End of School

Dan and the girls had a day off for Easter Monday, and he took them to Bergey's Farm to visit the baby animals.

They always have baby bunnies you can hold.

These are Hallie's favorites at the farm.

Emma loves playing with and holding the baby goats.

Bunny hats - ha!

Emma (standing at the microphone) is in chorus this year and they had a spring concert featuring traditional hymns sung to contemporary music.

Hallie's (top middle) class led a chapel service at school near the end of the year.

It got warm quickly in May, and we came home to an 85-degree house one evening. Dan worked for hours cleaning the coils in our A/C unit to see if it helped. Unfortunately it was the capacitor, and we had to wait a couple of days to get a professional over to fix it. We slept with fans on and windows open, which helped a little bit, but Hallie decided to sleep at Nana and Papa's house to get out of the heat one night. She wanted to stay there a second night, but she was too homesick and she reluctantly joined us in our misery the second night.  We are so spoiled and so thankful for air conditioning!

Emma participated in field day with the middle and high school kids. She's taking a swing break with some friends in between games. 

There were fun, silly games all day - like this contest where they had to put an Oreo cookie on their forehead and get it into their mouth without using their hands.  I'm not sure if anyone managed it.

Our nephew, Nathan, finished his semester and moved out of his Regent University dorm. Dan and I went to help him and Dan's brother, Tim, pack and move everything out.

That evening, we had a belated celebration for all the April birthdays in the family. Left to right: Miriam, Emma, Dan's mom, and my dad. I guess Hallie is standing in for Dan's dad, who also has an April birthday.

Hallie and I had gone to yard sales that morning and her big find was a cotton candy machine!  We served cotton candy during the April birthday party.

Hallie did a book report and presentation on Milton Hershey for her final 3rd grade project. She is very inspired by chocolate!

Hallie's been asking me to braid her hair at night sometimes because it makes her hair wavy and fabulous the next morning! 

Hallie's class did a nice job singing and playing their recorders during the elementary Spring Concert.

We celebrated Mother's Day with lunch at our house so we could avoid the crowded restaurants. Dan and I had chosen Costco entrees that could be heated and served, and the guys did all the food preparations for me, my mom, and Dan's mom.

My mom and I 

Dan with his mom. 

 I'm grateful that I'm mom to these funny, smart, beautiful girls!

On the last day of school, the StoneBridge teachers give each student a character award and pray over them. Emma's homeroom teacher was Mrs. Hardin, who asked the class what traits they saw in Emma. They yelled out funny, artistic, and friendly.  Mrs. Hardin chose the character trait of "Loyalty" for Emma, because she's fiercely loyal to her friends and family. Very true!

Hallie's teacher, Mrs. Edwards, chose "Obedience" as Hallie's character trait for the year.  That means so much to her teachers, and we hope that she'll always be a student that can be counted on to do the right things.  Hallie also received an award for memorizing 100% of her Bible verses this year.

We're very thankful for StoneBridge and their focus on Christ and character development in their teaching.

More Spring Fun

 Hallie warned us this year that she had big plans for April Fool's Day.  She's forgotten about it each year until that day, when it's too late to come up with pranks.

She decorated Dan's shoes and reading glasses, to surprise him the morning of April 1st.

She tricked me into eating a "special sandwich" that she made especially for me. A jelly, spinach, and pineapple sandwich. It was ... indescribable.

I "fooled" both girls with these shady characters in their lunchboxes.

Dan's mom's birthday fell on a Friday night and we (along with my parents) took her out to dinner at Baker's Crust and bought tickets to see "Ruth" the musical at a local Christian high school. It was a junior edition of the Sight and Sound performance, and it was very good!

Since Hallie had a birthday party with a small group of friends, we wanted to do something special for Emma's birthday, too. She decided she wanted to spend a night at Great Wolf Lodge and invite her cousins to join us. 

On our check-in day, Josiah and Micah joined us at the waterpark for the entire afternoon and evening.  They had a blast riding all the waterslides, swimming, and playing.  When they got too worn out, we ate snacks in the hotel room and watched TV for a bit, then they wanted to use their magic wands down the resort hallways.

Emma with her favorite dragon painting.

The MagiQuest screens said "Happy birthday, Emma!" when she waved her wand at them.

The boys stayed until bedtime, and then Emma and Hallie's girl cousins, Naomi and Miriam, joined us at the Lodge for a sleepover.

The girls woke up early and we went to the waterpark as soon as it opened at 9 am.

Taking a break for donuts!

Playing in the wave pool

Both Naomi and Miriam were willing to try boogie boarding. 

Dan's parents stopped by to say hi to us while we were in their neck of the woods.

The following weekend, Hallie's classmate, Josephine, had a "PJs and Pancakes" themed birthday party. It was so cute and chaotic! So many shrieking little girls!

14 of our family members ate dinner at our house and then watched "The Sound of Music" performed at Regent University. We've seen lots of good theater this spring!

On Emma's birthday, all four of her grandparents joined us for dinner at our house and she opened awesome gifts, like this 3-in-1 Lego set that makes a dragon, a phoenix, and a Loch Ness Monster.

She got this huge blanket from Uncle Steve, Aunt Sheila, Meera, and Rowan with Wings of Fire dragons on it (her favorite book series).

We took the girls to see the Minecraft Movie, and we were the only 4 people in the theater! So, we got to talk as much as we wanted and yell at the characters when they did dumb things (it happened much too often).

Two things happened this month that Hallie has been dreading.

First, she had to lay to rest all of the Aqua Dragons (pet shrimp) that she hatched at Christmastime. She did a fantastic job caring for them and they lived as long as they should have.  She made sweet gravestones for them in the backyard.

The other dreaded event was Bach Tea Day, which was the day that her 3rd grade class celebrated Hans Sebastian Bach with a formal tea party, music, and dancing.  Hallie begged all year to be "sick" on this day.

     

The tea party was fancy and fun.  The dreaded part was that the boys and girls had to actually touch each other.  The boys led the girls to their tables and pulled their chairs out for them. 

Their faces say it all. Pure misery.

The 3rd graders were paired up to dance the minuet. It was the sweetest thing to watch, and they hated every minute of it.

The rest of the tea party was great, though. We both liked the food and the flavored teas.  

I always enjoy my time with this beauty.

All the pretty 3rd grade girls at Bach Tea Day.

The class with the boys added to the mix. Haha!

We enjoyed more family time on Easter Sunday. The kids are showing off their loot from the Easter Egg Hunt.

My dad's birthday fell on Easter Sunday, so we sang Happy Birthday to him.

We got some nice family photos at church on Easter.

Happy Easter!  We're eternally grateful that Christ lived, died, and rose from the grave for us!