April 2019

What in the world???  ZERO ice or snow all winter, and then we get a whole bunch of these big white fluffy flakes on April 2nd!  We had just mowed the yard the day before the azaleas were already in bloom!  (Luckily, it did not get cold enough to freeze them!)

Abby was having a bad morning.  She hung this sign on her door.  Translation: "No people allowed."

Since Caleb started his "cookie business", we needed to have a little photo shoot of him in his chef's uniform.  These pictures were used in the birthday cards that get sent out to the clients at Carroll Financial with their birthday cookies.  

On the last day of CC, we had a "musical talent show."  Micah played "Fur Elise" and "Carol of the Bells."

Wacky Day never disappoints at CC.  😂  Kids (and hot dogs) learned how to use a compass in science. They had to follow the treasure map to find a box of geodes that they got to crack open and keep.

On the last day of Essentials, the kids did an "Escape Room" activity using all their knowledge they gained over the year.

While I was making my round cleaning up in the church, Pastor Dave asked Micah to play for him the songs he had done during the talent show. :)  (What I didn't notice until later is the fact that Micah was wearing a hat in the sanctuary.) 😆

Women's retreat!  Carrie Zieber and Kari Johnston organized a get-away for the women from church to a cabin near Boone.  It was a fantastic weekend!

A little foggy, but a beautiful view none-the-less!

Bags for each lady (to put encouraging notes in for one another.)

Painting...

A trip to Glencairn Gardens to see the azaleas in full bloom (with Grandma and Grandpa Bender who stopped in on their way back from Florida.)

That's what little brothers are for...

We took a trip to JAARS with Grandma and Grandpa.  Bobbes liked the dress in the Mexico Museum:

They had an old typewriter in the museum.  This is what I found after the boys had been through that part... "Caleb needs a shower.  Micah is a weirdo."

Typing in Braille...

Ben got an email while my parents were visiting announcing that he has officially passed the CFP exam!!!

Passing on his books to the next generation...😂

For our End of Year program, each kid was supposed to use marshmallow peeps to represent some sort of memory work they had learned that year.  Abby's:

Micah's:

Caleb's...

Micah wanted to do this "extra one" as a joke.  In the Timeline song, when it says "Songhai in Africa", it always sounds like "Some Guy in Africa."

The End of the Year Foundations and Essentials program!

Singing the prepositions song with a "style" :)

This class was all moving up to Challenge A, so they got a special little "graduation."

Essentials presentation describing how to classify and diagram a sentence...

Micah's name got pulled out of the hat of "last year Essentials" students to read his Faces of History paper...

The Challenge A class showing Africa that they drew from memory...

All the Foundations students getting ready to sing part of the Timeline song.

The guitar Abby wants...

Air-traffic control...

At First Tee...

Micah (who can't wait for Challenge A!) has been practicing drawing parts of the world from memory.... Not too shabby!

Checking out the new playground equipment at Cherry Park...

Replacing the faucet in the bathroom was a little more complicated than we had anticipated!  Ben had plenty of help though!

The Ziebers "egged" us on Easter morning!

The kids at church...

Micah took a standardized test.  99th percentile once again, and he didn't miss a single math problem!

Caleb also took a standardized test for the first time.  Amazingly, he was also in the 99th percentile!

A few friends were over... and somehow I agreed to let them try to start a fire in the fire pit. 😂

Day 180 of school... we went to Amelies to eat some treats and play games!

In the afternoon, I took the boys to see the new Avengers movie, End Game.  

To celebrate the end of school, Ben's birthday, and Ben passing the CFP, we took a weekend trip to Hilton Head.  We got a crazy deal last-minute on an awesome hotel.  We could walk a couple blocks to the beach, but we could also hang out by their pools and lazy river.

The little alligator in the hotel pond.

Eating pizza and watching TV in one of the two living rooms. :)

Caleb had a whole lot of fun with his metal detector!

An older guy with a "serious" metal detector noticed that Caleb had one too.  So he buried a silver dollar just under the top of the sand and told Caleb, "Hey, my metal detector is beeping over here.  Why don't you see what you can find!" 😀

The dolphin Micah and I made...

Going out the backdoor of our hotel to go fishing in the pond...

Just because she looked cute...

Abby discovered she loved ping pong!

It always amazes me how content the kids stay at the beach.  Water and sand keeps everyone happy all day!

We come prepared for sure!

After two  and half days at Hilton Head, we drove just north of Charlotte and went to the Great Wolf Lodge for one night.

The kids had a little "cabin room."...

Ben's 39th birthday!

At the end of the weekend, everyone was pooped!  Waiting for Chipotle...

Ben went with the boys to see End Game (second time for the boys - first time for Ben!) and I went shopping with Abby.  She thoroughly enjoyed Claires...

A picture Holly shared of Kenton digging a ditch on his knees...