Summer Time is Back in Gear!!!

My summer has taken off in full swing! I finished up at school on Friday afternoon! It was a bittersweet ending to the school year because our prinicpal was retiring. She was the only principal that I have worked under, so I was sad to see her leave.

On Sunday, Matt planned an early "Surprise" birthday party for me! He arranged to have a group of our friends meet us at Cinco's for dinner on Sunday night. After dinner, we headed back to our house for more fun! Matt had filled up 100 water balloons, bought several boxes of "Snap-Its" and had stuffed a piniata with candy! Serisouly! I am not joking! My 30 year old husband is still truly a child at heart! The boys had the best time pelting each other with the water balloons! They actually did let the kids in on the fun. Our drive way was covered with wrappers from the snap-its, broken water balloons, and pieces of streamers from the piniata. I had a BLAST! My birthday is actualy June 9, so Matt just kicked off the celebration a week or so early! My friend Natasha is in the market for a camera like mine, so she played with my camera during our party. She taught me how to use the video component on the camera. I am very excited to know how to use that!! Here are some of the snaps that she shot during the party!
Handing out the "Snap-It's"

Natasha's husband, Frank and their youngest son, Harrison

Anna and Ava having a blast together!

Part of the crew watching all the action from the deck.

Harrison chowing down on a piece of cake


For Memorial Day, we headed to our annual spot to view the Dacula Memorial Day parade. Every year it seems to get longer and longer with more tractor and "big truck" entries! It was fun like always though!











I took this picture just for mom, she TOTALLY fits the description! Now she has the contact info for this hillbilly!



Kylie insisted that I take some pictures of the horses for her!

Kamden loved getting the candy to stick it in his "Pock." His "pocks" were overflowing after the parade! They were so full that his pants would not stay up!



After the parade, we headed over to Matt's parents house for a lunch and pool time! Anna and Cate are like little fish in the pool! They LOVE it!

Another year has come to an end!

I can't believe that summer is here!! I had to say good-bye to 11 of my 5th grade students today and it was a lot harder than I had expected it to be! I have been with most of these kids for the past 3 years. They have really grown up since 3rd grade. Some of them have actually matured over the past 3 years too :>)! I teared up this afternoon when I said my good-byes to them. One of my boys has had a really rough time these past 2 weeks and when I asked him what whas going on, he replied by saying "I'm just so confused. How can I feel so happy about school ending, but so sad about it at the same time?" There will be no more World War II boy stories, no more Beatles stories, and no more "But Mrs. Dorminy, I have a plan for that" stories. I have truly loved each and everyone of these students and it is sad to see them move on to middle school. I know that I have a whole new group of kids to fall in love with this year, but this group has impacted my life forever! You really become attached to a group of kids when you work with them 30-40 hours a week for 3 entire years! Now don't get me wrong, there were days when I thought I would pull my hair out, but overall they made me smile and laugh each and every day!

One of my parents made me this quilt to remember my "Class of 2010" by. It made me cry when I opened it! I absolutely love it and will treasure it forever. The puzzle piece is the "symbol" for Autism. She backed the quilt with puzzle piece fabric and on the front, each puzzle piece has the name of my 5th graders on it. In the middle she wrote me the sweetest letter. I will treasure this forever!

Happy Mother's Day!

We spent Mother's Day with Matt's family this year. Wasn't the weather absolutely perfect today! I actually got pretty burnt from sitting outside so much today, but it felt so good outside I didn't even realize it. We missed Haley, Chris, and the boys today. I hope that they come for a visit soon! Anna and Cate kept us entertained while playing outside.

It's a 3-in-1 party!

My cousins, Daryl and Vicky, threw their son and daughter a 3-in-1 party tonight at Duncan Creek Park. Alex is turing 21 and has just returned home from active duty in Afganistan. Alex's little sister, Katie, just turned 16. What a perfect way to celebrate all of these wonderful occasions! It was quite windy at the park tonight, but we all had a great time! My sister made the 2 cakes and did an amazing job as always. There were a few times that we thought the wind was going to blow them right off the table though! It was so good to see Alex back in the arms of his finace, Becca! I am excited to do an engagement shoot with these 2 love birds in a few weeks! Thank you for serving our country overseas Alex!

Senior Year!

My cousin, Nicole will be graduating from Winder Barrow High School in a few weeks. I asked her if I could take some Senior Pictures for her and she willingly agreed. For those of you in the Turner Family, you already know how beautiful Nicole is! She doesn't need to layer on the make up or spend hours getting ready to look good!! Nicole is the kind of girl that can just throw on a t-shirt and some shorts and still look beautiful! I took over 200 pictures in the 2 hours that we were together, and if I may say so myself, I think they turned out pretty good for an amature! You all know from previous postings that I have trouble limiting the number of pictures that I upload, so I've tried my best to pick my favorites!