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!

Is that Harriet Tubman?

One of Claire's last projects as a 4th grader

was the Hall of Fame.

Each student was to choose a famous person who

was influential and important.

Some kids chose athletes, some chose pop stars,

some chose great leaders from history.

I was very proud that Claire chose to study Harriet Tubman.

She has always been fascinated by Tubman and has

read many books about her.

Claire did all the research on her own, no help from me.

Even when I reminded her that I have a masters degree

and have written many, many research papers, some

even 20-30 pages long! She still did it on her own!

After doing her own research, she wrote the speech on 

note cards, again, all on her own!

I didn't even get a peek until the first time she 

did the speech for me.  What a great job!

I had only a few organizational, flow suggestions

but other than that, she did awesome!

The big test for Claire was finding a costume that

represented her character and then getting in front

of her whole class to give her speech.

I still often think of Claire as this shy, quiet girl.

Well, the day came and the room was full.

All the parents of that day's presenters were there,

including Dave and I.

I think I was more nervous than Claire was.

She did great!

She spoke clearly, slowly and with great inflection.

She made eye contact, didn't fidget and looked

strong and confident.

Oh my, I was beaming!!

I enjoy public speaking and I think it is a valuable tool.

I am so glad that Claire is getting the opportunity

to practice these great skills.

Claire bear: you make us proud!

We are proud of your hard work, your desire

to do well, your dedication to school and your

great accomplishments!

We are also proud of your kindness, your

compassion, your humor and the wonderful

friend you are to so many.

We love you Claire!

Claire was asked by several of her classmates to participate in their
presentations too.  Here she is interviewing "Taylor Swift"

Claire started her speech with a "town square speech by Harriet",
then went into her formal speech

This is the group that went on this day. You can see;
Pocahontas, Taylor, Amelia Earhart, Walt Disney,
Mohammad Ali, and Frank Sinatra

Claire, AKA Harriet Tubman

Here is some video.  Not the best quality, but I think you can 

see what a great job she did!

Groupies welcome!

What did you do last Sunday night?

Rouses?  Just a little jammin'!

I see it now: Rouse Sisters, live tonight only!

It's scary how good she looks on the guitar...

I see this and my head starts to hurt....
Claire just found out she made it into the percussion
section of 5th grade band.  We will soon be the proud owners
of our very own drum set.  Yea.

Born to shine~!

Even dad got in on the fun!  A great time was had by all!!