End of basketball/Football season

Yummy Strawberry Cream Roll to celebrate all the birthdays from December to June.  It was fun gathering all together to celebrate.  Dan and kids were able to make it too over to Greg and Sher's house.

Kaila last game and she made her goal...she scored her FIRST basket in a game.  She was thrilled and jumped for joy!  I'm so glad she made it.  Grandpa was there and captured the pictures of her winning shot.  I was too busy watching to remember to record it.

Glenn's Flag Football Pizza party.  Love that kid.  He sure loves most any sport he plays (t-ball not so much).

Wallstreet Pizza

 celebrating the end of another great season of growth and learning

Addie and Rowan

Glenn Jackson

Water Fight and swim/slip 'n slide BBQ party at our neighbor's house after all the games to end the season.  It was lots of fun!

Gresham Splash Pad Fun

My nails match the grass

Axel and Brody Hoeppner

Miss Ellie, Aunt Sher and Rowan 

Enjoying the Gresham splash pad together

5th Grade Field Trip to Wildwood

with Kaila's Class

                                                                                 (Kaila and Mirna)

Stopped by on the way home for some yummy Baskin' Robbins

Glenn, Kaila, and Addie

Addie's Preschool Singing Performance 

(Barlow Bruin Buddies)

Addie is the wearing the pink flowered headband :-)

Skate World

Skating at Skate World is always so much fun and Rowan got to try out skates for the first time!!!

Rowan and Kaila.  She was so good and helpful for him.

Rowan, Glenn and Kaila

Swimming 

(with Brooke & Vivian Cross) 

Brooke was in Kindergarten with me back in 1985 and 

then Vivian was in Kaila's Kindergarten class too!

Kaila, Addie, Glenn, Rowan

Silly Addie

Addie fell asleep next to our bed in her own made up bed (laundry basket) 

Broken Bones and More

What a busy past two weeks we have had.  The kids finished up their basketball seasons last Saturday.  Kaila's team came so CLOSE to finally winning a game but still came up short by one basket.  It was so sad.  They were easily the most improved team that we played against so that was great to see.  She decided to stick with it and not play volleyball this next season so it will be exciting to see how much growth she will make now that she knows what she's doing to start the season!  

Addie tried out for the team at gymnastics and MADE it!!!  I'm so proud of her.  The big thing now is figuring out if we can afford it.  Kevin's been working so much this year that if he kept up the pace it would be fine.  The problem is that it can stop at any moment which if has.  He lost two jobs this month because they went with different companies and so he hasn't had any work this month.  It's been rough!  It was really hard on him to see $15,000 walk away.  Me too though it has been nice to have him home for a bit and to see the kids more.

Rowan fell off the couch last Saturday evening.  He acted like he hurt himself.  Kevin checked him out when he got home but he seemed okay. We were keeping out eye on him.  It was so weird.  It would act like he was fine, using his arm to play with and picking up things, but at other times acted like he was hurt, when changing his shirt or helping to open the microwave door.  He was crying a lot when Kevin took him Monday over to his parents house on a walk and we was going to take him to the doctor but I had taken the car to my book club. Then the rest of that day he seemed fine.  He had his Speech appointment that next morning (Tuesday) and seemed fine too.  Kevin and I were talking about it after his therapist left and I said to him, "He wouldn't keep using his arm if it were broken would he?"  To which Kevin responded, "I ran on a broken foot for 3 months." I then told him about him acting like his arm was hurt the night before when I was changing him and we both agreed to pay the money and have him looked at.  

Sure enough it was broken.  I was so glad Kevin took him in so I didn't have deal with the X-rays.  They are so tough to do with kids in pain.  They then made a splint for him and it took three people holding him down to do it and him wrapped up in a blanket.  The poor boy was miserable and wanted it off!!  They had to wrap it in tape so he couldn't take it off.  I was up reading at the school in Glenn's classroom and when I got home after picking up Addie he came running up to me asking "in his own babble" if I would take of the splint.  When I told him he had to keep it on I could tell he was not happy to hear that!  Thankfully he left it alone and stopped trying to take it off.  We were going to hear back from the orthopedic doctor about a full arm cast that day or the next.  Thankfully they got us in the next morning and we were blessed to find out he only needed to have a splint on his arm that was removable so he could still bathe!!!  YEAH for God's mercies. 

