End of School

Well, I officially have a 7th grader, 6th grader, 4th grader and 2nd grader as of Wednesday.  The last month we finished out the school year with the annual band concert, cub scout crossover, school field days and picnic.

Sara enjoying a spring day with a good book

With their awards...Sara also received her 1st place solo and ensemble medal

Sara and her friend Rachel worked on this castle together for a project at school

John is now a WEBELOS

Nathan is now a Wolf

John and Nathan at their end of the school picnic.  This was John's last South School picnic.  Next year he will join the girls at CEC.

She's 40!

I turned 40 on May 3 and was tremendously blessed to get to spend my birthday with family.  Joe and I also ran the Indianapolis Mini Marathon that weekend. It is a half marathon (13.1 miles!)  Here are some pictures....

 We were just a couple of blocks from the Colts stadium when we picked up our race packets so we had to take the kids by it.

To quote Nathan "I can't believe I'm standing in the parking lot of the stadium where the Colts play!"  He was so excited!

 35,000 people run the mini-marathon in Indy every year.  It is the largest half marathon in the country.  You really can't have a feel for that many people until you actually run it.  One of the highlights of running the mini is you get to run on the Indianapolis 500 race track (which is not a track that many people are allowed on).  It is also a fun race as they have battles of the bands along the route.  And with that many people if you get bored running you can simply people watch.

In the corrals

 It was a perfect day for a race.  The temperatures were in the 50s and it was cloudy.

Here we are before the race...wouldn't you know it is the one picture that turned out blurry.....

Mushroom hunting

We made an attempt at mushroom hunting again this year.  And once again, we came up empty.  So I decided to make the most of our hike and take some pictures.

for some reason I really was fascinated by this tree; it was a huge, old maple tree

this is how much John enjoys hiking ;)

Spring catch up

We had so much happen this spring.  It is time to catch a little bit on the blog with some pictures.

We had a group of bunnies that decided our backyard would be a fun place to have a nest.  I have a love/hate relationship with rabbits.  Love that they are one of God's creations.  Hate that they eat my garden.  One of the kids noticed the mommy nursing one evening.  I don't think I've ever seen this with a rabbit before.

four baby bunnies...I haven't seen them much lately.  My fear is that a local hawk found them.

 You may have heard about our area on the news this spring.  We received about 5-7 inches of rain in just a couple of days and it turned into record flooding.  This is a picture of the Illinois river at its record stage.

 

 Mulch, mulch and more mulch.  We hadn't seriously spread mulch since we moved 6 years ago.  So, in what was a family effort, we spread two truck loads and our house looks brand new.

 Joe and Nathan were able to have a Father/Son project one afternoon.  We have outgrown our van on family vacation, so Joe and Nathan put a hitch on the van and put together a carrier so we can travel with much greater ease this summer.

Joe's first turkey

My sweet hunter has been turkey hunting a lot and has never come home with the "elusive" bird...until this morning.  He shot an approximately 25 pounder.  He said the beard is 11inches.  And he says it tastes like pheasant.  (Funny how I thought it would taste like turkey...)  Here are some shots of the bird and my awesome hunting hubby...

Spring is coming

I spent pretty much the entire weekend either in my bed or on the couch except when I ventured out on Saturday morning to get the diagnosis of strep throat from the doctor.  So when the penicillin finally kicked in and I saw the sun shining this afternoon, I decided that I needed to get out of the house.  So we all went for a very mild hike in the woods.  With the warmth of the sun, I think I expected a lush, green woods to walk in.  So I was a little disappointed to find that the woods still looked overwhelmed by winter.  However, ever now and then you would step over a hill or glance across a valley and see glimpses of spring.  I took my camera to have a little fun.

Even though I am ready for spring, I still find that there is something beautiful about winter.

Spring Break Part 2

About midweek I decided that we all needed a break from our decluttering so we had a "family" sleepover night.  Each kid got to invite a friend over to spend the night.  Joe escaped to a meeting to it was me and the kids hanging out.  Each of the kids made a snack to share with everyone and each kid made a personal pizza for supper.  It went so well that I think we may try it again a couple of times this summer.

John and his buddy in lego and playmobil heaven

Nate enjoying his pizza with his friend

All the girls stayed in the basement pretty much the whole night.  Their friends loved Ticket to Ride!

Our "spy guys" of the night

Spring Break Part 1

We decided not to do much traveling during spring break this year.  I hadn't had much time off this school year and the house was taking the brunt of the it.  The closets and storage area in the basement were out of control.  I hadn't really had any time off at home to work on them since we traveled at both Thanksgiving and most of Christmas break this year.  Plus, I was just ready to be home and sleep in a few mornings in my bed.  However, I didn't want the kids to feel like they didn't get to do anything over break so we planned a couple of special events.  So the first Saturday we loaded up the car with a picnic and headed to St. Louis for a visit to the zoo.  We hadn't been in a couple of years and it is one of our favorite zoos.  We thought it was suppose to be a little warmer then it ended up being, but despite the cold we still had a great time and saw every animal in the zoo.

Our van turned 100,000 miles on our way to the zoo.  Sigh...still hoping it lasts until the kids start turning 16.

One of the reasons I love zoos is because it such an example of God's unbelievable creativity

amazing....

they were all having fun...I promise!

love the butterfly house in St. Louis and bonus..it was heated!