Fourth of July Fun!

Despite this crazy heat we are having here, we had a great

time celebrating the 4th!

We kicked it off with a very hot parade.

The big girls walked, yes walked, in the parade with

Hope and Aves and I collected candy for everyone!

Waiting for the parade to start...

The girls and their besties all ready to walk for Jesus, and candy!

We decided it was too hot to do our usual 4th activities,

so we headed to Grammy's pool with our favorite family

friends, the Liskeys and Keplingers.

With 8 adults and 8 kids, there was a lot of fun to be had!

We swam all day, grilled some burgers and swam some more.

The big kids took some time out to play a little rock band.

Then we all loaded up and headed out to Waukee for the fireworks!

Mr. Keplinger arrived first and had quite the set up for us.

Chairs, blankets, a table and sparklers!!!

 And some more of our friends, the Mahoneys!

Everybody, huddle around the explosive!

It took a minute for Aves to 'warm up' to the sparkler!

The big girls loved them, as always!

Ooooh, a ball of fire.

Even Ella had fun with sparklers this year!

All the kids camped together to watch the fireworks. 

Despite the heat, the busy schedules, and all that can

get us distracted, it is so good to stop and be grateful.

Grateful for our freedom, for those that have come before

us to fight for it, and those that continue to fight today

for our freedom!  Thank you!

And thank you to our wonderful friends and family.

We are so blessed to have each of you in our lives.

We love you!

Special Agent Claire

What a trip!  Claire had the great privilege of going on a special

Daddy/Daughter/Grammy trip, all. by. herself!

No mom, no sisters.  Just quality one-on-one time.

I was a bit hesitant at first, but then realized what an amazing

opportunity this is for her.  She gets to spend some alone

time with her Daddy and Grammy, while learning about

something she is passionate about. 

Claire has always been interested in government, especially the Pentagon.

One of her many post-graduate ideas, is to be an FBI agent,

so a trip to our nation's capital was a dream come true.

Plus, Grammy visits there quite often for work stuff, so

she was able to provide a personal tour!

As you can see by the pictures, they were busy!

They saw lots of great stuff, learned a ton,

and even visited the spy museum.

What incredible memories and experiences!

I liked this pic.  Finally, a little fun was documented!

Daddy and his girl!

Grammy and her girl!

I love this! They spent a lot of time reading, which Claire loved!

The Spy Museum was one of Claire's favorites. 

I am so grateful for this experience for Claire,

and I'm looking forward to the other girls to do

something special like this too.

 After Claire returned home from her educational trip,

we asked the other girls where they wanted to go. 

Their responses,

Ella, "Maine"

Avery, "the beach"

I love my unique and wonderful girls!

Spring is for softball!

All three girls played ball this year, much to the pleasure

of their ball loving mom, dad, and grandpa!

Claire was coached, again, by Grandpa Johnson.  She had

a great team and they had lots of fun. She worked really

hard and even did some pitching toward the end of the season.

My favorite part was watching her get to enjoy being

part of a "team".  Our swim team is certainly a team, but

there is still so much pressure to do well individually.

It was fun to get to see her relax a little and just have fun!

Ella had a great team made up of Walnut Hills and Shuler girls.

She didn't think she'd know anyone, but it turns out she had

several friends from her WH days on the team.

They were so excited to see her, which melted this mama's heart!

Ella had a great time and proved, once again, that she

is quite the athlete.  Her coach pulled me aside after one of the

first few practices and said, "you'd never know by looking at her, but

she is strong!  She's a great batter!"

We all really enjoyed watching Ella have fun and succeed with her team.

She had two excellent coaches that really went out of their

way to help the little girls learn to love the game.

Coach Kent even took Ella and a couple other girls to Pella

to watch the Simpson softball team.  What a fun road trip!

Avery started her career with the Giants T-ball team.

As rowdy, strong, independent, aggressive, and fun as Avery is,

I thought she'd love tball.  Not sure I was right about that.

I would say her general impression was that is was

"hot, boring, and weird boys!"

My favorite quote was when she was walking off the field

after having batted and made her way around the bases.

She walked into the dugout and said,

"so what should I do now, just sit here!"

I think "real softball" may be a bit more up her alley.

We'll see what she says next year!

Oh Avery!

We started the season with some practice at home.

Ella is a hitter!

Claire learning the art of pitching

Dave showing them how to bat?!?!

Aves just plain looking cute!

Ella making her way around the field

That girl can bat! And she took it very seriously!

Fielding was a little tougher!

The coolest part was the party after their last game.

Her coaches had medals and a certificate for each girl,

which they read out loud. Then we all had ice cream

sundays together.

The Giants!

Such a wonderful, happy smile!

1st day of tball practice!

Learning proper throwing technique.  Avery has
a great arm, no surprise.  She just has to 'want'
to throw you the ball!

Big hit!

Coach Dennis, aka, Grandpa rallying the team!

Claire doing a great job pitching!

I had the great honor of helping coach Claire's team this year.

It was so awesome being a part of all the fun.

Unfortunately, that meant I didn't get a lot of pictures.

But, the memories are forever burned in my head!

Thank you to everyone, family and friends and strangers,

that helped watch Aves during Claire's game. : )

Buggie

I'm not sure where it started.  I think it was because I was

always calling her my snuggle bug.

Avery has always been my snuggler.

When she was a baby until well into her second year,

 I would usually be found holding her, or rocking her, or

nursing her, or snuggling her. 

