Tim and I celebrated our 14th anniversary in April! It's hard to believe that it's been that long already and yet it is only a small portion of our life long marriage! We are still as much in love as ever, even more so as each year goes by! He is a wonderful husband and I am very blessed to have him! I cannot imagine anyone loving me more than he does!
On May Day (May 1st) my Mom and I and my kids made little flower boquets and took them around to friends and left them on their doors. We had a great time doing it and only wish we had made more boquets. We did 17, but Mom says next year we'll do 50!
It's motorcycle season again! We have taken a few rides recently. I love it! I love the smells of fresh cut grass, wild flowers, and pine trees. I love how we can feel the temperature in the air change from here to there. I love the sun shining on me and the wind blowing against my skin. It is such a fun thing for us to get to do together. Last week we went for a ride and got ice cream.
Allison and Clara had a band concert last month. Ben and Emily had a singing concert the same night. Tim went to the band concert and I went to Ben and Em's. They were so cute! They were all dressed up and just did a great job singing. Tim said the older girls did a great job at their concert too. Clara was the only percussionist in her band for the concert, so she got to play a few different instruments that night.
We celebrated Clara's 12th birthday last month. She had a birthday/slumber party with a few of her friends.
On May 16th, Tim and Clara rode the motorcycle to Baldwin, Michigan with our Christian Motorcyclist Association group for the Blessing of the Bikes. They had a good time and it sounds like it was pretty awesome with around 30,000 bikes there!!!!
My niece, Katlyn threw a going away party for my brother (her dad), Shawn last month because he will be gone for a couple months to Oklahoma for training for work. We also were celebrating Shawn's birthday. It was a surprise party, which was really cool, because he had no idea about it! My parents were there along with Tim and I and the kids, Katlyn and her husband, Doug, Shawn and Tracy and the rest of their kids (6 of them), Tracy's brother Jimmy and his wife Sheila and their kids (6 of them and 1 in the oven at the time), and Tracy's sister Julie, her husband Dale and their 2 kids. I think Shawn really was surprised! Katlyn made a nice dinner for us of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and she bought some delicious cakes and icecream. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and we all had a really nice time visiting with eachother.
I went to a Beth Moore Conference in Grand Rapids May 21st and 22nd. A couple of my friends from Bible Study rode with me. We had a nice time, but it wasn't as exciting for me as the Dare 2 Share conference. I love Beth Moore though! We've done a few of her Bible Studies, and I always learn a lot from them.
Allison's class went on a field trip to a local camp for the day. Tim went along as a chaperone. It was a beautiful sunny day and they had a great time! The kids could swim, fish, climb rock wall, ride horses, and lots of other stuff.
Ben and Emily's class took a field trip to the Children's Museum in Grand Rapids on May 26th. Tim and I got to go as chaperones and we had a fun time! There are so many neat things for the kids to do there! I wish we had a whole day to spend there! On the way home we stopped at a park to eat lunch and play for a while. The kids really enjoyed all of it! They have a big class of around 28 kids. I think only 3 of them didn't go on the field trip.
May 29th our town had a Memorial Day parade and Allison and the school band marched in it and played. It was nice and I was really proud of them! It was a beautiful day for it!
Tim's parents came up about a week ago. They bought a "cabin" near us to come up and visit in the summer. I'm glad that they could come when they did. They got to go to the parade and see Allison in the band and also got to attend Grandparent's Day at Ben and Emily's school last week.
This past Sunday we had a special Church Service. We had it at a beautiful place calle Fox Hill. The service was outside in the sunshine and then we went into the hall for a nice lunch and great visiting time with our church family.
Today Clara's class took their field trip to a bowling alley/game place. It's kind of like a Chuck E Cheese I guess.
Next week, Ben and Emily will have their Kindergarten Graduation! All of our kids will be done with school on June 9th for the summer. Tim has a check up at U of M on the 7th. I'm anxious to see how all of his testing goes then.
This past weekend I took the kids swimming for the first time this year. They had a slumber party Sunday night. So, you see that we've had a lot going on. It's been a fun time though.
I'm looking forward to summer vacation, but I don't really think that things are going to slow down much for us. We are hoping to do some traveling and looking forward to friends coming to visit us as well. Clara is going to be going to camp for a week. The girls still have Youth Group throughout the summer and Tim and I will be teaching Kindergarten Sunday school every other month as we have been doing. We will also be helping with VBS at church for a week in July. I hope it will be a fun and exciting summer for the whole family. I'm looking forward to more motorcycle rides, walks with the family, camping, ice cream, camp fires, smores, bicycling, great conversations, and just growing closer as a family!
Happy Summer Everyone!
