by the river

Geocaching takes our family to lots of new places.  One rainy day we decided to go look for a few.  We ended up down by the river.  The boys had lots of fun exploring. 

 Titus is usually such a happy, smiley baby boy.  It's a bit hard to see, but this face is one of pure joy.

 One of the caches that we found was located WAY up high in a sign post.  It took a little figuring as to how we were going to reach it -- here they are forming a plan.

 Got it!  (I missed it in the picture, but Mark is standing on the post with Levi on his shoulders -- way safe!)

 Since Levi got to get it down, Isaiah got to put it back up.

 The boys loved getting close to the very flooded river.  Look at all that water!

 I love that geocaching gets us outside and exploring as a family!  

Love Cedar Valley

Our small group passed out free lunches at the bus station again this year for Love Cedar Valley.  What a neat way to share God's love with the community.

Its a neat way to get the kids involved too as they can easily hold up the "free lunch" signs and pass out the lunches to anyone who comes by.  

Because we were a little short on help this year we only did 150 lunches (I think) which still is a lot of free food!  Everyone who collects the lunches always seems to be so grateful and I'm sure it is a big help to some who struggle to find their next meal (so sad!).

Another group happened to walk by handing out free flowers and gave one to Isaiah.  He thought it was pretty cool.

Titus wasn't exactly thrilled with his position of being trapped in the stroller.  Unfortunately Mark was unable to attend this year so I had to make sure all 3 boys were safe and this was the easiest way for me to have my eye on him.  He did cheer up when he got to help hold the sign or eat a cookie :)

Here is a picture of our group from the day.  Brian, Mindy Lilian and Aaron, Chad, Erica, Caleb and Elise and me and the boys.

I wish that there were more days like this that we could give back to the community - I may just have to go seeking opportunities that I can help with three littles in tow.

School Carnival!

Isaiah's school carnival was the first Friday in May.  The kindergarten classes were to bring cakes for the cake walk.  Isaiah decided that rather than bringing one cake, he wanted to bring 5.  I figured we could do that so we spent the day before making lots of cakes!  (I'm pretty sure the one not pictured never made it to the carnival, but instead stayed home. haha)

Look at my handsome husband who came along with us....love you.  

The first stop was the hat walk.  Isaiah and Levi were the only kids waiting to play when the carnival started so they let them play alone.   Which was so nice since obviously one of them would win! 

The winner was...

The workers at the hat walk then let Isaiah play by himself so he could win too :)  Phew!  No upset kids. 

We played lots of other games and won tons of silly little prizes.  We had dinner in the cafeteria and even made a visit to the jumpy houses that were in the gym.

But our favorite game for the second year in a row was the book walk.  The best part of this game is that they always pick 5 or more winners.  The prize, of course, is a book which are donated books and they have boxes and boxes so they can award plenty of prizes!

I think we went home with 6 new (to us) books that night!  

It ended up being a rainy night which was perfect for their new hats.  They walked to the car with them on and had fun playing in the driveway and staying dry!

Titus, on the other hand, didn't win a hat and got wet :)  Poor baby. 

What a fun night!  The boys can't wait for the next one.  I wonder what the 1st graders will have to bring!

May Day!

I think May Day baskets are kind of a thing of the past around here, but I have fun memories of running around passing out May Day baskets so we still do them at our house. :)   This year we did super simple "baskets" with popcorn and a couple kinds of candy.  (Luckily our store had a popcorn machine full of popcorn that we could use -- so it was the best kind of popcorn possible, in my opinion).  We picked a few friends to make baskets for as we had a playdate with our friends Jayda, Jonah and Silas that night.  

First stop ... the neighbor boys Ben and Joe.

Next stop one of Isaiah's favorite classmates - Viviane and her sister Val and brother Victor.

They were the only friends who were actually home when we delivered them - they didn't quite know what in the world we were doing, but were thrilled with the afternoon snack!

On to Evelyn and Brayden's house.  We left the treats in a special spot to be sure they wouldn't blow away! 

Finally we went to drop off a basket for Caiden and then on to delivering Jayda, Jonah and Silas' baskets - somehow I didn't take pictures - maybe the camera battery died?  But we did end up having a fun night with friends and the kids enjoyed eating the rest of the May Day candy while we were there! :)

Happy Birthday Mrs Knapp

Levi's preschool teacher's birthday was late April.  He thought it would be nice to give her a present.  I picked out a little purple rose bush and he timidly gave it to her on her special day.  

Happy Birthday Jagger!

Levi was invited to his friend Jagger's birthday party in April.  This was his first friend birthday party that he was invited to where we weren't friends with the parents first -- kind of a big deal -- but he did invite the entire preschool class :)  It was at KT's Inflatable park and they all had a BLAST.  Levi was loving every minute of his friends.

Titus had a great time too.  Luckily the parents of the party were open to siblings tagging along.

Here is Levi and the birthday boy.

And the whole group minus a couple kids who had left before the picture - look at all those BOYS!  

I love the excitement that birthday parties bring to these little kids.  Happy Birthday Jagger!

Kindergarten Talent Show

Isaiah's elementary school had a school wide talent show that the entire kindergarten entered as a group.  It was at the end of a school day in late April.  Levi was thrilled to be there :)

Isaiah was excited too -- they were to wear plain black or white and being that it was the last part of the day there was no way I was sending him to school in white.  Apparently we didn't look very closely when sending him to school as he clearly has his shirt on backwards :) (Just for the record, I did have to leave for work before he got dressed that day haha)

The kindergarten class was the last group to perform so it got a bit long for Levi and Titus (and the parents/grandparents too:) to watch all the other acts.  Luckily we were seated right by the side door that was wide open so we took turns sneaking out (Mostly Mark - thanks honey!)

When it was (finally) the kindergartners turn, the came out on stage looking so cute singing to "Pete the Cat and his 5 Crazy Buttons." Ms Opelt (the librarian) was dressed up as Pete.  You will see Isaiah in the middle of the front row.

The kindergartners all seemed pretty excited about their song and looked adorable.  

After the show they headed back for the last 20 minutes of school and we headed out to the playground to wait.  My parents made it to the show which it's always nice to have an extra set of hands to help with the littles.

Mark's dad and step-mom made the event too!

Titus loves to wait right outside Isaiah's classroom door in the rocks.  Thankfully he really has learned not to put them in his mouth!  

What a fun event!  Way to go Isaiah!