The Past "School Year" in Review

Yesterday was the first day of summer break for me...what a break?! To me, this whole last year felt like a break, being able to stay home and be with my son and my nieces.  Friday was my last day watching my nieces for the summer...and then I get to watch them again next year!  A lot has changed from the beginning of the school year until the end.  I started watching my nieces when Kaden was 2 weeks old, Maja was 9 months old, and Ellie was 3 1/2 years old.  Now, Kaden is 10 months, Maja is 19 months and Ellie is almost 4 1/2 years old.  It's crazy how much kids change throughout one year, which made my days, weeks, months and year always changing!  It has been fun to watch Maja's development since she is only 9 months older than Kaden, and I can get a glimpse of what my life may be like in the future for Kaden.

Kaden absolutely loves his cousins, and I'm sure they love him too!  It is fun to have them grow up together.  Growing up, I felt very fortunate to live near some of my cousins and we always played together.  I still love hanging out with all of my cousins, including those who I didn't live near growing up, but was able to visit often and then go to college with some.  I'm sure Kaden will have many fun memories with his cousins.

Ellie was at morning preschool 3 days a week this year.  I didn't have to bring her to preschool this year, but I did pick her up.  We also went to play group at our church most Wednesday mornings.  John comes home around 4:00, so he got to spend some time with the girls too!  Other things we (mainly Ellie and I when she was here) did were...chalk and white board drawings, coloring, baking, number and letter learning, play school, ABC book, stamps, Christmas decorations, bead jewelry, park trips and walks, safari habitat, hide the object, dance parties, games, hopscotch, doll house, blocks, reading books, cartoons,forts, and lots of imaginative play-library, witch, house, dogs, etc!  plus so much more including many diaper changes, breakfast, snack and lunch time, nursing, and nap time, clean up, etc!  Maja showed interest in many activities that Ellie was doing towards the end of the year.  We also listened to a lot of music!  I am already finding myself turn on the Disney or Sound of Music Pandora station because I miss hearing some of the music.

I have taken many pictures, but here are just a "few" to capture my time with the kids.  It's very difficult to explain my daily life through pictures alone, and I didn't take pictures of everything, but here's a snapshot of my life the past year.