May Memories

The kids had their last AWANA night this past Friday.  They've both been working hard all year long memorizing Bible verses and earning patches for their Cubbies vests.  In addition to attendance awards,  Lukas received a special blue ribbon for completing both of the Cubbie-Bear Scripture Books (he will move to the Sparkies group next year) and Isa received a miniature Cubbie-Bear Teddy pin for completing her first Scripture Book.  They were very excited about the awards and we were very proud of their accomplishments!

Lukas wearing his Cubbie-Bear Vest (one patch fell off last week and has since been replaced) and holding his class mascot (Schnucki, the stuffed rabbit) whom we had with us that weekend

Lukas and Isabel receiving their attendance awards

Lukas with his blue ribbon award

Isa holding her miniature Cubbie-Bear award

We had a fun surprise one morning when we were at the breakfast table and I happened to notice that we were eating from one cereal box with an expiration date for Isabel's next birthday (01-31-14) and another box with an expiration date for Lukas' next birthday (09-06-13).  What are the chances?! Since it seemed so unlikely, Olli thought it worthy of a photo.

Each of our children holding the cereal box with their birthday date on it

On Mother's Day, I enjoyed a great day of celebration.  Lukas and Olli prepared "Overnight Blueberry French Toast" Saturday afternoon and served it for breakfast Sunday morning before church.  It was delicious and such a treat that "my guys" made it for me.  We had a Boston Market meal for lunch, went bike riding in the afternoon and ate dinner at Bertucci's.  It was a wonderful day with my family!

Here I am with both of my great kids on Mother's Day before church

On Friday, May 17th, we went to an event at the Blue Bunny (a local children's book/toy store) called "Community Heroes".  Each child was to come dressed up as a community hero (i.e. doctor/nurse, police officer, firefighter etc.).  During the event, older children read books about community heroes aloud and then the kids made "appreciation cards" in the shape of police cars, fire engines etc. to give to our local community heroes.  The evening was produced by a non-profit organization called "Catching Joy" with which the kids and I have partcipated before for various events.

Lukas was dressed as a policeman and Isa as a fire chief (Isa is holding her class mascot, a stuffed penguin named Fridolin who was visiting us that weekend)

Isabel making a fire engine card and Lukas (behind Isa) working on his police car.  He wrote "Thank you for your service" on the back of his.  (I helped him spell the word "service", but he spelled everything else correctly on his own.)

The next day, we went to Sam's (a friend from church) bike birthday party.  Sam was turning four and just learned how to ride a bike without training wheels (he used a balance bike first too) so he wanted to have a bike-themed party.  The kids rode all sorts of wheeled vehicles and later had a photo scavenger hunt around the house and yard of our hosts.  Cupcakes were also a highlight, of course.

Isa on her balance bike.  (It belonged to Lukas first, but she doesn't remember that.)  She's always pointing out how her bike has whales on it (which are really dolphins) and that's its selling point.  Of course, the Hello Kitty helmet and matching bike bell are also important! :-)

From left to right: Eli (Sam's little brother), Lukas, Isa, Sam and Mr. Mike (Sam's dad)

Our Scavenger Hunt Team: Isa (3), Lukas (5), Grace (3)

The Hunt: The kids were given a photo of an object in (or outside) the hosts' house and they had to determine the location of that object, go to it, and find the next photo clue.

Isa eating a cupcake with an icing bicycle on top (next to Violet, Grace's sister) 

We just bought a trailer bike for Isa to ride on for our family "bike tours" since we recently sold our regular bike trailer (because Isabel was too tall for the seat belt straps).  The trailer bike attaches to the seat of Olli's bike. We tested it out today and she loved it!  She can use the pedals, but isn't completely efficient at it right now and rocks back and forth a little in her attempts to do so.  This made the bike trip a lot of work for Olli, but not so much that he didn't enjoy the ride too.  We hope to use this on the Cape next weekend for my birthday trip.

Isa on the trailer bike attachment