AWANA

We wrapped up the season for AWANA tonight, celebrating with a potluck and awards banquet. The kids had a great year in AWANA and all of them worked really hard. Emily started out behind her peers (b/c she hadn't been as motivated at our last AWANA and was a whole book behind them). She worked hard and caught up, earning several different awards! We're proud of all of the kids and are glad that they enjoy memorizing scripture. We're also thankful for the faithful folks who organize and run the AWANA program every week.

Scenes from Easter 2011

I'm posting a random assortment of pictures from Easter. It was a busy weekend. The bunny rabbit photo (Levi and Anna) is from a block party that our church held (and we helped out with) the day before Easter. Emily and I were also able to squeeze in attending a Mother/Daughter tea! Anna and I worked in the nursery at church Sunday morning. Anna's favorite baby was there and she had fun reading stories to her! The rest is probably self explanatory. We enjoyed an egg hunt and potluck get together with extended family after church (it was a bit on the chilly side, so we hid the eggs in the basement).

Emily's cool new camera

Emily has been babysitting a few times a month (bright and early, for the little boys across the street ~ whose mom works the night shift). She has been saving up money to buy a new camera. She finally did it and is enjoying her new "toy"! She's been experimenting with all its nifty modes and features. Her favorites are the black and white mode, the 'smile feature' (where the camera will automatically take a photo when it determines that you are smiling!) and the color highlight mode (where it takes a black and white photo, except for one particular color which it will highlight for you). Fortunately she has lots of willing (and did I mention silly?) subjects to practice her budding photography skills on!

Levi's surgery

Normally we eat apple pie and pizza to celebrate Tax Day, but this year Levi celebrated by having surgery ~ a 4 hour outpatient procedure to repair a hole in his inner ear. They did a great job and he is recovering well. Because of the size of the hole, they had to take skin from behind his ear (to use as the inside patch). So, he's now sporting 19 very impressive stitches just behind his ear. He's had a great attitude about having to wear a strange contraption around his head and refrain from many of his favorite activities (which would include nearly everything except for lying down and standing still!). He isn't even allowed to blow his nose!, so I'm trying to be a good sport about not constantly reminding him to =) The kids were so excited when he arrived home, he got a bit bombarded right when he walked in the door. We had to pull them away, so he could eat some applesauce and head to bed!