Kianna's Field Trip

Kianna's class went on a field trip to the Kids-n-Stuff museum. They had a fun time. Kianna's favorite activity was the climbing wall in honor of her cousin, Broderick.

Soccer

Trace dribbling the ball.

Trevor coaching Trace's team.

Kaylee taking a rest.

Trevor coaching Kianna's team.

Happy Kianna!

All three of our kids are playing soccer this Spring and loving it! The Centre just started their own league and are following the AYSO model, which we discovered back in Iowa. They are playing 3-on-3 and have fields that vary in length according to the kids' ages. It has been such a positive change from our experience with soccer last Spring. Trevor has taken on coaching both Trace and Kianna's teams and is doing a great job! He is so gifted at working with kids. He teaches them skills while making them laugh and have fun at the same time. Trevor is in charge of a group of 40, 3 and 4-year-old boys and girls. They are then divided into age and gender groups, so Trace is on a team with other 3-year-old boys. He has 5 stations he rotates to, one of which is a 10 minute game. The game is without question his favorite station. Being that he has a short attention span, he does not enjoy standing in lines. After about one rotation through his drills he will often cross his arms across his chest and pout saying he doesn't want to do that drill anymore. However, when it comes to the game rotation he is a force to be reckoned with. It doesn't matter who has the ball, his team or the other team, he wants it. In fact, he doesn't care if he scores in his goal or the other teams goal, he just wants to score. He scored 5 goals his first game, 2 of which were in the other teams goal. Last game he scored probably 3 or 4 goals, several of which were in the other teams goal. It appears he is going to be one tough little athlete! After his first game, I took him to get a drink at the water fountain and was in the middle of praising him for what a great job he did during his game, when all of a sudden he started peeing uncontrollably all over himself. At first I though he was spitting water out of his mouth, until it just wouldn't stop. It was one of those up and down parenting moments, when one moment I'm praising him and the next I'm upset and wondering what in the world is happening. Sometimes you just gotta laugh!!!

Kianna is also loving soccer and has really surprised us by how into it she is this year. She is super aggressive and is doing a great job! She loves to score goals. I believe she scored 5 goals her first game, 1 goal her 2nd game and 5 goals her last game. My favorite was when she stole the ball from the other team right next to their goal and then dribbled the length of the field and scored. It was so fun to see and she was so proud of herself! She is also working on passing the ball to her teammates and has done a great job at being unselfish with the ball. We are very proud of her!

Kaylee too is enjoying soccer. She has discovered a love for defense. She loves taking the ball away from the other team and has surprised us with a new level of aggressiveness. She is doing a great job and even scored her first goal last week. Way to go Kaylee!

Hare Bike Race

Trace at the start line.

Kianna getting ready to race.

Kianna with her medal.

Kaylee at the start of her race.

Kaylee on her trail.

Kids proudly displaying their new medals.

The kids had a great time doing their first ever bike race. It was a race put on by the city of Adrian and was free, so what more can you ask for? Trace rode his bike in a parking lot and raced three laps around some cones for 1/5 of a mile. Kianna raced along a street for 1/2 of a mile and Kaylee raced along some trails in the woods for 1.2 miles. Kaylee had never ridden on a trail before, so was pretty tuckered out by the end of it. She wants to do it again next year but train for it in advance. The kids all received medals for finishing their races, which they thought was pretty cool! Fun times!!!

Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob's Visit

Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob came to visit us and to celebrate Grandparent's Day at school with the girls. We were so excited to have them visit! As usual our time was action packed. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon, but the real fun began on Thursday when they went on Kaylee's field trip to the Lenawee County Historical Museum with her and her class. They had a great time there learning about the history of Adrian. Friday morning was the actual Grandparent's Day celebration where they enjoyed a nice breakfast followed by a program put on by the elementary kids. Kianna's class sang a couple of songs and quoted Psalm 23, while Kaylee's class put on their own performance. The girls had an early dismissal, so Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob took them out to lunch at Applebee's for a special treat. Afterwards the girls spent the afternoon shopping with Grandma Becki and of course each got to pick out a special something (Trace got something too of course). Our evening was spent enjoying the school's drama "Seussical The Musical". The drama team are very talented, especially for being at such a small school. Trace had a chance to meet The Grinch up close and personal, but explainably was a bit freaked out, so passed. On Saturday, Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob were able to watch the girls' soccer games. Unfortunately the weather was cold and rainy, but the girls had fun nonetheless. That afternoon all of us girls went to see the movie "Mirror Mirror", which was fun. That evening, Bob and Becki treated us to dinner at PF Changs. We only eat there about once a year, if that, so we thoroughly enjoyed the yummy food (all 1800 calories worth and yes, that was just my meal). Trevor and his dad followed dinner up with their own movie. We had such a nice visit and look forward to seeing them again soon. Can you believe I forgot to take any pictures? Ugh!

