My Little Helper

Livie LOVES helping me in class.  She has been asking all year to help, but with her dance class falling on the same night and time as my evening class, she's not been able to go.  Well, this week was Spring Break for dance, so she got to come with me and she was a GREAT helper!!

The kids just flocked to her and she played with them a lot.  They played in the sandbox together with her and would run around with her.  It was really cute!

I had to share this picture of one our new students.  She's been so shy and hesitant since joining, of course.  She's just a brand new 2 yr old.  Any little one would be nervous coming into a new space with new people.  Well, last week she just let loose and was just radiating with joy and happiness.  I mean, look at that face!  Absolute sweetness!

I am beginning to make my End-of-the-Year books and I needed their handprints.  I couldn't believe it when Livie took one of our student's hands and started painting it.  They worked perfectly together and they did a great job getting his handprints to look just right. :-)  See what I mean about her being a good helper?!

She played dinosaurs with them and they loved it!  She was completely involved and took time to talk and play with each of them.  I was so proud of her!

Our project that day was a messy one, can you tell?!  We were talking about rainbows and I ended up looking like a rainbow myself!

She joined us when we danced and sang the songs with them and was just full of energy!

When we got home, we both showed the rest of the family how messy we got. :-)  She was so excited to have finally gone to class with me and proved that she is the best lil helper around!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter celebration yesterday!  The weather continued to be absolute perfection and I was able to enter the holiday with a calmness I haven't had in a while.  It seems that I find myself overwhelmed and busy leading up to Easter and I don't get a lot of quiet time to reflect on the importance of the day.  But, this year, I DID!  I had a great time with my family in the days leading up to Sunday and that always helps center me.  So, I was so glad to enjoy some time of reflection and time with family before celebrating our risen Savior on Sunday morning.

Of course, in the midst of the REAL reason for celebration, we got to enjoy a visit from the Easter Bunny, who once again spoiled our kids rotten.  The legos were by far the best choice.  Each set made three different legos figures, which the kids enjoyed building all afternoon!

We dressed them in their cutest outfits (another one of my favorite parts of this day) and took a picture before we left for church that morning.  You can tell Livie was freezing.  It wasn't really warm yet, so with shorts on and wet hair, she was shivering a bit. ;-)

We had Easter Breakfast at the church, where they had fruit salad, different egg casseroles, and bagels.  The hit of the day, though, were the donuts with the peeps on top!  Nothing says Easter like peeps, am I right?

My morning was busy, because I lead the kids in their Easter Song that morning.  Pete took pictures for me, while they practiced.  I sat on the floor in front of them - not easy to do in an Easter dress!  They sang "There is Power in the Blood" and they did a fantastic job!!!

I'm also in charge of the Easter Egg Hunt after the service.  Thankfully I had lots of help!  Pete and a couple other adults, with several teenagers thrown in, got all the eggs set up in the playground.  I stayed downstairs and made sure all the kids had bags and knew the rules.  Again, I had several adults helpers and parents for this part too.  We had a LOT of kids show up!  There were a few that didn't even get in this picture!  For our small church, it was really fun to see how many came.  Especially, when you get to see all of them in their adorable outfits. :-)

This was Noah's last year to hunt and he's been hunting for the elusive "Golden Egg" for 3 years now, but he didn't find it.  It actually was found by a girl, whose mom is battling Stage 4 cancer right now, so I think for all of us, it was a beautiful thing to see her win something like that on this special day.

I always try and get a family picture on Easter and yesterday was no exception.  Noah didn't feel like cooperating at all, but the show must go on, so we took a picture despite his crankiness.

And, we had to get a picture with some of our friends!  They're so fun together!

When we got home, the weather was a lot warmer and sunnier, so I took another picture of them with our 4th child, Tater.  We had visited Petsmart the day before and found this bowtie collar on clearance.  So, even HE was dressed up for Easter! :-)  

It was a beautiful day for a wonderful celebration as we remembered the great sacrifice that our Savior, Jesus Christ, made for us.  So, that no matter what our sin, He has covered it, so that we can spend eternity with Him through His gift of salvation.  Happy Easter to you all!

Ottawa Trail

This weekend has been BEAUTIFUL!  And, boy, is it needed.  After earlier temps this week in the windy low 40s, these 70s have felt like heaven!  We took the opportunity to enjoy the weather by going to Starved Rock to do a little hiking.  My favorite trail, thus far, is the Ottawa Trail.  I don't have to worry about cliffs or narrow trails.  AND, we get to wade through 3 different creeks.  FUN!

The kids got all their gear on.  They picked it all out.  I just insisted on the rain boots.

Spring has barely sprung here, so there were patches of green starting to come up, but it was very brown still.  That was ok.  It was neat seeing it in the beginnings of spring. :-)

The Ottawa Trail is in a canyon, outside of the park.  It is surrounded by these big sandstone cliffs.  Sometimes they are close to you, other times you have to climb up to them.  I zoomed in for this picture, but they all climbed up a pretty big hill to get to this site.

They wanted to climb up there, so they could climb on this rock. :-)

Here's one of the creeks we went across on our way to the back.  The kids loved playing in them!

