Wedding

A couple weeks ago, we were blessed to attend the wedding of our youth pastor to a young woman who grew up in our church.  In fact, Chad and I were her teachers in Sunday school when she was 3 years old!

It was a Godly, modest wedding, and we were blessed to enjoy it as a whole family.

See how much Micah liked it??

Spring Break- -Wingerts

Saturday morning, we went to a park to watch Chad and Jer run a 5K (that Dani worked on organizing!).  There's a great photo at this link:

http://cumberlink.com/news/local/multimedia/photo_galleries/gallery-jig-jog-k/collection_e62eb446-aca4-11e3-aa7c-001a4bcf887a.html#2

They both did great!  Chad was very happy to beat his 30 min goal. 

It was a SUPER windy morning, so some of our group hid out behind the pavilion.  Some of our group enjoyed the playset.  And all of our cheering section tried to avoid the mud from all the melting snow.  Chad and Jer got to run right thru some of it.

Celebrating Don's 68th with a special, delicious coconut pie.

Celebrating Jenna's 12th with a yummy yellow cake with chocolate frosting. 

Spring Break-- Great Wolf

Had a really great time at the Great Wolf Lodge in Poconos.  Our first time to that one.  In comparison, it's much nicer than the Sandusky one.  Not quite as nice as Williamsburg. 

One of the best parts was that Micah enjoyed it.  He still didn't want to do the big slides, but this time he at least wasn't scared of the water!  He enjoyed the kiddie areas, some kids slides, the lazy river (he and I went round and round that for a LONG time while the others did slides), the wave pool, and the hot tub. 

Lunch by the wave pool.

I guess Chad was fascinated with this...

This ride was one of our favorites.  We don't remember the real name. ( I wish they would keep the names the same for each GWL.  The names here were rather unrememberable.)  This slide went round and round and flushed you out the bottom, sort of like a toilet bowl. :) 

Another State!

Bad photo.  And doesn't seem very interesting since we very regularly enter and exit PA.  However, this was entering PA from NJ.  The kids hadn't been in NJ before, and it was pretty close to Easton.  Thus, we jogged out of our way just to say we'd been there.  We were in it for all of 1-2 min.  And then we had to pay a toll to exit!  Plus, they didn't even have a welcome sign for us to take a pic of.  Not sure the kids have such a great view of New Jersey now, but at least they can say they were in it. :) 

Spring Break-- Crayola

Short, fun trip for our spring break (which was neither in the spring season nor spring weather!).  Started at the Crayola Experience in Easton, PA.  Had a lot of fun there-- even the adults and older kids enjoyed this.

The machine below makes little molded figures from melted crayons.  Micah was most fascinated with watching the timer for the machine after he put in a crayon of his choice.

This room had water in a "canal" with boats the kids could guide and  locks that the kids could work.  It was a terrific way to learn about canals and locks.  Not real sure why it's in the Crayola place...

Above-- a sort of giant touch-screen computer that the kids could work by stepping on it.  It really was a lot of fun to do and watch.

In this room, we each had our own iPad, drew something on it, and then our drawing went up to the large projection on the wall.  Here you can see what Katie drew...

Micah loved this pinball-type thing.

We made our own crayon labels.  Obviously, this is Chad's creation.

Here a camera took a photo and turned it into a line drawing, then printed it so we could color them.  

Can you spot the real people?

Jack and Micah

Micah and his friend, Jack, had a ton of fun for a day during spring break.  Was nice for me, too!  They were so busy...

Snow Tubing

Chad took Claire and Micah and Devin (one of Chad's AWANA kids) snow tubing, on one of the warmest days in the past 4-5 months.  They didn't bother with winter coats, boots, snowpants, gloves... It was almost 70 that day, I think.  The tubes don't go as far in weather like that, but they still had lots of fun!

Recital Videos

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

Recital videos of the Wingert Virtuosos:

Piano recital 2014...

Claire...

http://youtu.be/wqrSOnWklMg

Jenna...

 http://youtu.be/PDykAHG2N1s

Katie...

http://youtu.be/d3OGKPu9kLw

The Long Winter by Claire

The Long Winter by Claire Wingert

Snow has been falling forever!

Constantly, since November!

Winter seems that it won't stop

It's stopping up the farmer's crop.

