Caeden's Very First Fishing Trip!

Grandpa took us fishing this afternoon! (Me, the kids, and Grandpa) It was Caeden's very first time to go fishing, and he has been waiting anxiously for a while now! It turned out to be the perfect day for fishing, and it was very exciting for Caeden! (And the grown-ups watching him too!)

Grandpa cast out a line for Caeden, and as he was explaining to Caed how to hold the pole, watch the bobber, work the reel, Caeden got a bite! He reeled in a big ol' catfish! It was nearly 2 feet long! You can imagine the excitement of a little boy catching such a big fish! He kept saying over and over, "How can I catch such a big fish? I knew I could!"


Yep, he thought it was pretty cool, and wasn't afraid of the fish at all!


He also caught a crappie, and Grandpa showed it to him up-close.



I was trying to take a picture with Dad's camera and had it on a video setting...
Caught a cute moment...


Caeden wasn't afraid to touch the fish.


He caught a blue-gill too!


When we got back to the barn, the kids jumped out of the truck and ran to get Uncle Travis to come see Caeden's huge catfish. Grandpa called Daddy and put him on speakerphone so Caeden could tell him all about his big catch! Caeden was so excited and funny. He was holding the fish, petting it, getting right up in its face, and pulling its whiskers. He loved the whole experience, and I loved watching him. I know Grandpa did too, and I wish Daddy could have been there. What a day! Quite an experience for a first fishing trip!

Quiet Corner

We visited one of our very favorite spots in the Churubusco area today! When we are home (and the season is right) we try to have tea and lunch at the Quiet Corner Tea Room. It's such a relaxing atmosphere--back a long lane in a wooded area with little wooden teapot signs pointing the way and labeling quiet resting spots with quotes and scriptures. There is a small tea room and also a lovely large gazebo. We always order a large teapot of their authentic imported Indian Chai (The owners used to be missionaries in India!), which is the real thing and it is fabulous! They also have incredible homeade bread, and the best chicken salad I've ever had. The kids love to get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips every time. And today I had coconut cream pie that was soooo good. We even took Grandpa along for his first visit there today.

Annah entertained herself by making "jewelry" and a hat out of her paper napkin rings and her napkin while we were waiting for our food.

Though you can't tell by this face, she really does love to eat lemons...has since she was a baby!


The kids begged to go for a walk in the forest after we finished lunch. It was so lovely.

Outside with Gram

Gram has lots of beautiful flowers at her house, and the kids think it's wonderful! They love to help her water them. This morning they helped her plant some gladiolus bulbs in her rock garden. The kids tore off the dried skins and gave them to Gram as she dug holes for them.


A favorite activity of this visit has been walking up and down/around the brick landscaping wall that goes around the side and back of Grandma & Grandpa's house. It's like long stair steps, and the kids love it!

Grandma & Grandpa L.

We visited with Grandma & Grandpa Lopshire this evening! We found lots of fun things to do while we waited for Grandpa to get home from his shop and go to dinner.

Grandma is always overjoyed to have the kids around.


The kids (hesitantly) watched Grandma feed the baby goat.


Caeden played with a really cool rocket that actually shoots up in the sky! He would set it up, and run several feet away, say, "Okayyyyyy, BLAST OFF!" and run towards it to stomp on the "poofer" to make it go up--over and over again. It was great fun!


The girls drew girly hearts and "I love you" messages on the sidewalk for Grandma and Grandpa--who don't get to have girls and girly things around very often! And, Grandma opened up the garage so the kids could play with the ride-on toys, scoop ball, paddle-ball, the hobby horse, and lots of Daddy's old toys.
When Grandpa got home from work, all 6 of us went to Timmy's Nook for supper. We told the kids about how it was the place where Daddy had his first job (when it was Pirate's Cove) and how he cleared tables and washed dishes. And we told them how the man who owns it now is the one who put me in a trash can in high school. (That story always mortifies them, although it was much less traumatic than it sounds.)

We're at Grandpa's!

The kids and I arrived at my parents' house this afternoon, and are here to stay for a few days! The kids jumped out of the car and ran to Gram & Grandpa with arms open wide waving and yelling excitedly. Gram made us lunch and had to leave for work shortly after we arrived, so we joined Grandpa in some outside work. He now has 3 small shovels, so each kid can use one.

The kids thought helping Grandpa a little bit with his mulching project was fun! (I don't remember it being so fun when I was a kid!)


Grandpa let Caeden help drive "Big Orange" to move some mulch. Caeden was one very excited little boy! He said, "I can drive Grandpa's Big Orange all by myself!"


