Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Spring Break St. Louis Trip
Since we didn't have a lot of time to go anywhere big over spring break, we decided to go over to St. Louis for a couple of nights. We got a good rate on a Days Inn, that although older, had a big indoor pool, indoor playground, and video arcade. It also had the continental breakfast which is always good for families. When we got there we just let the boys swim and then we went to dinner at the connecting restaurant. It was okay food, but we should have driven somewhere we knew of. The next day we went to the zoo. It was great weather for this. Again, when we came back to the hotel Kenan wanted to swim. Nick decided to take him while I stayed with Easton to nap. For dinner we went downtown to the Old Spaghetti Factory. This is a great place for families because you get a lot for your money. Afterward we took a carriage ride around Laclede's Landing. The next morning before we left, Kenan again wanted to go swimming. Can you tell which kid loves the water? I took him this time. After breakfast we headed home. We all wish we could have stayed a bit longer, but it was nice to get away as a family after a hectic winter season of basketball and drama. 
Bugsy Malone Jr.
A few pictures of my drama students from this year. Most of these were taken before the show of the different groups. I didn't want to bore you with the abundance of ones during the show, although I am very proud of these students. 
Girl's Regionals
Here are some pictures from the Girl's Basketball Regionals. The boys love to go on trips with the teams Nick helps coach. 
Nick made a bet with the girls that if they won sectionals he would paint his nails black for the Regionals games. They painted them in front of the school during the pep assembly that day.
Nick made a bet with the girls that if they won sectionals he would paint his nails black for the Regionals games. They painted them in front of the school during the pep assembly that day.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Time to update
So, one of the reasons I don't blog as much as I do is because I like to include pictures with my posts and that is what seems to take the most time. Because of that, it has been almost a year since my last post and I apologize. I really would like to be better at updating this thing. I won't go back over the whole year because that would take forever. Instead I will give some 2011 highlights without pictures just to make sure it gets published.
Again the majority of our January and February was spent at basketball games. This year Nick transferred to North High School and was a part of the girl's program. He has worked with the girls before, but after being with the boys for 5 years you have to get used to the pace again. We had fun though and the best part was a sectional win. Second win in school's history for the girls.
I once again directed the school musical out at St. Wendel. This year we did Bugsy Malone Jr. It is a gangster musical written to be played by kids so it worked out well. In the past I have had practice 3 days a week, but this year I went to two day a week practices and just made them longer. Babysitting two kiddos and having older kids just makes it harder to get out to school three days a week. The kids did a great job(and my kiddos did well with everything also). We even had an article in the paper this year about our drama club. I am so proud of all the students I work with accomplish. Some people wonder why i continue to do something that takes so much of my time and I don't get paid for it, well here is one reason. This is a letter from a parent of one of my quieter students: "Thank you so much for all of your work and dedication to the St. Wendel School play! (Student's name) really enjoyed the experience and it was a great confidence builder for him!! Thanks for making a difference in his life!" Now I don't share this to make myself look better, but to show why I do what I do. Whether it is my kids or someone elses kids, I work with them to make a difference. Help them achieve their best potential and see the person they can become. That is what I have always loved about my career path. Whether it was when I was a full-time teacher, or a stay at home mom/part-time teacher.
The second aspect of teaching I have dome this year was to work with the Evansville Christian Life Center in a program called Truth Talk. It is an abstinence based sex ed. class that is taught to 5th-9th graders. It starts with a one day class for 5th a builds from there. I observed a bit last year and then got trained at the end of the school year. This year I have taught at Harrison, Plaza, ECS, and Lincoln. I will finish up with North in May. I have really enjoyed getting to share what I feel are vital truths to students at such a pivotal time in their lives.
The boys are getting so big. Easton just got potty trained last week. Although he does not have it down pat, he is doing great and will just get better. He really has been so much easier that I thought because he loved his diaper. I couldn't have asked for a better transition. This is good to because our third child, Langston, is due at the beginning of July.
Kenan is finishing up his second year at Friends Forever preschool. He has flourished this year and is starting to get excited about kindergarten next year. We had looked at sending him to ECS for the half day program, but felt it wiser with our finances to not spend the extra money. He is enrolled in Scott for next year and we are attending kindergarten roundup tomorrow. So far I am happy with what I have seen there, his favorite part is that daddy's new school is right down the road.
