"Souperbowl" of Caring Kickoff

 Our whole youth and their mentors (well, those who are present)

 A portion of the 7th grade youth

 Club 56

Except for the fact that I am in two of them, I love these pictures!  Our church has a great youth program that consists of several different groups.  It starts when a kid is in the 5th grade.  They can belong to Club 56.  Club 56 is for 5th and 6th graders.  We do about 5 or 6 events a year that consist of bowling, dinner and a movie, and the best one which is purchasing and filling stockings for and delivering them to the Presbyterian Assisted Living facility in the area.  They have the most fun with that one.  There is a confirmation group and the high school group.  This year we had to start a 7th grade group.  The amount of 7th graders in our church (or whatever grade this group is in at the time) outnumbers all other age groups by about 15 kids.  It is really weird.  Ryan falls into this group.  Last year they were part of the Club 56 group and they were too big to go in with the confirmation group--which is what typically happens with the 7th graders.  So, they have their own group this year and hopefully next year we will have enough mentors for them to be in confirmation.  :)

Each year, during Superbowl time, our high school youth participate in the Souperbowl of Caring (a national online contest to see what church, in what state, can raise the most and then it is tallied all together to see what the nation earns).  This year, they asked us all to get on board with the project.  We met and planned our fundraising and food raising plans.  Decided where to donate everything and showed the kids (the best way we could) what it meant to be hungry.  While our kids will not ever truly know that, the exercise was really neat.  We had soup and sandwiches for lunch and donated all of our fundraising and food raising to First Step (a battered women's shelter in our area) and the MPC food pantry that is within our church and serves those who need it every Wednesday night.  We all lit candles to commemorate our kickoff and to honor those who are less fortunate.

Shorts and a Trampoline in December??

For Christmas, we gave the kids a Trampoline as a group gift.  So far they have loved that more than anything I believe we have ever given them.  They jump on it in the cold, snow, whatever.  I realize, Christmas is not the best time to receive a Trampoline, but the weather was so warm this December!  And into January it was quite warm.  We put it together on Christmas Day.  Dressed in shorts and then everyone proceeded to jump on it!  It was great!  Several years ago I did a post called "Best $30 I ever spent."  (Click on "Pool" or "Get all the balls out" to the right of this page and scroll to the bottom) Still totally agree with that as the trampoline was a good bit more than $30, but feel this is going to be enjoyed as much as that $30 pool was.  :)

 

Also, for Christmas the girls got gymnastic bars and a balance beam.  LOVING both of them!!!  I have not taken a picture of them on the beam, but will add one soon.  They are so enjoying being outside and playing.  Sadly, it is colder now and has been rainy.  Warm weather is coming though!!  Hopefully soon!!!  Love that when it is not raining and cold, they are spending so much time outside!!

This is a picture of Mike and the kids putting the trampoline together.  I like seeing them work together without fighting.  :)

Ryan's winter concert

I know I am constantly posting band pictures!!  I feel like when Emily first started playing softball.  Softball pics ALL THE TIME.  And soon, will be throwing a bunch of Lydia's theater pictures up.  Unfortunately, her theater stuff is kind of a one time pic opportunity thing.  Each time she has a performance.  With Ryan, band is such a new experience for us and we are just so proud of Ryan's accomplishments and his desire to play and learn so much about percussion.  Both his Middle School band director and his High School Marching Band director can't say enough about him and his ability!  They also mention how quickly he picks up music.  We do give my Uncle Bill snaps for this since there is NO ONE else in our family who has any kind of musical ability!  He just seems to have gotten Uncle Bill's musical genes in this one.  It's great!!

Ryan's middle school director does a spring concert and a winter concert.  During the winter concert the 4 middle school students who were part of the High School Marching Band were recognized ad well as the students who were picked for All City County Band.  There will be a posting of city county band later as I am writing this post so far away from when Winter Concert happened, that the City County Honors band has already happened.  :)  Since Ryan already stands on the stage, he stood on a chair to be recognized.

The 6th grade band played first (many more students as they are "trying out" band and are not completely sold on whether they will participate in 7th grade) and then the 7th and 8th graders came out.  As always, it was a nice concert.  Some students more talented than others, but certainly some students on their way up in the music department.

Traditions are great!

Last year our family started a new Christmas tradition.  Due to a "Secret Santa" exchange that Emily participated in last year, we started doing our own Secret Santa exchange.  Being that it is easier to shop with little kids at the Dollar Tree versus Target or Wal Mart, felt it made more sense to just repeat the success of last year and shop at Dollar Tree again.  Last night we went to Dollar Tree where everyone received their $2.25 to purchase their two items.

