Spoke too soon

He's got the turning down!

Impossible? Nah.

I'm not sure why I'm so amazed when my son accomplishes something that he's set his mind to do.  His determination is one of his more prominent character traits.  So when he told me in August that he wanted to ride a bike on two wheels, I supported him.  "Sure, hon.  Let me get the tools to take off the training wheels."  I secretly wondered if his balance issues would keep him from being able to do it, but I certainly wasn't going to say that to him.  The training wheels came off, the knees and elbows continued to get scraped bloody, but, by golly, he was going to do it.

I'm having one of those "my heart is going to explode 'cause I'm so proud of him" mommy moments.

April Pictures

April was equally busy.  The kids had their Spring Break the first week of April.  We had a lot of fun just hanging out and getting some appointments out of the way.  Grandma Karl sent gift cards to the book store, so we went shopping.  My kids love to read :)  (And, yes, Amelia did her own hair).

Eli started to sleep like this.  He still buries himself under his blankets.  It's pretty funny to see a mass of blankets with a leg or two sticking out.

Our church also had their Mission Conference in April.  My bosses were responsible for decorating a room for the Ukrainian pastor that was visiting.  They did an amazing job!  We have some really creative people at our campus, who were more than willing to help out.

We had a scavenger hunt for the kids, Wood Egg decorating table, and the Ukrainian Pastor spoke for a few minutes.

And what did I get to do?  Pass out poppy seed bread, of course!  I found a Polish market near my house that purchases freshly made bread from a shop in Detroit.  No preservatives, made daily...and it was a huge hit!

We also spent some time assembling Eli's roller coaster.  He loves machines!

As if that wasn't enough, I also attended a great conference in Atlanta, GA with some fun peeps.  It was a conference dedicated to leading small groups of kids, instead of having the traditional Sunday school mentality.  I left refreshed and ready to tackle a new mindset.

Vacation

Back to posting pictures from March!  Dave and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in May.  Since it's a big anniversary, we decided to go all out.  We took our 4th cruise with Royal Carribean.  It was an Eastern Carribean cruise going to the Bahamas, St Thomas and St Martin.  And it was fabulous!  My mom came to our house to care for the kids (since they had school).  We were so exhausted we decided not to even exit the ship while we were in the Bahamas (we've already been there).  We did, however, exit at St Thomas and St Martin.  We've decided to go on an all inclusive resort for our next vacation since all we really did was sleep and watch TV :)  Very relaxing.

Our ship was HUGE!  There were several shows, including an ice skating show and several musical productions.  My absolute favorite, though, was the DIVING show.  Yep.  They had an outside water show that was phenomenal.  The little additions to the ship were fun, too.  We spent some time on the Carnival level, which had the Zolater machine (no, I didn't risk my luck!), and a full sized Merry Go Round for the kids.    

The inside was pretty much what I remember from the other ships, huge and fun :)

Our ship is on the left.  That's a carnival ship on the right. 

Our ship is the big 'un :)  There was a Norwegian ship and a Princess ship.

When we got back, we were pleasantly surprised by some great welcome home signs and two children who were beyond excited to see us.  

 We then celebrated Easter...after Easter.  Easter egg hunt!!  My mom boiled eggs and let the kids decorate them while we were gone, which they still talk about.  And they LOVED the money we hid in the eggs.

Eli's Birthday Fun

A few days before Eli's birthday I let him open his gifts from Bop and Grandpa Stobie.  

They even got a little something for Amelia!

Here he is reading...he LOVES reading, especially since this was a Chapter Book for big kids.

That's ma boy!

On his birthday, he got to wear a fun birthday hat.  

And of course, we had cake and ice cream with presents from Mom, Dad!  Grandma Karl even came into town.

Fun Pictures

Mid Febrauary:  Having fun while on break :)  A mustache tatoo that made Eli look a little like Hitler...

And Spiderman tatoos make us pose like Popeye...

And make us pose like we're constipated...

And like a wrestler.

Then there's the girl who decided to choose very different places:  The wrists...

And the calf.

Bop and Grandpa Stobie sent toys that they LOVED!  Eli had to put his truck together right away.

And Amelia was Cinderella for quite a while.  By the end of the evening, she had taken off the rubber band off her hair and within a week, she had torn off an arm (not fixable).  Lol  She's true to form!

Early March:  Eli fell and whacked himself.  Doesn't he look so pathetic?  He's really a tough guy.  He was just really tired when I took this picture!

And I got a new "rockstar" haircut!