Posting pictures that have been on my phone for too long

Sunday, March 15: first week of church-at-home.  We used orange juice and saltines for communion because that was the closest we could get!

March 14: Happy 8th birthday, Isaac!

March 10: Happy 11th birthday, Ethan!

February 15: Daddy-Daughter dance!

Some of us are almost teenagers

Some of us are just plain cute!

It was a chilly night for a carriage ride

Dad and his two dates

February 22: throwing and/or skipping rocks at Wildcat Creek

January 4: Ethan and Isaac helping Dad finish up a plumbing job by painting the wall.

Baseball tournament #3

Ethan's team resumed their rain-interrupted game and kept the pressure up.  With that win, they moved on to the championship game!  To be champion, they had to win twice against their undefeated opponents.  They played well but lost 12-5.

That was enough for 2nd place, though!

2018 soccer, Game 1

First soccer game of the season: Abbey, Ethan and Isaac are all playing this year.  They all played hard and did well, especially for the first game!

Isaac is in light blue (Carolina Blue) with sky-blue socks.  Abbey and Ethan are in pink (Heliconia) with yellow socks for Abbey and orange socks for Ethan, specially chosen to be distinct on the camera. :)

Play Ball!

We signed Ethan up for T-ball last summer, and Abbey enjoyed watching him so much that she asked to play this year, so they both got to play in the coach-pitch league.  Eight games in one month, plus a playoff, although they each missed two games for illness and another two for a poorly-scheduled vacation.  They enjoyed it, but neither seem very enthusiastic about playing again next year.  We'll see how they feel next summer.

Isaac always had the option to stay home, but he chose to come to every single practice and every single game.  Maybe he just wanted to stay with his playmates, but I think we'll see about getting him into T-ball next year.

Homeschool!

Thursday morning was the last day of homeschool co-op.  The session included a chemistry lecture (dry ice, fire, and slime!), a piñata, and a video about Mexico, followed by a Mexican potluck.  At 9 months pregnant, Debbie didn't think she could handle taking the kids, so I took the morning off and took Abbey and Ethan (Isaac had been sidelined by an illness that involved a lot of diapers and bad smells).

Ethan absolutely declined his chance, but here is Abbey swinging valiantly at the piñata.  It's surprisingly hard to take action photos.

After all the candy was out, they had the kids line up on the blacktop, with the little kids in front.

Then released them!

There was enough that everyone got a fair amount.  

Dressed Up

Just rediscovered these, taken back in January.  Isaac is finally big enough to wear the suit that we bought for Ethan when we attended a black-tie wedding in 2011.  We got some very good pictures of Ethan, so I wanted to get some with Isaac, too. 

I have been richly blessed with handsome kids and a beautiful wife.

First lost tooth!

We've been waiting and waiting for Ethan to lose his first tooth: he'll be six in March and still has all his baby teeth.  Well, almost.  He lost his first one tonight!

And here it is, five and a half years ago...

Happy Halloween!

We let the children dress up this year for Halloween, for a community event.  Abbey was a fairy princess, Ethan a knight, and Isaac a lion (complete with realistic roar!).

Abbey was very proud of her fairy wings.

Summer fun!

Abbey and her friend being silly.  That's a firetruck, not a wagon.  And a robe tie, not a rope.  And it was 80 degrees, but Abbey is wearing a stocking cap and scarf!

Winter is coming, so everyone got new pajamas!

They were doing an experiment, if I remember correctly.

Indian summer

We've had some gorgeous fall weather this year, including one day of Indian summer.

Children's Garden

We don't have majestic mountain ranges or long white beaches in mid-Michigan, but we do have some beautiful scenery, if you look for it.  Here are Abbey and Ethan at the Children's Garden, the same one Isaac and I visited a few days ago.

Ethan in front of the falls.

And Abbey at the pond.  Seems like she's a born model!

Spring Garden Plans

The idea is to build a raised garden on a concrete slab in front of the house.  First, we moved blocks from the back of the house to the front and replaced them with Michigan field stone.

We set them up on the front porch.  Then we discovered there weren't enough, and that no one makes that size any more.  We had to replace them all.

It takes a lot of dirt to fill a raised garden!  Isaac impressed me the most: he just kept on trucking, with his little sandbox shovel.