Party Day

Party day in the first grade-- we had yummy food (which Claire wasn't excited about, so she ate her regular lunch :), played lots of games outside, and cleaned the desks with shaving cream. Kids had lots of fun with this!










Micah played in Daddy's office for a bit, ate his lunch, and then took a nap in the sickroom for a couple hours.

Train Tracks

Micah and Daddy put together a bunch of our train tracks in the hall. Sorry a pic can't do it justice. The track snaked around the railing by our steps, narrowly avoiding the large cliff; and then curved around to go under the hall table at the top of our steps, barely fitting under the tunnel; and then going over a hill and into the bathroom where Jenna had set up a forest of trees. This fascinated Micah for quite a while, and we left it up for about 3 days-- til Mommy could stand it no longer. :)

Jenna's Date with Daddy

Chad took Jenna mini-golfing (indoor) and then to supper at Sheetz. Pretty exciting-- they got to order on the touch screen computer. :)

Big Bike Ride

On Saturday Chad and Katie took a 9-mile bike ride from our house to Hedgesville. Katie did great, even on all those hills! The rest of us came in the van and caught up with them about 1/2 mile from the softball field which was our destination. Katie wanted to get in the van right there, but Chad talked her into going the whole way. She did it! And hardly looked worse for the wear afterward. She was a little sore the next day, tho.

Here they had a cracker and drink break beside a pond. You can see everything is VERY green! We've had so much rain the past couple weeks-- it's been good to help the lawns recover from the drought last year, but with the flooding issues, everyone is now ready for the rain to slow up.

We went to a girls' softball game that our neighbor, Taylor, was playing in. Fun to see her play and sit with her family.

Potty Party Pooper

On May 17, 2011, our calendar says "POTTY TRAIN" in big letters. This was so I couldn't back out or schedule anything on top of it. And, we definitely did try yesterday, but Micah was a party pooper once again. :) Shouldn't really blame him; he's just not ready. I am. He's not.

I really knew before we started that we were doomed. I've got a book that has helped us with potty training ideas for all our kids, and it lists some signs for potty training readiness. Out of the 8 primary signs, Micah has only ONE of them. However, he also has a mom that really wants him potty trained. Doesn't that count?

So we tried yesterday. And he did something in the potty several times yesterday, and really enjoyed the chocolate chip reward. Then I'd set the timer for 15 min. A couple times he made it to the 15 min staying dry, but mostly he was wet in 15 min. I went thru a lot of laundry!

And I've decided to wait again. Guess we'll buy some more diapers. Will make for easier summer traveling, tho.

en espanol

Kids Praise Night

This evening was our last Children's Choir of the year-- we took up probably 40 min of the pm service. Each of the 3 groups sang a few songs, the kids handbells group played a few songs, and several piano students played as well. The kids all did a terrific job!

In the pic, Claire is in the purple dress in the middle front. Jenna is kind of right behind her.

My group got to sit by the woman who was interpreting for the deaf, so it was fun to watch her as well. :)

After this, we went back to our regular room and partied! Well, I let the kids run around in the gym for 10 min while some ladies prepared our food, and then we ate lots of junk. Ice cream with toppings and other snacks. It was a fun way to end the year.

As much as a I enjoy children's choir, I sure look forward to having the summer off, too.

Micah...

2 Micah topics:

Yesterday, I was changing Micah's diaper when he said, "Mommy?" I said, "Yes, son?"

I guess I never use that word with him, because he said, "I'm not SON, I'm MICAH." To which I laughed. Then he was quiet for a bit and my mind started going in a different direction. Then he said, "Mommy, you're a star." I said, "Thanks!" wondering why he said that. Then he said, "You're a star and I'm a sun." Now I got it!

The other topic to share is just how privileged I feel to have changed the stinky diaper of a 3-year-old in an airplane bathroom. :) Never did I hope for that privilege, but it sure did provide an interesting experience. Esp since he is longer than the bathroom is wide. There's a skinny little flat board that folds down out of the wall... since he couldn't fit lengthwise, I had him diagonal (and he was very nervous about this, so I got him singing "There were 10 in a bed and the little one said Roll Over! and that lasted a while) and his FEET were in the SINK. And, if you could see the proportions here, you would understand that the stinky diaper was barely still on the "table". I was a little worried about it falling down, and into the toilet, and creating a big mess on the way. So, I got the diaper changed and had him sitting on the table, but his pants and shoes were off. And I couldn't reach them because I had dropped them to the floor and there was no way to bend over to get them. So I had to open the bathroom door, and in full view of the airplane passengers (we were in the front bathroom), I had to finish dressing him.

Exciting adventure! And, if now you're saying, "When are you going to potty train that kid??" It's on my calendar, in big letters so I can't back out, for next Tuesday, the 17th. :) We'll see what happens!

wedding video

Micah, Caleb, Lily, Adelle (Jer's friend Nate's little girl) just before the wedding

Travel Home

Chad and Micah check out all the snow. Right about here is also when we discovered we'd taken The Porches' garage door opener with us by mistake. :( Chad's mailing it back today.

Waterfall and water wheel along the road.

Saying goodbye to our VW minivan rental. Kids loved how the windows in the back rolled down. We'll have to look for that feature on our next van! I loved all the space in the back.

When we got to the airport, we discovered our plane would be delayed more than an hour. So we took our time getting over to our gate. We got on the first car in the underground train that takes people to the concourses-- we all enjoyed that. Fun to be able to see where you're going. They had installed hundreds of pinwheels in the wall, so it was fun to watch them as we "flew" past.

