Casey has been really improving in T-ball.  He's doing better at running and catching the ball in his glove.  Emily loves to do whatever her big brother does, so of course she loves to play ball too.  Casey's practice on Friday was not well attended (just Casey and the coach's kids) so Emily got to participate as well.  She ran and got the helmet and bat herself.  She hits the ball off the tee and squeals with delight as she runs to go retreive the ball.

My 35th birthday was yesterday.  Eric had to work, so I spent the first part of the day hanging out with Casey and Emily.  Then my mom came up to visit and we did a little birthday shopping.  She stayed with the kids while Eric and I went to dinner, where we met Chris and Erin, and Denise and Roger.  Casey and Eric went shopping for my birthday on Friday night together.  Casey made a shopping list for Eric of things he thought they should get for me.  He picked out all of the items himself and did a great job.  Eric also got me a new computer desk which I'm looking forward to being put together.  The desk we are using now is from when I was in high school.  I think it's been put to good use. :) 

We had some poweful thunderstorms come through our area Friday and Saturday night.  Friday nights produced some of the most powerful thunder I've ever heard.  It was so loud and close that it not only shook the windows, but it also shook the house like we were having an earthquake.  Lightning struck and then almost immediately the thunder came.  One lightning strike hit a tree at the ball field Casey plays at and splintered it all the way down.  Saturday's storm wasn't as powerful, but produced massive rain and hail.  Casey and Emily had a great time collecting some of the hail and putting it in the freezer.

Emily is 20 months old now continues to learn by the minute.  She is up to knowing 21 body parts by being able to point at them when you ask her where they are. (Head, Hair, Ears, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Teeth, Neck, Cheeks, Shoulders, Arms, Elbows, Hands, Fingers, Tummy, Back, Bottom, Legs, Knees, Feet, Toes).  She can recognize a bunch of letters when you ask her grab the magnetic letter off of the fridge.  (B, C, D, E, F, J, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, U). 

She's started to tell me when she has to go potty, or just went potty, by pointing at her diaper and saying "poo poo".

She's still waking up in the middle of the night for milk, but I'm hoping that ends soon.  She's usually in bed by 7:45 and sleeps until about 3:30, has a bottle, and then goes back to sleep until about 7:30 or 8:00.

She loves to run and jump and can jump pretty well off of the ground now.

Casey is almost done with Kindergarten and is reading pretty well.  He's able to read quite a bit now and his reading group is on First Grade level 1 now.  He recently got to draw whatever he wanted to at school and chose to draw a picture of his PopPop Newlean cleaning his sailboat.  He and Eric have been working hard cleaning up the sailboat and the dinghy and Casey is looking forward to taking it out for a sail with his Daddy.

We are preparing for the 1 year anniversary of Eric's dad passing away this Tuesday 5/29.  We are doing his burial service on Tuesday and then having a small reception back at our house and having hamburgers for dinner (Eric's dad's favorite).