May Misc. 2019

The kids found a Barbie that looked a lot like their cousin Robert!

One day a secret friend left this delicious cupcake at the house for me! I don't know who it was, but it was so kind and really made me feel loved! Thank you!

Less beautiful... Funny story though...

In case it is too small to read. The crazier, not as glamorous part of Mother's Day was cleaning bubble gum out of the dryer. The funny part was that I sent this picture and text to Craig instead of Victoria! 

Fun with snapchat in the car while we wait. 

I like finding pictures like this on my phone.

Grant bought a skate board with his own money. We have taken it to the skate park at Yowell Meadow Park. Katherine brings her scooter.

Katherine was given this book from her friend, Jack, and has really enjoyed putting these pictures together.

One thing that was a total pain this month was trying to cancel the trip and get a refund. I felt so bad for my mom to have another thing to worry about on top of a very sick husband and selling a house. (They are selling the farm. Upcoming post.) The kids have all tried to help with it, and they finally got refunded in 5 checks. Uggh! This was a video of me saying, "Why won't this work?!" It did work out in the end though. Glad they bought the travel insurance. 

Never mind the mess, but I love that someone got this picture of Katherine and I reading Black Beauty. She loves it!

I took this beautiful crew to an education conference in Charlottesville. I love my YW (Morgan, Caroline and V) and Christian too! They enjoyed some great classes and had fun with friends. They also enjoyed a dance that evening.

I don't think this link will work again, but G and Kate and I are loving the warmer mornings and have fun doing obstacle courses at the playground before school. We also liked making slo-mo videos.

I love it when Christian brings his artwork home!

I love that Katherine has as good of a time at baseball practices and games as Grant does, especially when there is an empty field. She loved playing with Skyler this year. She loved playing with Reid when he happened to be there too.

My husband is awesome! He saved the day when I had a flat tire before dropping K and G at school. He came to us and took care of it while I used his car to drop off the kids. I got back switched cars and got back in time for Grant's awards assembly! Thanks, Danny!

I never take pics of helping in the library, but typically help for a few hours every week ( just wanted to remember). I think It was nice of Donna and Cathy to give me a plant and a thank you note at the end of the year.

Philadelphia Temple Trip

Brother Shiffler and I took the YM and YW to the Philadelphia Temple. We had a great turnout, but unfortunately Christian had a mandatory dress rehearsal and could not come. I drove all of our girls except 1 who rode with her mom and met us there. He drove all of the boys. We had a smooth, safe drive there and got there just at the right time to have about 15 minutes to walk around the temple grounds before our session. 

 

Our group minus 1. I think V has the picture that we took after our session that includes Olivia.

The youth were great- very well behaved for the whole trip. They were very reverent in the temple and kindly helped and taught each other. I was very proud. They are great kids and did good work for others, including their family members, today. 

We had a long, not as smooth drive home- lots of traffic in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC. We enjoyed eating together at Cafe Rio and were glad to get back to the church that night. It was a long, but good day! I was glad that we went.

soccer, lacrosse, and baseball

We spent loads of time at the various sporting events. I love watching the kids play. 

Memorial Day Weekend

We kicked off the weekend with a small road trip to Gordonsville to watch Grant's team, the Nationals, beat the Gordonsville team. You can't really tell from these pictures, but it was a cute ballpark.

After the game we all drove to the river.

Saturday was a beautiful day!

Perfect for making mudpies (sand cakes?). 

Katherine said that she was "this happy to be at the river!"

They were all pretty happy when cousins came too!

 When Craig and Lorel came with the kids they brought this float and another like it. The kids enjoyed them. (The other one blew away at some point though and got lost. We looked for it on kayak and waverunner, but didn't find it. Oops! We are guessing that another family found a cool new float.) 

Victoria is so good about taking everyone

on rides!

On Sunday, we went to church in Kilmarnock. We usually stay for the whole time, but this time we had some work to do while Craig was also there, so we left after sacrament meeting. Look how pretty the Rappahannock looked when we drove over the bridge!

We are so blessed to have a place like this to spend such memorable time with family. We had a lot of time relaxing, but also took some time to work on the things that my parents usually take care of, that we sometimes take for granted. We filled some holes in the seawall, mowed, replaced and repaired a  few boards (Danny fixed the one that you can see hanging a couple pics up, after the pic was taken) and made meals. We are becoming more and more aware of all of  work that my parents do ahead of time and after we leave so that we have fun when we are there. We have been spoiled! We missed them being there, but were glad that they still wanted us to go and enjoy ourselves and our time with family. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Grant's Awards Assembly and Time with My Boy

His grade had tons of award categories and he got most of them. He got awards for straight A's for 3rd and 4th quarters, for the semester, and for the whole year, an attendance award, an art award, a gold award for pe, and a determined stallion award. Keep up the good work, Grant-man!

Grant is a very busy child, so I was proud of him for sitting quietly and respectfully during the awards.

G had a fun time with his class again this year. He loves all of his friends! They are good boys!

Micah

Jason

Ferris

Ronan and Beckett  too

 G-man and I had to drop the van off to get a new tire, so our special time was at dairy queen and Walmart. We made the best of it and had fun. Love this guy!