My love for snow has gone downhill

As far as I know, its descending still.

Grass has never seemed so green

The color is becoming so unseen.

Finally, spring is sneaking up behind

No snow tomorrow we will find.

Green grass reaching up to the sky,

Winter saying it's last cold goodbye.

Remembering Chad's Uncle Jerel

This is a photo of Chad's Uncle Jerel, who passed away last Thursday.  He was Anita's brother (the 4th out of the 7 kids; Anita is the 6th).  Jerel was a pastor in the Brethren in Christ church (in IL, CA, PA, IN) for 37 years total.  For the last several years, they lived back in PA, a half hour or so from Chad's parents.

We were all able to attend the funeral on Saturday, and it was a blessing for our family.  At any Christian funeral, it's always a good reminder to me of what really is important in life.  It was also good for us all to hear so much family history, to reconnect with the Book family that's in the area (the rest is in CA, KS, MO), and for our kids to experience it all.

This has to be something they'll remember.  Lots of questions before it.  Some questions after.  When everyone was in line for the viewing before the service, Claire asked if she could touch Uncle Jerel's body when we got up there.  Both she and Micah wanted to touch him.  I  don't know if I ever had that much curiosity!   I know Micah was processing the whole thing we've told him-- about how the "real" Uncle Jerel is now in heaven with Jesus.

Before we went, I imagined a FRIGID graveside ceremony, because I was remembering the one for Gma Wingert.  (Yikes, that was cold and windy!)  However, it really wasn't that cold, and it was right next to the church, so there was no long processional.

Jerel was a special uncle to Chad when he was growing up-- a fun, caring person.  He touched a lot of lives through his 73 years.  A Godly example to many.  And he was full of funny poems.  Nice that his family now has those to help them remember Jerel.

My Birthday

This the the photo of me that Chad posted on FB for my bday last week.  One of our favorite photos. 

I had a really nice bday.  Really, a lot nicer than last year's.  I guess I've finally resigned myself to the 40 range.  

That morning, they gave me a couple little presents (earrings, music notepaper).  Then we all had to get ready to run out the door. I took K to Martinsburg and then zoomed to Grace.  Takes 34 min to go from one to the other.  It was the day of Grace's music fine arts.  Because I had students performing, I didn't have to judge (yippee!) like I did for the speech fine arts the day before.  Because I was already going to be there to watch my students, I agreed to accompany some of the vocal students.  They all did a fine job!  It's really boring to sit thru all the silent judging time after each performance (I noticed things about that room that I'd never seen before!), but it's a joy to hear the kids' music!  One of the 5th grade girls I accompanied is already a terrific musician... it's SO much fun to accompany for someone (like Lea Anne! :) who sings with emotion and feeling!  Caroline sang God Help the Outcasts and it was gorgeous.

Then I got $200 worth of groceries (arguably the worst part of my day, but at least I got to do it alone-- I still marvel over how nice that is).  Went home to put all that away.

I had one piano student; Katie came home; then Chad came home with pizza from Ledos.  Yum!!  And he brought special donuts for dessert.  Ever had raised donut with chocolate frosting and brownie batter filling??  Mmmm.  A few more nice presents.  A few nice phone calls (Nate's family sings a beautiful rendition of the birthday song!). 

I really am blessed with a wonderful family and so many terrific friends!

Fri pm, we met Chad's parents in Chambersburg for supper at Cracker Barrel-- very nice way to celebrate.  Included delicious chocolate cake made by Anita. 

Twins

Kinda look like twins, don't they?

They both fell asleep while we watching the Olympics.

Piano Recital

Piano recital was last Sunday.  Went very well.  Sorry we didn't get an individual pic of Katie playing.  We do have some video clips we'll try to get on here later.  

These are not all my students.  The ones from school aren't required to be in this recital, since they have to be in the school one in May.  Also, I have 2 more home students-- one is a 5th grader that just started, and one is the dad of the 2 Asian kids.  With the adults, I give them the choice whether or not to be in the recital. 

They think it's spring!

Had a lovely warm Saturday a week ago.  Girls were so thrilled with it-- they spent a couple hours outside.  Laying in the sun, drawing with sidewalk chalk, running around capturing each other (I think Katie was an ogre and she tied up J and C :).  Came in good and muddy.