Education Celebration

We enjoyed an evening at the school a little while back. I can't believe this school year is two weeks from being over! This year has flown!

This is the 4th and 5th grade special chorus group. They have one more field trip where they visit several places to sing before school is out.

 I snapped a few pictures of pictures while we were there. Ethan and his bud Will when they got student of the week the same week, Way to go boys!

 Avery's last elementary desk...next year she moves on up to lockers!

 Their reading program this year was "reading rocks"

 so here they are rocking it

 Ethan has done a whole lot of reading this year. He has three booklets to do in the next two weeks so i don't think he will have a problem getting them finished. He is always so happy to get in the van and tell me how m,any stickers he got to put on his chart. He is really doing great with his reading. We are very proud of him!

 Ethan's kindergarten desk

 The 5th grade strings also had a little concert for us to start the evening. Avery has been loving playing the violin and has signed up to continue on with orchestra and choir in 6th grade next year.

It was a fun night to see all that the kids have been up to. They love school and we are thankful for the great school that they go to and all the great teachers that they have!

Amazing Race

Our Sunday school class puts on an "Amazing Race" each year in the spring. We have participated the last three years. The first year we won. The second year we came in second and this year we came in 9th or 10th so we are really going down hill! :) Physical tasks you can give to us all day long we are up for that...make us memorize Shakespeare and quote...well we pretty much suck at that! I will give John credit, he is the one who finally got it down and said it. We caught back up with everyone and actually arrived towards the front at one of the legs only to leave last after coming to grips with the fact that we know nothing much about playing cards. 

In spite of those frustrating moments we had a total blast!

And now, to explain our team shirts...a few years back our class got together for a "newlywed game". One of the questions was what your song was. John has yet to live down his answer that matched my answer, which we always listened to or maybe more like kissed to when we were dating...The Power of Love by Celine Dion. It has been a running joke and when they showed the video last year of the Amazing Race there was lot's of peppy music but each time we were shown it went to Celine Dion...so we went with it...and i'm pretty sure he won't ever live down wearing that t-shirt. Fun times for sure! I love our class, we have so much fun!

We will be back next year with a fury ready to take down some competition! In the mean time i am going to go read some stinkin Shakespeare!

Track season is officially over. For his 7th grade year Trey ran the mile and the 800 meter distance. He wanted to stay away from the sprinting because that was harder on his knees.

He did a great job!

 His fastest mile time this season was 6:11 and his fastest 800m was 2:50. Fantastic job Trey! We are proud of you!

 His last 800m of the season he caught three of his buds and they all finished together. He has one more physical therapy session tomorrow for his knees and then we will go just on an as needed basis. He had a little more flexibility the last visit because of all the stretches so hopefully tomorrow will be some improvement as well.

Loved cheering him on on the sidelines and can't wait to do it many more times in the future!

Our "babies" playdate

My sister and i took advantage of some beautiful weather to take our "babies" to Deana Rose Farmstead. We are both sending off our youngest to kindergarten next year so our free days with them will soon come to an end. It seems like just yesterday we were doing these kinds of things with our oldest kids when they were little and if i looked back i would probably have very similar pictures of the older ones with their cousins.

Brooklyn and Raegan are pretty good buds and can't wait to hang out at the pool this summer but for now they were practicing up their driving skills...

 they each took a pony ride which might just have inspired Raegan to request a pony the next day!

 Number one on her want to do list was to feed the baby goats their bottles. They were in a different pen so they were able to feed them from outside the fence.

 We then moved on to the larger goats...not the largest but larger. I snapped this picture after yanking Raegan back up off the ground when the goats all jumped on her and knocked her to the ground. She was still wiping her hands off and it didn't even seem to phase her.She did not get that from her mother, i was ready to get out of the pen!

 love these two sweeties!

After picking out some candy from the General store we called it a day!

Blog much?

Blogging has very obviously taken a bit of a backseat lately for me. I just can't seem to get them done. So to update a little on what's been happening in our lives lately...

Trey has been going to physical therapy and seems to be doing a little better with the knee pain. Some days are worse than others. He is finishing up his track season with his two final meets this week and next. He runs the mile and the 800 meter. I will do his own post with pictures later.  He is also playing basketball again and they are doing really well. He recently just endured what he thought might be the worst punishment ever. We took him to the Christian book store and picked out a book that he had to read and then do a book report on. is attitude has been amazing the last couple of weeks :)

Avery is not a morning person to say the least! This is how everyone is at the table in the mornings!

 Avery was thrilled to find out that her transfer request was approved this past Friday! After calling and checking on it since we hadn't heard anything we found out it had disappeared somewhere along the line so we had to start the whole process over. They expedited the process and were so king to actually call me last Friday to let me know that it had been approved instead of us having to wait till this week for the letter in the mail. She is super excited to head on to middle school with her friends. We are thankful for this answer to prayer. We didn't know for sure how he would answer it but are pleased with the outcome!

John celebrated his 38th birthday on Friday. since i was running the next morning we celebrated on Saturday night gorging ourselves at The Outback and spending the night on a little getaway to a hotel for the night. That cheesecake by the way was the yummiest cheesecake i have had in a long time!

I am trying to keep up with my calendar! It seems the closer to the end of school we get, the more things are filling up the calendar! Summer break is just around the corner but first we have lot's of things to attend, accomplish, finish up, study for, sign...the list goes on and on! The pool is calling my name!!

