May

Our month was busy with soccer practices, games, and a lot of music concerts.

Joseph's spring orchestra started our month.  The orchestra sounded nice.

I have known about Rainbow Loom rubber bands since Kimball was in elementary school.  My kids have owned rubber bands and have always made bracelets with them....until....Eden bought a new kit and on the package it showed that you could make little animals with the bands.  This has become Eden's new favorite pastime.  Our first attempt at an animal was very frustrating and literally took three hours.  After we figured out the basic process we have gotten much faster and we can usually make a creation in the time it takes to watch the YouTube tutorial.  Eden and I sometimes make creations together as a fun way to spend time with each other.

Kimball "celebrated" King's Day and Liberation Day by flying his Dutch flag. 

Poor Eden had to have two teeth pulled in hopes of giving her permanent teeth a chance to come in straight.  She was very nervous and didn't really enjoy the shots, but she was a champ!  She rested at home for an hour and a half after her extractions and then wanted to go to school so she could keep her perfect attendance record. 

Rebecah's golf season ended.  She was in most of the matches this 

year and made a lot of improvements.  

Eden had a chorus concert.

I went to the temple with my friend Carole.

Lincoln and Annika had a band concert.  Lincoln didn't want to pose for a 

picture so Annika posed with her friend, Emily.

Fifth grade field trip to the Syracuse Mets game. 

Joseph's Birthday.  Joseph's birthday was fairly low key since his birthday was on a Sunday.  He golfed with Lincoln and Rebecah the Friday before his birthday and went swimming the day before his birthday so he found ways to celebrate.  He requested Eden's favorite salad (BLT pasta salad) for his dinner and root beer floats for his treat.

Memorial Day Picnic

Our ward had the annual Memorial Day picnic and the kids invited friends this year so they would have people to hang out with.  It was a cool, breezy day, but we had a fun time.  

Jenga!

We attended Annika's chorus concert at the end of May.  It was my favorite concert that we attended this month, but Annika didn't enjoy the director and wasn't excited about the concert.  As soon as the kids were released she left the risers and we were some of the first people out of the building.  :D

Eden had a field trip to Camp Talooi where she did archery, canoeing, cooking, etc.  

She said it was a lot of fun except for getting all wet when she had to sit in the water that had gotten in the canoe.

Kimball went to Senior Ball.  (At our school there is Senior Ball and Junior Prom.)  Kimball asked a friend from work to go with him, someone he knew he would enjoy spending the evening.  Kimball forgot the ball tickets and had to come back home for them so they missed their picture opportunity, but they grabbed a few informal ones.

Kimball with his friend Willie.

After Ball Kimball and Ella went out to a nice restaurant.  Kimball said his steak was very good.

Soccer has started and that keeps us busy a few evenings a week and for a few hours on Saturday.  

We have a month left of school and then Kimball's graduation!

April

 Spring Break was the last few days of March and the first few days of April.  Joseph, Kimball and Rebecah went to Greenville, South Carolina, for Spring Break for a Coffey Classic/school golf trip for Rebecah.  They were gone an entire week, so I planned a few fun things for the three youngest while they were gone.

Spring Break - Cicero

Playing pickleball.

Popsicles with friends.

Roller skating.

Lincoln, Annika, and I also went to the Palmyra Temple so they could perform baptisms there.  It was a great experience.  Lincoln invited one of our "grandma" friends from church to join us and she did. 

We all enjoyed having a more relaxed schedule with fun, easy meals that we all liked.  It was a great Spring Break even though the four of us didn't go anywhere.

Spring Break - Greenville, South Carolina 'Coffey Classic'

Team Dinner and night golfing for Rebecah:

The Coffey Classic Gang

Kimball gets an employee discount at Cracker Barrel, so the group ate there a few times on the trip.

On the way home Joseph and the kids stopped at Shenandoah National Park.  Joseph and Kimball did a sunrise hike together.

Since Easter was the same day as General Conference this year we decided to celebrate them on two different Sundays.  General Conference for us is 12-2 PM and 4-6 PM, so it makes it very difficult to prepare meals—especially a bigger holiday meal—so we just ate fun, easy foods on Easter Sunday.  Joseph, Kimball and Rebecah were out of town on Palm Sunday or we would have done our special dinner then.  The Sunday after Easter we had our Easter meal.  It helped to draw out our Easter season by an extra week.  We participated in our regular Holy Week traditions, as well.

Lincoln started the braces journey this month.  His teeth don't seem to be too bad, so he's scheduled to have his braces for just 2 years.  He was in pain the first few days, but didn't complain too much.  

Festival of Arts

Lincoln and Eden had drawings in the festival this year.  Eden's was the corn picture.  

I love the bright colors she used.

Lincoln didn't want to be in a picture with his drawing. 

Seal of Pent-literacy

Kimball finally finished his last part of his language seals.  He had to go to the continuing education building in Syracuse and give presentations in each of his four foreign languages for 10 minutes.  He has no problems speaking Dutch and Spanish so his preparation for those were minimal.  He isn't quite as comfortable in French and Western Frisian, so he prepared a little more for those two language speaking assignments.  He practiced the night before and I listened to all four of his presentations.  I could tell he was searching at times for words in French and Frisian, but he still did well.  The day of the presentations he had three back-to-back presentations, but he felt like all of them went well.  His Dutch presentation was via Zoom with someone in the Netherlands since the school district couldn't find a Dutch speaker locally.  The Dutch translator ended up speaking Frisian, as well, and while he was not initially asked to listen to Kimball's Frisian presentation, he agreed to do it when Kimball told him that the school didn't know how to find a Frisian translator.  I'm so proud of Kimball for setting the goal to achieve literacy in four different foreign language.  The Seal program was changed this year and it was a lot harder to prove competency this year than in previous years.  He will tie the New York State record for the seal of literacy in five languages and set the school and county record.  He LOVES languages!