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!

Easter!

We dyed eggs the day before Easter.




Curtis wasn't feeling the greatest, which is why he's in jammies and a blanket. He had a sore throat and was running a fever. We thought he might have strep throat, but the cultures came back negative. Just a nasty virus.






Graydon's Packer egg.






I accidentally cracked two eggs in the boiling process, so each kid got three eggs. Bella and Graydon offered Curtis the bonus egg since he wasn't feeling well.


Easter morning! The kids and I didn't attend the sunrise service this year since Curtis still wasn't feeling the greatest, but we did go to the breakfast and regular church service.


Curtis was a trooper that morning.


Bella wore her dress from Auntie Lori's wedding.


Three good-looking kids!


I told Andy to come back and get a quick family photo before all of the flowers got taken.


It always feels good to come home after church and get comfy clothes on. On this day, we still had our Easter egg hunt to do. Normally, that would have been done the day before; but Curtis was actually taking a nap during the time in the day when we could fit it in. So, we decided just to bump it to Easter. It was a chilly day, but at least there wasn't any snow on the ground!


I think it's great that we have such a huge yard for the egg hunt. Lots of places to hide eggs!








And then the fun part of seeing what they got.






Curtis was winner of the golden bunny and the $5 grand prize!


And then they still had to hunt for their baskets. Swim suits, goggles, and towels were the main gifts again this year. They definitely get used!






After our Easter feast, we took the kids new kites from Papa and Gaga and went flying.






It was a low key, relaxing family day. Just the way we like it. :)

Bella's Confirmation

Before church that morning, we took some photos.


She picked out such a cute dress.


The confirmands met early that morning to run through the service and to practice their confirmation statements. Each kid had to write about their faith in God and their confirmation experience. Here Bella is practicing hers.


We also got the big group pictures before church started because we knew it would be a little chaotic afterward.






When it came time to actually confirm Bella, Andy got a little emotional. He paused for a little bit to gain his composure, but even as he read Bella's confirmation verse, his voice quivered.


And then Bella started crying.


And then I started crying. I could see out of the corner of my eye that my mom was crying and that across the aisle a woman from the choir was crying. Later on, Andy's mom said that she was crying. I think at least half the church was crying. It was such a tender moment.


All the tears are dried up and it's time for more pictures.


Bella and Grandma. My dad ended up getting sick and couldn't make it. My mom ended up driving through a snow storm, but I'm happy that she could be here.








Bella, Papa, and Gaga.




Her confirmation certificate.


Presents!






It was a beautiful confirmation day.

And I'll end this post with a couple of randoms.

Andy bought me some tulips. They are my favorite flower.


Bella and her bag of chips!