Spring has been a whirlwind of activity. One new tradition added this year was LTC. Isaiah competed in Bible Quiz, Art, and scripture reading (and ended up with a bronze, gold, and gold!). The LTC hotel is in Dallas and we were glad we went a day early to enjoy the fancy accommodations and play at the pool with the Kitchens. Once the other 3000 kids and their families showed up, it was a bit crazier. I was able to be the Bible Quiz head coach this year, which was a good experience. Everyone was very gracious with me in my inexperience and basically thrilled that someone was willing to take on the effort of coordinating practices for the 2 months prior.
During events, there was time to relax and play games -
Isaiah used Luke's old Lego Knight set to build Jericho. The theme was Joshua/Judges/Ruth. If competing in art, kids can choose any theme or story from that portion of scripture as long as any art medium. Lego Jerichos were in abundance, but Isaiah got a gold and some great comments on his construction.
Isaiah's team - Jason, Dani Mae, and Isaiah. Go team!
The Bible Quiz cheer team -
The whole crew of Bible Quizers. It was fun to get to know this crew better -
LTC competitions also include chorus, drama, and puppets. Here's the whole Alpine LTC crew plus coaches.
We got back on Saturday afternoon and made it to Alpine Sunday morning for the Easter Sunrise Service. It was a beautiful morning and a perfect service -
Spring Break this year entailed attacking the dreaded "lead paint chipping" garage. We were SO thankful for Jack and Roxanne's help. It was a big project, but we got all that lead paint covered up with a neutralizing paint made for situations like this. And I've since had the girls tested for lead levels in their blood, and they are normal. Woohoo! Now that the garage is done, I think we can mostly relax about the lead paint issue unless someone starts gnawing on something. The kids have loved being in the garage at last. It's been a forbidden land for them for the last 3 years.
Noelle had been dreaming about what it would be like to cut her hair for months. She was thrilled when the time finally came! The hair dresser probably didn't believe me when I said Noelle was excited...
Before:
Lucy got a bit of a trim, too.
Before:
After!
After!
This was a big moment in our house. Noelle's first time digging into a chapter book on her own. Thank you Billie B. Brown for inspiring our girl to read!!
We got 20 new pets! The ant farm was fascinating to watch for the first few weeks. Once they got to the bottom and had no idea what to do, it got a little sad and anticlimactic. Many of them are still alive, though!
The Dillers came down for a visit! It was a treat to see them and to have some St. Andrews reunion time with them, Kueckers, Masons, Liebengoods. They are all such precious friends to us, and it's a joy to see the kids feeling uniquely attached to and comfortable with these friends, even when there are months or years between visits. I tell the kids that not all friendships are this special!
Silly boy working his way through Memory Masters proofs. Once again, he nailed it!!
One of our final topics of study in CC this year was Canadian history and geography. We took advantage of our dear Canadian friends, Mark & Jenn Jonah and interviewed them all about life in Canada. They were too thrilled to tell us all about their homeland and they spoiled the kids with all sorts of Canadian trinkets and coins!
And, we bought a van to put into our freshly painted, not-so-leady garage! We'd been searching (with a lot of help from Jack) for a nearly new, very cheap, low mileage Odyssey with leather seats and a dvd player. Of course all of those things are hard to come by, but we ended up with a great little 2005 Odyssey with all of the things we wanted! It ended up being a pretty spontaneous purchase after months of thinking and looking. I drove out to Lindale on a Sunday afternoon to see and test drive it. I drove back, picked up the family for Life Group at the Nortons, and continued texting the guy to settle on a price. After Life Group ended at 7:30, we loaded the kids up and told them that, rather than going home to bed, we were going to drive 45 minutes to get a new van! We didn't get home until 10:30. It was one of those experiences the kids will always remember!
... And baseball started! Isaiah's on the Braves this year. He also upgraded to having his own helmet, back pack, and sunflower seeds. How cute is this little man?!
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