Field Trip to the Farm

Ever since I was a chaperone for Xander's first grade class trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, I have avoided signing up again. That field trip was a nightmare for me! I came home that day with a raging migraine and the firm decision to never chaperone another elementary field trip again! But poor Xander was just so devastated when I wouldn't sign up for any field trips this year so I finally relented.  Guess who got picked to be a chaperone for the field trip to the farm? It actually turned out to be quite fun and I enjoyed spending a little extra time with the X-man.

Checking out the new baby chicks. So, so cute! Our guide even brought one out for the kids to touch.

How appropriate, doing the Chicken Dance at the farm.

Planting a sunflower seed which was replanted here at our house and is doing quite well!

Seriously scary picture! Xander looks like a deranged farmer!

 My crazy group! Thank goodness I had another mom along to help me keep them in line. Xander wore that weird red hooded blanket almost the entire time we were there.

Xander and I both loved this horse. He was seriously one of the tallest horses I had ever seen!

Milking a cow!

Don't quite know what Xander was in awe of in this picture but I find his facial expression pretty funny.

All in all we had a great time visiting the farm!

Mother's Day Activity

Now that I'm an Activity Days leader, the Mother's Day Activity was a little more stressful and I was unable to spend a ton of time with Savannah. The theme of the evening was "Spring Has Sprung" and we had various crafts and goodies to keep the mothers and their daughters entertained.  Savannah's favorite activities were making bracelets

and decorating and EATING the cupcakes.

I enjoyed an evening with my daughter and some of our closest friends!

What do the Parents Do?

Sometimes it's easy to think that David's and my life are completely wrapped up in what our kids are doing.  Yes, we stay busy with the kids, driving them around to practices and games, helping with homework, and doing the parent thing.  But David and I also have things going on in our lives separate from being a parent.
David usually spends January through March playing basketball with our church team but this year, due to some old-man pain in his shoulder and elbow, he was only able to play in one game.  And unfortunately they lost.  Work keeps him busy but so does his calling in the Stake YM Presidency.  Dances, camping activities, and the Stake Youth Trek in June have consumed his schedule the past few months and I think both of us will be relieved when the church activities die down for the summer.  He has found time to read a few books, watch a bunch of Orioles games, and go on a few dates with me.  Both David and I found a new obsession - Downton Abbey!  We spent quite a few evenings watching episode after episode and are now struggling with the long wait for Season 4 to begin.
This whole year has been absolutely marvelous for me.  With all three kids in school all day I have been able to relax and enjoy time to myself.  While many women talk about all the cleaning and errands they accomplish each day, I say, "You cleaned for 7 hours?  I soaked in the tub all morning and read." Yes, that's my kind of life.  Really, though, it hasn't been all about reading.  I have enjoyed meeting some friends for lunch from time to time, I've picked up scrap booking again, and I continue to attend Book Club each month.  I received a new calling in church as an Activity Days leader for the 11 year old girls.  At first I was not too thrilled but the girls are fun, most of the time, and we have done some cool things with them.  Preparing for Savannah's homeschooling next year has taken up a lot of my time as I've researched different curriculum and books and I even attended a Christian Homeschooling Conference a few weeks ago.  I also started taking piano lessons last September and actually played in my first recital last week! 
David and I love being parents but we also find joy in the other roles of our lives - husband and wife, church member, sister and brother, son and daughter, friend.

A Knights Party

Hear ye, Hear ye, Noah Pierce just turned 6 and decided that the best way to celebrate his birthday was to have a knights party! The castle was prepared...

and Sir Noah awaited the arrival of his guests.

We put the knights-in-training straight to work decorating their shields. We had a few cool designs for them to choose from and with the help of a little carbon paper, markers, jewels, and stickers, those shields were looking good in no time!

Although knights usually can rely on archers during a battle it never hurts to know how to shoot an arrow.

This activity proved to be a bit tricky though some of the kids started to get the hang of it after a few tries.

Next came the jousting tournament. All I can say is that it was a brilliant move on my part to invite my friend Rachel and her son to the party...she's a preschool teacher and knew how to get these boys going! All lined up and ready to race!

Look at Noah's tremendous horsemanship! Way to make that horse take the turn.

Even I got in on the action. Poor Brody never stood a chance against my mad skills.

After we ran the jousting tournament a few times (because the boys AND the parents loved it), the little guys had to face Sir Xander, the evil Shadow Knight.  Once a boy was tagged by the Shadow Knight, he was frozen. 

To get out of the "frozen dungeon", a fellow trainee would have to crawl through his legs, thus freeing him.

One last game to remove all the wiggles was "Catch the Dragon's Tail". All the boys lined up with hands on shoulders and, without letting go of the person in front of them, the first boy, "the head", would try to tag the last boy, "the tail". Each boy got a turn at each place on the dragon and it proved to be quite entertaining.

Look at that tail moving!

Noah's big idea for his party was to have the boys decorate a gingerbread knight.

Noah loaded his up with frosting and toppings and completely grossed me out when he proceeded to eat most of it.

To complete their training, the boys had to collect all the dragon eggs in the land.

We then passed around the golden eggs but unfortunately some of the boys were placed under a magical enchantment. The surviving knight was able to break the spell and each boy received a miniature dragon in his egg.

The boys definitely proved that they were ready to be true knights and were each knighted by Sir David and received their very own sword.

They hurried outside to put those swords to good use!

The boys quickly hurried over when they heard the news that the dragon had found out that they had taken all her eggs and was ready to attack. Each little knight faced the magnificent black dragon!

If a sword doesn't work one can always just try to jump on the dragon!

After the battle with the dragon it was definitely time for some cake and ice cream. My talented friend Tara made the most awesome cake for Noah's party.

I could not get over the amazing detail, especially the dragon's face!

Noah's friends started singing Happy Birthday but Noah just blew out the candles and started licking them before the song was even over.

I had such a hard time cutting into the cake but the little knights all gathered around me and started chanting, "Cut off his head! Cut off his head!" So I did. They got to enjoy the yummy cake out on the deck; we couldn't have asked for better weather.

The three kids with the Black Knight! It was definitely another fun party!

Baseball

After a year of playing T-ball Xander has now advanced to baseball and he absolutely loves it! He plays for the A's and has tried his hand at all positions except pitcher (which he wants to do the most).

He's doing pretty good at batting and gets on base most of the time.

Nice hit!

Xander definitely has some speed!

A Lovely Evening Stroll

Now that we've been having some warmer weather we have taken several of our Monday night FHE activities outside. We spent one evening at the park eating a yummy picnic dinner and then the kids ran around for awhile but I accidentally deleted all those fun pictures. Thank goodness I didn't erase the pictures from our evening hike. We had a great time though it did get a bit cold as the sun went down.

We had the trail to ourselves!

Savannah and Noah got a kick out of the sports speed on my camera and were constantly asking me to take pictures of them jumping so they could see themselves in action. They are pretty cool.

Noah is always well equipped.

We try to find joy in everything, even ginormous leaves.

My little tree hugger...literally!

Noah didn't have as much luck. As I went to take his "hugging the tree" picture, he let go and fell...

Yes, I'm one of those moms who pauses to take a picture before helping my child.

Three little monkeys.

My favorite picture of the evening.