Our Weekend at a Glance

I know Friday is the last day of the work week but for me, I usually consider it a kick off to the weekend. Friday is generally the funnest day of the week for me.
This past Friday, to wrap up Spring Break, we went on a field trip with our Children of the King Homeschoolers group. We went to PetCo. Who would have thought that a pet store would hold a field trip??? It was quite educational on how to take care of pets we'll never have. Rebecca did ask several times for another Beta fish. It took me over 2 years to kill the one I had, why would I want another one to take care of??? If you don't already know, I'm anti pet. Finally, I offered the tank and food that we still have to another mother so the case is CLOSED. No more fish for us.

After the field trip, we went to a park for a picnic and some fun.

It was absolutely beautiful out. Couldn't have asked for a better day.

The day was topped off with Emily's soccer practice and dinner out with Jay.

The were exhausted and went to bed early, knowing what Saturday held for us.

As beautiful as it was Friday, that how cold it was Saturday! A cold front blew in and the temperature dropped drastically. It went for 80's to 40's!

Saturday, both girls games were overlapping. Becca's was at 8:45 and Em's was at 9 a.m. Jay went to Emily's and I went to Becca's game. With the wind whipping through us, it was 42 degrees. Bone chilling cold for the end of March!

Emily scored 3 points in her game. They don't keep score but as parents, we do. I know it's all about having fun. Emily's team lost 5 to 37. That's more like getting creamed!

Becca's game was great! She's on an all girls team this season and I wondered if she would fit in or hold back. She definitely didn't hold anything back. She scored 5 points winning 15 to 3. It was so bad that after the first quarter, we had to keep 2 players back as sweepers. So it was 4 (the other team) on 2 (us). We were still winning. They try to get it even so that one team doesn't kill the other. By the end of the game, it was 4 (them) against 1 (us).

I tried to take photos and video but my hands were like ice and were hurting from the cold.
Here's a short video of Becca scoring the last goal of the game.

After soccer games, Rebecca still had to compete in the Day of Champions at church. This is the championship from the AWANA games. We got there in time to watch the Journey 24/7 compete. They were awesome, coming in first place. They qualify for the Nationals held in Florida. I already volunteered to be a chaperon!

There were 15 teams competing, from third grade to fifth. I don't know what was wrong with our team but we lost bad! It was so bad that I really don't even like to think about it. As long as they had fun, huh?

The day ended with a concert at another local church. A long lost family relative from out of state was singing with her college in our area. She invited us and I HAD to go. I hadn't seen her in 10 years so it was awesome to see her again! The music was nice and we had a great time.

She's planning on coming back this way after the semester ends so I'll get to spend some more time with her then. We're making plans to go to Busch Gardens and all so it's definitely something to look forward to.

Sunday was a typical day- church, lunch/nap, back to church and all. Today we are back to the grind. Well, maybe not for me as I'm still sitting here on the computer... Rebecca needs help so I guess I should go now!

Pictures of the girls

Middle of Spring Break Update

Wednesday was to be "my" day. I have been so burnt out with the girls schooling that I was really looking forward to a day of bumming around. I should have known that something would come up and I wouldn't get to relax and read all day.

When I got up, I did my normal checking of the e-mail thing and saw that a local used homeschool curriculum store was having a sale. She had overstock and needed to do some spring cleaning. I wanted to go but they were only open from 12:30 to 4:30.

Emily needed to go to the doctor and I was thinking that they probably would not see her until mid-day. When I called, I was able to get her in that morning.

So, after the dr. we had time to kill. Oh what to do? We really didn't have time to go home, and with these outrageous gas prices, I refused to go back home! Emily wanted to play at the mall but Rebecca is too old for that now. There are no parks in the area so all I could think of was the elementary school that I went to as a child. I hadn't been there in ages so it was neat to go down memory lane. They still had some of the same play equipment from when I was a child!

They have a HUGE play area now- better than any park around and the girls loved it! They had atleast 5 different areas of play equipment. I forgot my camera so I took a couple of photos with my cell phone.

Here's Becca going across the monkey bars. She does these ALL the time now and has the blisters to prove it.
Here's Emily posing so pretty.

Emily has also learned to hang upside down on a bar but I won't let her unless she has a bar to hook her feet on to. Scares the daylights out of me!

After playing, we grabbed a quick lunch at Wendy's and went to the sale. I got 12 books for $1 each! She had tons of boxes on the floor with each book being $1 each. There was a bunch of teacher editions, teacher keys and student books from Abeka and other curriculum. I saw books priced at $44 for only $1. I was so excited!

Afterwards, we went to another school store and shopped around. I only spent $6 something there but came home with a bunch of great deals.

Wahoo!

I ended up with a 30 minute break before I had to fix dinner and go to church.

