Well, it is that time of year again.  Yep, you got it.  The swimsuit edition.

Today was the first meet of the season. Our team always has a mock meet so that the kids remember the drill and new swimmers can get a feel for how a meet runs.  Our weather has been gorgeous but this morning it was very cold and rainy.  The kids were troopers and swam well despite the crummy weather. Today was Paige’s first meet and she did great! 

Have an awesome weekend! 
Jennifer

I arrived home from my trip to Costa Rica on Monday afternoon. I was in the country for 9 days with a mission team from our church.  Our missional goal was to make building progress on a parsonage at one of the local Methodist churches in San Pedro and run a successful vacation bible school for the children of the church and surrounding community.  I traveled with eleven awesome men and women and could not have asked to serve with a more wonderful group of people.  We spent 5 days working really hard hauling dirt and rocks, filling concrete forms, laying block, making mortar, moving concrete blocks and on and on…..Our afternoons were spent with the kids and were filled with music, crafts, bible stories and tons of fun.  We met great families along the way, making it really hard to say goodbye by the last day.  Our team was blessed to be able to worship twice with our new friends.  Worshipping in La Iglesia Metodista was very much the same as we do at Wilson, very spiritual and uplifting. We had an wonderful week filled with hard work and great fellowship.  All the glory goes to God, for the work He put in front of us and the ability to push through that work together.
I hope to write more later but for now enjoy some of the pictures…a lot of pictures…really a lot….

….arrived while I was gone.  Wow!  I am loving this hot sunny wearther and as you can see from the pictures, so are the kids! They played out in the yard most of the afternoon.

Hello all,

We are wrapping up our trip and will be back home early this week.I hope everybody has had a great week! Looking forward to sleeping in my bed and kissing my babies!

Well, here goes. 
Today is the day. 
It is something that has weighed on my heart for a long time.  One of those things that God has been whispering to me. 
I am going on my first mission trip.  I am leaving for Costa Rica tonight.
Yep, along with an awesome team from our church, I am leaving my babies and husband behind for 9 days and taking a huge step of faith.
I am going to miss them terribly but I know this is something that God has called me to do.  Something bigger than me.
Totally nervous, anxious, excited, thrilled!
Please keep my family in your prayers and pray for safe travels for me.  Please pray that the weather holds out for construction to take place.  Please pray for the children that we will be teaching and loving! 
I am hoping to be able to sporadically blog from my phone.  I will have to wait and see how that goes once I am there.  Sooo, it might be a bit quiet around here.

Hasta luego!
Vaya con Dios!

Love,
Jennifer

Yesterday she was a Kindergartner…..

A couple weeks ago, my mom and I visited a new (new to us) fabric store in Monument.  We fell in love with this fun apple fabric. My mom bought a yard and I made her a large shopping bag with pockets.  I bought 2 yards with thoughts of teacher gifts and this is what I made with my 2 yards.  Three small bags for three awesome teachers.  I thought I was done….
 

Singing Running in the Rain

Last night our kids ran races down at Bear Creek Park.  The weather was pretty nice when we arrived but we could see the black cloud in the distance.  We hoped that they would change direction or miss us but no such luck.  It started sprinkling during Mason’s run, downright poured and hailed during Paige’s run, slowed down a bit for Alice’s and the sun came back out for Sam’s long run.  Despite the rain, all the kids ran well.  Mason finished his 1/2 mile race without any parental help.  Paige finished in a very wet 3rd place, Alice came in 5th with a great big smile on her face and Sam finished top ten in 9:04 for his 1 3/4 miles.  No matter how many races they run, I always tear up when they hit that finish line.  Maybe because I know how tough it is to finish a race and the accomplishment of pushing yourself through the finish.  I am a bit competitive and I do like to be near the finish to scream and holler encourage my children through to the end. Most of the other parents call me crazy but my kids just call me mom 🙂 

Happy 36th Birthday to Scott!  Today we are celebrating his day!  We love you!
Jennifer

It seems a bit silly, but with every effort to keep things fair and include everyone, summer birthdays may not go unnoticed.  Okay, maybe because I had a December birthday, I am a bit unsympathetic to the whole “summer birthday” issue.  If you have one, you know that with a summer birthday, there is no loud student led rendition of Happy Birthday, Cha, Cha, Cha or the passing out of a sugary snack to share with your classmates.  Those kids whose parent made the devastating choice to have children during the warm summer months lose out, big time.  Well, not anymore.  It seems the new tradition is to pack in all those summer birthday celebrations right at the end of the school year.  Hey, we don’t have anything else going on, right??? 
(insert unnecessary temper tantrum)

With that being said, we happily celebrated Alice’s soon to be 8th birthday in her classroom today.  She chose powdered doughnuts as her treat.  I may have tried out a couple ahead of time just to make sure they weren’t injected with poison or something….aren’t I a good mom???!?!?!?  It did make me feel a lot better. 
After the yummy treat, her teacher let her pick out a game to play with the class and she chose Hangman.  Scott got to be the Hangman artist.  I could tell that Alice loved having her Dad right up there with her.  She picked big long words like Interesting and Satisfied, coming very close to stumping her classmates. 

Happy Almost 8th Birthday, Ladybug!  You are Awesome! 
Jennifer

Scott and I have attended our small Methodist church for 11 years.  We started attending as a family of two and now have grown to six.  Our kids love going to church and it has become an extension of home for them.  Our church family has grown to be just that, our family.  It is a place where we feel comfortable, welcomed and spiritually renewed and uplifted.  Today was no exception.  We spent the day at our church’s spring block party running games, tuning bikes, chasing kids, enjoying praise music and fellowship with old friends.  It was an awesome day.  The kids had a ball running around in their stocking feet between games, food and bounce houses.  I tried to capture them all throughout the day but seemed to have missed Sam with my camera.