The excitement and build up for this activity this year was so huge!  The kids were so excited about making this shopping trip and picking for the person whose name they drew.  Wrapping their presents to their picked person had to happen last night as well.  So glad they enjoy this tradition!!  We will definitely make this an ongoing thing.  I do think we will stick with the Dollar Tree and not branch out to more expensive items.  :)  You can read my post from last year by clicking on Secret Santa or Great Days! in the labels on the side of the blog page.  Very much a great day!

After shopping, we walked next door to the pet store and purchased a dog tag for our new puppy, Loki.  Loki has been with us for about a month now, but he was an early Christmas present.  Had borrowed a selfie stick a few days before and took our one picture with the borrowed stick.  My family was COMPLETELY embarrassed to have to take this picture at the front of the PetSmart store.  I didn't see where this was a big deal, but thought I would share the photo (though not a good one) since it caused such an uproar.

After getting the dog tag, we continued our tradition by eating dinner out last night.  We went to O'Niels and as luck would have it--it was kids night!  All kids, 12 and under, eat for 99 cents!  Woo Hoo!!  And we all received a balloon animal.  I asked for the snowman, Emily has a teddy bear, Ryan has a laser gun, Lydia asked for a dog and Mike asked for the hot dog, in a bun, with mustard.  So cute!  All of them!  We have been there before on kids nights, but it has been a long time.  Fun night!!

Paradin' through town

Being part of the East Rockingham High School Marching Band, Ryan got to march in the Harrisonburg Christmas Parade and the Elkton Christmas Parade this year!  It has been many years since he has been in the parade.  There were a few years that we were in the parade for the Daycare where I worked and where the kids attended.

This time it was a true honor!  Carrying his heavy base drum, he marched almost two miles in the Harrisonburg Christmas Parade and marched about 3/4 of a mile in the Elkton one.  He was right on point with his marching and playing!!  Of course we are a bit bias, but pretty sure he was the best one out there.  :)

These two are from the Harrisonburg Parade.  My friend Rabia took them and sent them to me.  I was on the wrong side of the street and really did not see him well enough to get a picture.  He is the short 12 year old in between the tall 16 and 17 year olds.  :)

These shots are from the Elkton Parade.  Also not ones that I took. :)  A fellow band parent took the top one and my parents were able to come to the 65 degree Elkton Christmas Parade and my dad took the bottom two.  Ryan is kind of in the middle of the first and last picture, but towards the back of the middle picture.  So proud of what he is accomplishing and so excited at how much he loves it!!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

Lydia and Emily made it into the Spelling Bee this year!!!  So exciting to have them both do so well as to beat out so many 5th graders to make it into the elite group!  While neither of them made it to the end, we are so proud of the accomplishment they made in making it as far as they did!!

Last CRUSH Tourney--for a while anyway

 Emily's last tournament of the season was October 10, 2015.  We played at William Monroe High School, which to date--is the nicest field they have ever played!  We were all quite impressed, but it was not very warm that day.  In addition, their rules were a bit different and there was no time limit on the games and we ended up being there for over 14 hours!!  It was a mess, but the girls came away with the whole thing.  They won the whole tournament which was really great for them to end the season!!  This is the team with their trophies. 

 Waiting with teammates in between games.

The last prayer of the season.  I have to hand it to Jon.  He always has the girls pray before a game or tournament.  It is quite beautiful to see the girls praying each time.  Saying their prayer in unison with their arms crossed and holding hands with their neighbor.  

Emily is thinking about mixing things up next year and trying some new things.  While she won't give up on softball completely--she likes it too much--once Little League is over this year, she is going to try swim team and continue on in gymnastics and get a little more involved in it. While she is not writing Crush off all together and may end up going back at some point, she is hanging up her blue and orange for a bit.  I am happy and sad all at the same time.  I am hoping this will prevent any burn out--which has not set in at this point, but wondering if it will at some point if she doesn't take a break.  If she tries a few new things, by the time she reaches 8th grade and can try out for JV teams, she may want to take a "swing" at softball again.  Who knows.  Either way, we will support whatever she decides she wants to do.

Emily, you are one of the best kids I know!  You set your mind to something and you do it every time!  To the best of your ability and always do well regardless what you do.  I know your future is bright and you will go far and do lots of things!!  Daddy and I still think you will be an attorney one day.  :)  Whatever you do we will always be proud of you!!!