Soccer! Soccer is intense here. Practices started up mid-April, and games began the first week in May. Emma and Cal are playing. Cal has practices each night, M-F and Emma has one practice a week on Friday. They each have games on Tuesday and Thursday. So total, we have 6 practices and four games a week (on average, when they don't get cancelled). The first games were great! We were sitting around for almost 20 minutes for Cal's coach to show up (who the kids and parents all thought was absolutely fabulous!) to the first game. Then a parent, who was a policeman showed up on the scene and announced that their coach wouldn't be making it since he was booked into jail that afternoon. Wow...only in Rawlins! So some of the other parents stepped in and the kids had a great game. Both of the kids have had rave reviews and love being out on the soccer field. Emma runs after the ball and kick it if it gets up to her but is working on following through. Cal is not as aggressive with soccer as we thought he would be. But he's really liking it and has even scored a goal! Emma's already asked if she can play next year and is having a great time! And that's the most important thing. The teams are co-ed, which is interesting, but the kids are all very nice to each other and it seems to work out well. Cal especially likes Austin on his team, and loves playing against a team all of his buddies is on (Wilk, Noah, Evie and Emma) and Emma is excited to have Christine and Bella on her team. It is fun to see them in action and be a soccer mom! Go Tornados (Cal's team) and Rapids (Em's team)!
May Day! The first day of May, we learned about May Day and the May pole and we made our own. Cal and Lucy had so much fun dancing around the may pole, trying to weave the ribbon into patterns. Then Emma and Kenna and Zoey enjoyed playing with it too, and then just dancing with the ribbons. They also made up a little dance and play with it. It was fun to watch their creativity at work! We also made flowers to give away, as is tradition for May Day. We made tissue paper flowers and gave them to a lady who lives by us whose husband just passed away. We attended the viewing to give her the flowers and a hug. On the way in, Lucy also picked some dandelions to give to her, since Lucy loves dandelions and thinks they're so pretty. When the kids handed them to her, I was so proud. Cal went right up and gave her a huge hug and Lucy was a little more hesitant and shy but gave her the dandelions which brought tears to her eyes. I told the kids after that I was proud of the way they helped cheer her up and asked them how they felt. Cal told me "When I gave her those flowers and a hug, I felt the Holy Spirit." Lucy just smiled and said "I feel happy!" We recently got a card from our friend thanking us and telling us how their flowers touched her deeply and it was something she'll remember for a long time. Emma also felt happy, too, though she couldn't go and give them in person. She got a big smile on her face when I told her what the card said and that she spent a long time making sure her paper rose looked beautiful. It makes me happy to see them have these experiences and to look beyond themselves to learn to help others and in so doing, recognize what the Spirit feels like.
Nice weekends with friends! One day, I went with Mariah and Shelly to the stake Relief Society conference in Laramie. It was awesome! The decorations were so chic and the breakfast was tasty. Even better though, the messages from the workshops and speakers we heard from were amazing! We learned about holding to the iron rod, embracing our differences and accepting all, and creating a strong sisterhood. The theme was "Remember who you are and whose you are". I am so thankful I know I am a daughter of God and that the Savior payed the price for me so I can get back to Him and my family someday! I'm grateful for the amazing sisters that surround me! It was an enlightening morning. While we were there, the dads (Dave, Toby & Ben) took the kids to go shoot gophers. Emma and Cal shot a gun for the first time, and thought that was totally the bees knees! They said the gophers were so cute... But Dave only took a few shots of the dead ones. Luckily, no one was hurt, and we met up in Laramie at Sonic for drinks. Then we drove over to Fort Collins. It was a beautiful drive and a nice, warm day! We did some shopping at the mall, which was like a ghost town since they're doing construction on it right now so many shops have moved out in the meantime. For part of the drives, Cal went with Noah and Jett and Evie came with us so we had the girls. The boys were always giggling a ton and Evie said more than once "I wish you guys were my cousins!" They all get along, and we just love hanging out with the Schaefs and the Smiths! Then we went to P.F. Changs for take-out and drove over to the Drive-In theatre to watch Spiderman 2. We ate and talked, played and ran around, and then watched the movie. It was okay, not my favorite. Our kids were all whiney/fussy/sad/tired/overstimulated that night so it was a little stressful. But about halfway through, they all fell asleep...phew! We got home about 2 in the morning so we were so tired but it was worth it!
More Snow! More snow!?!? Yes, that's right! We just can't seem to knock it, but from what we understand, it can snow in the summer here too. So we will be patient. One morning though, Cal woke up and looked out the window and said so excitedly "Mom! Look at those little white flowers growing!" I so didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I had to tell him that it was snow and not flowers. He was a little dissapointed. I was even more dissapointed. Lucy that same morning said "I want to wear something for Spring!" I wish we could put away all of the snow clothes, but they're probably going to stay out year round. We heard summer is perfect here, so we're waiting anxiously for that! Luckily, Em always has a good attitude about the snow and is a good example to the rest of us. See the Mother's Day post to follow for more on that. Okay, to be fair, we did get some sun! We had some very lovely days that hit almost 70 degrees! One day, we went out to play at the park for playgroup in the morning. Then we went on a picnic with Robyn and Garrett. And who was the mom who forgot the sunscreen? This mom! Oh, I felt so bad! When Cov woke up from his nap, he was bright red! I slathered aloe vera all over him. The other kids weren't too bad, but they and I had little farmer tans. I'm not in that mode yet, I guess. I put more sunscreen in my purse and in the car though so I better remember next time.
Lots of reading! Okay, okay so there's always lots of reading going on around here. But we just finished our first chapter book we've read out loud together as a family, "The BFG" by Roald Dahl, and the kids loved it! (Those little chiddlers enjoy now speaking of whizpopping and asking "Am I left or right?") We also read "The Littles" and are starting "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" now. It's been so fun reading long chapter books together and I'm actually how surprised how much Cal and Lucy pay attention for so long and want to read more! Emma's also really getting into reading and we always catch her staying up late with her flashlight trying to get a few more chapters in. She has read pretty much every Junie B. Jones book written and loves the Rainbow Fairy books. She will read one in one night! Cal loves reading Ninjago, Marvel comic book readers, and is starting to read many words on his own now and sounding out lots of words. He likes to read the same books over and over (and I have to remind myself that's okay because repetition is good, even if it gets old). Because we got great reports back from Parent Teacher conferences for Emma, I got a book for her and the rest of the kids from the book fair. Lucy was especially excited about hers because the title was "Little Lucy" and it was about a dog. She likes reading just about anything though. Covey even enjoys sinking his teeth (sometimes literally) into good books. He likes sitting in my lap listening to me read or holding books himself looking at the bright pictures and especially likes pictures of other babies in the books.
Well, we've had some good times in May so far . We're about halfway through the month as I mentioned...where are you Spring? Anytime now, please! We've decided we'll probably have 8 months of winter here, 1 month of spring, 2 months of summer and 1 month of fall. And we're okay with that! Right?! :)
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