Take me out the ball game!

It's Baseball time! This is Brennan's first year playing baseball --- he is in 1st grade.
He was a little apprehensive to sign up and play. After all -- he plays soccer. : ) He loves soccer and counts down the months to play when soccer season ends. After he found out that Daddy played baseball too it was all O.K. He has been counting the days for baseball ever since sign up!

Brennan loved practice and he made contact with the ball more than once! He has another practice before his game so we will post more about the big game in a couple of weeks!
Go Braves!

100 Days of School!

We have completed 100 Days of School!
(Really we have had 130, but we haven't had time to celebrate yet)
Last year we made a chain with 100 paper chains. It seems to be a tradition. Brennan was so excited when he saw the paper and stapler. This year Aaron got to help too!
Brennan loves reading and being read to. We are really getting into lap books too! His CC memory work is another favorite and something fun to do with his brother. I am constantly amazed at what he has learned this year. From learning about Columbus in 1492 to What is NATO in 1949...and we are not done yet!

Aaron loves doing school and will really get into it this fall. His favorite thing is anything Brennan and I are doing AND singing his History songs from CC. It is the cutest thing to hear a three year old sing about World War II and the Industrial Revolution. : )

Good work boys! Today we did our school work and then celebrated with making our paper chain, counting to 100 and doing 100 Jumping Jacks! The video is the end of our jumping jack routine!

Fun at Field Day

CC Field Day at Ft. Desoto

This is our second year with CC (Classical Conversations). We absolutely love it! We have done Field Day both years out at Ft. Desoto Beach and it is a great time! Above is Brennan, Aaron, David and Josh! They had a great time competting with one another and against one another. : )

Here is Dad with the Standing Long Jump! Great jump Dad!

Aaron and his buddy , Luke, facing off with the water relay. : )

Here is some of the children lining up for the 30 yard dash. We also did the 3 legged race, tug of war, soccer shoot out and a crab walk relay. Fun Stuff! The kids had a great time. After we finished our games we heading out to the beach and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather!

Missions

The GO Missions Conference was at our home church this week. We were so blessed to meet many missionaries and speak with them about there experience in the field. Last October Brian went to Costa Rica with a team of friends from our Bible Fellowship class and had a great experience. On Friday night we had the opportunity to have dinner with missionaries Mike and Kathy Kemper from Costa Rica, the same missionaries that Brian and the team assisted in October 2008. As an added bonus, Pastor Jamie (the pastor of the church they were helping) also came. It was such a blessing to meet and speak with each one of these people.

Brennan and Aaron were excited to meet them as well. The boys had the opportunity to meet Pastor Jamie on Saturday while Brian played soccer with him at a pick-up game at our church. They also had the opportunity to meet missionaries Mike and Kathy on Sunday night at the missions fair. They were so excited to go around to all the booths and talk with the missionaries but the Costa Rica booth was their favorite. Even though there is a language barrier between us and Pastor Jamie you can not mistake friendship and Christ's love in another person.

There is something special about Mike and Kathy Kemper and well as Pastor Jamie! We can't wait to go back down to Costa Rica this year and continue Christ's work. I am definitely going to work on my Spanish!! I want to be able to communicate with Pastor Jamie and his family and especially to the Costa Rican people!

Si' Christo te amo!

GO and tell others about Jesus!

Fun with Nana and Papa

We had a great weekend with Nana and Papa. The boys just love it when there grandparents visit. We went to Bush Gardens, played in the yard and Nana and Papa took the boys to Mellow Mushroom (the boys favorite place to eat!) for Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today we have been preparing for Nana and Papa to arrive. The boys have vaccumed, cleaned the windows, picked up their rooms and swept the porch. They are so helpful and they absolutely love doing it! I only hold on to this moment because I can't imagine it lasting forever! : )

We have been making Valentine's all week. We made them for a school party, the nursing home and today they diligently worked on Nana and Papa's Valentines. They are so excited about their visit! As I type this I hear my youngest (who is suppose to be napping) talking to himself in the hallway. He can hardly wait! He is afraid they are going to get here and he will be asleep.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Stuck in the Muck

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day! We set out, after church, to nearby park with our canoe in tow. We loaded our canoe with the essentials...cooler, food bag, fishing poles and bait, beach pails and shovels, a blanket and frizbee. Do you think we had enough? - HA! We launched our canoe and paddled across the bay to our own little private island!


We had the beach all to ourselves. It was great! After enjoying the beach together some, Brian and the boys set off in the canoe and left me on the island with my blanket, book and some food. It was fabulous. The boys paddled out and cast their poles!
And not to long after that....Aaron caught his first fish! He was so excited!
O.K. -- Are you wondering where the MUCK comes in? Well --- we left our house today with the intention of just going to have a fun family day. Did we check the tides? NO! Oh well....when we started paddling back across the bay we noticed that where we were going was just mud. We decided to paddle around to the other side and still go stuck. At one point Brian got out and was pulling us across the muck. I felt like a queen being pulled across the river! It did not last long though. :) Brian soon asked me to roll up my pants and get out of the canoe. The romance was over - HEHE! We both had to step quickly because the mud was very squishy and in some parts DEEP!
There were lots of people watching us as we trudged through muddy muck. We had one couple come and tell us how much we made them laugh and think about their children and grandchildren getting in the same predicament. I am glad we helped someone laugh that day! We sure were laughing! We had a great family adventure!

The boys loved cleaning up the canoe when we got home! I hope that enthusiasm last a while!