Campus Easter Egg Hunt

There are somewhere between 70-80 kids living on campus, and here are some of them:) They were all so precious.

The Spill

I've been horrible about posting just random things that have happened, so I am going to try to do better with that, starting with poor Gabe and his fall. Gabe has had 60 dollars since Christmas, and has not been able to part with it the many times he's asked to go look at toy stores. This is actually major progress for him! He is our boy who, in the past, has been all about getting money and spending it right away. We had concerns that he was too materialistic, not finding contentment in the things he already had, etc. You get the picture:) Anyway, for him to keep that money for 5 months because he didn't really see anything he loved and he was happy with what he already had is literally an answer to prayer. A few weeks back, he finally spent the money on a ripstick (kind of like a skateboard, but with only two wheels and there is a lot more balancing involved). He was pretty slow at first, so I wasn't too concerned about a helmet on our flat blacktop on campus. However, he quickly got better...good enough to take a nasty fall, which resulted in him slamming the back of his head against the blacktop, without a helmet. He came in, really calmly and quietly, and said, "I fell off my ripstick. I might be bleeding." I think he was pretty shaken up. I looked and found a lot of blood on the back of his head. I asked him if anything else hurt, and he said his back and elbow kind of hurt, too. I lifted up his shirt and found all kinds of bruises and bad abrasions up and down his back and buns, and a pretty banged up elbow. I said, "Wow, you're pretty tough. Why aren't you crying? I would be." He said, "I don't know" and his eyes got just a little teary. He hopped in the shower to rinse off the blood (it was hard for me to see how bad the head injury was with all the matted down bloody hair). He got out and said he felt like he was going to throw up and that his body felt like he needed to sit down. He never did throw up and we made him take a break for a few days to recover. Now he is the only kid out there who ever wears a helmet when ripsticking...lesson learned the hard way, for both of us. Someday he can read these old blog entries and make his children wear helmets:)

A little ballerina party

Josie was invited to her friend Maddie's b'day party recently. There were 16 little girls dressed as ballerinas..SO cute!

Josie loves Mr. Gammage. He is pretty tall, which makes for great underdogs on the playground:) Here he was saying, "Are you sure you're ready to pin the bow on Angelina?" Or something similar...lol.

Lazy days :)

Josie and Reese (the little girl I take care of) were so sweet just laying in the sunshine together while Colin took his nap. What's better than popsicles and sunshine?! These were on two different days...I think it is so cute how they love to just lay around and chat and giggle. Love them.

Seth's Bug Celebration

Seth was not at all happy about the bug song they had to sing for his bug celebration..."My teacher said we have to honor bugs. Why would we ever want to honor bugs, that just seems ridiculous. Plus, we have to sing a lullaby to bugs. Such a babyish song. I think I'm going to skip school that day, since I've never skipped school ever before. One day won't hurt."...We listened to these comments for weeks leading up to this thing, and he was not budging in his attitude. Enter Mrs. Fink, his former preschool teacher at Parkview who he just loves. She was so kind to email him back and forth (and Facebook, as well, since Seth somehow figured out how to get on my FB account and typed her name in and had a little message started before I noticed....lol. Good thing we have a filter on our computer, but I had to put restrictions on that boy). Anyway, she was such a blessing to him and to us. She was very kind and understanding, but also had some really good advice for him and shared how she gets through things that are hard for her. I can't even put into words what that meant to us. We all love her. The day came, and he did awesome! Sang his song with smile and the actions, and said his lines perfectly, as well. Glad to be done with that. And he didn't even tell me they had to wear wings and antennae, too. I'm surprised that didn't put him over the edge.

Kite flying, 2011

A beautiful, windy day made for some great kite flying a few weeks back.

Gabe's Violin Concert

Gabe had his violin/recorder/xylophone concert yesterday, and it was so cute! Every third grader at his school gets violin lessons (free!), so he has been working hard. I was really impressed, because I was expecting a painfully squeaky performance and instead, there was actual music:) I was also impressed when I noticed, on song 9 out of 10, that they were doing all of the songs (and rotating between three different instruments) by memory, not looking at music. He was all business, very serious and focused...lol.