Easter - 2009

It's a busy day(s) in the neighborhood..

Since Lindsey has gone to Maryland with friends, in order to try and fill the hole that she has left with us missing her -- we decided it would be great fun to have the Hutchins kids over. So on Thursday and Friday, from 9a.m. - 7p.m. we had the priviledge of having these sweet kids over. We had some gorgeous days so we were able to spend a great deal of time at a lake and two parks. We also had two picnics. Brian had off those days so there was 'safety in numbers'.

Austin, Caleb, David, Anastasia,Grace, Joshua, and Reece.

I was still able to get in some "girl time" this week. Grace, Anastasia and I did several fusion bead designs and we read a ton of books. The boys built zoos and raced cars, on the Wii one day and they also had fun with the homemade play dough. I didn't have any koolaid to color it so I thought it would be fine to knead the dough with food coloring. Well....my hands were literally stained hot pink for 48 hours. I had Brian drop the kids off Thursday night so I wouldn't scare Hans and Stacy with my appearance. Always wanting to look like I have everything under control I guess. :)

The kids took over the cul de sac and helped clean out our garage by removing every single toy. :)
Thursday night Reece actually tucked himself in bed 25 min. early, but by Saturday morning he was asking when we would see them again. Fortunately we have made plans to spend time with their family next Friday so we are already counting down the days....

Just the Boys....

Lindsey went with a friend to Maryland for Spring break, so today I had just the boys and Austin's buddy Stevie. It was a pleasant sunny day so we spent part of it hiking trails and the other part playing at home.

Even little Reece got to hang out with the big boys...

Easter Party

Last weekend we met up with 50 kids, from our Generations group, to have an Easter Party at the park.

Reece on a "sugar high".

Austin and Stevie in the three legged race. Didn't they do this together at the Valentine Party?

This picture just cracks me up. Even though Heather is not pictured, she is the one that was in charge of these K-2nd graders. We were waiting on another group and killing a little time so she came up with a racing game. They were all to race to her and back. These kids meant business and there was a moment where I was kind of scared for Heather's life and limb. She is still alive to talk about it. :) If you were to enlarge this picture - Reece and Lindsey are in the back right hand corner in red and blue shirts. They either love Heather too much to 'attack her' or they were scared themselves.

This same group of kids all got on the ground and did the crab walk. Now, that was sure a sight too! Reece is trying to get his arms and legs to do the crab walk.

Every little girl.....

loves a dress to really 'twirl' in.

Easter Party Preparations for today...

Kidz Praise Concert

This past Sunday was the finale concert for Kidz Praise. All three kids absolutely loved it and had a great time this year. I love this first picture of Reece because he knew to face us and pose for pictures.

Lindsey was constantly listening to her musical cd and wanted to get her actions down perfectly as well. She did a great job and had so much fun doing a musical.

Austin, for us, was the biggest surprise. We knew he had a little speaking part, but had no idea everything else he was doing. In this picture, Jaimeson and Austin are walking "blindly" around to the song "Three Blind Guys". Austin also sang in a trio and had a few different speaking parts. It was a humorous musical and really brought out things in our kids that we hadn't seen ourselves.

Our Lindsey....

In preparation for Monday morning I had laid out all of Lindsey's Math worksheets, for the week, on my desk. I hadn't seen Lindsey for a good part of Sunday afternoon and now I know why. That little girl decided to do a weeks worth of Math Sunday afternoon. She has some perfectionistic tendencies and watched as I looked over all of her work. She did a 'perfect' job and then she draws a line with a percent sign as she loves to see me write 100% on her papers. Well....this sure makes the week a little easier. :)

Friends...

Last week we had some friends over while the Mom had an appointment. I just had to post a few pictures cause these kids are just TOO cute!!
This first one is Kinsey and I kept telling her I just wanted to eat her up like a chocolate chip cookie. She's SO cute! I might have scared her with the chocolate chip cookie part. :)

I hardly saw Lindsey and Cailey as they just took off in their own little "girl world" The best of friends...

Braden and Reece had a ball together. They played Kid's Suduko, Marble race, play dough, and these fusion beads. Braden's sweet/calm temperament keeps Reece even-keeled .....sometimes.

The girls wanted to put on a "concert" at the piano, but I think they did a tad more giggling than music.

Co-op Finale Night

Last weekend we finished our co-op classes and celebrated at our finale night. All the classes had set up display tables to show the children's work. I SO wish I had taken the time to take pictures of each table. They were amazing. I was the finale coordinator so I spent more time concerned that the evening would end up successful which I am SO thankful it did. I loved seeing all of Austin's clay creations, Reece had 3 notebooks full of reptile/amphibian activities and papers he had done for class. Lindsey had a box filled with her art work that was great to see. The best was when the girl's choir sang and at the end all the parents and kids joined them in singing Amazing Grace. It was so sweet! I felt God was really glorified in our kid's classes this spring.

Lindsey came straight from soccer practice.

Here are some dads checking out the "Imitating the Masters art class display".
It was amazing to see their work. I remember the preschool teacher telling me that the administrator had suggested she teach 'election' to the 3 and 4 year olds last fall. We laughed about it then, but -wow - these Moms mean business and do such a great job with the kids.
Even the nursery had a video for finale night.

Being the coordinator's husband means a little bit of clean up work at the end. :)

Reece......

Absolutely LOVES his swimming lessons!

Two Weeks Ago Today.....

I made a terrible mistake in thinking that my sister's garage had only 2 steps instead of three. That miscalculation has really -literally - been a royal pain the past 14 days. I realize a doctor doesn't mean to scare you, but when he examines your foot 3 separate times and has you go back for retakes on your x-rays - you just start to wonder what he will finally confirm. Fortunately I have no broken bones and I am SO thankful for that. But, if I tell you to kiss your feet, I really do mean it. When feet work ok - what a blessing they are. :)

Two weeks later there is still the bruising, but the swelling is starting to go down. These pictures were taken recently as I just don't think I want to remember what my foot first looked like. I told someone that the yellow color makes my foot look like a corpse's foot. She made a great observation: "How would you know what a corpse's foot looks like?" :) True.
I could get used to Brian running all of my errands, though, and even lunch in bed while I elevate the foot. There are only a few perks to this situation. :)

Lindsey Scores

Lindsey has never been afraid to kick the ball and also be a goalie and block the ball, but she has never been the agressive one to go for the goal. Well, after 3 seasons, we are seeing our little Lins get more and more agressive on that soccer field. Today she scored a goal! Here are the pictures leading up to it. (She's number 9 in the purple shirt.)

Lindsey absolutely adores her coach and he has taught her so much! He even called this afternoon to make sure we had seen it and to talk with Lindsey. He mentioned getting a little carried away with excitement with a big hug, but that is a moment Lindsey will never forget. She has absolutley been on cloud nine all day. We are so thankful for such an awesome coach!