Fun Filled, Frenzied Four Day Frolic into Spring Break

It's been a full few days around here as we wrapped up the 3rd quarter at school before spring break began today.  Our daughter's class assembly was held at school on Thursday.  The parents were impressed when the students recited an entire chapter from Philippians from memory.  They diagrammed sentences, quoted math facts, sang history songs in English and Latin, recited all sorts of sea animal facts with sign language and included fun props and jokes to keep the parents and siblings laughing.  Our girl is thriving this year after being so well-prepared by her very tough 4th grade teacher. (Gift #971) She's still maintaining an all A average for the year despite her rigorous competitive team gymnastics schedule, TKD, school plays, church choir, and drama productions.  Thankfully, the school does not give homework, and she rarely has to study, but when the school demands increase, she will have to give up something given that she doesn't even get home until 9pm three nights a week.  I'm proud of her for working so hard in so many different areas this year (Gift #972), though I fear she is exhausting her little body.

 

Since our son is repeating 2nd grade this year (we decided last minute not to keep him a grade ahead for physical development reasons even though the principal had initially agreed that we should skip him to 3rd grade), he has been very bored in class.  He does, however, enjoy the fun enrichment activities at school and has been looking forward to Pirate Day.  The temperature reached 70 degrees on Thursday, but the temperature dropped to the low 20s Thursday night with sleet in the forecast, so he was concerned that school would get cancelled on Pirate Day.   He was so excited about Pirate Day that Thursday evening during his dinner blessing he prayed, "Please don't let school get cancelled tomorrow so I don't miss Pirate Day."  Hearing him actually excited about school was a wonderful gift. (Gift #973) Then while we were enjoying our evening meal, he told us how the pirates would eat rats if there wasn't any food on board. And that brought our meal to an early end. :-)  Of course the rat tales were far better than the stories he had told me earlier that day about how many hits it took to kill Blackbeard and what they did with his remains. Gag! School was delayed two hours, but Pirate Day still happened, albeit later. I could only stay for half of it since I had to teach.  The other parents were fully decked out in awesome pirate attire.

 Had I known, I would have worn my eye patch and pirate scowl.

Here are some pics of our little pirate having a blast on Pirate Day.

Saturday was a juggling act for our family. Our daughter had an 8am gymnastics meet near the beach, so my husband got up at 5am to take her.  God bless that man for being a morning person, for I had only been asleep for two hours when he was waking up, and could not have gotten her there safely without him. (Gift #974)  Considering that she had only had one practice without a boot on her foot or tape around her knee in months, our daughter did great at the meet to be so under practiced. (Gift #975)

 During the long drive home, she entertained herself by taking unusual selfies.

She can balance, tumble, do splits and flips, and keep us entertained during long meet trips!

Meanwhile, I took my son to his last Upward basketball game and stood in my daughter and husband's place as stats girl and assistant coach.  On the way to the game, my son said, " I sure hope my sister does well at her meet today."  I told him that was a very nice thing to say, but he honestly replied, "I just don't want her to come home grumpy and irritable."  Preach it, boy!  They won 38 to 12 with each player scoring at least once.  It was a great last game!

After the game each player received two stars and specific verbal affirmation from the head coach.  Unlike his sister who relishes the limelight, our little guy was so shy during this award portion that the coach offered to let him hide behind his legs until he finished. 

 

After the game I anxiously awaited word from my husband with hope that he would be back in time to watch our son while I went to a baby shower for a dear friend's daughter.  This friend flew in from Los Angelas, CA and really wanted to see me there.  I mumbled to my son, "I wonder why your dad isn't answering his phone or texts. Maybe his battery died. We need to know if he and his sister will be home in time."

And that 8-year-old with an old soul replied, "Now, Mom, let's not go jumping to bad conclusions."  He cracks me up. (Gift #976)

Since my husband and gymnast were not due home until after the shower ended, my son went with me to the baby shower. Contented with the nice spread of food, he behaved quite well indeed. (Gift #977)

I was blessed to see Laurie and her lovely smile (Gift #978)
While celebrating her daughter's expectant child.
She lives in LA, but we met at Gold's Gym.
She became a lawyer and is engaged to Jim

All the adult conversation and food must have worn my little buddy out, because this was my view from the rear view mirror on the way home.

After church on Sunday, Nana and Pops came to visit bearing lots of gifts as always. (Gift #980)  We had a nice visit as my daughter opened her birthday presents from them.  Then they treated us all to yogurt at YoLo where you pay by the ounce, and each kid loaded 12 ounces into their bowls.  Oops.

Even though my husband needs major shoulder surgery soon, he surprised me by signing up to join his work's basketball team.  I'm thankful for the exercise it will give him but hope he will do more damage to his shoulder.  Filled with energy from YoLo, he practiced on our little basketball pad that afternoon.  Even though he says he never wanted a bunny, he's grown attached to Muffin and brought her outside to keep him company while he dribbled and shot.  And I'm sad to report that our most troublesome family member is now officially addicted to weed and grass (even brown, dormant grass).  Oh how I miss the evergreens of our previous Fescue lawn, but at least Bermuda doesn't need much mowing.

We have also been very busy celebrating family birthdays this month.  When our daughter realized that nine of our closest relatives have birthdays in March, she asked, "Why were so many people born in March?"

So her dad replied, "Because most people get married in June. Your mom will explain to you the rest."

Gee thanks, Dear.