May

 It was a busy month for us as we attended various activities as the school year comes to a close.

The kids have attended a LOT of birthday parties recently.  Rebecah on down attended Brooke's party because we are good friends with the family.  A karate birthday party was so fun!

The little ones and I attended Rebecah's last 7th grade band concert.  She moves to the Junior High next year!  The concert was really nice.  All of the 7th graders were recognized for their music achievements.

Friends since Kindergarten!

We went to two of Kimball's track meets and one of Rebecah's meets this month.  Rebecah only ran in one meet because she is still struggling with a back injury.  We finally have a script for physical therapy which will start in July.

These next two pictures are of Kimball running the steeplechase.  That is one hard event!  

Kimball and Joseph did a 39-mile bike ride.  It was hilly and hard, but Kimball said that running the steeplechase the day before was harder than riding his bike 39 miles up and down hills.

The soccer season has officially begun.  All five of the kids are playing soccer.  At the beginning of the month I was taking kids to practice four nights a week.  Kimball's coach moved practice days so he and Eden now practice on the same day, although not at the same time. 

Eden's first soccer practice!

Lincoln and Annika are in the U10 division. Their entire team moved up together. There are pros and cons to this....they are unified as a team, but they are also smaller physically than a lot of other teams that have more of a mix of first year and second year U10 kids. 

Teammates!

Eden's first game.

Rebecah hasn't played in any of her games because of her back.  She does attend games and supports her team from the sidelines.

This is Maddy.  Her family moved into our neighborhood in December and we are becoming fast friends with her family.  We see them during the week at school, soccer practice and at church on the weekends.

Eden with a friend from school.

Eden was so tired after her first soccer game she came home and put herself down for a nap!

Our pediatric nurse practitioner retired this month!  Marie has been taking good care of my kids ever since we moved here 10 years ago!  We will really miss her.  Rebecah had one last appointment with her and Marie said I could bring the other kids in to say goodbye.  She recommended a colleague for us to start seeing.  Marie and I both teared up a little saying our final goodbye.

Making fairy houses with Maddy.

Eden helping with Joseph's birthday dinner.

Joseph turned 42 this month.  We appreciate all that he does to support our family.

We went to a Syracuse Mets game.  The Mets are the minor league team in Syracuse and their team feeds the major league Mets team when they need players.  It was a very slow game so most of us left after the 6th inning.  There were very few hits on base and the sun was in our faces.  After we left, Joseph and Lincoln said there was a little more excitement with each team scoring some runs.  Joseph, Kimball and Rebecah went back to the stadium a few days later for another game.  This time they had box seats through work with catered food.  No sun in their faces for that game!

Mini-golfing with friends.

In other news....After 5 years serving as the bishop of our congregation, Joseph was released.  He now has a lot more time on his hands since he isn't planning and attending meetings or ministering to congregants.  It was a good opportunity for Joseph the last five years and a bittersweet change in assignment for him.

Annette's Uncle Rick died suddenly this month.  It was such a shock for the entire Zimmerman family.  Zimmermans usually live into their 90s!  I'm so glad I could see Rick one last time at Grandma's funeral seven months ago.

We have three weeks left of school!  Kimball is looking forward to the break.  Everyone else would rather stay in school.

April

 Spring Break was the first full week of April.  It was also the week leading up to Easter Sunday.  It ended up being a pretty low-key week for most of us.  Eden came down with a stomach bug Monday morning and was sick all day.  The three days after her sickness she always complained off and on of a stomach ache and it took her a while to get her appetite back.  Lincoln and Annika came down with the stomach bug on Friday just as Eden was feeling better.  They were sick all weekend.  Lincoln and I stayed home from church on Easter Sunday.  I was disappointed to miss church on Easter, but I still had a wonderful spiritual study at home celebrating my Savior.  I thought Annika was well enough to attend school on Monday so I sent her back to school.  Oops!  I had to go and pick her up from school because she got sick there.  Lincoln woke up Tuesday morning with energy and an appetite.  He felt "amazing"!  Annika finally felt amazing and ready to return to school on Wednesday. It was a long sickness, but I'm so glad the kids are old enough throw up into a bucket without making a mess!

