Nada

Man.....Thursday was a bittersweet day for me. For seven years this wonderful lady has helped raise and love our kiddos while we were at work. As a first time mom leaving Caroline was gut wrenching. I cried each morning for two straight weeks, but I knew that she was in Wonderful hands. She has just been the biggest blessing over the years and Thursday was the last day we will ever have Nada watch and teach and play and guide, and LOVE our children. I'm honestly not ready for them to get any older. We are in this perfect pocket of age where they are all potty trained, can all feed themselves, all can make conversation, they are sweet, funny, still need their mama, want to hold my hand and snuggle, and are just fun to be around. I love RIGHT where was are at and while it's hard to watch how fast time is flying the beauty is that each stage seems to bring more joy along with it. 

Thank you Nada for walking along side us in the hardest, most wonderful job we will ever have in raising these amazing little people. We are so so blessed. 

School's out for Summer!

We are a few days into summer break (well P and the kids are anyway) and we are loving it! I love the no rush mornings of sleeping in, making pancakes and not packing lunches! It's a bummer to leave for work with all the fun plans they have for the day, but we have LOTS of fun trips to look forward to together! Scarlett had a Hawaiian themed end of the year party two days before school ended and of course she wanted to make some fun themed treats! So we made flip fop cookies,

ocean and sand cupcakes (with a teddy in an intertube), and a fun beach drink

the kids all ready for the party in the grass skirts and leis! *the two other girls in class were sick so it was just Scarlett and the fellas :)

the blue punch was complete with a few fishies dropped in and an umbrella! 

they made fruit kabobs

dug in the sand for buries treasure and had a bubble blow off! 

Friday was the girls actual last day of school. Here are the annual last day of school pictures, I can't believe how much they have grown..........TIME SLOW DOWN

 Brother and Mom wanted in on the fun too

Caroline's party was the actual last day of school. They began their party with sweet awards and to no ones surprise Caroline got the Best Reader Award......that girl goes through chapter books so quickly! Her goal this summer is 25.....she's already knocked out the first three! For her end of the year gift she got a workbook she's been asking for and a book light to read a bit before bed in the dark, love how much this girls loves to learn! 

lots of hand five-ing down the red carpet

Caroline and her sweet teacher, Mrs Ward

I loved this teachers easy going nature and super crafty side

our little book worm

After the awards we had a special visitor! The chick fil a cow showed up with breakfast biscuits! YUM! 

This is Caroline's VERY best friend this year. Caroline and Maria are attached at the hip! I love that they pick out the same books and make their own little book clubs! So sweet! 

I grabbed Scarlett from class so she could join in on the ice cream sundae making in Caroline's class, Caroline was so sweet having a chair all ready for her, this Big sister is the best.

We couldn't send the cow home without saying hi to the preschoolers real quick! 

silly kiddos! 

this girl has learned SO MUCH this year it is crazy! We are so proud of her and so blessed that she has such a sweet sweet teacher this year! Ms Kitt and Scar

next year brother joins the girls on campus, so everyone will be in one place! Horray! 

while the girls were party-ing at school Friday our awesome sitter and friend Shannon took Cooper to celebrate National Doughnut Day! He was pumped! 

School got out at 12:30 and then our group of folks who we love all came over to swim! such a fun way to end the year! See ya Pre-K and 1st grade! 

brother already terrorizing the girls :)

It was such a great year......now bring on summer!!!!

Camping

The Stover 5 experienced something BRAND NEW for our little family over memorial day weekend......we went CAMPING! Tents, cots and ALL! A few months ago a girlfriend of mine basically said we were going with them and I said no way! HA! She ended up convincing me and together we convinced four more families to go too! We loaded up Paw-Paw's truck and trailer Saturday Morning and headed out! 

Arizona is such an amazing state.....we left the desert and within and hour and a half we were surrounded by the beautiful pines and cool air! 

 We had a crew of 16 kids and they played, ran, discovered, imagined, got dirty, and had a blast all weekend. The bigs helped the littles, the littles looked up to the bigs, and everyone got along so well. 

 We arrived Saturday afternoon and got our tents all set up. Everyone brought easy up 6 man tents, and then there was our tent!!! Imagine a tent from MASH, thick military canvas, tall poles, room for 16......a two hour set up, VINTAGE (made in 1964:), yep that was our tent! 

 the girls playing in Lily's tent. Swimsuits were the attire all weekend whenever they could! Water guns shooting rocks was the favorite too.

 the first night's dinner was a chicken taco bar and of course SMORES! *we were at a campsite and we realized late that night around the camp fire that the campsite had a friend.....a 1,500 pound BULL.....it was crazy seeing that thing late at night wondering around! 

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast burritos. Once everyone was ready for the day we headed out on a little hike and to do a little GeoCashing on our campsite. We found our treasure, the kids were really excited that we actually found something! 

 the GeoCashing crew

 the hammock/swing got a lot of kiddo attention 

 getting ready for a major water balloon battle! 

 we decided to hit up a local pie place in the late afternoon.....let's just say delicious! Cooper couldn't even be bothered with his fork! 

After pie we headed to Christopher Creek for a little splashing around

 the kids loved playing in the water

 everyone did great walking the plank :)

When we were done splashing we headed back to the campsite to relax, have a drink, cook up some hamburger and hot dogs, and of course another round of smores!

We were all unsure how this weekend was going to go.....it was a BLAST! We were VERY ready to head home early Monday morning (no showers and flushable toilets for two days was our limit:) but I do think this might be a new Memorial Day tradition. I am so very thankful for these wonderful girlfriends I have made and that our families all got along so well! We'll be back Payson!