Happy Birthday, Ella!

Our sweet Ella Claire turned 2 today!  This past Saturday, we had family over and celebrated with a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party.  It was a perfect day, and we had so much fun celebrating our precious girl! 

The Graduate

On May 14, Camryn graduated from kindergarten.  I won't go into a long speech about how I can't believe my baby has already finished kindergarten, but you can bet that's exactly what I was thinking the whole day.  Her graduation ceremony was as cute as could be and she's such a lucky girl to have so many family members that love her so much that they gave up their day to come see her graduate!

Our little graduate

 Leading the Pledge of Allegiance

Camryn's kindergarten class

Receiving her diploma

After lunch with Grandma and Grandpa

Camryn's Aunt Alison, who loves her so much!

Hanging out with Grammy

Beautiful girl

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of our sweetheart!

We have a TERRIFC Kid!

Last week, we received a letter from Camryn's school inviting us to a small ceremony where she would be recognized as a Terrific Kid!  Every six weeks, all classroom teachers at Camryn's school choose a student in their classroom who is Thoughtful, Enthusistic, Respectful, Responsible, Inclusive, Friendly, Inquisitive, and Capable.  The best part was, it was a surprise to Cam until she was called to the cafeteria for the ceremony and saw us there. 

The principal presenting Camryn with her certificate and goody bag (free food to local restaurants and free bowling!)

Each student's teacher writes a short statement about them that is read at the ceremony.  Camryn's teacher said, "Camryn is a hard-working student who loves to read.  She gets along well with all of her classmates.  She sets a good example for the whole class.  She loves to participate in classroom activities.  Camryn is one Terrific Kid!"

Here is the video of Camryn being recognized.

We LOVE and are SO proud of our Terrific Kid!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

How many times have you entered a drawing or contest and thought, "I never win anything?" Well, those words can never be uttered in the Burley household again! And the reason is ....

DRUMROLL, please .....

My husband was the proud winner of over 2000 jellybeans!

Oh, that's right, folks! Over Spring Break, we went to Concord Mills for a day of shopping. While I was waiting in line at Old Navy, Jason and Camryn entered a "guess the number of jelly beans" contest. Their winning guess was 2132. I have no idea how many were actually in there, but when the manager of the Concord Mills Old Navy called to let us know Jason won, I literally laughed out loud at him. The manager chuckled a little, too. Jason was on his way to a haircut appointment, so I got to call him and break the good news over the phone. The only thing that stinks is he only won the jelly beans ... no Old Navy gift card, t-shirt, or anything. Oh well ...

To the winner goes the spoils (and they probably will spoil before we make it through all 2000 of them!)

The Outtakes

I love taking pictures of my girls. I will literally take 100 pictures, just to get the "money shot." Sometimes, the outtakes end up being just as priceless to me as the "good" pictures. Here are some fabulous outtakes from our Easter morning photo shoot.

Needing to tone down the cheese

Wow, Camryn. Just wow.

The next two pics ... I don't even know. I have already accepted I cannot control that child.

Seriously, Mom? You expected this to work with us staring right into the sun?

I tried my best to get pictures of the girls with the bushes behind them. This was my result:

Distracted Ella

Mid-sentence Ella

Closed eyes-Ella

Sun-in-the-eyes Ella

And, finally, while I was taking pictures of my pretty girls this morning ...

I caught this little gem of a picture. I mean, really. The look Ella is shooting Camryn is priceless. Jason and I were about to roll on the floor laughing at the various captions we came up with for this picture. Feel free to leave your own in the comment section!