  Somewhere along the line snugglebug just became

Buggie.

Buggie always wants to be like her sisters.

She wants to go to school.

She wants to join the swim team.

She wants to play softball.

She wants to dress herself, shower herself and do her own hair.

Well, today she followed her big sister Claire's footsteps.

When Claire was 18 months old she chipped her right, front tooth.

Exactly 1 year later it abscessed and had to be pulled.

When Avery was 18 months old she chipped her right, front tooth.

Exactly 3 years later it abscessed and had to be pulled.

I will admit, I don't think I was any more prepared the second time around.

It broke my heart to watch Aves in pain, but she did great!

She was very brave, and very sweet.

We snuggled and watched Scooby Doo for an hour

and then she popped up and ran outside to play

kick the can with the neighbors.

Oh my, that Buggie!

Snuggling after the extraction

1 1/2 hours later and she's starting to feel better

2 hours later she was playing Kick the Can with the neighbors!

I found this video from a long time ago and just had to share.

Oh Avery!

Last day of school - 2012

Schools out! 

We had a big year, and we are all a bit older

and a bit wiser as a result!

Claire was in 4th grade, the first grade I can really remember

as a kid, which scared me just a bit!

Ella started a new school, a totally different kind

of private school.

Avery started school full-time.

I started work full-time.

Dave started AM parent position full-time.

Lots of changes, lots of challenges, lots of great opportunities!

All in all, I'd say we weathered it all fairly well.

Claire excelled in 4th grade!  Her test scores continued

to climb throughout the year.  She is at about the highest

level you can be in reading and math.

She is an active member of ELP and we just found out this

week that she tested into Pre-Algebra next year! She is one

of a very small group of students that get to do that.

Beyond academics, Claire continues to enjoy swimming,

piano, softball, sleepovers, music and reading.

She is a good, solid friend and a loving daughter/sister.

She has grown in her faith this last year and relies more

and more on God's strength and grace all the time.

We are very proud of our dear Claire.

Ella triumphed in her new school! She grew leaps and bounds

in her new learning environment. In fact, she far exceeded any

academic goals they set for her and they had to keep 

working hard to challenge her!  The best part is that Ella was

so proud of herself and really grew to love school.

You can find her most days with her nose buried in a book!

While busy learning and exploring new

things academically, Ella also continued to swim and play

piano. She also tried softball this year, and loved it! We have

quite a little ball player on our hands!

We are amazed by your strength, determination and 

kind spirit Ella. We love you!

Avery did great at all day school and I think not only

learned a lot, but taught them a thing or two, also!

Avery did not lose any of her spirited personality or 

hilarious sense of humor in school, but did learn ways

to channel it better.  She is a clever, sweet, funny

girl and we could not be more grateful for her!

Dave showed me up with his awesome AM parent powers.

This entire year, he got up every morning and got all

three girls up, dressed, fed, lunches packed, bags packed,

shoes found and on, coats, hats and mittens located

and out the door to deliver everyone to school on time!

I will freely admit, he rocks and I don't look forward to having

to reclaim that AM job!

Our girls are very blessed to have you as a dad, Dave!

I survived, and actually enjoyed, full-time work.

I really loved the people I worked with and the students I served.  

It was a great experience with some great opportunities to meet people,

attend conferences, dig deeper into my field, and explore what's out there.

Most importantly, it helped me really sort through some of that

career vs. family stuff that can start to get a little confusing

at a certain point.  I have been a stay at home mom for a long

time and I love it. And, although I loved it, I needed to get

out there and see what I could do in the workforce. I am very grateful 

for the experience and even more grateful for the affirmation that I like

 being home! I like being able to do more with the girls' schools, 

more volunteering and just being there after school. 

As my Simpson contract comes to an end, I am very excited for

new opportunities that have presented themselves.

For now, I'm looking forward to a fun summer with the girls.

For next year, I'm looking forward to being back in the

classroom at DMACC part-time and to taking

on some new volunteer opportunities that are near and dear to my heart!

As we wind up our 2011-2012 school year, we have so much

for which to be grateful.

We are all healthy.

We are all happy.

We are all busy, challenged and encouraged.

We know we are blessed and are grateful to our 

loving Father for those blessings.

We are surrounded by wonderful friends and family.

We are stocked up on sunscreen and ready for summer fun!!

Ella and Avery on their last day of school

All of us at Orange Leaf, celebrating the end of the school year!

Last day of school dance!!

Piano Recital - 2012

Another year older, another year stronger on the piano!

We are so blessed to have the great instruction of Diane Alex.

As many of you know, she was my piano teacher as a child

so she is very near and dear to our family.

The big girls both performed in the recital this year

and did great!  I noticed that there were a lot less

nerves than in performances past.

Even though we had a little bit more whining about

practice this year, I think they both did an excellent job!

Congratulations Claire and Ella on a great piano recital!

Diane and her 1:30 recital students



Avery always wants to be a part of the fun!



Again with the tree!!

We have a tree,

a favorite tree.

It sits outside at grammy's.

It's a good tree,

a strong tree,

a wonderful, fantastic climbing tree.

We climb all day,

while moms away.

We laugh and pray

that our footholds stay!

I can't help it. There is something wonderful

about watching your child climb a tree.

Something wholesome and nostalgic

about it.  Something fun, and scary,

and all around wonderful!

Now, just don't fall!

My 3 little monkeys, another year older!

Aye! Don't fall my sweet girls!