Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Spring Break

Spring Break flew by! I actually told Jason that it didn't seem like a "break" at all since we were so busy! Don't get me wrong- it was a "good" busy. We got a chance to spend time with a lot of friends, went to the park quite a few days, I did quite a bit of baking, attended our church's Easter Eggstravanza, celebrated Jason's birthday, celebrated Easter with family on Good Friday and with church family on Sunday... The week flew by- thankfully, I get an extra week! My district gets 2 weeks of Spring Break so I've been off this past week. YAY!

Anyway, I took many pictures of our week, way too many for the blog so check out the album on the right hand side of this blog.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Jeremy Loves Books

This post is mostly for my own memory's sake... Jeremy had a major meltdown/tantrum last Friday. He hasn't had one in a while, so this caught me by surprise. It lasted about a half hour and involved him stomping his feet, screaming, and crying. It was triggered when I told him that I wouldn't have enough time in our day to take him to the library!
Well, after his t-ball game on Saturday, we made a trip to the library, so here he is! I hope he'll always have a love for books!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Jeremy and T-Ball

This is the first year that Grace has played softball. We never would've considered having her try at an earlier age. Yet here we are, letting Jeremy try and he's 3! I found out from our friends, the Bergs, that the City of Fresno holds sports leagues for kids as young as 3 years old. They signed up their boys and we decided to join them. Our boys are on the same team- the Athletics. Their first game was this past Saturday- I have to share that I had so much fun watching my sweet Bear out on the field! I am definitely a pessimist- I wasn't expecting for it to be a good morning. Jeremy has become very reserved and shy in the last little while, so in the back of my mind, I was worried that we'd end up having to coax him to go out on the field. To my complete surprise, when the coach called for the boys to join him, Jeremy did not hesitate- he ran right out! My 3 year old, still my baby and yet a big boy! He had such a great time and it showed- he spoke about baseball for most of the day, and insisted on wearing his hat and team shirt until bedtime. Even though it was only the first day, the coaches did a wonderful job already teaching important baseball skills. Jeremy is so excited about his next game and so am I!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Jason's Babies

We admit that we don't have green thumbs... But, Jason has certainly become very invested in his "babies" in our yard! He is very determined to not let them die! This is a picture of our "fruit salad" tree. It features 2 kinds of peaches, plums, and nectarines. It was beautiful when it was blooming- there were different shades of flowers on it. I forgot to take pictures of it. The nursery we got it from said that since it's a young tree, for this first year, we are supposed to pluck off all of the fruits. This forces the tree to focus on its roots as opposed to bearing fruit. So... we actually won't know if this pays off until next year!

Two more of Jason's babies are our blueberry bushes. We got two because of their need for cross-pollination. Last year, we actually did get some berries, but they got eaten by the birds. Jason is trying to figure out a way to scare away the birds!


We planted more plants and will be planting a few more this spring... Let's hope they all make it!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

3rd Quarter Awards

Grace's 3rd Quarter Awards Assembly was this past Friday. She earned 3 more awards: Perfect Attendance, Character Counts, and the Math Award. Great job, Gracie!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Busy Weekend!

The first weekend of April was busy! The annual MCC sale (I think of it as a yearly Mennonite reunion) was held on Friday and Saturday. The Mennonite Central Committee is an organization whose focus is to "share God's love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and injustice." Money raised goes towards this mission. There are a lot of things about the MCC sale that is Mennonite, which is of course very important to us since Jason is Mennonite! They sell Mennonite foods such as German sausage, zwiebach, fritters, verenika... and of course the biggest fundraiser is the quilt auction! As with every year, we go on Friday night to meet up with friends and have the delicious German sausage sandwich dinners. One of the things we love about this sale is how it brings people together- it's so great to catch up with people! This year, Jason ran the Run for Relief on Saturday morning. He did the 10k in 48 mins., a personal record! It was enough for him to win 3rd place in his age category (he earned a medal for that!). Later that morning, our whole family returned to the sale. We were able to catch up with more friends, and spent time with Jason's mom, aunt, and uncle.

Later that afternoon, Grace's coach invited the team to go watch Fresno State's softball team. We sat in the outfield- it was a great chance for the girls to watch the softball team, and it was nice to get to know some parents. It was our first time watching Fresno State softball and it was
a great experience!

The Blue Crew

Last year, we came to the conclusion that Grace was probably not going to be very athletic. We signed her up for soccer and she mostly complained about how sweaty it made her. This past fall, we suggested that she sign up for karate and she immediately asked if it was going to make her sweat. We definitely weren't expecting for her to want to play softball! She played a little last summer in our backyard after getting jealous of Jeremy and all the play time he was getting with Jason. We figured that the only reason why she played with them was just to get in on the action. A few months ago, she came home with a flyer about the Northwest Girls Softball league. I casually brought it up and without any persuasion, she decided to give it a try. We are so thrilled that she did- it has been so much fun watching her! She absolutely LOVES it! We haven't had to motivate her to do anything, she is excited on game days, has learned a lot about the game and is actually pretty good at it, and it's great that she quickly became friends with the other girls on her team. (It's kind of funny actually, that somehow she ended up on a team where most of the girls attend Catholic private school. She has asked us several times if she can go to their school next year. Um... Yeah, that's not happening). With the addition of Grace's softball to the schedule, our weekdays have become immensely hectic. Her games are every Monday and Wednesday and her league runs until the end of the school year. The busyness is worth seeing Grace do something that she genuinely loves! The next addition to our schedule? Jeremy is starting t-ball! More on that soon!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Little Mermaid


For Jason's mom's birthday gift, we got her tickets for a "Girls Date." We went to lunch at Panera (well, the boys joined us for that), and then we headed to the Fresno Memorial Auditorium for the Children's Musical Theaterworks' production of The Little Mermaid. It was our first time seeing a show by this theater group, and we really enjoyed it. After the show, the girls got to meet the actors/actresses. It was a lot of fun and since we had such a good experience, we're disappointed that we'll be in Edmonton during their next show, Cinderella. We will definitely make sure to catch their Annie show in December!

Firetruck


Last Saturday, we went to a very cool birthday party. How cool is it that Levi got to have a firetruck at his birthday party?! Our close friend, Christa, did an amazing job organizing Levi's birthday, but inviting the firetruck to make an appearance made this an unforgettable event for our kids. I don't usually take pictures at other kids' birthday parties, but I did for this one because I knew how much Jeremy and Grace would love exploring this firetruck. Happy Birthday, Levi- thanks for letting us share in your special day!