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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Small Group Reunion

It is so significant to have people in your life who stand by you through all of life's up and downs. They are there for you, share their wisdom, help you discern, listen with care, love on you... and most importantly, they pray for you. We used to belong to a Small Group at church that met every week! Jason and I are so grateful to have had this wonderful group of friends to depend on: the Sieberts, the Cos, the Lees, and the McCrearys. The Sieberts moved to Edmonton a few years ago (yup, my beloved hometown!) and it just got tougher for our group to meet together because of our growing families and their needs. Well, last Saturday, our group had a reunion! The Sieberts were visiting California and our group had a chance to share an afternoon together. It was fun to reminisce and just talk! Our house was crowded with all of our families! It was nice to "pick up where we left off" and we marveled at how easy it was for our kids to do the same even though they were just babies when our group was meeting. I feel like it's impossible to put into words how thankful I am for these people and how I miss seeing them on a regular basis!

(the above picture is missing Caleb and Joshua McCreary)

St. Patrick's Day

Last year, our friends, the Pozzis, posted pictures on Facebook about a leprechaun trap they had created with their daughters. It was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing and I thought it was hilarious. Last week, Grace came home and shared that for homework, she had to create a leprechaun trap. I immediately began asking her questions about what she wanted to do- she drew a sketch and even gave me a list of things to go buy. After asking her the logistics of how her idea would work, she realized she couldn't figure out how to make it all work, so she decided to take a different approach. The end result was so cute! Part of the assignment was that she had to explain to her class how everything worked. For practice, I recorded her explanation (for the video, look under the section called "Our Videos" on the right side of the blog).

Even though the trap didn't catch any leprechauns, March 17 was a fun day- Grace ate green snacks at her school party, a leprechaun visited Jeremy at daycare (surprisingly, he wasn't scared), he got to eat green cake, we all wore something green, had Irish Stew for dinner, visited some friends after dinner, and Jason happily drank his stout & watched the beginning of March Madness. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

The first weekend of March, our family came together to celebrate Jason's mom's birthday. We wanted to do something really special for her- Jason decided it would be the best time to try out the new pasta maker he got for Christmas. Jennifer and Jason worked together to make an amazing dinner- homemade pasta noodles were topped with a creamy sauce that had shrimp, asparagus, and sun-dried tomatoes. YUM! It was nice to spend time together- with such busy lives, we really value the times when we're able to get together. Of course it was made even more special since we were celebrating such a wonderful person- hope you had a great birthday, Mom!