Go, Go Jonah

The community choir that the boys are a part of had their little production last Sunday night.

Here's a little sample of the music. They learned quite a few songs and motions and many of the kids had several lines to learn as well. Curtis played the part of "Chris" who was a child visiting the Bible museum. He spoke a lot and even had a little duet.






Graydon played the part of Jonah. This photo is the part of the story when Jonah is sleeping in the ship while the storm is raging.




Drawing sticks to see who would have to walk the plank.


It was Jonah.


Graydon didn't have any speaking lines in his role, but with his facial expressions and actions, we knew exactly what was going on. After the play, Graydon received so many compliments about his role.








Everyone did such a great job!

Overview from the past few months. . .

I've been lazy over the past few months about getting pictures off of Andy's phone and uploading them to the blog. I think his hundreds of photos from Israel overwhelmed me and so I avoided it. I'm not tackling Israel here on the blog because I wouldn't be able to explain anything about the pictures, but I finally sorted through the various family photos that he took.

Here is Bella riding a hoverboard at the confirmation retreat in early March.


Curtis had some money burning a hole in his pocket, so Andy took him shopping at Target where he bought some Yu-gi-oh cards.


They also got some "coffee".


Eating out at Steak 'n Shake


Bella got a little bored over Spring Break so she decided to braid her hair.




Another Spring Break photo - guys time bowling.


Chinese Checkers is a favorite game these days. They played with Gaga when they were here for Andy's birthday and Bella's confirmation at the end of March.


Andy had pre-synod church meeting all morning on his birthday. One of the women made this cake with the Moravian seal on it. Her attention to detail was very impressive!


Gifts that Andy brought back from Israel for his parents.


This was Bella's first year that she was old enough to attend the spring rally with the older kids from church. She had so much fun and learned some new dances in her free time.


The boys are part of a community children's choir that performed at a community event in April.


Graydon has expressed an interest in learning to play an instrument. Mr. Dodd had a spare trumpet, so he's letting Graydon use it.


Graydon decided this year that he wanted to participate in our school's talent show. There wasn't as much interest this year as there was in the past, so they weren't able to do it, but this is a part of his try-out.


Baseball season has arrived and we are gearing up to spend most of our evenings at the diamonds. Here are the boys after practice one evening.










Here are a few random life shots from my phone. . .

Mabel in one of her new favorite places in the house. Once upon a time I told myself that I wouldn't let her on the furniture.






I got these beautiful flowers, card, and a big candy bar from the first graders that I work with. It was a great way to start a Monday!


Bella went old-school and decided to build a fort in her room.


Andy chaperoned Curtis's class field trip to the recycling center.


Bella spent many hours building this wind mill for her science project. There is a long string attached to the back with a cup on the end. When the fan blows, turning the windmill, it cranks the cup (filled with 40 pennies) up. She was so happy when it started working! I'm so proud of her hard work and perseverance with projects like this.


It's not unusual to find photos like this on my phone.


The Sunday morning fog made the front yard look dreamy.

It's Track Season!

Bella decided to give track a try this season. She's a pretty good runner, so it's a great fit. Here are a few photos from her first meet.






She participates in four events: long jump, 4 by 1 relay, 400, and 200. Here she is about to take a jump.


On this particular jump, she went about 11.5 feet. A couple of days ago, she had a personal record of 12 feet!


This was when she was about to run the 400. On this race, she ended up breaking away and came in a solid second.


I have some video from the meet, but most of it I am cheering super loudly into the camera and I'm not paying any attention to what I'm recording. So instead of getting Bella, I'm getting excellent footage of the track. Oops! At least I was living in the moment!

She has had four meets now and has placed in at least two of her events at each meet. This is actually pretty impressive since she is also up against seventh and eighth graders. She definitely has a lot of potential in track!

April is Awesome

Andy surprised me one Monday by filling my tank while I was at school.


He also got me some flowers. He's a keeper!


I accompanied Curtis's class to a dairy farm. At this farm, each cow gets milked three times a day. They have hundreds of cows here, so they literally are milking round the clock. We learned that each cow produces about 8 gallons of milk each day. And the milk that they give on any particular day will be in the stores no more than two days later.


They love to eat! Each cow eats about 100 pounds of feed per day!


Our school held its annual Students vs. Staff basketball game. This is a fundraiser for the sixth grade field trip to St. Louis. It's such a fun game and can get a little crazy.


Neither staff nor students exactly play by the rules. Here we have Bella jumping on the back of her fifth grade teacher during the game. (A little blurry. I copied some of these photos off of Facebook.)


And spectators can give money to the scorekeeper to add to the score. $1 equals 1 extra point for whichever team is chosen. The final score was $199 - $199. A tie!


I'm not coordinated enough for basketball, but I volunteered to be on the staff cheer squad. Here is the highlight from our halftime performance!


Bella didn't have track practice one afternoon, so she did a workout with me. This is our post work-out selfie! I'm part of an accountability group that helps me stay on track with working out. One way we do that is posting our sweaty selfies after exercising.


I was Graydon's Cub Scout leader one night. We worked on the Super Science badge by learning about and experimenting with static electricity.


And the countdown has begun! 25 more days of school! Just five more weeks. We can do this!