There were a few places that the water was halfway up our boots, but most of it was fairly shallow.  Pete didn't wear his rain boots (not sure why), so he had to try to figure out ways to get across without stepping in the water.  It was a lot harder for him to navigate because of it.

At the back of the trail is this pool of water, with a waterfall at the back.  A little waterfall, but a pretty one.  This big tree has fallen over, so we stood underneath it, so you could see how tall it was.

This is the back of the trail.  See the little waterfall?  It's really pretty back there. :-)

Awww... my sweet family!  Tater LOVES going hiking, so he was thrilled to pieces to go with us.  There were times when no one was around us, so we were able to let him off his leash and let him explore.  He loved splashing around and checking everything out.  Pete found a tick crawling on him, which freaked me out, but he got it off of him, before he was bitten by it.

The thing that they love to do, when we're back there, is skip rocks.  I SUCK at it!  Pete's really good at it!  His rocks skip like 4-5 times each.  One even bounced into the waterfall!

When we were in CO last summer, Livie bought this vest with her money.  She also bought a little compass that hangs on it.  She liked checking out our direction throughout the hike. :-)

That walking stick is something that Noah bought when we were in CO.  He takes it everywhere and it's very handy to have when you're trying to balance yourself in the water, when you're climbing up a creekbank.  He used it to splash the water.

I had Pete take this picture, so you can see that Noah's officially taller than me.  Not by much, but he's pretty much there.  He's thrilled!

Here's more muddy, leafy water to wade through.

Just another look at the pretty canyon.  It's not Rocky Mountain National Park beautiful, but for Northern IL, it's not bad at all!

More of me and my 4 kiddos. :-)

I thought Madie looked so very teenager-y in this picture.  She's growing up so fast!

Pete and his dog.  They're total buddies.  Which is hilarious to say, considering how much he DIDN'T want a dog! ;-)

Madie asked if she could take our picture, so I said sure!  I didn't think about the fact that I'm so much shorter and that, by sitting on the log, I would look like a muppet next to him!  But, it's still a good one of the two of us - despite the muppetness. ;-)

We had a wonderful morning hiking, followed by dinner and a little shopping at Petsmart, so Tater could join us.  He had the BEST time and so did we.

Palm Sunday

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd post a couple pictures I took today in church of the kids passing out the palm branches for Palm Sunday. :-)  We've been staying busy here with track, soccer, dance, and more, just haven't been out taking pictures of it all.  I mean, who wants a photo of me sorting through summer clothes and changing out drawers?  No one, that's who.  So, our busyness hasn't been very blog-worthy of late.

As we're gearing up for Easter, we had our Sunday School kids get involved with passing out the palm branches.  As always, they had lots of fun doing that!  Corralling 14+ kids into not hitting each other with palms, standing at the doorways to give them to people, isn't always the easiest thing to do, but they have fun with it every year.  I was glad they asked us to do it again.  I mean, look at those goofy faces!!

You can barely see Livie and Noah here.  Livie is completely hidden by the branches and Noah is peeking out from behind more branches himself.  Definitely a funny job for these eager kids to do!

Next week we're getting ready to celebrate Easter, so hopefully we'll have some adorable pictures to post then.  And, maybe, just maybe, I'll have something fun to post about in the meantime. :-)

New Sports Experiences

I haven't posted in a while.  Things have been busy around here.  But, I wanted to share some of the new sports teams our kids have joined!  Livie is in a soccer league at our local Y and is absolutely loving it!  She's wanted to be in soccer for ages, so she's beyond excited to be part of this team.  They meet every Tuesday night for practice and every Saturday morning for their game.  There are only 2 teams in her age group, so they'll be playing each other every week. :-)  The best part is she's got two really great friends on her team!

Here's a picture of her with her team at last Saturday's very first game.  She's the one in the bright pink socks.

She's so full of energy and runs all over the place.  She's totally into it and listens so well.  She's really got some sports skills, which is impressive coming from this family!

And, of course, ever the social one, she takes opportunities to talk to her friends. :-)

Here she is with her buddies.  They have SOOOO much fun!

Now, Noah has joined track and had his first track meet on Tuesday.  I know you're thinking Noah?  In track?!  Yep!  He wanted to build up his stamina and he's really stuck with it!  I'm so proud of him for trying hard to do something that's not his speciality.

It was a cold, windy day that day, so he wore his under-armor to stay warm.

He also used his blanket - the one Nana T made him - to keep himself warm while watching the other races.  Pete was able to leave work a little early, so he could come watch him.  Madie was at a Scholastic Bowl meet and I had to leave early to take Livie to soccer.  Yes.  Three kids, in three things, all at the same time!!  That is what our life has become.

Noah spent most of the afternoon standing at the sidelines and cheering on his teammates.  It was fun to see all the kids supporting each other.

Since I wasn't there to watch him race, Pete took this video.  He beat one guy from the other team and he kept at it and ran the whole way!  Hopefully the weather will improve, so his meets won't be quite as miserable.  And, hopefully I'll get to watch the next one!  

So, two new adventures for the kids this year.  I love that they are trying out new things!