Glenn has exploded in reading now.  He is reading chapter books at school and just finished his first one that was 65 pages.  His class earned a "compliment party" and they choose to wear their pj's to school and read!  His teacher loved that the kids in 1st grade wanted to have a reading party!!!  Glenn was really excited about it too.  He's also gotten super good at drawing!  I'll have to take some pics and send them to you soon so you can see.  He created a book, "Why the pigeon needs a check-up."  The illustrations in his book look so professional I was in shock.  Yeah for Glenn!!!  He's doing so much better and is loving life.  He's obsessed with playing basketball none stop!!!  He got a little indoor hoop and ball for his birthday and he plays with it subconsciously all the time.  He never stops.  We have to put the ball up to get him to listen to us half the time. 

Both Kaila and Glenn start a Timber's Soccer Camp this week for Spring Break.  They are so excited.  I'm excited for them.  they get to be down on the field where the Timber's play and they even get a picture with the National Trophy that the Timbers WON!!!  I'm jealous.  I haven't even seen the cup and they get pictures with it.  I'm so happy for them.  I'm not happy about the early morning start time though since we have to be in Portland for them to start everyday at 8:30 which is earlier than their school start time.  There's no sleeping in this Spring Break...it will be worth it though for them to have this neat experience.

Sadly this week my dear friend, the mother of Kaila's friend Betsy, and our kids primary chorister past away this week (March 16th) after a tough year battling Cancer. It's the first funeral that the kids have ever attended that they really knew who had died.  It was really sad.  Addie kept saying that she wish Sister Hanset could come back.  I do too.  She was such a wonderful lady that was always smiling and truly LOVED those children.  She loved her calling and I'm glad that God took my voice away from me so that she would be able to do what she loves one more time on this earth before passing away.  My heart truly aches for her dear husband and sweet 7 children.  The three youngest are still at home and I hope they will still feel of her presence on this earth. It's not so hard right now for them with so many family members in town but this next week as they all return home and the house quiets down it will be so hard for them.  Especially as mother's day and their mother's birthday approach in May.  She was just 51.  So so sad!

Please pray for the Hanset family, Kevin to get more work, and for Rowan's arm to heal properly so it won't need a full cast at the end of his 3 weeks if you can remember. Thanks!!

Barlow Swim

The kids really enjoyed swim class at Barlow this year.  I'm really glad since the last time I took Glenn there the water was FREEZING and he hated it.  I was worried they would complain this time too but I really didn't want to take Kaila to her class at Mt. Hood that was only at 8:15am everyday the entire summer.  That's earlier than a school day!  The kids ended up loving it because they got to go off the low and high diving board!  Glenn's class was begging their teacher to go off the diving board.  She said they could do it if the entire class swam all the way across the pool.  They did and were rewarded by getting to jump off the high diving board!

Teacher Appreciation Week

This year instead of doing the tree leaf thumb prints I decided to do a photo with the kids hands all in a heart shape.  It was a lot harder than I expected it to be and the kids were CRAZY and LOUD!!! Over all the kids personalities really stood out in this picture.  It was hard bringing the camera multiple times trying to catch a day when all the kids would be there to be in the picture.  Kaila's class (Mrs. McGowan-2nd grade) has everyone there.  Glenn's class (Ms. Carvajal-Kindergarten) was always missing someone and then another kid was going to be gone for almost two weeks. I gave up and just took them the same day and captured everyone that was there. We did the kindergarten class outside and that worked so much better.  I learned after doing Kaila's class and made the heart shape a lot bigger with the pipe cleaners I brought for the kids to put their on to help with the shape. The kindergarten classes was a little too big but at least the kids weren't on top of each other like in Kai's class.  It was a fun project and I know the teachers really appreciated opening it.

(Not sure where's Glenn's is on my computer...it might only be on Pa's computer...I'll try to get it from him)