May

 The end of the school year is coming.  It was a busy month!

Lincoln and Annika had a chorus concert.  One of their songs was about clouds and Lincoln's cloud picture was one of 15 pictures chosen to display during that song.

Joseph and I went hiking one afternoon before it got too hot.  It was nice and peaceful.

We had a fender bender this month that totaled our 14 year old Corolla. 

Our old car being towed away.

We now have a newer Toyota Corolla that will hopefully last us another 10+ years.

Kimball received more information about his exchange year in the Netherlands.  He will be in Franeker and he will attend the CSG Anna Maria van Schurman school which is a Christian school.  The first picture shows Kimball's location in relation to Amsterdam.  The second picture shows Kimball's school in relation to his host family's house.  We learned that his host parents are Chris and Gea.  They look really nice.  They have two older sons living with them and they own a dog.  Kimball isn't super excited about the dog part, but hopefully he'll be fine.  Kimball's visa has been approved and he just needs to have a visit with the Dutch government within three days of his arrival to finalize his visa.  Everything is coming together and we are just waiting on his travel plans from the travel agency. 

Kimball made sectionals this year and had his last meet at home!  I love that we have the biggest facility so we can host all of the "extra" track meets so we don't have to travel far.  Kimball got a PR at his sectional meet in the 110 m hurdles. 

I was able to be a chaperone for the 3rd grade field trip.  I was assigned to Lincoln's class, but I still saw Annika and I was able to give her some hugs.  It was a HOT day when we went to The Wild Animal Park, but we all made it through.  I stuck to the shade as much as I could and the boys in my group wet their hair at every hand washing station we passed.

Lincoln's Class

Lincoln's group plus one friend.  

Annika enjoys camping so she and Joseph camped in the backyard Memorial Day weekend.  All of the local parks were full so they decided to use the backyard instead of driving out of Syracuse.

Joseph turned 43 this year!  We had chicken enchiladas for dinner and cheesecake with blueberry pie filling for dessert.  In the morning, Lincoln, Annika and Joseph went golfing.  In the afternoon we all went to a park and enjoyed walking, playing on the playground and throwing the baseball.

Kimball received the French III award this year for being the top student.  It was his first year taking French and I wasn't sure how he would do, but he did very well.  He is well on his way to learning multiple languages which is his goal.  He hopes to become proficient in at least four languages: English, Dutch, French and Spanish.  He has also learned a lot of Arabic this year and can "get by" talking with his Arabic-speaking friends. Writing Arabic is a different matter.

Two of Joseph's brothers, Spencer and Jonathan, came to Syracuse for four days of golf.  They literally golfed, ate and slept!  Spencer did find time to share his "dad" jokes with us and he has some good ones.  I believe Joseph said they played 99 holes of golf.  That's a lot of golf!

Lincoln was THRILLED to be included Friday evening! 

Rebecah had a band concert this month.  She was able to play two songs with the band after not being able to play at all during the other concerts this year because of her concussion.  As section leader for the clarinets she "tuned" the band at the beginning of the concert and she was excited to do that.

I had a nice Mother's Day.  The kids and Joseph always give me nice things and I always make sure I have a nice dinner and dessert.  

We have 3 1/2 more weeks of school!

April

 April was a full month for us.  We started the month with General Conference.  We love General Conference and hearing from our Church leaders.  My kids love the fun food, too!

The kids had April 8th off from school so we could experience the total solar eclipse.  We had a few unused snow days so that made the decision to cancel school easier.  Unfortunately, it was pretty overcast during the eclipse.  At times it was so cloudy we could look at the sun without the protective glasses because the clouds blocked so much of the light.  It DID get really dark and when the clouds would part for a few seconds we would put on our glasses and look to the sky.

I was able to go with Eden on her school field trip to the bowling alley.  When I was in school we went to the zoo or the Science center.  I think it's interesting that these kids went bowling.  It was fun being with Eden and her friends, though.  Everyone had bumpers, but Eden rocked her second game.  She threw two strikes and ended up with the top score in her class with a 103.  I'm lucky to get a 103 with the bumpers up!

Here is Rebecah's report on her fancy Neurolens glasses.  After having her new glasses for a month Rebecah thinks they help a lot, but not quite as much as we hoped.  She is still experiencing symptoms that we hoped the glasses would eliminate.  Rebecah still says that the benefits outweigh the cost even though she isn't 100% improved.

Kimball's track meets started this month.  His first meet of the season he qualified for sectionals so that was super exciting.  He has since PRed in the 110 m hurdles and has beat the time below.

Lincoln was invited out to dinner with Lucas and his family to celebrate Lucas's birthday.  Lincoln was SO excited to eat out and be with Lucas.

I took the three elementary kids to the school carnival.  We stood in line for almost an hour for some special glitter hand painting.  If I had known we would stand in line for so long we would have skipped that activity.  The kids still had fun playing games and seeing their friends.

Festival of the Arts

Rebecah, Lincoln and Annika all had artwork in the festival this year.  Lincoln was on an outing with Joseph, but we still found his picture.

Kimball had a Rotary retreat/orientation the second weekend in April to prepare for his exchange trip.  He had a lot of fun hanging out with the other outbound students.  The retreat was 3 hours away so Joseph decided to make a weekend of it and Lincoln went with him.  Joseph and Lincoln did some hiking, hung out at the hotel and went out to eat.  The next morning they attended church before picking up Kimball.

Kimball received a "Northstar Pride" award.  It's basically an award for good citizenship at school.  I loved reading the positive things his teacher wrote about him.

Joseph's violin student [Maddy] was baptized this month.  She is our neighbor and my kids play with her and her sisters a lot.  Maddy asked Rebecah to play the piano and Lincoln and Annika to be the witnesses for the baptism so our family participated a lot in the service.

Lincoln reading the cereal box!

During Spring Break we took a quick trip to Cleveland.  Our first stop was at Top Golf.  It was a chilly, windy day, but the outdoor heaters kept things fairly comfortable.

We stopped for some Mexican food for dinner on the way to our Airbnb.

The boys decided to fulfill one of Kimball's dreams of attending a baseball game at Progressive Field and see the Guardians play.  They played against the Red Sox.  The Guardians beat the Red Sox the day before and the day after this game, but when Kimball was actually in the stadium they lost 8-0.  Kimball was disappointed, but still happy to be there.

We made sure to drive over the Hope Memorial Bridge and see the Guardian statues.  This was another Cleveland bucket list item for Kimball.

MY favorite part of the trip and the inspiration behind the trip was our stop at the Kirtland Temple!!  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently acquired this temple from the Community of Christ church.  We stopped for a tour on our way home.  I hadn't been inside this temple and it was lovely!  I loved seeing inside this building since I have learned so much about it from Church history.

An original window

On the third floor of the temple there are 5 classrooms.  They all looked fairly similar.

This was the second flood assembly hall.  

Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits.

Aaronic Priesthood pulpits.

This was was first floor assembly room where the dedication of the temple was. It was more intricate in the woodwork.  I really felt the Spirit in the temple knowing that Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah had all visited this holy place!

Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits.

Aaronic Priesthood pulpits.

The weather was great for taking pictures!  I loved the blue sky against the white temple and green foliage!

The last weekend in April, Kimball attended a Rotary conference.  This conference was only an hour and a half away and it was Friday evening to Sunday afternoon so I dropped him off and picked him up.  He drove there and back and he is close to getting his driver's license. 

We are now in the home stretch of school.  The big kids have six more weeks of school with a week and a half of Regents testing after that while the elementary kids have 7 1/2 weeks of school.