My Karate Kid

With School, Drama, and Soccer all coming to an end Joseph needed something else to do. He has been asking to take Karate for a couple of years now, so we decided to give it a try.

Joe LOVES it!

Sensei Marius is from Romania, and speaks with a very strong accent. He is really great with the kids and they all have lots of fun in the class. The first class he told Joe that Karate was fun, but very serious. I was not sure Joe would be too into it when they started doing stretches, and push ups, but he likes it all.

After class Joe is always excited to go home and show everyone his new moves.
I have a feeling we will be sticking with this for a long time.

And The Oscar Goes To...................

Every week since the beginning of September, Emily and Joe have been going to Up With Kids Performing Arts classes. They have been working the whole school year on learning how to act and sing and also learning how special and important they are. During the classes they worked on learning dances and songs for their final production.

May 1st was their theatrical debut, and they both did a great job.

The Show was a combination of "Wicked" and "The Wizard of Oz" with a little bit of "Grease," "Annie," "Cinderella," "Harry Potter," and a few other shows mixed in.

Emily looked so beautiful on stage. Her friend Lindsey was in her class, and they got to be witches together. That made it even more fun for them. It made it great for pictures too, because they stood by each other a lot during the play. Emily was in the oldest group. She did such a good job and had so much fun.

Each Child in the play got a speaking part and each group was in at least three of the 8 scenes. (Emily's group was in four.) This was good for me, because I had a child on the stage for all, but two scenes.

Joe was in the youngest class, and they made the cutest Munchkins. The teacher put the kids in groups according to their parts and then told them that the tallest kid in the group was in charge of making sure the rest of the group made it to the mic when it was their turn. Joe's little buddy was named Suehannie. (not sure about the spelling) She and Joe made the cutest little pair. Their lines were about Animal crackers, and the best thing was they both said "Aminal" The exact same way.

Their teacher Miss Nancy was Amazing. She made all of the kids feel special at every class and at the performance. She always had a smile on her face, and during the performance she was on the front row, acting out the entire performance from her seat so the kids knew exactly what to do. Her assistant is Nicole, and she was always so cute with the kids at the classes. She helped them with costumes backstage during the show

At the end of the show Miss Nancy introduced each child by name and each child was given an Oscar for their performance.

This was a great experience for my kids and one they will always remember. They left class each week feeling happy and good about themselves. Ever since the performance Joe has been asking me when class is going to start again, and he carried his Oscar around for days.

The After Party

We invited our family's to the show, and they were so nice to come. Ryan's parents, brother Kevin and his family, and my younger brother Jon and his family came. My parents drove down from Washington just for the show, and went and got my Grandma that morning so she could come. Emily's friend Tiana, was so sweet to come with us too.

After the show I had all of our great supporters over to our house for a Bar-B-Que. Luckily the weather cooperated. Joe was so hungry after the show, that Grandma helped him steel a couple of Strawberries to hold him over until the food was ready. He thought that was pretty funny.

Thanks to all of our family for supporting Emily and Joe in their very first performance. They were so excited to have you there. It made it even more special.

Sing A Rainbow

Josh's preschool program was on April 30th. The weather outside had been cold and snowy, but the kids reminded us that it is Spring.

Josh loves his teacher's Mrs Valerie and Mrs Kathy. He loves going to preschool, and they are such great teachers.

The Theme of the program was rainbows. Josh's teacher sent home a shirt for him to wear for the program, and each color had a song to go with it. Josh wore a yellow shirt for the song Rubber Ducky. Josh really got into the actions and I could see that he was having so much fun singing.

I think his favorite song was Puff the Magic Dragon. (to long to download here) There were so many cute songs. I loved them all.

My Parents and Ryan's mom were all able to come to his program. It was so great to have them there.

A Happy Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was extra special to me, because it was the first Mother's Day in seven years that I got to spend it with my mom.

It is even more special because my mom has been cancer free for two years now. I will never forget how I felt when she called to tell me she had cancer. I will also always remember the feeling of comfort and peace the Holy Ghost gave me that everything would be OK. She went through many tough treatments including a stem cell transplant and there were many bad days. After the transplant she was really bad. She could not communicate well and was not very mobile. I wondered if my mom would ever be the same. I was amazed at her faith and strength.

I am so grateful to my sister Ellen, and my sister-in-law Amy for being there everyday to help my mom recover. Because my mom lives in a different state than me, I was only able to go relieve them for a week and I was amazed at all they did for her. I will always be in their debt.

I am grateful that my mom is doing so well and is still here for me to call and ask all of my silly questions to. I love you mom.
Jon and his family, and Ellen and half of her family also celebrated with us. We had a great dinner cooked by the moms, and then the men did the dishes. After dinner we all went out to the back yard and played a few games. Uncle Jon seemed to be the target of a lot of them. I think it was his green shirt.

