Ganson Family Scrapbook: April 2022

We had another Zoom call with the twins this month. The nanny gave them some blocks and they spent most of the time throwing the blocks and running after them. Every time they threw a block, they would flap their hands in excitement. It was so cute to watch! We also realized that Marvel (in the blue) is right-handed, and Marvens (in the orange) is left-handed. That's called "mirror twins." They definitely had a lot of energy!

We asked for a picture of Monize and the twins together since they seem to have a good bond. :)

These are the cribs Marvel and Marvens sleep in...

Our translator seemed to think we wanted a picture of just Monize, so he sent us so many pictures and videos of her standing there... poor lady!

Abby losing a tooth is always a big victory... she dreads it and worries about it up until it comes out, and then she's like, "Oh, was that it?"

Last day of CC. "Favorite color day"...

Helen came over on a Saturday morning, so she and Micah made everyone pancakes. And by that, I mean Helen made everyone pancakes, and Micah hung out with her. :)

Micah got his LICENSE!!!! He got it the absolute soonest he could, on April 28, exactly 6 months after he got his permit.

Leaving by himself for the first time! (Going to track practice...)

We used Rules of the Road Driving Academy. They did the last 6 hours of driving with him on two different days. On the 28th, the guy (Neal) picked Micah up, they did their driving practice, and then he gave him the test. (Although, funny enough, Micah didn't know when the test started.... the guy was just like, "Okay, you did everything you had to...You passed!") Since the Lancaster DMV is small and less busy, and because we had to go to USCL anyway to pick up Micah's parking permit and student ID, I met them at the Lancaster DMV when Micah was done. We just took his certificate in and they printed off his driver's license.

Driver's License in one hand, USCL student ID in another!

Checking out USCL classrooms. We walked around campus to see where Micah would be on his first day of class May 9th...

Waiting while Micah got his student ID...

Chick-Fila to celebrate!

Finishing up with Mr. Bradley. This was right after I pulled up and asked how it was going. Micah said, "I still have to take the test." And Mr. Bradley was like, "No, you already did!"

Race at Rock Hill High.... Micah PRed for the season in the 3200 that night!

He ran this on April 27 at Rock Hill High after running a 1600 earlier in the evening.

Caleb always comes prepared with stuff to do or books to read...

Trying to get Caleb to let me take a picture of his sunglasses so I could run into Walmart and get some like them for Micah...

Micah did his second I.E. (Individual Event) This time he memorized and recited a poem from Calvin and Hobbes. Much to his chagrin, I bought him this stuffed tiger to use as a prop. :)

Ben has been CAR SHOPPING!!! Perhaps a little bit obsessively. :) With Micah getting his license, we knew we were going to need another vehicle soon. The market is really tough right now on used cars. There aren't that many, and we were pretty specific about wanting something with a third row that could fit our whole family if need-be. Unfortunately, we knew we'd have to spend about $10,000 more than we would have spent a year and a half ago... but no one expects those prices to drop much in the near future, so we just had to bite the bullet. Ben got Consumer Reports and did a lot of research, and then searching around for the specific cars and years he liked and that good ratings. We drove up to Charlotte several times looking at cars, but it only eliminated some for us... or we would get there to find out the car we came to see was sold out.. On a Sunday, we drove up to Charlotte to see a Mazda CX-9, and once we got there, we found out the key fob did not work (even with new batteries) and there was no manual key. So it was a totally wasted trip! BUT the next day, we finally found one that met the criteria, was in the price range we expected, AND had not yet been sold! So this is Ben's new 2020 Mazda CX9.

Everyone is very excited! It has a little over 30,000 miles on it, has leather seats, AND the front two seats even have BUTT COOLERS in them, which is fantastic for the summers here!

Abby came along to check out the car. She approved! :)

Our "kid section" at church has turned into a "teen section!"

Ben took Caleb along to a car dealership one day to check out some wheels. THese two guys will get business done!

True statement in our house... (unless the kids are asking for something sweet. I'm more likely to say yes than Ben on that one!)

Imitating Micah... 😆

We ALL spent one Saturday in April going to different car dealerships in Charlotte. We were so close to getting an Acura MDX, until we realized it could only take premium fuel. Fuel is CRAZY expensive right now (over $4/gallon) and premium gasoline is like 70 cents a gallon more than regular. So that was a big no-no.

Micah ran in the Come See Me Festival 5k! This is his friend Ben from track, and one of the track coaches, Coach Clark.

Ben (from track) and Scott (from cross country) were two fast runners who told Micah they would help pace him to try to get sub-20 minutes.

Micah wanted to see if he could get close to sub-20 since he had been running track all season. (At this point, his 5k PR was 21.26 from the end of cross country season in the fall.) He was SO CLOSE in this race! Two things to note though: 1) he had just run a track meet 12 hours before this, getting a PR in the 1600 (and then got up super early for the Come See Me race,) so his body was already pooped, AND 2) according to his watch and all his friends' watches, the course was just slightly longer than a 5k... which means, if that's correct, he technically would have crossed the 5k mark just under 20 minutes. At any rate, it made him super excited to know he's on track to get a sub-20 during cross country in the fall. He got 5th place out of all the runners, and 4th place in his division. (Both Ben and Scott were ahead of him, and there were two other runners ahead of Ben and Scott.)

At the start...

The Rock Hill City Track Meet (Battle For the Rock) at South Pointe High School on April 22 - the night before the Come See Me 5k... Micah ran the 1600 and 3200. This is when Micah PRed for the season in the 1600!