Finally, we are doing a garden again this year. Instead of at a friends house though, we put raised beds in our backyard. So far two are in and we will be putting in one more. They are 3 feet by 6 feet and 1 foot tall. The only thing planted outside so far are the cool crops such as spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, and broccoli. Inside we have started numerous herbs, flowers, tomatoes, and peppers. Kenan helped plant so he is very excited to see them growing so well. Hopefully I will get some pictures up soon, but that is all for now.
Again the majority of our January and February was spent at basketball games. This year Nick transferred to North High School and was a part of the girl's program. He has worked with the girls before, but after being with the boys for 5 years you have to get used to the pace again. We had fun though and the best part was a sectional win. Second win in school's history for the girls.
I once again directed the school musical out at St. Wendel. This year we did Bugsy Malone Jr. It is a gangster musical written to be played by kids so it worked out well. In the past I have had practice 3 days a week, but this year I went to two day a week practices and just made them longer. Babysitting two kiddos and having older kids just makes it harder to get out to school three days a week. The kids did a great job(and my kiddos did well with everything also). We even had an article in the paper this year about our drama club. I am so proud of all the students I work with accomplish. Some people wonder why i continue to do something that takes so much of my time and I don't get paid for it, well here is one reason. This is a letter from a parent of one of my quieter students: "Thank you so much for all of your work and dedication to the St. Wendel School play! (Student's name) really enjoyed the experience and it was a great confidence builder for him!! Thanks for making a difference in his life!" Now I don't share this to make myself look better, but to show why I do what I do. Whether it is my kids or someone elses kids, I work with them to make a difference. Help them achieve their best potential and see the person they can become. That is what I have always loved about my career path. Whether it was when I was a full-time teacher, or a stay at home mom/part-time teacher.
The second aspect of teaching I have dome this year was to work with the Evansville Christian Life Center in a program called Truth Talk. It is an abstinence based sex ed. class that is taught to 5th-9th graders. It starts with a one day class for 5th a builds from there. I observed a bit last year and then got trained at the end of the school year. This year I have taught at Harrison, Plaza, ECS, and Lincoln. I will finish up with North in May. I have really enjoyed getting to share what I feel are vital truths to students at such a pivotal time in their lives.
The boys are getting so big. Easton just got potty trained last week. Although he does not have it down pat, he is doing great and will just get better. He really has been so much easier that I thought because he loved his diaper. I couldn't have asked for a better transition. This is good to because our third child, Langston, is due at the beginning of July.
Kenan is finishing up his second year at Friends Forever preschool. He has flourished this year and is starting to get excited about kindergarten next year. We had looked at sending him to ECS for the half day program, but felt it wiser with our finances to not spend the extra money. He is enrolled in Scott for next year and we are attending kindergarten roundup tomorrow. So far I am happy with what I have seen there, his favorite part is that daddy's new school is right down the road.
Finally, we are doing a garden again this year. Instead of at a friends house though, we put raised beds in our backyard. So far two are in and we will be putting in one more. They are 3 feet by 6 feet and 1 foot tall. The only thing planted outside so far are the cool crops such as spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, and broccoli. Inside we have started numerous herbs, flowers, tomatoes, and peppers. Kenan helped plant so he is very excited to see them growing so well. Hopefully I will get some pictures up soon, but that is all for now.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Garden
So this year my sister-in-laws and I decided to do a garden together. We started out planning to do it in Rebecca's backyard because she has the most space for one, but we ended up using some ground that a neighbor from church leases for a small fee. We thought this may work better in case nothing grew and we had just torn up Rebecca's backyard for nothing. So one weekend in early May we went out to start planting. The space that we had to use was much bigger than we planned on, but that was okay we could just use part of it. Also, we had an abundance of different seeds but we soon learned that we had missed the planting time for a few of our seeds. We may try those in the fall, but we shall see how the rest of the summer goes. The first things we put out were watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. We had started tomatoes and peppers inside, but they were not strong enough to transplant yet. Needless to say we did not know what we were doing. We were following a book and even then we were just winging it. The guy whose land we are using(Bud) had said he put down shredded paper in between the plants to help retain moisture and keep weeds from growing as much. Since we didn't have shredded paper we thought maybe sheets would just work. I don't know how much it has done, but it does look funny.
