Preschool Graduation

It's hard to believe Jacob has made his way through a whole year of preschool. Here is a picture of Jacob's first day of school. And I took a picture of his last day/graduation day in the same spot outside our apartment as a comparison to see how he's grown/changed. What do you think? Is he taller -- if not taller, I know he's definitely wiser! :-)The whole family went to Jacob's preschool to watch him graduate. They processed into the church wearing mortar board caps to the traditional graduation music (not sure what it's called -- if I could record my voice, I'd sing a ditty but I'm not sure how to do that...). You'd think I would remember the name of this piece of music seeing as I played it 4 years in a row while I was in high school at graduation. Pat and I both had to chuckle a bit at the extravagance/formality of this preschool graduation ceremony. But seeing all the kids in their little caps was pretty cute....

I don't remember anything about the end of my year of preschool. It definitely seemed like it was for the parent's benefit. Jacob had much more fun at Water Day on Monday and the ice cream party on Wednesday! But I guess this ceremony is a way of marking the end of the year for the parents and their children.CONGRATULATIONS, JACOB!
You're ready for Kindergarten!

Family Time

Luke and I had a fun visit to Ohio! The cousins had a lot of time to be together. Luke felt right at home having the other kids around. In fact, when it was just him alone, he seemed lost. The plane ride on the way out to Ohio was uneventful and it helped that there was a young family with two children in the row across from us. We all had dinner together the first night at Mom and Dad's. We lined up all four kids at the table -- it was fun to see them all lined up. Luke had his first taste of pizza and loved it!

Here are some pictures of the kids playing the first night:

Kailyn, Caden and Xayne - tickle time with Uncle Kenny/Daddy

Caden adores Kailyn - he did a good job holding her and he loves to give her kisses!
The boys began playing as soon as Caden and Xayne arrived.
Day 2: Pool with Carrie and Kailyn and Mom

Here are Luke and Kailyn riding together to the pool.
Both Kailyn and Luke did a lot of observing when we first got to the pool. They loved watching the water. Luke crawled right in as soon as I took his cover-up off.
Carrie and Kailyn by one of the spraying water areas
One more picture from swimming!
Day 3: Amish Country
We all went to Amish Country together -- to Yoder's General Store (Amish Wal*Mart), a neat toy store, and the Ashery. We had a yummy lunch at an Amish restaurant. We brought home two pies -- Strawberry Cream and Apple -- they were delicious! Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner when we got home. It was a treat to see them too!
Here are pictures from our Amish outing:

We saw three baby calves -- about3-4 days old. They were cute! I couldn't resist taking their picture.
Here are some shot of us standing outside the store:
The kids had fun playing together again after dinner at Nana and Papa's house. Xayne is such a ham!
Day 4: We headed to Carrie's on Sunday afternoon and we all gathered there to play together one last time
Here are the three newest additions and their mommies
Thanks for all the fun memories from this past weekend! We miss you guys. We look forward to another fun visit to Ohio in August - this time with the whole family!

Lead Me Home

As I read Uncle John's e-mail today and thought about the situation at hand, I kept thinking about Christina's heart and the pain she is carrying. My prayer for Christina is that God would change her heart and fill her with His love, peace, comfort, mercy and grace and she would come home and be restored. A song came to mind as I prayed -- Precious Lord, Take My Hand (this is on an album by a group called Selah). It was originally composed by Thomas A. Dorsey after he lost his wife and child. He wrote this song while in the healing process.

Here are the lyrics:

Precious Lord, take my hand.
Lead me on, help me stand.
I am tired.
I am weak.
I am worn.
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord
Lead me Home.

When my way grows drear'
Precious Lord, linger near.
When my life is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand, lest I fall.
Take my hand, precious Lord
Lead me Home.
Take my hand, precious Lord
Lead me Home.

You are in my prayers - Christina, John and Lynn

10 months old

Luke hit the 10 month mark on Thursday May 10! He struggled with a virus this week and lost his appetite temporarily. He seems to be on the mend as he ate a pancake, half an orange and tiny pieces of bacon at brunch today - and still wanted more!

Fun little things he's doing:

Looking at books on his own....Trying to ride Hannah's tricycle...Learning how to camp....Walking a few steps with his walker....Watching every move his big brother and sister make....What a blessing to watch another little person develop and grow!

Dinosaur Brothers

I had fun dressing the boys in matching outfits this week!

Tents, kids, bears, Oh My!

Our tent arrived in the mail last week. Friday evening Pat took a stab at setting it up. It seems huge! But for our growing family -- I'm sure it will be perfect :-) As we sat and watched Daddy put it up, the kids came out of the woodwork...as I predicted. It brought smiles and glee to all who happened upon the tent. As soon as it was finished being pitched, it was full of giggly, wiggly children! What fun! Pat plans to test it out this Friday with Jacob and Hannah while Luke and I are in Ohio for the weekend. I'm sure we will have many more giggly moments in this tent.

We Hired a Cleaning Man

He even gets down on his hands and knees to clean the floor ;-)

And he loves his job!

Jacob's Preschool

Christ United Methodist Preschool

A view of the classroom - the children are playing at centers in this picture

Today was my last day to be the parent helper at Jacob's preschool. I can't believe he's almost ready to graduate from preschool! 3 weeks until graduation!

Jacob playing at the dramatic play center

I brought my camera along today so I could take some action shots of Jacob at school. I also wanted to get another picture of Jacob and his best friend Tyler. They love to play together! As I was helping the teacher get the craft ready this morning, I observed Jacob and Tyler playing together at centers. They started out in the library first and read books together. Then they worked on a puzzle together. And then headed to dramatic play. Jacob has been telling us that he wants us to move to a house by Tyler so he can go to kindergarten with Tyler.

Jacob and Tyler

I also met with Jacob's teacher for a conference today after school and Jacob is on track to start kindergarten in the fall. She was impressed with his counting abilities -- it's not that I have been drilling him with numbers/math, but rather his countless timeouts have paid off in some regard - he has to count to 60 at the end before he can get up. He can breeze through those numbers in his sleep. ;-)

Circle Time - the children made Zebra masks today during art and Ms. Christina had all the children wear their zebra masks to the circle for circle time. She had them look at one another with their masks on and asked them - "do any of you look exactly alike?" And she explained how each zebra in the wild has a different pattern of stripes. The kids had fun making and wearing their masks and they learned a good lesson about being a unique creation of God!

What a blessing to be able to share this time with Jacob! I'm glad we chose to enroll him in a co-op preschool. I have enjoyed being in the classroom and watching him interact with his friends and teacher at school. And he loves having me there too! I hope I'll be able to volunteer at his kindergarten next year.

Hannah will be attending the same preschool this fall but will have a different teacher. She is going to attend the M/W morning 3-year old class.