Micah's season PR for the 1600.

Micah hates that I get pictures of him right after he crosses the finish line, but it just shows how hard he works! Most runners sit down or lay down or collapse to catch their breath once they cross the finish line.

This little girl from South Pointe is a 7th grade crazy fast runner! She beat Micah at one race, but he beat her at the next race. (Which I think was his only goal for the night.) 😆

This was a pretty fun race having all the Rock Hill high schools there competing. It was just a fun atmosphere!

Two homeschoolers (Trailblazers) got 1st & 2nd place in the 1600! :) Joey Tindale (running for Northwestern) and Nathan Flachman (South Pointe)...

Micah passed Tyler (a senior) in this race! He couldn't quite catch Ben though! Ben's brother was yelling, "Hurry, Ben, Micah's right behind you!"

Northwestern got first in the relay...

We have baby birds in the bush beside the garage!

Easter Sunday! We rented Living Waters chapel at Westminster Park!

Caleb got baptized! Along with Kate Thompson, Joshua Reed, and Maggie Fisher...

The water was a little chilly, but Josh was the brave first dunk-ee!

Ben told Caleb that the bigger the sinner, the longer you have to hold him under water... 😆

Communion on Easter... It made me happy that our friend Leslie from Maine was there with her husband. :)

Another fun game night. Caleb invited his friend Lukas to come this time.

Some Trailblazers just running for fun at Riverwalk!

I worked on a little landscaping on the front and side of our house.

BEFORE:

(Well, actually, I had already pulled/killed all the weeds at this point. THIS whole side of the house especially was covered with weeds and overgrown ugly plants.)

I love Wilson's Nursery! :)

After planting a few new things and mulching:

Something about the ferns and rockers on the front porch make me happy. I used to not be sure about the red door, but now I like it!

Work in progress...

Babysitting our little buddy Judah. It was a great night until he woke up from his nap... then he cried and cried and everyone felt so sad for him!

Fun at Carowinds! The park finally opened up on the weekends, and we got to use our passes that the Kaufmans gave us for Christmas. The very first time we went was a BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon, and the park wasn't busy at all. We got to ride so many rides and we all thought it was awesome. (I mean, Caleb still hates any ride that is high or makes you feel like you're dropping, but there are enough "fair rides" that he likes, so that helps.) We went ahead and got food passes for the year because we realized we would probably use them a lot and get our money's worth out of them.

The swings are probably Caleb's favorite. :)

The best part of this video is me falling off the step at the end... :)

View of Charlotte from the top of the Sky Tower... (Carowinds sits on the state line between North Carolina and South Carolina, so that's kind of fun that half the park is in one state and half in the other.)

USCL registration night for new dual enrollment students. How do I have a kid old enough to take college classes??

More Carowinds...

Ben took the funniest picture for his ID card at Carowinds. He said, "This is how I feel when I come here!" :)

And Micah photobombed mine...

Micah and Ben love the big roller coasters at Carowinds. I got this picture of them upside down on the Copperhead Strike...

Ben praying over Abby at Sunday morning church at Pathways...

Abby helped sing! My whole family (minus me) was the worship team! :)

The End of the Year program for Foundations and Essentials was at Catawba Baptist this year. It was super simple - dinner and handing out recognition/awards. The only bummer was that Ben and Micah couldn't be there because Micah was running a track meet in Columbia... so Ben went to cheer him on while I went to the EOY program with the younger two.

Memory Master recognition:

6th graders graduating from "Foundations/Essentials" and moving on up to Challenge A next year!

Ms. Jessi's Essentials class...

Ms. Danil's Masters class:

Ms. Leif's Journeymen Class...

Micah was feeling pretty anxious about this race... mostly, he was tired and a lot of his friends were going to be missing it because they were on vacation So he and Ben hung out and ended up having a lot of fun. And Micah had a really great race!

Last day of Foundations (forever for Caleb!)

Micah and Caleb performing "Piano Man" on the last day of CC. Everyone LOVED it! I posted it on Facebook and don't think I've ever had so many comments on a post before.

Micah playing "Iris" by the GooGoo Dolls:

Somehow some of the Challenge kids jumped in to the Foundations group picture. They're not obvious at all! :)

Last day of Foundations forever for these boys!

Grandma and Grandpa Bender came on their way back from Florida, and of course, we had to go see the flowers blooming at Glencairn Gardens!

Feeding geese and turtles...

Snake. Yuck!

This was the most fun race! (I believe it was Rams Invitational in Columbia.) On the way there, we realized Maddox might be there, so I texted Lindsey to find out... indeed he was! The Buchers didn't come though because it was so far away for them. Not only was Maddox at the race, he was in the same heat as Micah, which meant they got to race each other! Talk about motivation for Micah! Maddox has always been faster. The whole race Maddox was ahead, so he had no idea how far back Micah was....but in the last turn around the track, Micah poured it on and passed him. It was so funny to see the moment Maddox realized Micah was the one passing him.... they were both smiling and checking to see where the other person was as they sprinted to the end. It was so close, but Micah did it! Goal accomplished! To be fair, Maddox had already ran another race that day AND he had been up since 5:00 am.... but Micah can now put a checkmark beside the goal of beating Maddox in a race! 😆 It was also fun that Helen came with us to the race that day, so she got to witness this as well.

Turn down the volume before watching this video because I was screaming like a banshee!