Oh well. I have a great book that I want to finish, especially since it's over due at the library, that has once again been put on the back burner.

I have a bunch of pictures from our outings today to upload. Be on the lookout for those soon.

Easter Update

We have never done the whole Easter bunny thing but we do give the girls a basket of goodies each year. I always fill it with useful things instead of junk. Thankfully, the girls aren't too spoiled. They enjoy getting workbooks, puzzles and games. They also do not get a bunch of candy. The only candy the got were chocolate shaped eggs and jelly beans. Rebecca requested the jelly beans but hasn't gone crazy with the candy.

It's now Tuesday and so far, they have only had 5 jelly beans each!

Easter service at church was wonderful. My inlaws came but it was so packed out that we were unable to sit together. My mother in law was able to sit with the deaf and I know it was a blessing to her to be able to chat with them.

The children's chior sung 4 songs including Alive! Alive! that the girls sang in a previous post.

Two children sang their first solos and did a fabulous job. (Emily gets to sing a solo next month.)

After church, Jay, the girls and I went out for lunch. It was nice and intimate and just what we wanted.

After the evening service, we went out to dinner with 2 other couples and had great fellowship. Most of the conversation was on cruises and it got me pumped up and ready to go! Too bad we don't ship out for several more months!

We got home quite late but had promised Rebecca we'd play her new game of Monopoly. It's a Littlest Pet Shop version and is really cute. We stayed up until 11:30 playing! Emily fell asleep at some point on the couch. I felt bad for Jay having to get up and go to work the next morning when the rest of us slept in until 9 a.m.
It's been a fun spring break so far. The girls had a sleep over last night and I have 5 children running around here today. They'd like to go outside but it's only 48 degrees! BRRR It's not quite the way I imagined spring break but we're doing the best with what God's given us.

Recent shopping

I really dislike shopping- clothes, furniture, especially grocery shopping. I am not sure why!

But every so often, I get in a shopping mood. Sometimes that shopping mood is just for Jay, the girls or the house. Rarely do I shop for myself- unless it's for the house and then I consider that for me too.

Lately, I've been in a shop for clothes mood. I have bought all of us a bunch of new clothes. Above is a photo of the dresses I've purchased for the girls. (Not included are the many bathing suits, t-shirts, or Easter dresses)

I was looking on http://www.dillards.com/ and found many of the same dresses I had gotten for the girls. I was shocked at the prices and pleasantly surprised at the amount of money I saved.

I bought both Becca and Emily this dress for $17 each and it's $35 at Dillards. I love it when God blesses me with such low prices.

I love this dress. It is $40 at Dillards and again, I only paid $17.

The orange one is Rebecca's favorite. They are both $45 at Dillards and I paid $17 each. WAHOO!

I bought 10 dresses that day and saved a ton of money!

Thank you Lord!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Busch Gardens opened this weekend and we wanted to take advantage of the only Saturday for awhile without soccer games. We were able to sleep in until 9 and had a slow start.
We stopped for an early lunch at Chick-fil-a in Williamsburg and was kind of stuck there for awhile. A couple of weeks ago, I had set a very full large sweet tea (from Chick-fil-a of course) on the dash board of the car for a second and Jay started to back out, spilling tea everywhere. It got into the controls for the window and door lock on the passenger side door panel. They still worked but the window was wacky. Not thinking, I opened the window a crack and it wouldn't stop going down. Usually, all you had to do was put it up on the drivers side but it didn't work this time. The control had too much sweet tea in it that it was stuck in the down position.
After 40 minutes, Jay got it torn apart and the window back up. Honestly, I felt so bad, physically, that it was looking forward to sitting in the open car while they went to B.G. I couldn't breathe and my head was pounding. Thankfully God saw to it that we were able to go in as a family and I started to feel better. We ended up having a great time!
The weather was perfect until 3:30. Then, without warning, the temperature dropped. It was COLD! We hung around for another couple hours, finding other things to do.
Emily rode the Big Bad Wolf for the very first time. She loved it. I hate roller coasters of any type but have the sickening feeling I will be on that one several times this year. We look forward to going as often as our busy schedules will allow.
Be sure to check out the post below this one and look out for the update with photos from Easter.

First Day of Spring Break

I have been fighting this horrible head cold but I haven't let it get me down. I woke up Friday morning, barely able to breathe but had promised Becca her friend could come over for the day. After some medicine and a nice shower, we went and picked up Christine. They played inside until after lunch when we went outside. It was a bit chilly and windy but they don't care.

Rebecca is just glad that she has someone other than me to play basketball with!

Here are the girls dying eggs. Christine really enjoyed this as she said she hasn't done it "since she was in kindergarten".

The girls are so goofy together but they get along so well. Here's Em pretending to be the baby. Let me tell ya, she's eating this up!

