April is busy for us for several reasons, but it starts off when baseball season starts, which this year was right at the beginning of the month. Last year Evan, Grace and Ryan were all in ball but this year Grace was given the option of either baseball or horseback riding and horses won hands down. So only the boys are doing baseball this year and I am thankful for that because it is busy enough. Evan has moved up into Mosquito league this year and it is a big jump in intensity and time commitment. He plays at least 2 games a week, sometimes 3 and then there's practice and batting cages on top of that. Evan still loves baseball but even he is finding it a bit much this year. We may re-evaluate our involvement for next year.
Ryan plays slowpitch with our church's team. His ball season didn't start until mid-April and he has played a few games but I have only been able to watch about 5 minutes of one of his games so far, because of conflicts with Evan's games and other commitments. I am hoping to actually be able to watch a whole game this weekend.
April is also busy for us because we are celebrating the birthdays of two very special people. This year was a milestone for Evan because he turned ten - double digits! I have enjoyed every stage with our kids as they have grown. I am a baby person, I just love newborns, baby smiles, cooing, crawling toddling, drooling, crying, all of it! I am trained in Early Childhood Education and I love the curiosity and excitement of the preschool years. I felt a little apprehensive about the elementary school years because they were a bit of an unknown as far as what to expect as a parent. But we have enjoyed learning and growing together with our kids in these years of growth and development. Now we have entered a new stage with Evan, the dreaded preteen years! :) Although we have our moments of wondering what the heck is going on in this kid's head, Ryan and I are really enjoying parenting this wonderful boy as he matures physically, emotionally and spiritually. He is a delightful young man who loves the Lord with all his heart. His enthusiasm and energy are boundless and he has a wonderful love for people. He is friendly and social and loves to entertain. Here is a list we compiled together as a family of some words that describe our Evan.
Evan is:
Actor, awesome, adventurous
Brave, ball player, best brother, bold, bouncy
Caring, cuddly, cool, crazy, creative, comical, Christian
Daring, dramatic
Excited, energetic, enthusiastic
Friendly, funny, fast, fun, freaky
Generous, giving, goofy, gassy, gregarious
Happy, huggable
Intelligent, insane, impersonator, inventor
Joker
Kind
Loud, lovable
Musical, mathematician
Nice, not normal (this was his contribution,) negotiator
Outstanding, outgoing
Performer, piano player
Quirky, quick
Rollerblader, reader
Smart, storyteller, scary, scientist, super speller, super-dee-duper (Rachel wanted me to be sure and write that one)
Teacher, ticklish, ten, talker
Unbelievable
Vegetable eater, video game player
Wiggly, weird, wild, wants to take over the world (Evan's contribution again)
eXcellent
Yo-yo
Zany
Here he is, our weird and wacky, lovable preteen boy on his birthday morning.
For Evan's birthday we took the day off of school and Ryan took the day off of work and we went to one of our favourite places - Science World! They have a Lego transportation exhibit there that Evan really wanted to see. It was amazing! I took way too many pictures of it to be able to post them all so here is a little slide show if you want to see it. I hope it works.
I know this picture is a little out of focus but if you look closely you can see the expression on their faces as they touched their hands together and all got a shock.
Evan loves critters of all kinds so he was excited to hold the corn snake
The birthday boy with his requested dinner of bow tie noodles with Alfredo sauce.
And his requested dessert of raspberry cheesecake
Two days after Evan's birthday he had a birthday party with a few of his buddies. This year he really wanted a sleepover party so I said we had to keep the guest list small! First, Ryan took the boys to the Great Escape in Langley to run off their energy, then they came back to our house for homemade pizza dinner . . .
some trampoline time . . .
gift opening . . .
and the world's grossest birthday cake! Back in October when I was looking online for a pattern to make Rachel a cat birthday cake, I came across a picture of a kitty litter cake. Evan took one look at it and said declared that he wanted a cake like that for his birthday. Unfortunately he didn't forget about it between October and April so here is what I made for my ten year old son's birthday cake. . .
(I can't get the computer to turn this one the right way for some strange reason)
One week after Evan turned 10, our wonderful daughter, Grace turned 8 years old. Grace is a sweet, loving, helpful, hard-working, girly girl, who loves pink and horses and playing board games. She is so often crawling around on all fours, pretending to be a horse, that she has worn out the knees of almost all of her pants. She is shy in public but at home we can hardly keep her quiet. She could be a sports commentator with her ability to give play-by-plays of everything that has happened. Grace is an avid reader, a great writer and a thoughtful sister. She is especially protective of Rachel.
One of the joys of homeschooling is being able to take our "pro-d days" when we want them. So, on Grace's birthday we took another break from our school work while Ryan took another day off from work. We played some board games as a family because that is what Grace loves to do. Then in the afternoon, Grace and I went on a very special date to Matsqui Stables, where we went for an hour long trail ride! Grace has been interested in horses for quite a while, but in the last year she has become totally horse-crazy! She notices horses wherever we go, whether it's real horses, pictures of horses, toy horses, or something that looks vaguely like a horse! Needless to say, she was so excited when I told her what I had planned for her birthday.
Grace rode a gentle old horse called "Angie," and we rode (at a walk) along the dike down by the Fraser River. It was a beautiful way to spend a lovely afternoon. To make it a little more exciting, Grace managed to lose her tooth about halfway through our ride. :)
Here's the birthday girl with the dessert she requested, chocolate chip banana muffins. The recipe is one Maryanne gave me along with some muffin tins at my bridal shower 13 years ago! (I just had to throw that tidbit in in case you're reading this Laura!)
Painting picture frames and horses.
Precious birthday girl!
Wow! There you have it. Bonus points if you managed to stay awake until the very end. The next post won't be anywhere near that long, I promise! But at least, seeing that, you have an idea of why it took me so long to find time to blog!!
2 comments:
I am reading of course!! And those muffins are my favourite!
Great commentary of your month. Definately very busy, but filled with a lot of fun.
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