Tacit Thursday

My week

Crazy!

Spaaark Pluuuggs!!

So, today I was a substitute teacher for the first time at my children's school. I was asked/begged by the assistant principal if I could sub for one of the Kindergarten teachers (all 3 classes had subs) because all of them were conducting Kindergarten testing for next year's students. Long story short I agreed to do it. Why not, right...a few extra bucks, a break from my "normal" routine, and all is good? Well let me just say I am looking forward to my "normal" routine. Every person that teaches Kindergarten I hope receives a fast pass through the gates of heaven...they are saints! I have always thought this but now I KNOW IT!! Man, those kids are spaaark pluuuggs!! They don't ever stop....one ginormous ball of energy. I swear to Harry that I constantly had someone at my side, "Mrs. B?, Mrs. B?.......". I would nicely tell them please stay in your seats and if you have a question raise your hand and I promise I will help you. "Ok Mrs B"! I turn around and what do a find? Oh yes, yet another one of the spark plugs with a slew of questions! I'm fairly certain it's impossible for a Kindergartner to retain directions!

Ok, I gotta got to bed....I AM WORE OUT!!!

shh, don't tell, but I'd do it again! :)

Wordless (or mostly) Wednesday

A big change for my big girl!!

8.85!!!

We most certainly had a lot on our platter this past weekend kicked off by Nico's game which kept us out unto 9:45PM. Once we got home the kids were sent to bed because we had an early morning ahead of us...early by weekend standards that is. I was up by 6:30, and if you know me at all I AM NOT a morning person, but I did well (yay me)! I had all the kids up, fed, out the door by 7:45 and on our way to Moberly for Liv's 2nd gymnastics meet ever...we had to be there by 8:30AM for warm-ups.

Warming up...

Here team's 1st event was the Vault which is her best event. She did awesome on her Vault, she scored an 8.85 earning her a blue ribbon. Her second event was Bars...just about every girl struggled in this event this weekend, but she still managed to get a score of 7.30 earning a white ribbon. These are the two events that she competed in in the last meet and if you'll note she brought her scores up in both...WAY TO GO LIV!!

After some encouragement by her Coach C and us she decided to compete on Beam and Floor. Liv was worried that she wouldn't remember the routine (she only goes 1 night a week and most of the others go 2 nights...so she doesn't get as much practice), but Coach C assured her that she could stand by Liv and coach her through it without Liv losing points...so that's what they did, and she did GREAT!

Liv waiting on the judges to begin...

Warming up for Floor....she is in the process of doing her back walk over 

(note the tongue - she gets that from her daddy)...

She scored a 8.00 on Beam earning her a red ribbon and a 7.30 for Floor which is a white ribbon. Then at the end of the meet they had a fun little handstand competition and then they all got a scrunchie for participating.

Posing for mom after the meet ended...

Daddy was busy with the Spring game which is why he wasn't with us.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

If you could tell by the title of the post, let me fill you in on a little secret....it's Baseball season!!! 

Last Friday night my little man had his first baseball game of the season, and what a great night it was to kick it off. The weather was beautiful all day which was a treat in and of itself because it was bookend by crummy weather. 

Nico did very well but still needs more confidence at the plate. This is his second year of player pitch baseball and at the beginning of his first year he was nailed by a pitch. To be exact it was the 1st scrimmage before the games had even begun, his 1st at bat, by the first pitch....right in the left arm. Needless to say, he is still fearful of getting hit and I don't blame him because several players got nailed by pitches in this first game. Once Nico does get on base (mostly by walks) watch out because he is fast and has no fear of stealing! :)

Fielding however is a different story. He is much more comfortable on the field. He first played outfield center...the first pitch was cranked over his head (the coaches had him in closer because nobody anticipated this hit). He raced to the ball a did a great job of getting it in and boy does that kid have pretty good arm (if I do say so myself)! :) He then was able to play 3rd base with little action for him, and of course I can't remember what other position he played.