A few fun Spring Break activities:

Dying eggs

Indoor water park

Joseph and Kimball left for the Second Annual Coffey Golf Classic in Arizona.  They spent two days golfing all day with Spencer and Jonathan.  They had a great time and seemed to think their golf game improved while they were gone.  Joseph said it was nice albeit intimidating to golf on really nice courses.  Joseph and Kimball have been golfing less than a year.

Kimball loved all of the new plant and animal life that he saw.  

Those were the pictures of Joseph and Kimball's trip.  These were my pictures from the same four days: 

We were supposed to have some fun adventures while Joseph and Kimball were gone.  Since we were stuck at home I still went out and bought milkshakes and slushies for the kids.

Lincoln didn't care about his Easter basket at all.  He didn't touch any of the candy until days after Easter when his appetite finally returned.  The girls did a mini Easter basket hunt.  It didn't take too long, but they enjoyed hunting.

This was our best attempt at an Easter picture.  Lincoln took it from the ground because he didn't feel like he could stand.  

Annika had to have two teeth pulled to help with the crowding in her mouth.  She was a champ and I was SO proud of her.  I don't like visiting the dentist.  I had a fabulous dentist growing up, but I had to have two teeth pulled and the pain from the shots I received lingers in my memory.  I was probably more nervous than Annika was for the extractions.  She handled the shots really well.  The fourth and final shot started to bother her, but she made it through.  She instantly started getting numb and that was a new and different sensation for her.  Her teeth were too crowded for her baby teeth to fall out, but the roots had basically dissolved so the dentist just gave a few tugs and her teeth came out.  We were out of the office within 30 minutes of arriving.  We stopped for popsicles on the way home! 

Kimball LOVES cycling.  He loves it more than just about anything currently.  I drove him to a park about 30 minutes from our house so he could go on a ride with the Onondaga Cycling Club.  Kimball was the youngest rider by many decades...probably at least four decades.  He had a good time, but realized he needs a much better bike.  Boy did he make that new bike happen!  A week later he and Joseph went to Massachusetts for a bike race.  Kimball was doing really well and was on course to come in second in his age division and fifteenth overall.  Unfortunately, the rider in front of him started to lose control going down a hill.  Kimball didn't want to crash into this rider so he had to break and that resulted in Kimball crashing into a tree and flipping over his bike!  His bike was totaled, but thankfully Kimball just walked away with some bruising and very sore muscles.  It has taken him 2 full weeks to be able to attend track practice and ride his bike.  Kimball was SO upset about the loss of his bike. Joseph was able to find a used Trek bike in good condition, so he and Kimball went and bought that bike.  This new bike is 18 years old, but it is much lighter and nicer than the bike that crashed.  Kimball is happy to have a bike again.

Riding with the OCC (Onondaga Cycling Club)

Kimball's external injuries didn't look too bad, but he was sore internally!

A trip to Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt was supposed to be one of our fun spring break activities, but we had to postpone it since the kids were sick. We went a few weeks later.

Kimball received a surprise package in the mail! (Thanks, Jonathan!)  One of his track events is the Steeplechase.  This event is a combination of long distance and hurdles.  Not every track meet has this event, but Kimball enters it when he can.  Unfortunately, with his quad injury from his bike race he hasn't been able to run the steeplechase yet this season.   He really hopes he'll be able to run the race at the home invitational in a few weeks.  

The four younger kids still have art in school, and all of them had art projects in the Festival of the Arts.  Eden and Annika also had another project in the festival, we just didn't know about it until they brought home an extra project.  That ended up being four projects for Annika and two for Eden.

We had three days with temperatures in the mid-80s.  That is WAY too hot for Syracuse in April, and very abnormal.   The elementary school doesn't currently have air conditioning, so it was pretty warm in the school.