Other than that delay, it really was an uneventful trip home. Some of us slept on the plane. All the kids slept in our van on the way home from Baltimore. We arrived a little before 2am. We got everyone into bed, unloaded the van, and then Chad went to school to work. Figured he'd rather get to his extra work before all the people arrived. I went to bed!

Mondays are my big lesson day, starting at noon at school. The girls slept in and then I took them to school at noon with me. Chad went home right about then and went to bed for a few hours.

It's interesting to see how the time change/travel affects sleeping patterns. This morning, Micah slept til 8am! That's pretty unusual. Usually, he comes running out around 6:30am when the girls are getting ready for school.

The Porches

This collection of pics is purely to show you where we stayed. The nicest place I've ever stayed! I think Jer said that the condo we stayed would rent for $20,000 for the week of Christmas. Yikes. But in the off-season, it's only $2,000 per week. :) (Jer, correct me if I'm wrong) This is it-- above is the front view. The St. Johns stayed on the left side of the house, in a somewhat smaller condo. We had the right side.

This is it from the side, including the garage on the far right.

From our front porch, we could see The Barn, where the reception was and where the kids went swimming.

This is down in the game room. And, really, pics don't do this justice. The room is very spacious.

The kitchenette downstairs-- I took the pics so you could see the inlay on the countertop.

This is on the main floor.

This is the main floor bathroom (every room also had it's own bath). Copper? countertop and a black toilet. :)

Don and Anita's bathroom

Don and Anita's room. With view of mountains.

At the top of the steps, on the 3rd floor. Nate and Wendy and kids had 2 rooms up here, and we had 1 large one.

Our perfect room. Had lots of closet space, drawer space, shelf space, our own bathroom, etc. A bed for each of us. A little table with a checkerboard on it (K and J played checkers with Hershey kisses). Our own TV with DVD player, etc. Each room had its own TV. We don't really watch much TV, but this worked out great for mornings when the kids were up at 5am (time change) and we wanted to keep them quiet.

Family

We arrived Thur pm, just after Nate and Wendy and kids arrived from their long CA to CO road trip. Don and Anita had been there since Tues. Jer's friend Dave also stayed in the house with us, and so did Nate and Kate (friends of Jer's and Nate was the officiant for the wedding) with their adorable little baby. Enjoying the pool at The Barn, a short walk from our condo. I thought the air was chilly when they got in, but the sun was warm! It probably got up to 70, and the water was 85ish?

Madison and Caleb play pool their own way. The bottom floor of our condo had a pool table, foosball, large TV, and we brought our Wii. We watched old home videos, too.

Of course, we had lots of great food. :) Micah's enjoying a huge cookie (and it made a huge mess). Probably my favorite of the weekend was the Qdoba's taco bar we had for the rehearsal dinner. There were lots of leftovers, so we were able to have it for another meal, as well.

The kids went on several walks (nice way to get them out of the house :). Micah and Caleb couldn't get enough of throwing stones into the ditches. I was sure someone would fall in the water sometime, but they never did.

This is the Yampa River, behind the library parking lot.

Snow was melting like crazy (they had a crazy amount of snow this year, and every year-- how much, Jer?) so there was plenty of water around.

Caleb, Madison and Claire standing on snow on Mother's Day.

The men took the kids out for an early walk on Mother's Day, so the mothers could have a little peace. I packed. :) After a long walk around the neighborhood, most of them also walked to the market for donuts.

Newlyweds, Jeremy and Danielle Wingert!

Nathan, Jeremy, Chad

Reception

Driving thru Steamboat back to The Porches, where the reception was held.

Kids enjoyed the bubbles!

The reception was held in The Barn, which I guess you'd call the clubhouse for The Porches. It's where Jer works as a concierge. Very lovely building, as is everything owned by The Porches.

Jer and Dani cutting their cake-- yummy coconut cake and a variety of cupcakes. The food was very unusual and good-- fun to try different things. I wish I could tell what we ate. Mostly vegetarian. A couple frittatas, one with broccoli. An asparagus crepe I'm sure my mom would have loved. :) Strawberry/cream cheese dessert crepe. There were also a few coffeecake and fruit type things that the kids liked.

Micah with Danielle. That may be the best smile we captured from him all weekend. I think he likes her. :)

Wedding Day, May 7

Saturday was wedding day! Jeremy married Danielle Marie St. John, and now there are 4 Mrs. Wingerts. :) It was a very simple, pretty wedding in a lovely setting.

Anita read part of I Cor 13 during the ceremony.

Chad was one of the groomsmen, along with his brother, Nathan, and one of Jer's friends, Dave.

All of the Wingerts, except Danielle. (Why wasn't she in this pic?) We're outside the library where the wedding was, with the Yampa River behind us (Chad and I tubed down that river back in 2006).

Micah wasn't very happy about the picture-taking, but it was a beautiful day to play outside! During the wedding, he and Lily and Caleb played in the library with one of Jer and Dani's friends.

Nathan with Madison (one of the flower girls) and Caleb

I played piano for the ceremony.

Jenna and Madison. Jenna passed out programs before the wedding.

Lily and Claire. Claire passed out little containers of bubbles.

Katie was a beautiful junior bridesmaid. She wasn't feeling very well, and even felt like she was going to pass out during the ceremony; but she looked great!

Don and Anita, Dani and Jer

Three brothers