Grandpa even showed him how to steer and even how to move the levers to scoop up some mulch and dump it!


Sylvia got her turn too, and was pretty good at steering!





Annah got to help too. She scooped and dumped up the sand pile to make it better for playing!





There are SO many new things to do at Grandpa & Grandma's house!

Preschool Graduation

The preschool year is over. Sylvia has graduated to kindergarten. Last night was the spring program/graduation/concert. It was short and sweet! The kids sang 8 songs, then each child was announced by name as he/she crossed over the bridge to the next class. Even though she hadn't felt well all day, Sylvie was excited to do the program, and smiled and sang well.

sitting in the pew waiting to be announced to cross over...


Sylvia crossing over to kindergarten!


trying to hide her smile after receiving her certificate


Sis and friend Ella after the program was over


Ella and Sylvia on the bridge



Today was the family picnic at school. It was rainy, so the "picnic" was inside.
Annah and Sylvia have always loved playing with this dollhouse.


Jeremy did a lot of entertaining of the kids today, including silly running races. (He was the silly one.)

Citizenship

Annah was very excited and waving a certificate when she came in the door from school today. She received an award at the elementary school assembly today. The award is for citizenship. In the car a while ago, I asked her what citizenship means, and she told me, "Mom, it's all the pillars." This made me get all choked up, because I realized it was a bigger deal than I'd thought.

Each school year, the entire elementary school studies the 7 pillars of citizenship. They are things like responsibility, trustworthiness, respect, caring, fairness. And, the school has a special teacher who goes around to all the classes teaching these pillars.

Last year, at the beginning of kindergarten, we were pleasantly surprised when Annah received the 'Responsibility' award. She didn't receive any of the individual pillar awards during the school year this year, but the citizenship award is for being an outstanding student in every pillar area! So, yes, we are extremely proud of her, and so glad she has been a good student and citizen at school!

Most every morning before she leaves for school I pray with her, and one of the things we pray about is that she would shine her light for Jesus to everyone she sees at school. I kind of take this award as a blessing from the Lord to encourage her to continue on. It is an honor for her, for sure.

Jeremy's Birthday #33!

We celebrated Jeremy's birthday tonight with our Life Group friends!

Here he's fake blowing out the candles since I missed the actual moment while my flash was auto popping up. But it's pretty much what his face looked like when he was actually blowing them out too!

This was the saddest looking cake. I will preorder one next time! They were very busy at DQ when I dropped in to pick this up, and it took the girl 10 minutes to do THIS! Sorry Honey!!


Yeah, we're getting older, but we're still happy!


The kids enjoyed watching Daddy open his presents.


Birthday Daddy and his 3 exhausted kids made time for a little snuggle.

School Art Show

Annah's school is having their Art Show open house today and tomorrow. We went this afternoon and walked all through the school checking out the fantastic art projects.

Right inside the front door, Annah showed us her playground project. She designed and built her own playground out of paper. (Hers is the one at the edge of the table right next to her elbow.)


Every student's (K-12!) art projects from the entire year are on exhibit. They are grouped together by project, and every grade has projects throughout the entire building. The art teachers label each project with the grade, what the projects are, what techniques and supplies were used, and what artist (if any) the students were emulating/learning about.

Below are photos of some of Annah's projects. (You can click to see them bigger.)


Annah's collage is the red one above her knee.
She loves art, and sometimes says she wants to be an artist when she grows up.
(She does have it in her blood--on both sides of the family!)


Annah and her art teacher, Mrs. Hoffert, in the art classroom. The clay hangings on the bulletin board behind them are 1st grade projects.


I have to say that the art show is very, very impressive. This is a tiny school, and to see all these projects displayed so beautifully is just amazing. There are some very talented students in the school, and I am just so impressed with the things the art teachers are teaching them. I'm thankful that our school has an art program at all, but especially thankful for such a good one!

The kids all liked the giant replica projects some of the high schoolers did. Annah likes Lucky Charms, so we had to get this photo.


This little project isn't part of the art show, but rather part of the elementary school's theme for the year. Forgive me for not knowing it exactly, but it has to do with puzzles. Something about every piece being important to the puzzle. These little paper puzzle kids were from the first week of first grade. Annah brought hers home and we decorated it together to look like her. (The last one on the right.) Her class' puzzle kids have hung hand-in-hand outside their classroom all year. Annah wanted me to take a picture of hers which is next to her friends Jada, Lauren, and Shelby.