He had a great time despite getting slaughtered by the other team, and it was fun for us to be back at the ball field too!

Last night (Tuesday) was game two. Same senario for batting, and he was able to play left field on 3rd base. Again, he did well and had fun with the game ending in a tie.

Easter Photos

A glimpse at our Easter through Photos:

Liv (the 1st to find hers) and Bail with their Easter treasures from the EB...
Bella & Nico with their baskets (poor Nico was the last to find his basket which seems to be the trend every year)...
My Easter table setting and my very first Bunny Cake (it was YUMMY)...

The kids all ready for the Easter Egg Hunt and Don on his grilling deck making some tasty Polish Sausage...

Mom, Nico, Bella & Bail (dad & Liv were busy looking for eggs) and Nico plotting his next move...

Liv on the hunt and Aimee & I in our "photo shoot"...
Bella in her Easter Bonnet made at preschool...

Busy Weekend Recap

I think that bullets are the best way to recap our Easter weekend events, so here it goes:

Friday:

• The kids had the day off from school due to Good Friday
  
• Don worked and had three of the kids
• That evening I had Bible Study at my friend's house (which I love) and after that many of us stayed and watched the movie The Passion of Christ. If you haven't seen this movie I HIGHLY recommend it....it is so powerful!! This was my second time watching it and it brought me to tears just as much this time as it did the first. It's one thing to hear the story and read about it, but to watch what it would have been like unfold in front of your face really makes you appreciate the magnitude of what he did for us to a whole new level.

Saturday:

• We went to Weslie's 1st bitrhday party. We all had a really great time but Adriene is in trouble...my kids came home with TONS of candy and might I remind you it was the day before the Easter Bunny came. Payback Adriene is all I have to say!!!!
• After the party I ran my hiney off to prep for Easter Sunday and also had to get Nico to baseball practice. I might add that we only saw Don for 45 mins the whole day until he came home at 9:30PM (I was just a wee bit irritated by this but I still love him).

Princess Bella and Prince Kade

Princess Olivia

Sunday:

• We all got up about 9:30AM and the kids hunted for their Easter Baskets
• After the hunt the kids went through their baskets and ingested as much candy as they could before we put the kabash on it.
• While the kids were shoving their faces I was prepping for dinner: I made napkins (which are cute if I do say so myself), made a bunny cake (which again is so cute if I do say so myself), made pistachio salad (which is very yummy if I do say so myself), cleaned the house (which is always a mess if I do say so myself), and many other things. I was so busy trying to prep for the day that we missed Mass...such a bummer but from what I hear it was PACKED.
  
• Our 1st set of guests, the Spiccis, arrived @ 2:30 to prep the ham and get it in the oven.
• At 3:30 we headed to our association park for an Easter Egg Hunt...the kids had tons of fun and came home with TONS of candy (oh great even more candy)
• After the hunt we walked back home to finish prep work for dinner and then rested for a short time. My sister, Angie, and her beau Joe arrived at this time as well
• At 6:30PM we all sat down to enjoy our FABULOUS feast of: Ham, mashed potatoes, potato bake (reds, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, garlic, and seasoning), broccoli, dinner rolls, pistachio salad, bunny cake, banana cream pie, and carrot cake.

It was a GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Note: Easter Pictures to follow on next post.

National History Day State Competition

Back in March Bailey and her classmates competed in the NHD Regional Competition. They did so well at that level they were advanced to the the NHD State Competition which the competed in on April 4th. The girls did a GREAT job and worked very hard to make changes that the judges of the Regional level had suggested to prepare them for the State level. After arriving there early Saturday morning Bailey and I realized that what really would have helped prepare them for this level would have been to attend the previous year. Some of those projects were so elaborate and amazing...clearly mom & dad had their hands on some of those projects.

Anyway, despite the girls valiant effort they did not move past the preliminary round. There were two rounds which went from 26 groups, down to the next round which consited of 6 groups. From the 6 remaining they chose the group the will be lucky enough to compete at the National level in DC.

