Last Day of School '09

I cried more then they did. Saying good bye to such an amazing place was very difficult for me. Acacia had some trouble herself but I think that came primarily from the fact that everyone was saying how much they were going to miss her and they wished she did not have to leave.

Friday the 5th was their last day of school. Saturday I was driving Chris to a birthday party where he decides to announce that so far his "summer vacation has been boring ..."

Click the link to see all the photos from the kids last day of school!

Slide show of the kids last day of school '09!

This is Mary Ann. She ran the after care program and some how managed to not slit her wrists every day keeping up with kids from grades K-8 for the past however many years!!




This is Sister Kathleen (principal) and Mrs. Barry (person that does everything else)







This is Mrs. Rife. Acacia's 2nd grade teacher! According to Acacia, she has a "GREAT sense of humor!"




And this is Chris with one of his kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Haack. Mrs. TeStrake went home sick. Mrs. Haack and Mrs. TeStrake were amazing with Chris. Chris is a handful so we are very fortunate that there were 4 hands to work with him and they were patient and nurturing hands to boot.

Field Trip to the Zoo '09

It's the end of the school year and it's field trip time! I chaperoned the kids field trip to the zoo. Since I have kids in 2 grades I got to take both of them plus a couple others from each grade. 5 in all. I am VERY thankful and grateful for the kids I was responsible for. They were all very well behaved and did not loose me during the entire day! It was a LONG day too. Walking from school to the zoo and then around the zoo for 3 hours and then back to school! These guys were beat!! But, it was a great day. We could not have asked for better weather either!

To see all the photos from the field trip click the link below.

Slide show of the kids field trip to the zoo '09!

Reliving the Memory

Ask Rod how many days until the first Steelers pre season game and he will have an answer for you. Our Superbowl tee shirts finally arrived (4 months after the grand event) so we celebrated with a cook out. Here we are modeling our swag.

Chris has something to say at school!!

Chris was SOOO excited to be chosen to say the prayer at school and lead in the Pledge of Allegiance!! It had him motivated to go to bed early and get up without an argument. He even turned off The American Dragon without a fight to get in the car to get to school early!! This particular prayer was a LONG one, but he did pretty good. He started off nice and loud but then kind of fizzled out. But, he was ready to go once he got to the Pledge part! I have two little videos below. I still have not been able to find software that will allow me to do video editing and then post it to a blog, so I have to have two different clips. The first one is most of the prayer and the second one is the end of the pray and the beginning of the Pledge. I hope you can hear it. The photos are of Chris with his teacher - practicing before he went live!

First official cook out at Liliana!

We had some of our life group members over for our first official cook out in our new home! It proved to be fairly successful!



A group even hit the links (well, they grabbed some clubs and walked on for 4 holes).







Acacia was a great helper with the youngest member of our life group, Porter (brother to the only other Acacia we know).
The only bummer thing is the amount of patio space we have compared to our old house! We are going to have to do something out back to allow for more folks to sit all together (on level ground)!!

We also celebrated Jenni's "321" birthday! We had a "3" candle, a "2" candle and then a single candle to make up 33! Are we not clever?

Spring Soccer '09

This spring Acacia continued with Coach Russ and the Orange Fusion (number 18) while Chris (thankfully) was able to switch teams to the Yellow Hornets (number 9). They both had excellent seasons and had a great time. I am totally amazed at how well they both do. Having Chris on this new team with a better coach was like night and day. He scored several goals every game and I had to removed him from the field a few times as you could hear him taunting the other team as he would take the ball to the goal on how "easy" this goal was going to be. He had to learn a little about being a good sport. This is very difficult to teach a five year old. Acacia continued to do well, but seems to have found her spot playing more defensive. She is great at getting in there and clearing the ball out but the aggression seems to end there as Acacia and "break away" do not go together. But, at her last game she really changed her tune and just showed us all that she can take it down, cut across and power that ball into the goal. It was a totally amazing end to her season! She slammed that ball into the goal, the whistle blew - game over and she cam running off the field where I met her with open arms. She was just beside herself with what she managed to do. Everyone was cheering her name and congratulating her as if that was the winning goal (it was not) and it was some world cup championship game! It was just soooo cool!!






Click the link to see all the photos from the Kid's soccer this spring!

Slide show of the kids soccer this spring '09!

Acacia earns a slumber party

Acacia's horses all made it around the track and the prize was her choice. She picked a slumber party with 3 of her new friends. One did have to leave a little early as she had a big day the next day but the other two stayed ... and stayed and stayed! Up all night that is! I really do not have any idea what time they all finally fell asleep but it did seem like they were having fun.



