School Open House

This evening I took the kids to their school open house.  I always love to visit the school, and it's so fun for them to be able to show me around! 

We visited Sylvia's 1st grade class first.  Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Ayers.

Starting 1st grade has been just great for Sylvia!  She is most excited about having her very own desk!

I very much enjoyed meeting Annah's new 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. House.  Annah is already really liking being in her class.

Annah's friend Hannah was at the open house with her mom, so it was especially nice to see her, since she doesn't go to our school anymore.  The kids checked out the reading corner in Mrs. House's classroom together.  Mrs. House uses the Suzy's zoo characters a lot in her classroom!

We saw Annah's new locker too!

We also visited Caeden's classroom, but since it was crowded with the families of two preschool classes and lots of little ones, we signed up for conferences and parties and such and tried to move on quickly.  

It was a great open house.  We are so blessed to have such a great school and great teachers and administrators!

Goodbye Uncle Lee

We are missing Jeremy today, as he is in Indiana to attend Uncle Lee's funeral.  He also has the honor of being a pallbearer.  While we are sad for Uncle Lee's passing, we are grateful to God for allowing him to pass peacefully into eternity.  We have such fun memories of him--like the time at Jeremy's high school graduation open house where Lee offered Jeremy $50 for his girlfriend (me!), and we were pretty sure he was at least partially serious!  He was such a jokester, always grinning and laughing...What a great way to be remembered.  We are thankful for his impact in our lives.

Back to pre-K 2009!

Today was the big day for Caeden! He was so excited he couldn't stand still!

No hesitation or nerves whatsoever for this big boy! Let's go to SCHOOL!



Daddy came home from work for a few minutes just to see Caeden, pray over him, and watch him get on the bus.



This is much easier this time around!



Caeden ran right up the steps of the bus, so, so excited! I think he waved to us out the window.



The school transportation coordinator called me a couple weeks ago and said that Caeden was the only afternoon pre-K student in Arrowsmith this year, and while the school would bring the pre-K bus to Arrowsmith for him, she wondered if it would be okay for him to ride home on the BIG bus with his sisters (and all of the other big kids, all the way up to high schoolers!). Since we know what an excellent bus driver Vickie is, and what kind of a "ship" she runs, we knew Caeden would be just fine on the big bus, sitting with his sisters, having a much shorter ride, and getting home earlier. So, he is riding the BIG school bus home from school every day now! He and his sisters were all very excited when I told them that!

I have to admit it's kind of neat to see all my kids getting off the bus together. Annah went before Caeden and held his hand until they got to me on the sidewalk. They were all 3 grinning, and reported that the bus ride and school were "GREAT!!!" today.


As all the kids were getting off the bus, one of my piano students came up and chatted with me and Caeden took off running towards the house with out the rest of us. He ran in the house and said, "I have to go potty, really, really bad!" I used to do the same thing when I'd get home from school...Who has time to go at school when there's so much excitement?


Seriously, we are so blessed to be in the wonderful school we are in. We knew nothing about it when we moved here, and I'm so thankful for the district we just "ended up" being part of. It is HUGE that our kids love school, we love the school, the teachers, the administration...Thank you Lord!!

Super Kid!

The theme in the pre-K classes this year is "We are super kids!" So, Mrs. Harden sent a cutout kid in the registration papers for each student to decorate how they would look as a super kid. Caeden thought about decorating it as one of his favorite superheroes like Luke Skywalker or Batman, but we decided it should look like him being super. So, he decided he wanted to be playing a guitar! Then we put a superhero-like shirt on him that says stuff like "Pow! Boom! Zap!" He was happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to see it up by his classroom!

Almost back to Pre-K

Caeden's pre-K teacher invited parents to bring the kids in to the classroom today before school starts for them on Monday. Even though Caeden already knows his teachers and is used to the classroom, he wanted to go visit because he's so excited to get back to school!

Mrs. Harden had a scavenger hunt made up so Caeden could show me around the room. He was VERY excited to show me the big Legos. (He is on a big Lego kick right now, dreaming of the day I will allow him to have his own!)


Dinosaurs are some of Caeden's favorite "table toys," and Mrs. Phillips said they were probably THE favorite of all the boys last year.


Mrs. Harden and Caeden on the circle time rug!


The classroom has this super cool loft! Isn't it neat? (There is plexiglass behind the railing, for you worriers.)


At first Caeden couldn't remember that there were blocks in the classroom, but there are a lot of them! I liked these big foamy ones!


Mrs. Phillips showed Caeden how the boys in last year's morning class pretended the waffle blocks were motorcycles.
She is also trying to convince Caeden that she really, really wants him to pack her in his suitcase when we go to Disney World!


Mrs. Beyer and Caeden


Monday afternoon can't come soon enough! My, I'm glad our kids love school!

Back to School 2009!

Back-to-school kind of snuck up on us this year, especially with the week we had last week! I didn't feel mentally prepared for it, but I think the girls are. They just love school (Thank the Lord!) and were so excited to go back and see their friends, teachers, classrooms!

I have to say that I love that Jeremy makes it a tradition of being home when the the kids go off to their first day of school! I think it's awesome, and hope the kids will always remember it as one of the meaningful things their daddy did to show them how much he loves them!

