Life in May

Life in May was fun.  The end of school and Mothers Day out were coming to a close and things were starting to settle down a little.  We had lots of family time... days were spent goofing around, playing dress up, and hours outside on the swingset!!  We went to birthday parties for friends, celebrated Mothers Day, finished tee ball, and even enjoyed a local carnival that came to town!  The kids had a blast riding rides and enjoying cotton candy!!

Graduation

Gavin graduated from Kindergarten at the end of May and his school held a graduation ceremony for each class.  Brooks and I were able to attend and watch Gavin receive a certificate!  The celebration was precious.  When Gavin's name was called he walked out with the biggest smile on his face!  He was so proud and looked so cute.  Brooks and I could not believe he was already finishing kindergarten!!  Time goes way too fast!  After all the students received their certificates, they had prepared a few songs to sing at the ceremony, and then we were invited to their classroom for refreshments and an author party-- where Gavin read to us stories he wrote throughout the year in writing.  That book is one I will treasure forever!  

 

Gavin and his best friend, Jeven.

Visit from my BFF

Having lived overseas for 3 years, I understand the importance and the need for getting to see friends when the opportunity arises whether I was coming to the states or now, someone who is coming from overseas!  So when my best friend, Steph, told me she was flying to the USA in March I just knew we had to get together.  Our initial plan was to meet up the night she flew in since Brooklyn and I were already in Houston for her tests, but some of Steph's out of town family was visiting Houston and it just would have been easier on everyone to try another time.  BUT, Borger is a long drive from Houston and we were heading back within a few days of her arrival so, Steph, being the best friend that she is..... worked it out with Micah to get a plane ticket for her from Dallas (where she was visiting other friends) to Borger and I gladly jumped at the chance for her to come and visit us a few weeks later!!  

I picked her up at the airport and after hugging her neck, I reached for Jake and saw he was wearing a shirt that said, "Big Brother"... I screamed right then and there in the airport pick up line!  I had kinda been waiting for them to announce something, but also wasn't sure it would be then!  So it was a great, fun surprise!!    We had dinner that night at the house and just caught up on all of lifes happenings.  My kids were beyond happy to have their Aunt Steph and Jake at their house and we let them play til pretty late!! 

The next day I took Miles to school, but kept Brooklyn with us to let her and Jake have some time together.  After running a few errands, we took the little ones to lunch at our local Pizza place that allows has jump houses.  Since it was a school day, we were the only ones there with kids so they had the place to themselves!  Those two ran around squealing, laughing, chasing each other, and having tons of fun jumping on the bounce houses.  At some point both Steph and I were in the jump house with them, and began throwing them around!  They had a blast!!  

The rest of our time together was spent playing at the house, outside and just being together.  We miss them so much and miss seeing them on a daily basis.  Life sure has changed for us after living together for 7 years and now just getting to Facetime and have occasional visits.  Can't wait for their day when they move back to the USA!!

Baseball

This spring, Gavin had the opportunity to play tee- ball and Brooks was the assistant coach.  Their team  practiced a couple of times and then had 16 games in a matter of a few weeks.   Whew!  This meant for at least 3 nights a week our family was at the baseball fields.  Gavin picked right up where he left off last year playing in Saudi and had some great technique and skills!  We were pretty impressed!  For the most part, Gavin played at the pitchers position or first base.  He even got to play short stop and third a few times and did extremely well fielding the ball!!  It was fun to watch him improve over time and continue gaining a better understanding of how the game fully works.  The teams didn't play with strikes and balls since it was tee ball and depending on the opponents team, sometimes you could get out, and sometimes you could stay on base.  No matter what though, if you were your teams last batter then you automatically could run all the bases!  Hmmm...  We did have a great team and everyone played their hearts out-- wait, who am I kidding... Brooks and the other coach were constantly telling kids to stand up, quit playing in the dirt, watch the ball, ignore the train passing by, etc, etc...  but the kids still had fun!  Gavin was a little more serious about playing when he was on the field so they were rarely having to get him to focus!  

Eventually, Miles was tired of sitting on the bleachers and wanted in the dugout.  Before we knew it, he was standing in the field behind Brooks, then tried fielding some balls and making a few plays.  By the last 4 or 5 games Miles got to be bat and run the bases!  We always got permission from the other teams coach and their players were good sports to cheer Miles on and not get him out!  Then... Brooklyn decided she wanted in the dugout with all the players and not sit on the bleachers anymore, but that's as far as we let her get!!  Maybe a few more years!

Gavin loved baseball and missed it on his days off!  The kids play ball every single day in our back yard and know the fundamentals of baseball so well, they all correct each other and motivate each other to try again!!