My mom is pretty awesome. She is a confident, strong, independent, SUPER smart woman, and the best mother I could ever ask for. She worked on and off when my brother and I were young, and then more as we got older. 15 years ago, she got a job with
World Vision as an administrative assistant. With encouragement from her boss, she went back to school at UW Tacoma and earned her BA in Accounting (we graduated at the same time!). Since then she has worked in the Finance Department at World Vision in multiple areas, such as Gifts-In-Kind and domestic grants. Seriously she is sooo smart! :) Anyway, my mom has been wanting to retire for several years now and was waiting for the right time. She had planned on retiring last Spring, but then my dad suddenly passed away and that changed everything. God's timing sure is perfect. He knew that my mom would need all the amazing people that she worked with at WV to get her through the most difficult time of her life. That is why He did not allow her to retire before that time, I am sure of it. After almost a year of grieving and shifting her life plans to that without my dad, Mom announced her retirement date of March 11, 2011.
World Vision threw her a really great retirement party, and the kids and I were there to celebrate! (Tony had court that day, of COURSE!) There were 15 desserts, 1 for every year my mom worked at WV, several people spoke, and one man even sang a beautiful song for Mom. It was really special and I am so glad that we were able to be there.
The dessert table. Uh, YUM!!!
A co-worker made this awesome cake. Just perfect for my gardening-loving mom!
Sadie and my bro, Tim
Mom with her (former) boss and friend, Mary
Drew - strawberries in his teeth and all :)
Sadie
Zack
Not sure who this was, but he had some really nice things to say about Mom
Susan is another former boss but still wonderful friend to my mom. She also happens to be aunt to one of my friends at church here in OR!
Mom, we all are SO very proud of you, and I just want to say thank you for all the years of very hard work you put in to provide for your family. You are my hero and I love you so very much!
Levi, the birthday boy!
Wyatt and Hunter vs. Zack and Drew
We had delicious cheese AND chocolate fondue! Oh my, it was so good!
Levi's cake. Didn't Sarah do an awesome job?
Courage cooking for his Grandma :)
Good thing Hudson is so sweet and mellow, Sadie didn't want to put him down!
Riley made this pinata!
Hunter, Zack, Drew, (cousin) Jane and Riley
My mom is pretty awesome. She is a confident, strong, independent, SUPER smart woman, and the best mother I could ever ask for. She worked on and off when my brother and I were young, and then more as we got older. 15 years ago, she got a job with World Vision as an administrative assistant. With encouragement from her boss, she went back to school at UW Tacoma and earned her BA in Accounting (we graduated at the same time!). Since then she has worked in the Finance Department at World Vision in multiple areas, such as Gifts-In-Kind and domestic grants. Seriously she is sooo smart! :) Anyway, my mom has been wanting to retire for several years now and was waiting for the right time. She had planned on retiring last Spring, but then my dad suddenly passed away and that changed everything. God's timing sure is perfect. He knew that my mom would need all the amazing people that she worked with at WV to get her through the most difficult time of her life. That is why He did not allow her to retire before that time, I am sure of it. After almost a year of grieving and shifting her life plans to that without my dad, Mom announced her retirement date of March 11, 2011.
The dessert table. Uh, YUM!!!
A co-worker made this awesome cake. Just perfect for my gardening-loving mom!
Sadie and my bro, Tim
Mom with her (former) boss and friend, Mary
Drew - strawberries in his teeth and all :)
Sadie
Zack
Not sure who this was, but he had some really nice things to say about Mom
Susan is another former boss but still wonderful friend to my mom. She also happens to be aunt to one of my friends at church here in OR!
Her award reads "For her amazing speaking and acting talent. She owns the stage!"
We are so proud of you, Sadie!!
(with a little help from Kahz, too!)
And for dessert?
This winter has been pretty lame in the snow department, and I never feel quite ready to move on to Spring until we have had at least one chance to play in some snow. A few weeks ago, we FINALLY got some... for about 4 hours. We woke up to several inches of gorgeous snow and fortunately didn't dawdle too long in getting outside and playing in it. We went off to our neighborhood schoolhouse and the kids sledded on the lawn until there was literally almost none left. It warmed up so quickly it melted about as quickly as it had come. Bummer. It was fun while it lasted, though!
Our street
Playing with our next door neighbors, William and Matthew
Zack, my darling snow angel! :)
Off to the schoolhouse!
WHEEEE!
Zack and Matthew, enjoying the snow to the last drop!
The yummy food
Blake and Drew
Jenn and my mom
Drew, Jillian, Sara, Jenn and Zack
Uncle Derek and Sadie
Grandma Jacque, Auntie Chrissie and Uncle Aaron
Dessert - mud pie! (This was my first time ever attempting to make mud pies. They turned out pretty good!)
Drew liked it, and that is all that matters. :)
Erin and Madison
They got Drew two Webkins! He was quite excited. :)
After a healthy breakfast of donuts and eggs, everyone headed off to school. Drew's friend birthday party was right after preschool at Papa's Pizza.
And Daddy came too!
Drew's best friends all came!
"Happy Birthday to you..."
Drew and Joshua
Drew and Maddie
Drew and Cohen
Having fun on the merry-go-round
Me and my 
Aaaand more presents. Because he hadn't gotten enough...