Easter 2012

Working till at least 12:30 am Saturday nights makes for a pretty sleepy and sometimes grumpy mama on Sunday mornings. I quickly determined our normal pictures before church just were not a good idea and decided we would get them later!

After enjoying an amazing Sunday service we decided to stop by a park that is right by our church and snap some pictures...

the kids were mostly cooperative...they are learning to give in to mom's picture taking sessions and i think they know the more they cooperate the sooner it will be over!

these hanging from a tree pictures were totally the kids idea...i always knew they belonged in the zoo!

After church we went out to Grandpa and Grandma Seaba's for lunch and egg hunt

gave the little ones a 30 second head start

some of the eggs had money in them...the kids love candy but let me tell ya they were on the hunt for the eggs with money!

and then it was time to check out all the loot!

Hope you had a Happy Easter!

Tough choices

It's rough, but a decision must be made...

Lilacs

I might be weird but certain smells sometimes remind me of things from the past. The smell of lilacs reminds me of my childhood. We had a lilac bush growing up and my dad often had a vase of lilacs on the table. So, to this day i love the smell of lilacs! And now right outside my front door we have a huge lilac bush which at this time of year smells wonderful. The little kids have been bringing me little branches of lilacs, along with dandelions and some other little "flowers" they find in the yard and i have been keeping them in this little cup by my kitchen sink.

I tried disposing of some of the dead ones the other day much to one particular little girls dismay and ended up retrieving them from the trash can and putting them back in the cup. This morning i went out and got a handful of the lilacs and hopefully she will just think that hers "grew up"! We are going to go with that!

With pollen counts so high this spring i am amazed at how well my two girls have been doing with their allergies (knocking on wood!) But i am extremely happy!

Enjoy the smell of the spring lilacs or whatever your favorite flowery smell is...

PBS

Raegan's new favorite thing to do is to play on PBS kids. I lvoed how she had her blanket right there with her this day...

One more quarter of school! I am probably more excited for summer than the kids! We have been keeping busy. I took the kids to my parents over spring break last week. They played non stop with cousins and of course the week flew by!

Trey is still having a lot of knee pain. When i took him to the doctor they referred him to see a sports medicine dr so we have an appointment tomorrow. They thought they may want to do some physical therapy for him to help him be able to play some of the sports he would like to play. He started track yesterday and we are signing up for another session of basketball so he may need that physical therapy! :) He is growing like crazy which the doctor said dos not help this problem with the knees (Osgood Schlaetters) excuse that spelling, i'm quite sure it's wrong!

Waiting on our letter from the school district to find out if Avery get's approved for a transfer for middle school to go where Trey goes. If it is denied we are taking all 4 and moving them. (unless of course God opens a door for us to move into the district where they currently go)We are at peace and have prayed for God's will regarding whatever happens. The kids all know this is a strong possibility (due to a district wide problem and them getting really strict). The Two oldest have accepted it, Avery is actually excited about the possibility of a new adventure. It would be hardest on Trey because it would be his last year in middle school. Regardless of what happens i know everything will be ok. I stress much less than i used to about it!

John has been side job free for a few weeks now and it has been nice to have him around again. I am very spoiled. I went for a run yesterday late afternoon and when i got home dinner was on the table! He has been having high blood pressure again. He worries me sometimes. He has been eating right for the most part and is not a big stresser. He has been exercising too so not sure where the problem lies but i am thinking it is time for another visit to the dr. In the past he has had high blood pressure but them it was good for awhile...his allergies are bugging him a lot and it was last spring that his bp was high too. No idea if that could affect blood pressure but something i am going to check on.

I am training for a half marathon that i plan to run in April. I am shooting to get a new personal record and i have at least 3 shots at it this next 6 months so i have been training pretty hard and John has put up with it and been supportive as always. I joined a local running club and have really enjoyed running with them on the weekends.

That is just a little of what we have been up to. Hope you are having a great rainy (if you live around here) week!

George Washington

In school each day Ethan writes in what they call their journals. I always enjoy the monthly journals coming home so that i can see what he wrote about. Sometimes it is what he did the past weekend. Sometimes it is about something they learned.

I just love George's hair! I have limited much of what i save in papers that the kids bring home from school...i save occasional papers that i think they might want to look back on to see what they were learning at the time, but their journals are always a must save!

This and that

I am going to go pre-enroll my youngest child in kindergarten tomorrow... it's starting to hit me a little bit. I am going to be a wreck next August on her first day. She is more than ready, i am ready and looking forward to having a few hours to myself everyday but the reality that all the kids will be in school....there is of course a little sadness that my days of having a little one home with me all day are quickly coming to an end.

Poor Taylor Swift, Raegan was making her beautiful but ran into a little snag...

Trey just finished up playing basketball with some of his buddies from school through the Y. He is having a really hard time with his knees right now. I finally took him to the doctor and they said he has Osgood Schlatters. Ibuprofen has been his good friend lately! He will be starting track soon.

This is what our kitchen table looks like every afternoon. Avery sits at the table to do her homework. Trey has a desk in his room so his books get spread out in there. I do not often have to tell her to get on her homework. She is always on it right away. I have recently had a lot of refreshing of the memory of 5th grade math! Who knew it would be like going to school all over again once you had to start helping with homework. The kids get frustrated with us sometimes and think we should know all the answers and i say "do you guys know how long it has been since we have done this??" And besides that they do everything different now anyway!

Can you guess what we got? We recently surprised the kids with a game system so there has been a lot of hopping around going on in our living room!

Have a great weekend!