Annah is in Mrs. House's class this year. I really can't believe she's in 3rd grade! I remember lots of things from when I was in 3rd grade!



Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!



Sylvia is in Mrs. Ayers class this year for 1st grade. (Annah had Mrs. Ayers for 1st grade too, so Sylvia is comforted and excited knowing she already likes her.)



Sylvia got to pick out a new backpack for school this year, a first. She has been content to use hand-me-down ones from Annah before, but very politely asked if she could get a bigger one for first grade. She loves the pink Hello Kitty one she picked out at Target.



walking to the bus stop



There they go! No tears (not even from Mommy or Daddy...It helps that no one's going to kindergarten this year!), just excitement from all of us! We love our school!

Blessing of the Backpacks

The senior citizens and parents in our church gathered around the school kids today during the service to pray over them and their backpacks and their schoolyear. I think this is a great tradition (2008 BotB, 2007 BotB) in our church, as the kids are given a reminder that Jesus is always with them--even at school! I pray over my kids every morning before school, that they would be a blessing and an example and shine their lights for Jesus at school, and the Blessing of the Backpacks is a great reinforcement! I always get teary to see the kids gathered in with their backpacks and the adults praying over them and with them!



Ellen praying with Caeden


Troy praying with Sylvia


Jeremy praying with Annah


God bless our kids this school year!

Grandma McEowen

My Grandma McEowen passed away this week. I'm still unable to sort out my thoughts and emotions completely, at least as far as to record them here. It wasn't the week were expecting to have, but there was good in the midst of the very difficult.

<--(Grandma on her 90th birthday, May 31, 2008)

It was good that she passed peacefully in her sleep after struggling and dealing with pain for such a long time. It was good that almost all of the extended family, including those from other states, was already gathered together, and were able to spend the week together holding each other up.

It is good that Grandma is now in Heaven with Jesus, reunited with a husband she missed for 32 earthly years, free of pain, full of joy, and happy for all eternity.

I personally don't believe that people "look down" from heaven to earth once they have passed on (Why would they want to, once there are THERE!?), but I do think if she had, she would have been pleased with her funeral service. It was a beautiful remembrance of some wonderful moments of her life. She liked things to be "just right," and I think it was pretty close. I was honored to be part of it, just as I am honored to share a love for music and a faith that she helped pass on to me. What a blessing to have grown up living next door to my grandma, seeing her daily, having her such a part of my life! I can't wait to see her again someday soon.


Grandma's Obituary at Sheets & Childs site

Grandma's Obituary in the Ft. Wayne paper

<--- Grandma on her wedding day

Quiet Corner Tea Room

Today we visited one of our very favorite spots in the world, the Quiet Corner Tea Room. Gram takes us most every time we visit her, and we always enjoy it so much.

Lost Teeth

While here, Esme discovered she had her very first loose tooth! She pulled it yesterday! I don't know if she wanted to show her up or just be like her, but minutes after Esme pulled her tooth Sylvia pulled the tooth she's been working on all summer. So, the Tooth Fairy was very busy in this house last night! They both look just so adorable with the little empty spaces in their mouths!

Happy Anniversary, Wanda & Earl!

A big congratulations to my Aunt Wanda & Uncle Earl on their 50th wedding anniversary! Many of their family and friends gathered today to help them celebrate at a wonderful luncheon and open house. It is no wonder to me that they have been together 50 years. To me, they are the epitome of a Christ-centered marriage and family. They are gentle, giving people, truly servants of all. It was a pleasure to be part of their celebration today!

The Howell Family



The cake was good!



I had to take a picture of all the people taking a picture. This is what it looks like at any McEowen gathering. I was part of the line-up, and when I realized there were 5 of us shooting at the same time, I backed up, laughed and took this!




Caeden was thrilled to be able to play with the LEGO wall at the church.

Cousins in the house!

The kids and I are in Indiana on our last visit of the summer. Boy, are we looking forward to a relaxing week here with Gram & Krampa! We don't have much planned, except some relaxing, swimming, maybe fishing, and just general hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

Many of the extended McEowen family is also here in town for a family gathering tomorrow! We had a nice swim this afternoon and enjoyed some grillin' for supper. The kids love to eat on the porch together.

We are so excited to finally meet baby Emily! (We can't call her big sister "Baby Megan" anymore!) The kids are fascinated with her!

Mean ol' mosquitos!

We've known for some time that the girls are both very allergic to mosquitoes. When they are bitten by one, the area or limb will swell a lot, get very hot, and later become bruised. They often get fevers and become lethargic as well. Fortunately, we haven't had a lot of mosquitoes around where we live, and Caeden hasn't been bitten much. But it has been such a cool and wet summer, we have had more mosquitoes than usual the past couple weeks, and all the kids have been dealing with bites.

Yesterday afternoon we noticed Caeden's eye had a red mark by it, but thought maybe he had bonked it on something, because we didn't see a bite mark. This is what he looked like when he woke up this morning. Now we can see the bite mark by his eyebrow.

I gave him an ice pack, and Sylvia collected several of his stuffed animals for him and snuggled up with him to make him feel better. Poor little guy!