Memorial Day and Birthdays

In our family, there are 5 birthdays in the months of May and June. If you add Mother's Day and Father's Day to that (and you can also add 2 anniversaries), that's a lot of parties! So, we decided to get everyone together on Memorial Day for a joint birthday party. Pictured are Katherine, my Dad, John's Dad, and my Mom - all who had birthdays in May and June. My nephew, Kaiser, also has a birthday in May, but my brother and his family couldn't make it to the celebration. My brother and sister-in-law's anniversary and my mom and dad's anniversary are also in June - PHEW!!

Catching up

I've gotten WAY behind on the blogging - my apologies. We've been doing alot of just hanging out since school got out, but what happens is that I don't get much done during the day and have to do my chores in the evening - leaving no time for blogging. I have been taking pictures, though, so stay tuned for some blog posts that will try to get you caught up with what we've been doing the past few weeks.

Last Day of School and Birthday Party

Today was a big day. Katherine went to school for her last day of Kindergarten this morning. We went to the closing chapel and enjoyed seeing her class up front with their part in the chapel. Each was to say what they want to be when they grow up, how they will serve the Lord, then recite their favorite bible verse and say why it's their favorite. Katherine's bit went like this - "I want to be an interior designer because I like designing and seeing people happy" and her favorte verse is John 3:16. After she recited it, she said she likes it because it makes her happy and reminds her of her Grandma. Sweet.

After chapel, there was a picnic. It was fun to see her hang out with some of her friends. She's really blossomed this year, especially socially, and it's really great to see.

After the picnic, we held her birthday party - a princess party. We took 5 of her friends from school to our house for the party. I think they all had a good time. They decorated flower pots and planted flowers, got candy from a pinata, opened presents, and ate cupcakes and ice cream. FUN!!

Happy Birthday Katherine!!!

Today, Katherine is 6 years old - how is this possible? She's looking forward to a party with her friends after school today (it's also the last day of school!) It's a busy day for us all, so I'll post pictures later, but just wanted to celebrate with her :).

1 week old...

6 years old...

where did the time go!

A Different Mother's Day

It's a different kind of Mother's Day this year - one that has followed quickly on the heels of Mom's death. It is weird to think about how tomorrow will go - without her with us. I always tried to make Mother's Day somewhat special for Mom, with varying degrees of success. I know that she always gave so much for me, and I am thankful for all of her love and giving throughout the years. With that being said, and with the memories of Mom's death relatively fresh in our hearts and minds, I am thankful that I have someone else to celebrate with on Mother's Day - my wife. This year, Katherine and Elizabeth both have a real sense of Mother's Day approaching and are excited to share their gifts with her. We are all thankful for the Mom that we have in our house - a Mom who loves her kids, and who loves the Lord. Sure, there are times that she gets frustrated and probably isn't the Mom she wishes she could always be, but she is a great Mom just the same. As we see our kids grow, I am thankful for the time that she spends with them, and for the ways, unbeknownst to even her, she instills a love for God in their hearts. So, Happy Mother's Day Mom - we miss you and wish you were here. We pray that you are celebrating like never before, and thank you for the ways you loved your job as a Mom while you were with us. And, Happy Mother's Day Julie - we love you for the Mom you are to all of us every day! We hope that you know we love you, and hope that we can convey that every day - not just on Mother's Day!

Zoo Gallery

Elinor (Ellie) the ???? Can you guess?

Last week the focus in school has been animals. Along with the trip to the zoo (see previous post) they studied animals in the classroom. One of the projects in the class was to pick an animal, collect boxes and tubes (toilet paper, paper towel, etc) and make a replica of that animal. This is "Elinor" (or Ellie for sort) the...can you guess what it is??? It's a cheetah! Katherine really enjoyed making this and learning about cheetahs. She also had to write a fact sheet with a few facts about cheetahs. All of the kids in the class made animals (some others were a bee, flamingo, elephant, butterfly) and the other kids in the school came to visit their "zoo gallery". It was really neat. They also have in their classroom eggs (hatching into chicks), caterpillers (which have made cocoons and are turning into butterflies every day), ants, and ladybugs. Katherine is REALLY enjoying this unit on animals and learning about all of God's creation!

Springtime and the Zoo!

I think spring has FINALLY sprung for good now - can I do my clothes switch? It seems everytime I think about it when we have a 70+ degree day, the next day is in the 40s, but I think that might finally be past us. John planted some flowers in boxes for our new deck (I'll try to get some pictures posted) and they look beautiful!!! Katherine's school class took a field trip to the zoo on Wed this week and we decided to tag along. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we got there right when the zoo opened, so things were quiet (although that also meant that some of the animals weren't out yet, either) and we enjoyed the morning. Here's her class at their meeting place... And here's daddy and the younger kids sitting on some kind of insect outside the insectarium - the same thing that the kids are sitting on in the above picture. Christopher on daddy's shoulders (he much prefered this to the stroller)

Various other zoo pictures... Elizabeth's favorite was the giraffe, so I'm glad we got to see them. Katherine wanted to see the cheetahs, but they were still sleeping when we saw them. We did see them in the distance across a field and that seemed to be enough. Thanks goodness.