Having fun in March with Rebecca

This sweet girl and I have had so much fun playing this month. She loves to learn so we find ourselves doing lots of school activities. This month as flown by will very few updates so enjoy a collection of Rebecca pictures from March.

Letters, letter everywhere. From the bathtub to Banana grams, to Bob books to writing family names before bed time on her magnetic writing board.

Crafts and learning. I get to teach Rebecca's class at church. We learned about being thankful day and night. We made these pictures with glow in the dark stars. We also made a tent in the classroom and went under to see our stars glowing.

We did some shopping. This girls LOVES to shop and is mostly happy to talk with me while we shop, as long as she's not hungry or tired. Our favorite stores are Target and Costco. The samples at Costco really help make that store super fun! Any where we go she can make it fun. At Target on day she found a mirror to make silly faces and crazy actions into.

Winter just doesn't want to go away. On our way into swimming lessons it was snowing big snow flakes. We stopped and played in them and catch them on our tongues. She exclaimed "It looks like Christmas!" 

Rebecca had her last dance class this month. We were able to be in there to watch. She was so excited to show off for us. She loved her dance class! She wanted to bring her teacher flowers, and also give one to each of her friends. It was the sweetest thing!!

Rebecca has really gotten into giving HUGE hugs and kisses. She needs to give hugs and kisses at random times during the day. She also needs to give and receive at least 2 hugs and kisses before bed every night. She'll get up from dinner and give everyone a hug and kiss before going back to eating. It's simply adorable!!

Oh Rebecca you are such a joy to have in our family. It's amazing how much love you have brought into our family and how much love you have to give to all of us. 

I think you sweet girl and made out of love, hug & kisses.

Seriously that's what happened!

Yesterday afternoon we were up in Cedar Rapids for Simeon's baseball games. Between the games the boys  and coaches we're taking some batting practice on an open field. Johann was taking some hits and decided to bunt the ball. When he bunted it, the ball instead of going forward, flipped up and hit his sunglasses, which dug into his cheek giving him a nice cut.
He came over to me about 15 minutes after it happened and asked if I had any thing to wipe some blood off with. He took his glasses off and he had a big cut with now dry blood coming down from it. We cleaned it off the best we could and with his glasses on no one could really see it. We thought we'd be heading to the ER for stiches after the game, because he wasn't hurt enough to leave right then.

This morning after he cleaned it really well we saw that it probably was alright that we didn't get stitches, but it does have a pretty deep cut. He may still get a black eye to go along with the cut.
At church today he got alot of questions as to what happened. His responses "You should see the other guy!" and "I got into a bar fight," were more believable then the truth of "I took a ball off my sunglasses during warm ups yesterday". But that's the true story, unbelievable as it may be.

Boys campout

When the kids came home from school today the boys hatched a plan to make a tent outback and sleep in it. They started with just a small blanket under them, another small one over them and their thin sleeping bags to lay in. It was in the mid 30's with light snow flurries outside while they were hanging out in this improvised tent. They then got a tarp to give them more shelter from the wind and hopefully trap more warm air in.

Dad came home about this time and helped them get the tarp to protect them even more. We got them to put some mats under them to get another layer from the cold wet ground.

At bed time the boys got layered up in warm clothes, warmed up rice bags to put in their sleeping bags. They headed out with books and a lantern for light. It was so cold, but Simeon assured me that the tarp was keeping some warm air in.

I love Simeon's face sneaking out in the top corner of this picture!

After about an hour the came in spooked saying they heard a loud bang  and saw black smoke in the sky and finished the night warm in their beds.

We were set to get near record lows for the night down around 23 degrees. We were going to let them make it as long as they could.

Rebecca was pretty jealous of their tent outside. There was no way she was going to be sleeping outside especially since she started coughing yesterday, so we set up the little tent in the front room and she spent the night in there with her baby dolls where it was nice & warm. She said when Corrine got home from her party that there wouldn't be any room for her because of all her baby dolls!

This summer when it gets warmer at night we'll probably have quite a few camp outs with the kids making their own shelters.

Ammon's 1st Taekwondo tournament

Today Ammon participated in his 1st ever Taekwondo Tournament. He'd been on the fence about doing it until a few days ago when Master Choe told him he should do it and get the experience. That sealed the deal for him.

Ammon participated in both the forms and sparring competition. His forms group had 5 boys in it ranging from green belt, to temporary red. Each boy got to pick what form they were doing. It didn't have to be their current form, just the one they felt they knew the best. They were judged on power, grace and technique. Ammon choose to do his red tip form. He was the 1st one to go. He was really quiet telling his form to the judges. He did a good job on his form and didn't seem nervous. Ammon placed 3rd out of the group and got a bronze metal.

For the sparring competition they had all the peewees go together, then broke them down into group. Ammon was in a group of 4 boys again ranging from green belt to temporary red. All the boys were 7 years old. Ammon went against the boy who won the forms competition in his group and he was good. They both got some good hits and a few kicks in, but in the end the other boy had more points (even with 2 warnings for kicking Ammon in the back). Ammon was excited to get a 2nd place trophy  in sparring.

I was so proud of him for being such a good participate. He was kind to the other competitors  polite to the judges and did his best on both his form and sparring. During his waiting time he was watching the others competiting and being very respectful. He walked out of the tournament very pleased with his accomplishments and he had a trophy and metal to show for it!

The other kids did such a wonderful job being good spectators and cheering Ammon on. They were quiet when they needed to be and were patient with sitting on the bleachers for the few hours we were there. We did have some fun things to do for when being patient got hard like the tablet, books, snacks and coloring. Grandma was able to be there for the entire time, and dad was able to make it for the forms competition, then needed to get back to work.

As we were leaving Master Choe came and talked to Ammon. He was very excited for him and his accomplishments at the tournament. Master Choe can be tough on Ammon when he needs it, but also be so gentle and proud of him. It's the perfect balance to get Ammon to put forth his full effort. Master Choe told him "you are young, this was your 1st tournament." He sees Ammon's potential, drive and effort, and knows that he can go far.

When we got home he put his trophy and metal with his kick-a-thon trophy he got last year and was so excited for us to come see them all together. He told me "Now I need a 1st place trophy, because I have a 4th place trophy from the kick-a-thon, a 3rd place metal from forms, and a 2nd place trophy for sparring."

We love you Ammon Eli and are so proud of all your hard work and dedication. You're going to go great places in your life!