Graduation Day for L.J. #3374

The graduation was at Temple University.

There were 152 graduating recruits.

His final average was a 97.6....

graduating in the top percentage of his class.

His reward for his efforts?....

Well, he has been assigned to one of the worst districts in the city.

We all swallowed hard with that news.

(Send safe thoughts his way.)

But...

He graduated on Monday morning and then Tuesday he had his first arrest, taser gun and all!

Danielle said his adrenaline was pumping!!

:)

Can you find him?

Taking the oath. 

Luke (on the right) with fellow officers and friends.

It still hasn't kicked in that he isn't wearing a costume.

He's the real deal!

Brothers.

Best Friends.

Patrick and Luke.

(And for the final record.... Luke is 6'3" and Patrick is 6'2.5".... hahaha!)

Dad, Luke , and Mom

Luke with Laura and Livvie.

Sam's reward for being good through the graduation was that he would get to wear Uncle Luke's hat.

Beth was perfect at the ceremony.

Not so perfect afterwards.

(I'll get to that at a later date.)

Awww... smiles after all!

(I was threatening everything in my power.)

Danielle, Luke and Zeke

Luke and his cake that Danielle had commissioned for him.

It is always a wonderful thing to watch someone achieve their dream.

It's also a very rare gift.

Thank you Luke for your persistence and dedication to yourself.

Thank you Danielle for being his rock through it all.

It was a long and bumpy road but we have been with you the entire way, and thank you for letting us accompany you.

You did it.

Now go out there...

 keep fighting crime, making your arrests, staying safe, and not screwing up reading them their Miranda rights!

(My next post will be party photos! WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!)

Introducing Officer Luke Lesko

I have been given permission to disclosure his badge number...

#3374.

The photo above is from Thursday. His last official day as a recruit.

The photo below is from today.

In his dress uniform.

He was given his hand gun.

(At the moment he has it tucked in the waistband of his cargo shorts, covered by his T-shirt.

He is too cool for us! :)

We are all down here in Philly, to attend his graduation and have a blow out party!!!

Words can not express how happy and proud of him we all are.

The Kindergarten Blues

Wednesday was the last day of school.

I really can't believe it!

Another milestone come and gone.

His school, teachers, and classmates were the best 

introduction to his academic career anyone could hope for.

He is reading books, reading clocks, calculating math skills, counting coins, writing sentences, and making a name for himself with in his peers.

I knew he would do well, he does well at everything he does (except cleaning his room).

But I am still proud of him just the same.

It's fun to view summer vacation through school eyes again.

I am determined to make it a really fun one!

Sam loves this video clip....

... he has watched it about 20 times! :)))

Thank goodness we do not live by the ocean.

Barefeet, Watermelon, and Stars...

An Ode to Summer

With some essentials, of course.

Warm weather, stars and stripes, watermelon by the mouth full, 

dirty barefeet, and a cute little girl.

Happy Summer!

:)

SAM LAX

#27

Sam

CNS Youth Lacrosse

Spring/Summer 2009

He has officially started a lacrosse program through CNS school.

Living in CNY, the birth place of lacrosse, every kid should know how to play.

So Sam suits up twice a week through the end of July to learn skills.

He really loves it!

But what he really loves is all the equipment.

Helmet, shoulder pads, arm pads, gloves, mouth piece, his stick, cleats, jersey, and...

he has to wear a cup!!

(It's so stinkin' cute!)

He would be mortally embarrassed that I am calling it "cute".

But he does like it and is rather proud of it.

(Such a guy!)

So stay tuned.... I may write an entire post about his stinkin' cute cup!

He is #27 for me.

Actually I tried to get him to be #21 because that's his birthdate, but the number was already taken. And then I tried for #22 for Brian's... taken.

That left a few other 20's but he would not even think to honor Beth with #24.

I mean he likes her, (shhh... he even loves her) but not enough to wear her number.

Brothers just don't do that sort of thing.

So there it was, in all it's glory... #27.

I guess I am exempt from the "icky girl rule".

He wears my number and it makes me smile inside.

:)

Fossil Digs

Summer time brings a whole new perspective for imaginations.

This small patch of dirt around our tree in the backyard became 

a fossil/dinosaur excavation  site.

I had so much fun watching and listening to their excitement as they would unearth their next big discovery. 

Who knew that under my favorite maple tree, in our backyard, and just mere centimeters below the soil would be dinosaur eggs, the head of a baby dinosaur, and fossils from a yet to be named species of life. 

It was so exciting!

Of course this has to be kept under wraps.

I know that we can keep our secret safe here.

I mean we wouldn't want the world's top paleontologists and archeologists 

descending upon us in swarms.

Normally I wouldn't mind if they wanted to come and 

dig a deep amphitheater size bowl in our backyard. 

(Hmmmm... it would be one more step closer to getting a pool....) 

I am sure they would discover some lost civilization right underneath our home.

And besides with all those people here, and I'm sure there would be a lot of graduate school interns, I would have a whole new selection of babysitters!

(1. Grocery shopping without kids...check,

2. I could finally watch Oprah... check,

3. take every facebook quiz with out interruption... check

4. have my friends drop their kids off here too and we could all go to lunch and then a movie.... check)

 (See what a full night's sleep does to me?)

I do understand my responsibility to share our discoveries with the world.

This would be my part to add another small jigsaw piece to the large puzzle of world history.

But...

 with preschool graduation, the end of kindergarten, dance recitals, baseball and lacrosse practices, play dates.... it's just the wrong time of year.

I won't even get into what this would do to the legalities of the neighborhood covenant.

Poor Mr. Bruce, (our very own Mr. Wilson), across the street would surely come to a early demise from the shock and disruption.

But despite the covenant, a neighbors death on our shoulders, creating chaos within local traffic... the bottom line is that we are far too busy.

(But then again, there is the pool idea.... it has been pretty hot these last couple of days...)

I'll need to think this through a little more.....

I feel like it's been such a long time since I have taken photos of the kids just being kids.

Images from our everyday life.

The evenings have been so nice lately.

I am always trying to capture memories of this special time in their lives.

This rich imagination, carefreeness, and complete unselfconsciousness will end someday.

Someday they will feel silly and not want to pretend anymore.

But for right now, I love that they can come and tell me the most outrageous stories and have complete faith in them.

It truly is a thing of beauty. 

Such a gift.

I am so grateful that I have been given this job of being a mother,

 to nurture silliness and try to keep it as long as I can.

They keep me smiling.

Beth's Dance Recital

The long anticipated dance recital was performed last night.

But more importantly it became apparent that Beth was more interested in how many flowers she received. She is a four year old girl who adores flowers.

(Even every trip to Wegmans she begs for new flowers for her room.)

It was so cute to see all her girlfriends cheering her on.

Molly. Livvie. Bethers.

Demonstrating ballet"ing".

Getting ready to go up on stage.

Part of her entourage.

Sam, Molly, Megan, Livvie, McKenna

The move she has made famous.

"The washing machine"

Just another venue to make our little diva shine!

Getting her medal.

Thanks to Dad, Sam, Grammy, Uncle Pat, Aunt Rachel, Aunt Denise, Amanda, Molly Kristin, McKenna Kristin, Little Joe, Molly, McKenna, Megan, and Livvie for all your cheering, love and flowers! I love you so much!!

Love, Beth xoxo