Like Father Like Son

Trevor has been filling in as the assistant coach for the varsity baseball team this season. He is really enjoying getting to know the older kids and investing his time with them. I had to share this adorable photo that we received recently of Trace with his Daddy in the dugout.

Easter 2012

Our Easter fun began on Friday with our prayer walk at church followed by the Good Friday service. The prayer walk is always a nice time to reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made to save us from our sins so that we can spend eternity with him in heaven. Thank you Jesus!

On Saturday, we went back to church for an Easter egg hunt. The kids had fun and got tons of candy! The rest of the day was spent preparing food and the house for Easter Sunday. It was quite exhausting...

On Sunday, the kids had a great time getting their Easter baskets, which they had been eagerly anticipating. Trace's basket included a Spiderman umbrella, soccer cones, new shirt, and candy. Kianna's basket included a "What's In The Bible" DVD the girls had been telling me about from chapel services at school, a dress, soccer cones, and candy. Kaylee's basket included some Adventure's In Odyssey CDs, socks, a dress, shin guards, and some candy. The kids had more fun in church celebrating Christ's resurrection, while Trevor and I helped out in Trace's preschool class. We made resurrection rolls with 23 preschoolers, which went pretty well minus one or two boys. The rolls are a pretty neat object lesson for the kids. The crescent roll represents the tomb, the marshmallow represents Jesus' body, the butter represents the oil that was used to annoint Jesus' body prior to his burial, and the cinnamon and sugar represent the spices used to prepare his body for burial. Once the marshmallow is dipped in the butter and spices then it is sealed in the tomb and baked. The kids are then able to pull open the tomb only to discover that their marshmallow (Jesus) is gone, just like on Easter Sunday so many years ago. It was fun to see the awe and excitement on their little faces when they discovered that Jesus wasn't there. They also enjoyed eating their tasty snack. 

We invited our good friends, The Miller's, over for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. Trevor had 125 eggs loaded with loot and hidden all over our backyard. The kids had a great time hunting for their eggs and enjoying their candy. Followed by a yummy dinner served on my Grandma Gaskill's China. It was fun eating on her special plates and bowls, which I so fondly remember using at her house so many years ago. After dinner, the adults managed to fit in a game of Cities and Knights while the kids played. It was a wonderful day!

Spring Break Blues

The girls are on Spring Break this week and instead of having tons of fun, we got stuck hosting our old friend "strep throat". The kids all got diagnosed on Thursday and Friday of last week, which brought about tears as the girls had to miss their pre-Spring Break parties at school. Kianna missed her Easter Egg hunt and Kaylee missed out on a movie and a swim party. Both were rewards she had earned for reaching her reading goals for the month of March. What a bummer they were to miss!!!

On Saturday evening, I made a last minute decision to take the kids back to Iowa for a few days, that is until I woke up on Sunday morning feeling the early symptoms I had recognized a few days earlier in the kids. Bummer dude! I was under the weather until Wednesday, when we did our first "fun" Spring Break activity of going to the zoo with friends. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed our day, although it started out a little rocky. Kianna was excitedly running down the ramp when we first arrived and took quite the fall. It was a horrible fall in which she proceeded to do a somersault in slow motion down the cement ramp while I watched her neck extend backwards. It was a physical therapist's nightmare of a fall. I prayed while I watched it happen that she wouldn't break her neck. Thankfully all she came away with was a scraped belly and hand. Once the Band-Aid was in place, all was well again although I still thank God she didn't hurt herself worse! The rest of our week was pretty uneventful that is until our Easter festivities began, but I'll save that for another post...