Last Day-ish

Today was the kids' last full day of school.  I drove them today.  After I dropped them off and parked, the elementary kids were lining up to go inside like they do every morning.

First thing this morning, the 3rd through 5th grade attended the Honors Assembly.  Sylvia was honored for receiving all A's this semester.  She was actually the only student in her grade to get all A's every quarter this year.  She's a very driven, independent little girl!

The kindergarten through 2nd grade had their Fun Day outside for the first half of today, and the 4th and 5th grade had Fun Day for the second half.  This group of kids (Caeden is 2nd from the right.) was doing the Fuel Up to Play 60 challenge of tasting fresh spinach, pineapple, carrots, bell peppers, cantaloup and honeydew.  

(Jeremy and two other ladies spent over 3 hours last night chopping these fruits and veggies up and putting them into tiny single serving containers with lids so that the kids could do this challenge.  The FUtP60 parent volunteer team has worked very hard this year to make several fun challenges for the students!)

The junior high didn't have a Fun Day, but cleaned out their lockers in the morning, probably watched some movies in class...I don't know what else.  I do love these pictures Annah's friend Audrey took outside around the track after lunch though.

Tomorrow--no school--then 45 minutes for Report Card Day on Friday.  Almost done!

Minor League

 Caeden had his first game in the boys minor league tonight.  These boys have only had about 5 practices together, due to all the rain we've had making the fields into mud pits.  But, they were anxious to get out there!  

In the first inning, Caeden was batting second.  He swung on his first pitch, and hit a great pop fly that was caught by the pitcher.  He was bummed to get out so quickly, but we told him to be glad he had a good hit.

chatting with the boys in the dugout

Caeden got to choose a number for his jersey this year!  He chose 8, which has always been his favorite number.  (His momma remembers it as the first number he learned when he was tiny and sticking foam numbers to the side of the bathtub.  ;)

Caed was an outfielder tonight--first half of the game behind first base, second half behind third.

His second at-bat, Caed walked after 4 balls.  His third time up, he walked because he was hit by the pitch.  This is kid-pitch baseball, which is just amazing to me.  The fact that any 2nd grader can ever pitch a hit-able baseball to another 2nd grader is incredible in my eyes.

Our boys lost their game, but they sure were revved up afterwards.  I'm so glad they had fun!

Today

Today, Caeden was still asleep when I went to wake him up.  Love this.

Today the kids took gifts to their teachers, aides, bus driver, school counselor, nurse, principal--24 little takeout boxes we made last night and filled with bags of tea.

These boxes were pretty easy to make.  We used this template.  The kids said everyone really liked the boxes and the tea too.

Dawn and Addie came for piano lessons today and brought little Samuel with them!  What a sweetheart!!

Sylvia drew this cutie little owl just for fun during art today.  I just thought it was adorable.

Bubbly

just blowing bubbles in the front yard

2nd pair

Annah must have her mommy's eyes.  She had to get new glasses this week.  She still only needs them for seeing things far away, fortunately.

2J Aquarium

Caeden has been working on a special end-of-the-year project recently.  Jeremy helped him find articles on the internet about the jellyfish.  Caeden then made a "web" like his teacher taught him, and wrote interesting facts in the web that he learned in his research.  Then he wrote a paragraph from the web.  I helped him reorder the sentences and typed them in order for him to write his report.

Then, he cut white and clear plastic shopping bags into strips, cutting out all the lettering and colors.  Sylvia helped him with that part.  He cut one side off a few bags and we layered them, stuffing them with other bags and pieces of bags to make the bell.  We stapled the ends of each strip together to make the tentacles and attached them to the bell.  He also made a baby jellyfish with kleenex and fiberfill.

Today, parents and grandparents were invited to the classroom "aquarium" to see all the students present their projects.

It was AMAZING!!  The kids all had such unique and creative models and had learned so many interesting facts about their sea creatures!  While I was there, nearly every other class and teacher in the building came to tour the aquarium and see the kids' work.  Neat, neat.

----------------

This evening, we girls went to the 8th grade promotion ceremony.  I accompanied the choir on piano, and Annah played in the junior high band for the processional and recessional.  Her friends Alexus and Audrey hug-attacked her as we were leaving.  

Thursday Thrills

Caeden noticed he was busy when he had to wear his baseball uniform to guitar class, eat pbj in the car, and get to team photos before practice tonight.  He is enjoying both activities.

The girls and I saw some lovely sights around our village on our walk tonight.

13 years and counting blessings

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary!  I went through an envelope of "throw away" photos from our wedding (the ones that we didn't put in the fancy album because the others were better) and scanned some of them to create this post. 

I never have the words I want, but I can honestly say I am beyond blessed to be married to Jeremy.  Not once have I regretted or wished I'd chosen otherwise.  I am deeply grateful every day that God designed us for each other and put us together.  I think marriage just keeps getting better and better, and I pray we have 13 more decades together!  ;)

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” - Ruth 1:16-17

Crucifixion Diorama

Over the past couple weeks, Annah had to build a diorama for her social studies class.  She had a few time periods to choose from, and decided to do Jesus' crucifixion.   

There were some "loud discussions" and some extra stress in our home over building this project, I must admit.  I offered suggestions (because I didn't want to physically do the project for her) which were mostly shot down because they required too much effort.  She did take my advice to paint the empty tomb on the back of the box, so she could also tell the story of Jesus' resurrection. 

Her daddy was the champion on this one, really moving her to admit she needed to keep working and add more detail.  He even took her to buy more craft supplies and helped her envision and put together the final dimensions and textures that added so much.  

I drove her to school so she didn't have to take it on the bus.  She practiced her presentation on us in the car, and said she was ready to answer questions.  I have to say, I'm proud of her for choosing the story of our salvation for her public school project.  And, the teacher asked if she could keep the diorama to use as an example for future students.  

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." - 1 Peter 3:15-16 NIV

Mother's Day

I still believe being a mother is the best "job" in the world!  

The kids all gave me precious hand-made cards and handprints telling me why they love me.  Those are always my favorite gifts--a little piece of their hearts on paper.

Then today after church, they and their daddy surprised me with more cards and a fancy new red Stir Crazy!  So thoughtful!

My old Stir Crazy broke last year, and I've just been using my biggest metal pot on the stove.  But, it hasn't been working very well lately, and the kids knew I wanted a new Stir Crazy.  They even managed to find it half off--yay for bargain shopping!

We have a tradition of Sunday nights being our popcorn and movie night.  I LOVE that my kids love this tradition and are very adamant about keeping it.  It is special to them, and I love that we share that!

So we had to try out the new Stir Crazy...it passed with flying colors.  So fun.  And, I got to choose the movie tonight, since it was Mother's Day!  I chose Mary Poppins, and the kids were happy because they got to stay up past bedtime since it's so long.  Really, one of my favorite movies ever.

I love my family.  So abundantly blessed.