A little love for Daddy

Miss Crews' Crew

Field Day 2013

2nd Grade

Strawberry Picking!

 Nope, he's not supposed to be eating strawberries either...

 ALL those baskets....and it STILL won't be enough!  I guarantee it!

He's a knucklehead!

Killed a Smurf

 Had a sweet friend and her family over today - love holiday weekends - and somehow in the craziness that is life, Judah got a hold of this little container of "flarp" or "floam" or "flubber" or whatever it is and it spilled on my carpet.  Ugh.  This nasty substance that I knew - as soon as it entered my house - would end up in my carpet one day.  You know what?  Jacob ADORED his Sunday school teachers that gave this to him one week for answering a question right and so I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Blue carpet and all.

Zoo Field Trip

I love being at home with my kids during these precious years.  I am SO grateful for the time that I get to spend with them and the ways that I am able to be involved with them at school!  I was able to chaperone Jacob's field trip AGAIN, and since we have a membership there, David brought the boys and met us there (I rode the bus with the kids :)  ).

 Aren't their little 2nd grade class shirts adorable?  This is Mario, David, and Jacob - 3 amigos!

 The koala was AWAKE!!  A rarity!  They sleep 20 hours of the day!!

 Checking out the bunnies

They had a great time on the field trip, and on the bus ride on the way back to school, one of the other 2nd grade teachers came over to the kids and said to each one of them, "____ (insert name), you did such a great job today, that I'm giving you the day off on Monday and you don't have to come to school!" They got all excited and then realized Monday is Memorial Day and a holiday :).  8 year olds are so cute!

 I guess that Jacob didn't get enough of the outdoors that day, because he and Josiah decided to sleep in the treehouse that night :).

Blast Off!!

What an awesome semester it was with these kids!!  The musical I chose for my children's choir this year was called "Blast Off" and it was all about creation!  I choose "meaty" programs - not because they are cutesy or have great choreography or are funny (although this was ALL of that), but because I want the kids to learn truths about God and His Word!  They learned the days of creation, that we are all made in His image and that the God of the Universe loves and cares for them SO much!  We had a great semester!

I begged the parents to send me their pictures because I never get to take any (I'm a little busy directing 60 kids :) ) and so they sent me some of these great pictures.  I LOVE it!!!  Super exhausting and is a TON of work, but I absolutely love do it and am looking forward to the fall (after a teeny break this summer :)  )

 The program started where the kids were excited to go on a field trip to Space Camp, so all the shirts were covered up with this extra fabric that said "Space Camp".  

 Josiah has some great dramatic ability and auditioned for one of the main roles.  He did a GREAT job!

 In the middle of the second song, the kids "fall asleep", the lights go out, and the majority of the rest of the program is the dream sequence where the choir kids are stars and the drama kids are astronauts in space.  They meet planets and stars that testify to God creating them, etc.  During this song, we had about 6 measures to transform the beds into a space ship and hope all 60 kids remember to take their shirt covers off to reveal their glow in the dark stars on their shirts! So cute!

 The countdown signs that then flipped over to say "Lift off".  (See the little guy on the front row on the right side?  He forgot in EVERY rehearsal to take his cover off this shirt.  So hilarious.) Finally he would and then he would grin and get this funny look on his face.  I love it.

 Making silly faces for a picture

 The beds from the opening scene transformed into a spaceship

 My costume lady, Cindy, is an absolute angel.

 One of the coolest things was during the song "Indescribable" - the Chris Tomlin one.  The writer of the musical did an arrangement of it with an extra chorus that we just loved.  The kids loved it.  We turned ALL the lights out and did our motions with little finger lights on our fingers.  They did awesome!!  60 kids followed directions in the DARK!!! A really cool effect.

 My kids AWESOME teachers came out to see them and support them. They are the BEST and we LOVE them!  The boys were SO excited!!!  Miss Crews and Mrs. Farmer, we LOVE you!!! Your support meant the world to the boys!

 We always have a cake/punch reception to celebrate when its all over!

 Alli was so sweet to hold on to Judah while I was talking with the kids and the parents.

The whole Blast Off family!  Only Judah didn't have a shirt on!! Next year Caleb will get to be in it too!!  Amazing!

One for the record books!!

 Upward doesn't do trophies.  They do an end of season gift (typically a ball, backpack, blanket - something useable.  This practical mom appreciates it!!)  But Jacob's coach wanted to buy trophies for his team and he did and awarded them after their game.  Told Jacob he was the best all around player.  Jacob was BEAMING!

It was a great season.  Crazy and chaotic a bit with 3 kids playing, 1 kid assistant coaching, 2 parents coaching, and 1 baby being tossed around amidst it all.  But we had a blast.  The kids had an AWESOME season and learned and grew as players.  AND, drumroll please....all three kids were undefeated all season long!  Crazy I know!  And I'm sure will never happen again, so we sure did enjoy it!!  :)

David, the little boys, and the Silver Saint Singers

On Friday, David and I both had somewhere we had to be!  I was going on a field trip with Jacob's class, and he had to go an end of the year cookout for the Silver Saints Singers (Northside's Senior Adult Choir).  Last year I went with him and brought Callie and Caleb and they had SO much fun (Callie still talks about how all the ladies are her best friends!).  This year, he got to take Caleb and Judah with him!  :)

Nerf gun bullets feel really good on the gums!  :)

They always do this end of year cookout at one of the ladies' lake houses, and I knew there would be plenty of sweet grandmas around to help David with the boys :)

Talking with sweet Mrs. Betsy

Judah is not a fan of keeping his hat on, as you can see :)

Playing a little soccer... (is David good or what?  He thought to bring this for Judah!)

Mrs. Gerry....precious lady.  She played soccer last year with Caleb and he remembered!!!  She played with him again this year...I hope Caleb went easy on her.  She is precious.

Yep, he loves her.

David texted this picture to me while I was on the field trip and said "Judah likes chocolate chip cookies!"  I said 'WHAT?!?!  He's not supposed to have that yet!" So then David's response was "well, I just took it away and he started bawling so I gave it back to him.  It won't kill him".  Hilarious.  And classic "Daddy Day".

Played down at the lake front for a bit

The boys had a great time!  

Later that night, we had a family fun night up at the school.  Dunk tank (bless those teachers!), carnival games - we love our school community!  Callie found a few of her friends from her class and they ran around like they were glued at the hip.  So funny. And so different from the boys!

Caleb was just happy that I bought him a slushie!  :)