.

The absolute highlight, however, was when each child stood up and began singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" to their mom. I quickly switched my camera to video mode and captured most of the first verse. I wasn't sure where to point the camera though because all eyes began tearing up. I spared you the second verse because I was afraid the sound of the song might be drowned out by sniffling, crying mothers.

Just watch this precious moment. No really, I'm fine; I don't need a tissue. There are not tears dripping off my chin ...

Calendar girls

How cute are Gracie and her friend Macie? They played together today while I was at school for Ashley's Manners Day program. They have so much fun together, and they adore each other. They look like some sort of RL add.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to our beautiful moms--I'm so grateful for all the sweet moms in our life. We would have sad lives indeed without the love of Kevin's moms. We love Kev's mom Beth, Grandma Johnson (who came to Kourt's soccer game on Saturday and made it so much fun--thanks, Grandma) and Grandma Knudsen (Gowans). Happy Mother's Day, moms!!

Also, I love my moms. I already posted this somewhere else, but I thought it was worth repeating. I don't know many girls who get the chance to have two angel moms in one lifetime.

I love you, Mom!!

Plus, these gorgeous roses and the card that made me cry from Kevin are definitely worth posting. Thanks, Sweetie!!

Race for the Cure

Today was our annual 5k run at the Gateway. Ford sponsors the Susan G. Komen breast cancer Race for the Cure, and of course since Kev is a Ford man we run. Now I am all for supporting a great cause, but this event gets a little bit crazier every year. More and more people flock to the Gateway to "race" and celebrate survivors or loved ones.

It's difficult to move, let alone run for at least a mile. However, it has become a Knudsen family tradition. This is even Grace's third year. Kev pushes the stroller and tries to keep his patience with the crowds. This year Ashley and I ran on ahead. Ash did great. She started walking and complaining until I pointed out a little old lady ahead of her walking with the help of supportive braces. I told Ash that lady was beating her. And we were off :)

Major Fashion Fopaux?

Say it isn't so:

I should really leave this alone, but I just can't. I was taking yw pictures of our camp kick-off last night, and I had someone snap a shot of me and some of the girls. (By the way, our new yw blog is really cute; we just started it a couple of weeks ago. It's posted at the bottom of my links under "Young Women"). Anyway, I was loading the pictures onto my computer today so I could post them on our yw blog, when I noticed something weird. WHAT??? That's not right.

I am wearing the exact same brown and white striped shirt in this photo as I am in just about every picture on this blog, or in every photo taken in the last year and loaded onto my computer for that matter. It's there in my first ever blog post. It's also in the next post of our trip to Puerto Vallarta, along with its twin, the green and white striped shirt. That can't be right. I do not feel deprived of clothing. I have plenty of shirts, and I wear them in a fairly random rotation order. Is this just a strange coincidence? I really hope so.

It is cute. I bought it along with its green and white striped twin about a year ago. I am especially loving the green one right now because it goes so well with my cute green Bumbles watch I won at bunco, the green stacking rings Kerry gave me and/or my favorite white and brown wedge shoes.






But, I really do not wear this shirt all that often--do I? Maybe subconsciously on the rare occasion when I allow people to take my picture I think, 'Yes, it's okay for you to take my picture today because I'm wearing the brown and white striped shirt. It's pretty cute.'

Maybe I really do wear this shirt and its green counterpart way too much. Those of you who see me fairly often, please tell me. Honestly. I can take it. Really. Just tell me.

Well slap my hide and call me Nancy

I recently found the blogs of two long-lost friends, and I'm feeling like Nancy Drew--without getting myself tied up in an abandoned building or being threatened by a "ghost." I was so excited to find them. I can't believe I ever lost such complete and total touch with these two great people.

First of all, I totally freaked out Christina--my good friend from high school--by leaving a random comment on her blog. I may have made her leary of ever trusting cyberspace again. She posted this hilarious picture of us from a high school journalism trip. I luuuuv this picture. I can't belive all our hair fit in the frame. Starting at the bottom left, we have Jeanette (whose magazine website is linked on the side column), Sandra, Christina and me. Christina is witty, smart and never wastes space with insincerity. Did I mention hilarious?

Also, I found my cute college roommate Emily's blog. Her husband Jeff just happened to post a few pictures of their new baby back in December for the benefit of some friends in California. They never really looked at the blog again until I happened to find it. Crazy. I copied this picture of Emily with her three kids from her blog too.

I love cyberspace. Although it is a little creepy that our information is accessible world-wide (ah, hence the name 'world-wide web'), I for one am very glad to be a person with that kind of access. If hunting down old friends from the past and making them feel insecure, wondering if there are other stalkers out there who aren't so innocent is wrong, then I don't want to be right. Anyway, glad to have found you, Emily and Christina!!!

Spring has finally found us

It's finally warm enough to venture outside and see what's happening. Grace and I went for our maiden voyage run with the jogging stroller--nearly killed me. Those extra four pounds (of Grace's, I'm sure :) make a difference.

My favorite tree in our front yard, our weeping cherry, is in full bloom right now, and this year it is encircled with little yellow violas--I think this is my new favorite. I may be featuring this look in future years :)