I'm still so proud of them, as should they because they did however finish in the TOP 26 in the State for their age group...pretty awesome!!

Gymnastics

We just got Olivia's gymnastics pictures back last night...

This photo is part of a small collage...the part that is cut off is the team photo...

The pictures aren't the greatest quality since I had to take a picture of the photo to post...our scanner doesn't work.

Isn't she sweet though??? Her next meet is on April 18th and she is excited for that!

Puppy Love

This sweet little note came in the mail last week, for Nico, from his "girlfriend" Sarah. Sarah is the one he sent the Valentine to.

I had to laugh because after he read it he said, "How rude, I buy her a gift and send it and then she tells me how another guy fro school is hot"? In true Nico fashion, he skimmed through it and when he got to that part he stopped reading it...Bail & I had to set him straight and all was better. Sarah also, brought him a gift with her visit the day after the card arrived....she got him a hooded sweatshirt from her school.

Boy has puppy love changed from when I was young...thank the Lord they live a few states away from each other.

Isabella's 4th Birthday

Intelligent

Sassy

Ambitious

Beautiful

Energetic

Loving

Lively

Animated


Our baby turned 4 over spring break...she really enjoyed being able to celebrate at the beach but of course who wouldn't! I can't believe it...fours already? She has grown up so fast and is so smart (and sassy) for her age...I guess having older siblings helps foster this faster then the others. We adore her animated, sweet (& sassy), caring loving personality everyday! We love you very much Sweet Pie (this is what Nico called her as a baby)!!

The sand says: Happy Birthday Bizz! 4...

A 4 year old's footprint in the sand..

Spring Break '09 - Day 3, 4, & 5

Days 3 (Mon.) & 4 (Tues.) were spent on the beach, and these were such great, beautiful days!! On Monday morning we finally were able to meet up with the rest of our travel party, the O'Connors & the Bernskoetters (they took a different way down then us) and we all were able to sit on the beach and enjoy the sun, sand, water.

My Girls...

Day 5 (Wed) when we woke up the weather wasn't the greatest but at least we could be outside. So we took advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining and headed off to Seaside to shop and eat lunch. What was also special about this day was the fact that it was Bella's (4th), Katie's (15) and Ryan's (13) birthdays. After a day of fun & shopping we had a little birthday party in our cabin for the three of them.

The Girls...

Day 6 (Thurs.) was filled with rain and games

The Boys

Day 7 (Fri) was still raining so the other three families decided to head on outta there. We stayed and had a nice family day shopping and enjoying each others company. We even managed to squeeze in one final walk on the beach even though it was chilly and a bit misty.

Best Friends

Day 8 (Sat) @ 6:00 AM we finished loading up the car and headed out....once on the road the heavens opened and the water poured out but by the time we hit Mobile it was beautiful weather all the way until St. Louis. (the radio said that the area we were in had about 10-15 inches so far with more to come...Yikes!)

Our Treasures...

Even with the rain was a great trip!!!

Travelin' with 6

In case you were wondering how much laundry a family of six has after traveling for a week, here it is....actually this is only about a quarter of it:

And this is how I feel about it:

Spring Break '09 - Day 2

Before heading on to Grayton we made a pit stop at the USS Alabama to fulfill an item on

Tony's Bucket List. If you want "guy" details of the ship you can head over to the Spicci Blog where Tony laid it out for you. This would not have been my idea of something I HAVE to do but glad that we did it...it was very interesting, and a nice addition to the trip.

Don in front of the Athletic Equipment Room...

After touring the ship we went through the fighter plane hanger and then all but Aimee and toured the submarine...she & I both are claustrophobic so touring this was a big no way for both of us.

After all tours were over we headed over to Pensacola to check out their beach (we like to do this every year) and then it was on to Grayton.

Sophie, Bail, Nico, & Liv on the beach in Pensacola (Bella was sleeping in the car with Don)...