This was taken right before we forced them to turn the lights off. If you look closely, they can barely hold their eyes open ... but they "had" to have a snack.



The next AM it took us a LONG time to wake them!! No one was really ready to move.













I made green pancakes for breakfast and there were non left!

Snyder / Fitzgerald Wedding

The day has finally arrived! I've been saving my black plastic serving spoons to give these guys since we moved into our new house here in Oregon! The weather was crappy, but I don't think Matt and Gail even noticed! It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was a lot of fun. Wedding bliss aside ... the chocolate fountain was the main attraction for me. Had I not learned what ghoush meant from my father on my own wedding night, I would have taken a cup and just placed it right in this fountain and drank the chocolate without any of the "condiments" that were strewn across the table for dipping into the fountain. I must admit, this photo does kind of look like Matt is checking out what might be down Gail's dress. But, maybe he humbly just has his eyes closed and is just waiting patiently ....



Here is Adia! I think she was enjoying this day of dress up! She even got to help light the unity candle!














Heather and Rod ... AKA Steelers fans ... Man, without kids in tow, they can cut a serious rug!!







This is the bride (Gail), Adia the flower girl and myself ... guest.








This is Randy and his photo op turn with the bride!

Click the link to see all the photos from the Snyder Wedding!

Slide show of the Synder Wedding!



Fun at the wedding!

DREAM '09

Acacia and I went to our church for the Mother Daughter DREAM slumber party! I did decide not to actually spend the night, although we certainly could have. It was a fun filled evening of activities, food and then watching a movie before we decided to pack up our sleeping bags and head home. It was a lot of fun and spending time alone with Acacia was really neat! Something we really do not get to do very often.


I realize it's hard to tell, but this was charades. They are ... cheerleaders









Watching the movie!

Uncle Tennis And Cousin Sax '09

Our first official house guests have come and gone. Uncle Tennis and Cousin Sax drove from NJ for a week long visit. This was cool as it allowed them to see the action packed lives we lead and also get some quality time with Acacia and Chris. We started the visit off right away. No time to rest! Day one = drive another hour (as if the first 20 or so to get here were not enough) to the Dells and spend the day in the water park! Luckily we got a room (even though we did not spend the night) so Chris could play Mario Kart on the TV and Ben could take a nap!






















Day two = hitting the links. Kevin, Randy and Ben played a round of golf on the course in our back yard. They cleverly left a cooler on our porch so when they hit the 12th fairway they had a nice refreshing beverage waiting for them! Once they finished up with their golf game they met us at the soccer field for Chris' practice. Then Randy, Kevin and Ben went to the Monona Terrace to watch the UW Jazz Band perform.




Day three was more golf (for Kevin anyway). Then they drove onto campus and met Randy and I on the Union Terrace for lunch outside on the water! Beautiful! Kevin and Ben then went on a two plus hour walking tour of the campus. Then, back to the soccer fields to see Acacia's practice and then over to the tennis courts for some action with Chris.


Day four - Randy, Kevin and Ben went to the UW Marching Band concert at the Kohl Center. This lasted a bit longer then anyone anticipated. Me and the kids went to swim lessons and then home hoping to hear Ben play his sax. But, they did not get back from the concert until after 11p. Chris had fallen asleep on the couch and Acacia was struggling with staying awake. Kevin and Ben were up around 6a Sat morning and on the road right away. It was a world wind visit but we think everyone had a great time! We hope to have more visitors!! Just ask Uncle Tennis and Cousin Sax about our nice weather! It only snowed the day they arrived! Then it was in the 60's and 70's the rest of the week!

Click the link to see all the photos from Uncle Tennis and Cousin Sax '09!

Slide show of Uncle Tennis and Cousin Sax'09!

Easter '09

Well, there is never a dull moment around here. We are running with our heads cut off but still managed to get the kids to an egg hunt and ran into some friends. How cool that is was not snowing! Then, Sunday AM they were both up (before the Easter Bunny was done) and this year after Acacia helped me clean up after the Easter hunt flurry ... I got .... the question .... Mom ... (heavy sigh) - is the Easter Bunny you and Dad? It kind of broke my heart. But, I managed to not have to give a concrete yes or no, but just told her to believe what she felt in her heart.





Click the link to see all the photos from Easter '09!

Slide show of the Easter '09!

Water Park

Gotta love when the kids don't have school and we all get to play!! We took a day off from work since the kids were off school and went to the Dells to one of their many water parks! We met up with some friends of ours and had a great two days of sliding adventures and fun!

Click the link to see all the photos from our couple days at the water park!

Slide show of the water park!