Bunny tails

See, they both do it...

It's just cute and funny to me.  One of those things I can imagine they will look back at in 20 years and laugh like my friends and I laugh about scrunching 3 pairs of socks in layers in the 80's.  Heehee.

Easter Sunday

Here we are on our way to church this morning...

Part of the foyer setup for our continental breakfast...

Sylvia, Annah, Bekah, Jillian, Sara -- So thankful for these friendships!!

Jeremy greeting at the front door, as usual...

A new sermon series started today!

We are so blessed to have Pastor Karin teaching our kids now!!

My child tried to ruin every photo I took during 3 minutes in the room...

The sanctuary was packed today!

We had 228 people at PoC today!  And 15 who gave their hearts to Jesus for the first time!  

There is a huge party going on in heaven today!

After the service, we had 3 egg hunts for the kids.  

This is Sylvia's last year for the egg hunt.

Sammy, Adam the Easter Bunny, and Jillian

Sammy gave Caeden a cross necklace like his.

dear friends

A quick family photo while squinting into the sun...

It was such a gorgeous, exciting, wonderful day celebrating Jesus' resurrection with our church family!  

And here's a little video I put together for the church.

PoC Easter 2014 from Point of Change on Vimeo.

Sunny Saturday

We were at church most of the day today, getting ready for Easter Sunday tomorrow.  This morning, Sylvia and I helped prepare the continental breakfast, while Annah and Caeden watched a little boy of one of the other worker's.  

After a while, Caeden went with his friend Grant, whose family lives nearby.  He got to play outside with Grant all day, while Grant's mom was happy to have Grant occupied so she could get some things done.

The girls and Jillian were good helpers every time we needed them throughout the day, but they also had a lot of time to play outside.  They found a long rope and did some jumping in the parking lot!

All of these girls came inside mid-afternoon and we pointed out to them that they were working on some decent sunburns--and farmer tans!  

It was a long day, but we enjoyed working to prepare our church for the big celebration of Jesus resurrection tomorrow!

Quirky Kids

Caeden's Lego creation this morning...

This morning, we cleaned the girls' room and moved their beds around.  We tend to be a little bit "hoard-ish," so I tried to emphasize that we need to get rid of as many things as possible.  Sylvia found three posters she had made for school in the past couple years.  She would only throw them away if I took a picture of each of them...

When I was done vacuuming their room, I went downstairs and forgot my phone.  Annah brought it down to me when she came down later, and this is now my home screen.

This afternoon, Jeremy gave Caeden a shearing.  After a few minutes, Caeden came up to me like this and said, "Daddy says I'm all done!"

I love the silliness and quirks of my kids!  

Music Boosters Family Fun Night

This even was a really fun time at the Music Boosters' Family Fun Night!

I made a double batch of these Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies for the bake sale.  (They were very good, but I didn't like the fact that they call for vegetable oil.  I try to avoid baking with oil, so if I made them again I would try to substitute something else.)

Somehow, as soon as we arrived and they saw each other, Caeden and Reece were arm wrestling on the floor of the APR.

Families could buy tickets for 50-cents, and use them towards various activities and events all around the school.  The bake sale and other food items were in the APR.  The high school gym had 3-on-3 basketball tournaments going in it.  Outside there was a bounce house (which Caeden spent 33 tickets on over the course of the night!), a ring-toss game, a 3-legged-dress-up race, and some other fun activities.  

Annah and I were in the south gym the whole evening, running the cupcake walk.  Some kids walked around our square for a looooong time, but it was worth it for a Sweet Temptations cupcake!

Two very talented high schoolers drew caricatures all evening!

The Zoo Lady and her face painting team had a long line all night.  They do amazing work!!

Lots of people bought pieces of duct tape to tape Mr. M (our band director) to the wall!

Guitar Hero

Mr. R and Addie facing off in Guitar Hero--I heard she almost beat him, but then heard he was on the most challenging level and she was on the easiest!  ;)

R to L: 

our choir director, band director, and new HS art teacher

At the end of the evening, Mr. M came running into the gym with Caeden trying to catch him.  He had stolen the pound cake Caeden bought at the bake sale.  

Yesterday, when Caeden and Sylvia came to the choir room after school, Mr. M told Caeden he was going to write a musical called, "Let's kill Caeden!"  Caeden told him he was going to write his own called, "No! Let's kill Mr. M instead!"  They decided they would both write their musicals and whoever sold the most tickets to their show got to perform it.  And, they would get to choose how they would be killed in each other's show.  Mr. M said he wanted to be chased by children no older than 3rd grade who were throwing tiny spears at him.  Maybe you just had to be there, but it was pretty funny in the moment.  These guys (our music teachers) are very silly, but are so great at getting the kids excited about music and really teaching them important fundamentals at the same time.  We are fortunate to have them in our school...death musicals and all.  Haha.

Tonight was a really neat night to see the families of our community having fun together and celebrating music at the same time!

Mismatched socks

Sylvia and Addie sure love their mismatched socks!

SchoBo at PC

I drove to Forrest, IL this afternoon so we could watch the JH SchoBo team at an away meet.  Today, Annah was on the "B" team.

This team competed in a very small classroom that barely fit our spectators, but it was a fun meet.  (Ridgeview kids are on the left in this picture, and the opposing team on the right.)

They lost, but had fun.  It does seem they are learning and beginning to gain that important confidence more with each meet.

Sinfonia

String Project put a couple photos of tonight's rehearsal out for parents to see.  

(In this one, Annah is at the right.)

(In this one, we are looking over Annah's shoulder as she is on the left.)

The 7th and 8th graders from Sinfonia and Vivace got to choose a pop song to perform at the concert in May.  Guess what they chose?  Let It Go, of course!  It was apparently almost a unanimous decision.  Annah is a little disappointed that she has to play the second part and doesn't have the melody, but says it is pretty cool that they're playing it.

HAPPY!!!

I love my church family. I love that we get to do fun things--like dance in the aisles--to worship Jesus and show the world that He gives us JOY! I am HAPPY to be part of the family of God!

Post by Taryn McEowen Lopshire.

Wrestling Banquet

This evening, we went to the end-of-season banquet for the wrestling club.  There was a good turnout of kids and families.

Coach making the rounds...

Annah was trying to get out of the way for me to take a picture...

There was a ton of food.  At the last minute, I decided to make enchiladas.  Jeremy told me not to make something Mexican, because he didn't think people would like it.  However, my enchiladas were demolished.  Apparently, people did like them.

I know my guys loved being able to have "our own" wrestling team this year!  We sure appreciate all that Scott and Christie did to make sure it happened.  Here's to next season!