These pictures were after planting the first plants.
The beginning of cantaloupe.
After a couple of weeks we came back and planted the tomatoes and pepper transplants. Bud came out with a huge bag of shredded paper that he put down around the tomatoes. I guess he felt sorry for us with our paper sheets. In the row to the left of the tomatoes we planted carrots, onions, and lettuce. Who knows what we did, but none of that grew. We have since replanted that row with beans and they have come up pretty nicely.
Our first round of watermelon seeds bombed completely. They are the hills on the far left. We replanted with some new seeds and this time they all came up. Two of the cantaloupe hills came up so we let those be. All of the squash, most of the zucchini, and a few cucumbers came up really well. That is the row in the middle.
As we soon realized we had a large amount of land to weed since we spread the garden out so much. We didn't think that through very well. We decided to let the ground we weren't using just go to weed and concentrated on the rows between the plants. That is proving to be quite enough to keep up with.
Cantaloupe getting bigger.
Cucumber and yellow squash
Zucchini
The whole garden coming along pretty well.
Squash blossoms
The new watermelon. It looks like a lot of space, but they are bigger now and already taking up a lot of this and the fruit hasn't even started yet.
The yellow squash and zucchini have been the best so far.
I was so excited to see our first squash.
Kenan likes to help, but mostly he just plays. He is sitting in front of the watermelon and then our tomatoes are in front of him.
This was a fun day. The first zucchini picked.
These pictures were after planting the first plants.
The beginning of cantaloupe.
After a couple of weeks we came back and planted the tomatoes and pepper transplants. Bud came out with a huge bag of shredded paper that he put down around the tomatoes. I guess he felt sorry for us with our paper sheets. In the row to the left of the tomatoes we planted carrots, onions, and lettuce. Who knows what we did, but none of that grew. We have since replanted that row with beans and they have come up pretty nicely.
Our first round of watermelon seeds bombed completely. They are the hills on the far left. We replanted with some new seeds and this time they all came up. Two of the cantaloupe hills came up so we let those be. All of the squash, most of the zucchini, and a few cucumbers came up really well. That is the row in the middle.
As we soon realized we had a large amount of land to weed since we spread the garden out so much. We didn't think that through very well. We decided to let the ground we weren't using just go to weed and concentrated on the rows between the plants. That is proving to be quite enough to keep up with.
Cantaloupe getting bigger.
Cucumber and yellow squash
Zucchini
The whole garden coming along pretty well.
Squash blossoms
The new watermelon. It looks like a lot of space, but they are bigger now and already taking up a lot of this and the fruit hasn't even started yet.
The yellow squash and zucchini have been the best so far.
I was so excited to see our first squash.
Kenan likes to help, but mostly he just plays. He is sitting in front of the watermelon and then our tomatoes are in front of him.
This was a fun day. The first zucchini picked.Holiday World
The first weekend in June we went to Holiday World with Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Angie and Uncle Stephen. It started out a little cool and cloudy in the morning(which was just fine with me) and ended up being a perfect sunny and 80 degree day. Last year Kenan loved Holiday World because he was able to ride a good number of the rides. This year he was just as excited. Easton was a bit upset that he was too little to ride some of the rides that Kenan was able to, but we made it work. Since we had some prego girls with us who couldn't do a lot, Easton had some buddies. The morning consisted of riding rides followed by lunch with the Expressway Dodge group. Angie's dad works there and he was able to get us tickets that included the park and lunch for a great price. After that we spent most of the afternoon in the waterpark. Kenan's favorite part was Monsoon Lagoon. He could have stayed there all day. Angie's parents were nice enough to watch Easton while he took a nap so the rest of us could go on a couple of the big slides. Kenan was tall enough for a couple of them. Finally, we went back in the park and closed it down on a few more rides. We were there from open to close(10 hrs) and we could have done more.
Kenan was tall enough for the bumper cars this year.
Easton just had to watch
Easton took a nap for most of the time at the waterpark.
Monsoon Lagoon
Easton couldn't make it to the end.
Kenan was tall enough for the bumper cars this year.
Easton just had to watch
Easton took a nap for most of the time at the waterpark.
Monsoon Lagoon
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