Rebecca learned that she could hang upside down from the bar. Freaks me out in fear that she'll fall and bust her head open but hey, I did the same things as a girl.

We ended the day with Emily's soccer practice and pizza and a movie for dinner.

Happy Easter

Remember that this joyous Easter day is to celebrate that our Lord was crucified, risen and is coming again! Thank you Jesus!

I Corinthians 15:4

"And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: "

This second video was taken first. It's the same song only it's sung by Rebecca.

I loved both the videos and couldn't choose which one to put on here so I went ahead and did both.

Easter party with our co-op

Girls and their hair...

I thought this was too cute not to share. Rebecca had her hair up in double french braids all day yesterday and slept in them last night. After taking the braids out, this was what she looked like. Can you guess what she is thinking? Haha

Emily was in great need of a haircut so I trimmed her hair. Both girls want their hair short but I'm not talented enough for that! I can handle simple trims. I ended up cutting about 2 inches of yucky ends off Em's hair. She was pleased with today's trim.
* Emily had her hair in piggy braids on Sunday and when we took them out on Monday, she wanted them in plain piggy tails. They were all fluffy and fuzzy and she thought they looked like puppy dog ears. She looked oh too cute! At gymnastics, she took them out because she kept placing her hands on them when doing a bridge and backwards roll. ;o)~

Just a quick update

This week has passed by in a blur. We have done school, swimming lessons, gymnastics, babysitting, Easter party with co-op and I'm sick... I have the whole head cold thing going on and I feel miserable. I have photos from the party yesterday that I will post later.
Tomorrow starts our spring break. YAH!! It is a much needed break for all of us. Too bad Jay can't get off.
Rebecca has a friend coming over , we're going to Busch Gardens , Easter stuff, another friend of the girls will spend the night after gymnastics and stay the entire next day, a field trip and a couple playdates are all scheduled for next week. But, no school for Rebecca! Emily will still do some here and there but she really doesn't mind.

"Your faith level is determined by your obedience level." - Dr. Jack Hyles

Emily has picked up on reading lately. She's still in the beginners level 1 books but is reading a bit more fluently now. It's one of the joys that I get to be apart of is knowing that I taught her that!

One of the books she read this morning was called "Big Pig and Little Pig". At the end, there was Pig's favorite snack. It showed how to make a pig out of bread, jelly and raisins. Of course she had to try it out today for lunch!

Now we're off to swimming lessons then gymnastics followed up by a much needed trip to Walmart and the library.

Emily's montage

Emily is becoming quite the photographer. She absolutely loves to take pictures.
During the 30 minute message and prayer, she decided that she would entertain herself by taking photos of her friends.

* please be sure to scroll down and check out the previous posts. I have posted 4 before this one. And I did it all today!

T & T

The T &T-ers had it a lot harder than the Sparks did. The judges were very strict on the rules and did not allow anything to slide. Rebecca and her teammates did a fantastic job today. Their games were very intense and my throat is still sore from yelling.

They played an array of games including tug of war (of sorts), sprints, balloon toss, three legged race, bean bag toss, and other relay races.

There were 12 competing teams and Calvary came in second! On to the championship we go! Thankfully that will also be held at our church. Other competitors will come from the Hampton and Northern Va area. There will be 24 in all and it will be an elimination type competition.

It will be a VERY crowded affair but if you like competition, I suggest you attend!

Go Calvary Go!

Pre games photo

Lots of cheering in the stands from our section

Spark-O-Rama

The AWANA Games started off with the Sparkies competing. These are children grades K-2nd. There were 8 teams playing today from several other churches. They came from all over the surrounding area. It was a blessing that our church was able to host the games. It was all new to us this year. Last year Emily was a Cubbie and they don't compete at that young age. We were excited that she made the team and was able to miss her first soccer game to participate in this.
They started off with pledges to the American flag and the AWANA flag, a skit on salvation, and a message straight from the Word followed by prayer. Then the games began!
It was such a joy to watch them play at this age and level. They all did their best and had fun. The children played games such as a bean bag relay. Each child on each team had to run and get a bean bag from a basket in the middle of the circle and then run back passing it to the next child. Another game was to go as fast as they could around the circle with a bean bag on their head without it falling off. They also did a noodle run where each team had to hold on to a swimming pool noodle and run around the circle seeing who was the fastest. They played Dodge ball, too. Bethany Place, another competing church, had this game to a science and they killed us on it. If they hadn't, our church might have come in first place.
They also played two games with balloons. One of the game was where they had to pass it through each child's legs. When it reached the last child, he or she had to pop it by sitting on it. The other was of a volley ball sort of game. They had the children in the circle split four ways. The object was to not let the balloon touch the floor on your side but to hit it down on your opposing teams side. This one wasn't too exciting.
They came in second place! Go Calvary Go!