End of school year

Becca loves reading and has really taken off with it. She earned a free ticket to the Nashville Sounds baseball game so we all went to enjoy the game and asked some friends to come along. The kids rode to the game with our friends and back home...we really have good friends that were willing to tote our kids along.

Becca was really looking forward to the end of school. She did have a great year and learned a lot. It's amazing how quickly they learn at this age. She can now read on a 2nd to 3rd grade level, ride a bike without training wheels, add and subtract, and other things. She wrote something about first grade and said she looked forward to making new friends...something I couldn't imagine her saying just a couple of years ago because she seemed so shy. A week before school was out, I went with her class to the Nasvhille zoo. Because it takes about an hour to drive there and an hour to drive back, plus waiting on buses, etc. the kids only have about an hour an a half to see the zoo. I only had to keep up with Becca and one other little girl. It wasn't terribly hot and we had a good time.

Double billed bird? Looking in a meerkat habitat

Our church had an awards ceremony for Awana, children's choir and mission friends. This was really neat for the kids and for us parents. I didn't get to see a graduation, awards ceremony or anything for the end of the year for Becca. Awana usually runs during the school year (August through May); our church did not start until January however so we only had half a year. In Sparks, which is K-2, the kids typically do 1 book per year. There were only a few who finished their book, including Becca. We were very proud of her, she memorized many bible verses, books of the New Testament, and many other activities. She was also involved in choir who sung 3 songs and Mission Friends. Barrett was involved in Puggles in Awana and Mission Friends.

Becca is not shy in the right surroundings. The pastor asked a few kids to help sing the Awana songs and lead the pledges. Becca thought the microphone was for her so he had to move on down the line so she didn't "hog" it. Barrett has his moments but rarely is shy. The teachers asked if the parents wanted to bring their younger ones on stage. I started to get up and he just ran up on stage, looked around, waved and yelled "hi" at the audience.

Easter

We had a big event planned at church the Saturday before Easter. Because I am the nursery coordinator, I am also in charge of many children's events too. My committee helped me plan a great event. The downside to being in charge is it's difficult to enjoy the actual event with your kids because you're making sure things are going smoothly. But, we had a great time. There are always ways to make things better but the kids had fun and that was the most important thing. Luckily, the rain held off so we could get the egg hunt done outside.

We had pictures with live bunnies, snacks, crafts, the Easter story, and the egg hunt. At our registration table, we had bags of different color jelly beans where each color coincided with an element of the salvation story. Our ministry team thought of that idea to give everyone who came one which I thought was great. Some of the pictures, you can't see the bunnies but some of them, the bunnies decided to poke their head out of the box. Some ladies made wonderful cookies and someone else tore up all the tissue paper for our craft. We borrowed a cattle ring and filled it with hay. Because it wasn't very big, we had to do the hunt in shifts but everyone had a good time. Some teenagers went in between shifts to re-fill the hay.

Photo area Listening to the story Craft area

After church on Easter, we went to the club for their annual lunch buffett and egg hunt. The food was delicious as always. However, the rain did not hold off for Sunday. So, instead of hunting eggs outside, the Easter bunny walked around with a huge bag of eggs for the kids to fill their buckets.

Then the kids got to pick out an Easter basket to take home. The rain let up enough so we could get some family pictures outside of the pro shop.

Our life...condensed

The month of January and part of February, our house was full of sickness. My husband and Becca took turns being sick. Darren had the flu, Becca had scarletina, Darren had a nasty congestion and then Becca had a stomach bug that lasted for days. Luckily, Barrett not I got anything. How that happened, I'll never know. I just know I was very vigilant about washing everyone's hands and trying not to get terribly close to those highly contagious for fear of me getting it, or worse, Barrett.

We had quite a few snow days in January and February. It was so nice to sleep in and I was glad when they had a day off. However, I was afraid we were going to end up going to school into June, but they decided to tack on 30 minutes to the end of the school day and take away the rest of our half days but at least we get out before Memorial Day. We didn't get to do as much sledding as we'd like, partly because Becca or Darren was sick some of those days.

April brought about Spring Break and Darren's mom came out to visit. We were trying to get the last of the house straightened up and it's never easy getting the kids out of the house. We were running a little behind anyway and we had to drive an hour to get to the airport. My mother-in-law called to tell me the plane came in early and they got their baggage quickly; so I was no longer going to be 5-10 minutes but more like 30 minutes. I'm hurrying as quickly as possible and I was getting off the interstate into the airport ramp going about 40. Then, I saw it, a cop sitting there and as soon as I passed, she pulled right behind me. Great; I knew I was going fast because I was already late but I'm not sure if I knew exactly what the speed limit was which was 25. Becca from the back seat tells her that we're late to pick up grandma. After taking what seemed like forever, she comes back to the car and lets me know she's letting me off with a warning. My mother-in-law was waiting outside with her luggage and she was very nice. Barrett warmed up to her immediately but he ended up with a nasty cough as a result of his allergies. So, he wanted mommy a little more but we still had a great visit. We went to the park and the jump zone and just had a good time sleeping in and having fun.

And now, here we are, almost the end of school and the end of kindergarten. Time has really flown and I know time will never completely slow down but I hope it will slow down just slightly enough to be able to do a few things I want to do, including keeping up with this blog. We're pretty busy this summer so there will be a lot to report on so stay tuned....