My kids gave me lots of love and attention all day, and I got some great hand made gifts and cards. I love my kids and love being a mother. My kids are the best and I love them so much. They always keep me on my toes and laughing at the funny things they do. Being a mom is the best job in the world. I am so grateful I get to spend my days watching my children experience life, and discover who they are. I wouldn't trade this for anything.

Buried Treasure

Things have been very busy at our house and I have many things to blog about, but I will probably not get to any of it until sometime next week. However, there are events in life that happen and you need to write them down before the moment passes and you forget the details. Yesterday was one of those moments.



My family is all here visiting and that means that for the past few days we have had 10 kids (3 girls, 7 boys) running around the house having a great time together. I picked up a few things at the dollar store to keep them entertained, including a few pales and shovels.



As I have said in previous posts, our yard is not the ideal picture. The first summer we lived here, I turned one weed patch into a vegetable garden. Last summer another one was fixed when they replaced our lawn. During these projects we have found many treasures buried in the dirt. Mostly old toys, chunks of cement, a little garbage, and a few glass bottles. But the East side of our house still remains unfinished and a sand pit. This is the perfect place for the kids to dig and play.



Yesterday the kids got a little aggressive in their digging and came across something. They were very excited. Emily and Brevin decided that it must be a time capsule or buried treasure, so they were aggressively digging trying to get it out. I went out to see what it was they were digging up and noticed it was a large tin. My mind immediately went to Pet Funeral. I told the kids to stop digging and to leave it alone. They did not want to, so I told them that it was probably someones dead pet inside. They were convinced otherwise and knew they had a buried treasure. (I think a buried animal peeked their interest even more.)



I had some other things I needed to take care of, so I told them not to open it and to come and get me when they got close to getting it out. My plan was just to throw it in the garbage unopened. A few minutes later they had it almost out. Again, I told them not to open it, but what I did not know is that it had rusted out the bottom, so when they pulled it out everything fell out.



My sister and I both started panicking and telling them not to touch anything and move away from it. Sure enough the treasure was someones precious pet, laid to rest in the back yard. Don't ask me what it was, because I did not try to figure it out.



I thought the kids would be a little upset about the whole thing, but I was wrong. They thought that it was the greatest thing to have dug up a dead animal. I am still a little disturbed about the whole thing and I made the boys scrub their hands three times, and the animal is now moving to it's new resting place at the dump.



While this was more of a nightmare for me, it was just as good as a buried treasure to them.

A Day Of Firsts For Joe

Yesterday was an exciting day for Joe. He was going on his first field trip and that meant a whole bunch of firsts..................

Joe usually gets out of school at 11:10am, but because of the field trip they were going to be gone until 12:30pm. So they were told to bring a sack lunch. While Joe had been packing home lunches for a while, this was the first time he got to bring it to school. He started planning what he wanted to bring in his lunch a month ago.

I told him that because it was a field trip he could have an extra treat in his lunch. He chose a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, Chips, Strawberries, a fruit pie, and a Strawberry Lemonade.

For his first field trip Joe's class went to Thanksgiving Point -Farm Country. The teacher divided the kids up into groups. Rebbecca, Gretchen, and Charlie were in Joe's group. They were all excited, because this was going to be their first time riding a School Bus.

His favorite things about the field trip were feeding the ducks, and the pony ride. I asked him if the school bus was as exciting as he thought it was going to be, and he said, "It was fun, but it made me tired to ride in it all the way home."

He was really tired, but he was excited about all of the fun things they did.

Spring Sports

Spring is here and our weeks are full of ball games and practices.

Emily is in her sixth season of Softball and most of the girls on her team have been playing together for most of those seasons. Emily loves Softball, and gets better every season.

At her first game, a few weeks ago, she got a hit every time she went to bat.

Emily is right handed, but her Grandpa is a lefty, and he taught her how to bat. When she goes to the clinics they always try to get her to bat right handed, but she bats better as a lefty. She is starting to get a reputation. At the last game when Emily got up to bat the other coach told his team to move out into the field.

Ryan has been the assistant coach for the last two seasons, and this season he has taken over as the team's coach. He loves doing it and Emily loves having her dad as the coach.

Joe is in his second season of soccer and is still having tons of fun. Joe is getting the ball a little more this season and is becoming a fast runner so he can keep up with the ball. His team is full of his friends. I love watching Kindergarten soccer, because there is always a big mass following the ball, and they are really there just to have fun.

Let's not forget the fan club. They are hoping for warm weather the rest of the season, but love to come to all of the games.

(pictured) Valerie, Grandma, Joe & Josh
(not pictured) Mom, Dad, Emily, and Grandpa.