Spring Break 2016

I have enjoyed the pictures and updates of all your fun spring break vacations.  I must say, that part of me really wanted to join you at the beach, in the mountains or at home with family.  However, this was not the year for any of that to happen.  Instead, we enjoyed our few days at home taking in some things around here along with some completion of some projects.  Here are a few pictures of our fun time.

 A visit to the Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site.  We learned a lot  (including me) and once again earning another Junior Ranger Badge. (Great program for kids to absorb more info when you visit any national park or historic site and they're free!!)

 Junior Ranger swearing in

 Our never ending landscape project.  We got a lot accomplished this weekend and I must say that I couldn't have done it without the kids.  Luke especially helped me move a lot of dirt and opened every bag for me.  We even planted some things - that I hope survive to adulthood.  All that's left is the mulch.  We definitely saved that for another day!  There is light at the end of this months long project....

 We enjoyed a surprise Easter egg hunt in our front yard again this year.  I am at loss as to who is gifting us with this treat, but I am thankful and the kids thoroughly enjoy it!

 I think the highlight for all was a trip to meet up for a few hours with my sister and her family!

A fun Easter afternoon with sweet friends that we made at our last assignment and get to enjoy their company as we currently share this assignment.

Today, we got to spend some time at home.  Luke made this robotic "bowling ball shooter" from his Legos.  Luke made it, but this is Andrew "shooting" a strike!

Dressed for Death - Book Review

I was eagerly anticipating my copy of Dressed for Death by Julianna Deering.  I had read her  previous books in the Drew Farthering Mystery series and loved them.  I enjoyed them so much that I couldn't put them down.  However, Dressed for Death didn't quite live up to my expectations.  This one didn't seem to have the same action full of little clues along the way.  Instead, the better part of the first half of the book was dialogue and people dying.  I know they need to develop the mystery, but it seemed like there was quite a bit of that with very little detective work.  The main character, Drew, even struggled with not doing much.  The writer definitely got her point across with not much action, but it was a little too much and in turn, didn't keep my attention as in her previous writings.  I must say, though, that the final portion of the book held my attention since it was filled with much more action and much less dialogue.  I do enjoy the mysteries of this time period.  Even though, this one was a challenge for me to read, I look forward to future works by this author.

I received a complimentary copy of Dressed for Death by Julianna Deering from Bethany House Publishers.

Art Around the World

 Last night was the school's annual art show.  For a school system that has very little if any money, they do an amazing job with their art program.  They don't even have an art teacher.  It is strictly volunteer run.  Each month, they have a parent volunteer come in, teach about a specific artist or type of art, and then have the kids try their hand at similar art work.  For the art show, each child has a piece of their work displayed.  Each grade level then has a table with an art project for that year's theme.  This year, the art projects had to do with different types of art around the world.  For example, the first grade table had boomerangs to decorate representing Australia, third graders had bracelet making representing jewelry making in Africa and fifth grade had modeling clay to form representing clay pottery in Mexico.  Of course, we followed this up with ice cream that they were also serving.  Fun night!

 Luke's art project (#12) was selected as a potential winner for his grade level.  He didn't win, but he did a great job!

 The fourth graders hosted a table on Chinese writing.  Hannah's word was "kind".  Andrew was writing "hero" and Luke wrote "monkey".  This was probably my favorite project.

 Hannah's artwork - the multi-colored turtle in the upper left corner

 Andrew's artwork

 Ice cream!

Each child in the entire school made origami swans.  My question was "who hung all of those?!"  The kids said a couple of moms did the whole thing.....

Music to Our Ears

Third grade is the year of the recorder here and Hannah is in love.  She loves playing her recorder and can often be heard playing it.  In fact, last night I sent her outside to play.  She took along her beloved recorder, sat in the driveway and serenaded the neighbors with her renditions of  Jingle Bells, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Old McDonald.  I definitely need to see if I can find her something else to play!  I'm not sure why they play these in third grade because she has to wait until fifth grade to choose an instrument to play in band.  She will be so very excited (and so will I....) when she gets something more complicated.

As a side note....her recorder is orange because that was Luke's recorder from last year.  He picked out the orange and I let him.  For a Mom that usually thinks ahead a little, I completely failed in thinking the other two might not necessarily want an orange one and a more neutral color should be picked.  Oh well, the color was important to her early on, but now it doesn't matter.

A little Jingle Bells for this beautiful spring day!

Out with a Bang

The boys finished their inaugural season of basketball and it was really good!  I'm a proud Momma, but I admit that my boys will not be outstanding NBA stars, but I do want them to enjoy sports.  They do a good job.  They aren't the worst players on the team nor are they best.  They listen to their coaches and I see great improvement over the course of the season.  That's all I ask.  They usually score a time or two during a game - a good game, but there are games that they don't score at all.

Luke was kind of having a rough end to his season.  Even though I had seen drastic improvements in his game - especially his defense, success to him was scoring.  That hadn't happened much in his last few games.  We had a chat about that on the way to the game.  At the half, Luke's team was down 9 points.  Sometime in the second half, his team just started making baskets.  It was an answer to prayer when Luke made a basket.  You could see his confidence go up.  He followed it up with three more baskets - twice as many as he ever had before.  If you would have been there, you might have seen his Mom do a little happy dance (I am a Hoosier and you get excited about basketball for those of you not from that part of the country).  His team went on to win by two points and he made the last two shots for his team.  Let's just say he was so excited!  I was excited for him and I think he may just play basketball again next year.

So when Andrew's brother made four baskets in one game, I knew Andrew would want to get just as many.  He is Mr. Competitive!  He had a good game as well.  He made three baskets - more than he'd ever made.  I also saw great improvements in his game.  He loved to play point guard and did a great job of bringing the ball down the court and getting the ball to the basket.  Basketball is a good game for him because he can move all the time.  When it comes to any type of game involving a ball, he has a hard time standing still because he's so excited.  At the end of the season, he said basketball was his favorite of the three sports he's played.  That's saying a lot since he LOVES flag football.  I hope he continues to enjoy basketball because I see more of a future for him there than in football (and for the sanity of his Mom).

Thankful for this season.  Thankful that they have been blessed with their abilities (they did NOT get that from their Momma!)  Thanks for letting me brag a moment. Soccer season is just days away!