Summertime Craziness

I can't believe that in just a few days/weeks the kids will be heading back to school.  Our summer has just flown by and we have been super busy! (And I even cut out a few activities that the kiddos would have liked to participate in.)  Here is a brief recap of our summer

Rebecca playing T-ball

Micah playing baseball in the minor league

It was family participation in the the Jace Race this year.  Rebecca and I did the mile and Nick and Micah ran the 5k.  Micah won 2nd place in his age division!

VBS at our church.  All three kiddos had a wonderful time.  Even Olivia got in on the action as I was one of the nurser attendants and so she thought that she was going to VBS every day too! :)

Summertime pool fun!

Picnic with some of our church friends.  5 families and lots of kiddos! :)

A trip to Kansas City with Nick's family.  We took some time and celebrated Aunt Tricia's birthday!  It was a big one. ;)

4th of July fun - Catch a frog for Micah and parade terror for Olivia (below).  I have no idea what she is so scared of...

The girls in some matching t-shirt nightgowns that I made for them.  They were just so cute I had to include them!

VBS at my parent's church.  A lot of the kid's school friends attend this church or just come and go to VBS here so it is always a great way to reconnect in the middle of the summer.

Micah on the right and Rebecca is 2nd from the left.

Bible Quiz at the Mahaska County Fair!  Our church put up a good team again this year and the kids had lot of fun!

 A day of fun at Adventureland.  (Kind of hard to get good pictures when everyone is going in different directions and then going really fast on the rides!)

A camping weekend that allowed at least one warm day so that we could enjoy the local beach.

 Seriously - Who can get this dirty just from a campground playground? :)

 Hanging out at the campground.

Seriously - that was just June and July.  August has already had lots of garden produce (and more to come!), a double birthday party (Micah and Rebecca both have August birthdays) and the start of school.  That all happens before the 20th!  Summer has been good, but it will be nice to return the routine of the school year!

T-ball

This was Rebecca's 2nd year of T-ball and once again she had an awesome coach and she had lots of fun!  T-ball is always entertaining as it mostly about teaching the kids how to throw and hit a ball.  There are always numerous fielding, batting and base running instances that leave the crowd in laughter.  (My favorite of the season came from practice: The kids were running around the bases shouting the name of the base as they crossed it, 1st base, 2nd base, etc.  One player ran around all 4 based and when he reach home base shouted, "4th base!" LOL!)

Here is our little T-baller!

 At one point during the season when Rebecca was playing 3rd base she was having more fun talking to the runner and the 3rd base coach than watching the ball.  Fun memories!

Spring Time Fun

Since the kids are officially a week into summer vacation I thought that I had better try to catch up on a few pictures from spring time.  I know that I have posted some, but the last week of school was pretty crazy and so here are some of the photos from that week.

Track and Field Day

 Rebecca running the 100m dash.  Yes... she walked part of it. :)

 

Exhaustion after the 100m dash. :)

 

Micah running the 100m dash.  There are some FAST kids in his class!

  

The obstacle course - not Rebecca favorite event.

 Soaring on the obstacle course.

 Softball throw

 Some kind of cart race.  Rebecca we GIGGLING the whole way!

 Bean Bag Toss

Mother/Daughter Tea

 A dear friend hosted a mother/daughter tea and we had the girls dress up in their girly dresses. :)  (Yes Olivia is absent because this momma needed a break.:) )

Kindergarten Zoo Field Trip

 The HUGE turtles were not on display so Rebecca decided that she would fill in. :)

 The baby rhino is new at the zoo this year and he was playful!  Didn't know that rhinos liked to play that much!

 "Playing" with the groundhogs.

 A quick photo with my girl!

 Kindergarten Graduation

 Rebecca graduated from kindergarten!

Mom and Dad with the proud graduate!

 Driveway Car Wash

 Olivia must have decided that her brother and sister needed a washing as well!

I just love photos of the older two reading to Olivia.  Makes this momma heart happy!

Proud Mama Moment

A year ago my heart and emotions were in turmoil.  Rebecca had been diagnosed with environmental allergies during the winter and the next several months were a roller coaster ride as we tried a variety of different meds to help her manage them.  Emotional she was struggling and everyday was a journey that we had to travel.  The decision was made to have her repeat kindergarten and to start her in speech therapy.  It was not an easy decision nor was it something that Rebecca was thrilled about.  (She does love the teacher that she has had for the last two years and that made the decision to repeat a little easier for her.)

Fast forward to this year.  Her allergies are under control and her meds help rather than hinder her.  She is excited about school, is confident and her speech is making huge strides.  We are thankful for the Lord's guidance in the decisions that we made last year and are so thankful for the improvements that the last year has brought.

This weekend was 8th grade graduation at the small school that our children attend.  Every year a couple of kindergarteners are asked to read a Welcome Poem and specifically addresses the current years graduates.  This year Rebecca and one of the boys in her class were asked to do the welcome.  I was quite surprised when she came home with the poem that she needed to memorize and told me that she had been asked.  She memorized her lines with ease (which was my primary concern) and she delivered them flawlessly they night of graduation.

I couldn't help but think about what a difference a year can make.  Last year she was tired and emotional all the time and would have "melt-downs" whenever something was difficult or she didn't want to do it.  She was constantly stuffy and she struggled to carry on an understandable conversation with her peers.  This year she is confident and excited about every day and she can engage with her peers.  She is excited about moving on to 1st grade and we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for her in the coming years.  I am so proud of her and how she has handled the last year.  We still have our struggles, but she is facing them with more confidence and understanding.  So thankful for her and the Lord who has blessed us with her!

The Start of A Season

Three days after it snowed we were out at the baseball field for Micah's first little league game of the season. (Crazy, I know.)

His team has been practicing for a month (between rain and snow) so the season really started a month ago, but a schedule that involves all of us just started this week.  He will play approximately two games every week from now until the 3rd week of June.  Rebecca will also start T-ball at some point so our schedule will be full of ball games for the next 6-weeks or so.

I had to take my turn in the concession stand the night of Micah's first game so I didn't get to see much, but it seemed like the boys were having a good time and it looks like we will be in for a fun season again.

Play Ball!

 This is the first year that we have played with paid-umpires.  It caught me a little off-guard and then I remembered that Micah had moved up a level again this year.

 All ready at first base.

Racing back to cover the bag.

Batter up!

Tulip Time 2013

Tulip Time 2013 was definitely an unique one.

The older two were supposed to ride old bikes with the school again.  I had the costumes all ready to go (along withe layers and layers and layers of clothing to go under them) only the weather threw us all for a BIG loop this year.

Thursday is rained nearly all day and it was super windy.  My kids were disappointed, but very hopeful that they would still get to be part of the parade on Friday.

Friday morning we woke up to this....

 Snow on May 3.  How crazy is that!

Both parades on both Thursday and Friday were cancelled, but they were able to get the parades in on Saturday.  Normally I wouldn't have opted to go back in with the kiddos, but I decided to give it a go and my parents joined us.  The crowds were smaller for a Saturday during Tulip Time, but that didn't bother us.

This is a pretty accurate picture of our three kiddos.  They had a good time and expressed much appreciation that we had gone back into town for the parade.

We walked back to my grandparent's home and the kids found a few remnants of snow and had to get wet before getting back in the car to go home.

 Hopefully next year the weather will be better and this was a once in a lifetime experience! :)