Playing Together Well! - March 30, 2011

Ayden had an idea to make a puzzle and smart Granny helped him find something to make the puzzle out of, an O's cereal box! I love seeing or hearing about moments where Ayden and Gabriel cooperate and get along, so I had to blog about it! :)

First Hangout in the Backyard After Winter! - March 29, 2011

They were cute and wanted to bring a ball in the backyard once it wasn't too cold anymore. They were playing that game where you role the ball back and forth on the ground. :)

Spring Soccer Season - March 21, 2011

This was one of the first days of practice for the Spring season. Ayden gives the ball a big kick!

Dribbling!

Shooting to score!

Scrimmage!

Ayden's Classroom Art Centers - Late March, Early April 2011

Before the Christmas break, we found out the unfortunate news that Ayden's wonderful Kindergarten teacher had cancer, a mass in her chest cavity. In order to keep going in her job, she needed the help of substitute teachers while she was out for chemo treatment along with any help she could get from parents. The room Mom, Amanda asked if I would be willing to take on art centers for the class each week. Since I can't ever resist crafty projects and I get a big kick out of helping the kids in Ayden's classroom, I signed up! In March, I found this idea online (photo above) for St. Patrick's Day. The little guys below the rainbow are leprechans and the circles are gold coins with each child's photo on them.

This photo was from the week that we celebrated Presidents Day. Each star had the name of a president starting from George Washington all the way to Obama! We wrote which number president they each were in our history and decorated the stars with blue and red glitter!

During the early Spring, we made tissue paper flowers and butterflies. These made the room look so cheery! Can you tell I had a great time with this job in the classroom? :)

Sunday in the Park - March 20, 2011

I love this park down in Apex! A friend introduced me to it and we don't go too often since it isn't too cloes, but it is a very imaginative, fort like play groud and the kids love it!

Hanging out in the "ship" portion of the play ground.

Ayden has come along way on the monkey bars in the last year! He has enough strength in his arms now to get all the way across. This was a weekend when Granny and Papi were with us during the time when Julio was traveling a lot with his new international role. The kids and I were so glad to have the company!

Life Group Service & Fun! - March 18 2011

Above, a pic of Byron and Julio working on a Durham Rescue Mission remodel! In March of this year, our life group (church group that meets for bible study, service in the community and social time) went to the Durham Rescue Mission to work on a project that are church is a part of. The mission purchased a few old, run down homes that are right next to their Women's facility and Crosspointe (our church) agreed to head up a team of volunteers to help remodel these homes so that some families that come to the mission for help can live in them. Most of the photos below are of all the children in our life group who stayed at our house while we went to do the service project. We have had the privilege of having two wonderful high-schoolers to watch our kids while we either meet for bible study or do projects and they took care of them that day. :) They even fit in a little bible study for the kids and a craft too!
The ladies of the group posing like Charlie's Angels! We called ourselves "Stoner's Angels" because the man from our church who is leading this project is named Randy Stoner! :) Yep, we have paint brushes in our hands!

Time to decorate the sidewalk!

This is Andrew, Wendy's youngest. :) Doesn't he have the most beautiful eyes?!!

Miss Ruth, one of our awesome babysitters! :)

This is adorable Bliss! Byron and Rachel's oldest!

This is Isabella, Wendy's beautiful middle child.

The whole group having a snack out front on the sidewalk!

This is Alex! Wendy's oldest son who is almost exactly Ayden's age. :)

They made tissue paper flowers! :)

This is Ashley, who has graciously filled in for either Rachel or Ruth (our regular life group babysitters) from time to time. :)

Little Miss Zoey, Byron and Rachel's youngest and super cute daughter!

The whole gang sitting down to get ready for lunch!

Isabella's silly face! :)

The same from Bliss!

Ditto from Ayden!

And ditto again from Alex! :)

This is Gabriel's attempt at a silly face, I think. He looks more cute to me than silly. :) He managed to dress up in the ninja costume for the indoor portion of the morning! :) The kids had a great time! We were missing the Drotts children that day, but had most of the group! :) We all were so glad we served!

St. Patrick's Day - Grandma Gayle Visit - March 17, 2011

All dressed in green...no pinching around here!

Grandma Gayle came up with scavenger hunt game with clues!

There was a pot of gold or rather a rainbow of jelly beans at the end of the hunt! :)

Grandma Gayle came to visit us for a whole week and her trip fell on this holiday so we decided to have a little fun with it!

My Mom and I worked hard on a traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner! I sometimes get carried away and in this case I did...green, shamrock shaped biscuits!

Here we all are at dinner! We even found a shamrock plant at Trader Joe's for table decor! Ayden is holding up a book that we found at the library that gave all kinds of information about St. Patrick's Day and how it originated.

Carried away again! Shamrock shaped jello and some whip cream! :) Ayden had been waiting for me to make jello for months!