Garage Sale Results

Our fundraiser garage sale was a huge success. We raised a little over $3500 toward our travel expenses to Ethiopia. Eric posted a video on uTube to show you a little more about how it all went. We are so thankful for our friends and family who donated their things, volunteered their time and offered loving support. The garage sale was a lot more work than either of us expected. At the same time, it made us feel so loved to have our friends and family come around us the way they did. Anyway, I think we will be recovering for a while. We are all looking forward to a slow weekend at home with little to no plans to do anything other than maybe swim. And we are all enjoying an "empty" house!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzgtYSdR-T8

Worn Out

After several weeks of preparing for the garage sale, swim lessons during her naptime all week and several other activities going on..... i knew that Meghan must be tired today. She really had a bad day in the sense that everything was hard and she was extremely defiant and bossy at times. While this is not totally unusual for her (after all, she is 3!) it seemed a little more than usual. So, when i found her asleep on the dining room floor i was only a little surprised. She slept like this for 30 minutes from about 5:45-6:15 tonite. She woke up, at watermelon and carrots for dinner and then asked to go to bed. That is a tired girl!

He Swims!!

Attached is a video of Owen swimming this week. This is his last week of swimming lessons. He has come so far. He spent the first 3 weeks (out of a total of 6) crying through his lessons. But you will see when you watch the video that he has come a long way. It has been a great confidence builder for him. He is excited to swim at the pool this summer and we look forward to more lessons with Miss Tracey (his teacher) later in the summer or early fall.

Tracey is a teacher who primarily teacher "infant survival swimming." You will see in the video that Owen does a lot of floating to rest and take breaths. Over time, she expects him to float less often and swim farther between floats. She also expects he will begin to roll to the side for a breath rather than all the way over on his back. We are so excited for him and proud of him. Enjoy the video!

School's Out!

I can hardly believe it but school's out for the summer! Here are a few pictures of the boys being silly in their hats after their school performance. They sang "Your a Grand Old Flag" and "The Star Spangled Banner" among other favorites. Both boys are excited to be officially moved on to the next grade and they are getting used to being 2nd and 1st graders (as opposed to 1st graders and kingergarten-ers). We don't have alot planned for the summer and most of the local camps and activities don't start until after public schools dismiss (early june) so our May is going to be pretty slow. The pool doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend. So, for the next few weeks we will be occupied mostly with Owen's daily swim lessons, Meghan's last few days of "school" and kindermusic and the upcoming garage sale.

Henry is 8!

Here are a few pictures from Henry's birthday. He had a great birthday which also happened to be the last day of school.... what a day! We had donuts for breakfast and he got to open gifts from his brother and sister.
The boys had a performance and awards ceremony at school. I will post "last day of school" pictures separately. School dismissed at 12 and we went to the park with some friends to eat pizza and brownies, play and ride bikes. For dinner, we went to Henry's favorite tex-mex restaurant. It was a very fun day.

He got all sorts of fun gifts including a new game for the wii, new books, a couple of new board games and a large container of cheeseballs!!

His party is this weekend. For his party this year we are taking 4 friends to play laser tag and mini golf. It should be very fun.

Enjoy the pictures! We miss you all.

Coram Deo Field Day

Coram Deo held its first annual Field Day on Thursday. The boys had a blast playing outside with their friends all day. The day started at 9am and ended right after lunch. The activities included 50 yard dash, tug of war, bean bag toss, ladder golf, a bounce house and several other activities. Pictures include: Owen with his dear friend, Lindsey, sitting on the playground; Henry getting ready for balloon stomp; Henry and friends, Lauren and Caleb, playing balloon stomp. Also included is a picture of Henry's entire 1st grade class with his wonderful teacher, Mrs Cope.

Spelling Champ!

Today Henry won the 1st grade spelling bee at school. The winning word was "recite." He was most excited about the medal.

Today was the boys' last full day of school. This Thursday they have field day. Next Tuesday is a half day which includes an awards ceremony and performance. I can't believe that summer is almost here.

Service Sunday

Hi All! Today we participated in Watermark's 2nd annual "service Sunday." The purpose of service Sunday is to go out and "be the church" to the Dallas community. Watermark is part of a larger group of churches who participated in this event this weekend (see http://www.goandbe.org/index.html for more information). We served the community in an effort to share the love of Christ through our service efforts with different groups of people all around Dallas.

60 buses were lined up when we arrived at church this morning. Each bus was headed for one of several different locations around Dallas. We loaded onto bus #30 with 50 or so other folks (many of them our close friends) and headed to Charles Rice Elementary school in South Dallas. Once there, we unloaded and went to work for about 2 hours. We cleaned and disinfected the school wiping down everything from desks to lockers to baseboards and bathrooms. It was a great way to teach our kids how to love and serve others. (As a sidenote, i am very excited to announce that both boys learned how to clean a toilet today!!) The school smelled and looked so good when we were finished. It always feels good to step outside of our own lives and serve others and it was very fun to share the experience with our kids.

I am including some pictures of Henry with his disinfectant and rag, Owen mopping a classroom floor, and Eric taking a rug outside to shake. We were all wiped out when we were done. I am pretty sure the highlight of the day for the boys was the bus ride to and from the service project. They don't ride a school bus to school so this is some of their only bus experience. I am hoping our dear bus driver will recover from all that noise. Of course for Eric and I the ride brought back all sorts of memories of childhood.

Enjoy the pictures and have a great week!