A beautiful new bathroom

I can't believe I forgot to post this one!
Matt did an incredible job!
This is Anika's bathroom - its in the basement and its beautiful!
Nice job!!!!

Malice in the Palace

The spring concert for Muskegon Christian School was called "Malice in the Palace."  Brandon was given the role of Haman. We spend many hours going over the lines, to the point that Brandon had most all of everyone's lines memorized, which proved to be helpful. Many of the students had not done their homework so much. Very often throughout the play, Brandon could be seen and heard whispering lines into other's ears, and saying lines from back stage into his microphone. It was all very entertaining. He had some great lines and did an incredible job.

Jessica and Maria's classes were part of the chorus/support.

Brandon also had a spring band concert. He does a great job at percussion!

Finishing up 8th grade

I'm obviously really behind in blogging, but I like to keep track of the events of the month so here we go!

The big eighth project is to perform a wax museum.  Anika chose to be Helen Keller. Each student performs a speech after you push an imaginary button.

The eighth grade field trip was to Cedar Point. They left at 4 am in the morning which is CRAZY in my opinion. She had a great day hanging out with their class and got to ride lots of crazy roller coasters!

Anika was in both choir and band this year. They wrapped up the school year with a concert at a local church. Anika has enjoyed both choir and band but in high school you have to choose one or the other.

Every so often Anika will bike and or/roller blade to school. Typically we drive her to school and I'll pick up her back pack and she'll roller blade home with a friend. She will also be using that bike to get to her first job this summer. One of our back yard neighbors has three children, all in or out of college now. One of them is the supervisor at the conference center just blocks from our house. When Carin found out Anika was 15, she told her to apply. Anika will be working in the dining room, assisting those attending the family camp for the week with breakfast, lunch and dinner!  She's not so excited to wake up and be to work at 7 am, but we are excited she has found some gainful employment for the summer!

Spring Sports

And so it begins:

Jessica and Maria were on the same rec soccer team once again this Spring. The last time for awhile. We enjoy one less team to schedule, they do enjoy the time but also fight like crazy! 

Brandon played baseball for Roosevelt Park and for Western Michigan Christian Middle School. There were only 7 boys on the middle school team so they invited a few 6th grade boys to play. It made for a crazy spring!

Anika played spring soccer for Western Michigan Christian Middle School.  She decided this was her last season of soccer. She really wants to do track in high school and they are the same season.  She only played goalie one game, and that was the game I took my camera! You may not recognize the referee, but it is Matt. The assigner for the referees knows which games our kids play and sometimes will assign Matt to them. Makes for an interesting game!

Honors Band

Anika was chosen to be in the middle school honors band this spring. She loves to play her flute.  She had a sectional practice one evening and then an all day practice before the concert. There were four students from Anika's middle school. The concert was amazing!

Easter and Spring break fun

I took very few pictures this year. I didn't even get a picture of the kids in their Easter outfits, or of the three Easter Egg hunts they did. Good grief.
Easter Sunday, Aunt Kathy joined us for lunch at our friends on the lake. He enjoys hiding the eggs and he made it TOUGH this year. They were still looking after lunch was finished!  They set up their own egg hunt at home while Matt and I were at work on Monday. And the Saturday before Easter, they had a hunt at our youth partner church. Plenty of fun and candy.
Good Friday also kicked off Spring Break.
It does seem like half the world leaves town on Spring Break. Anika had 6 of 20 girls at her soccer practice, and Brandon had 6 of 13. Crazy - where do they all go? Well, most go to Florida. Matt and I worked, but we did try to do something fun each evening.
Thursday - amazing church service - about 700 people from all over Muskegon got together. It was a joint service with one of Matt's pastors group; quite possibly one of the best services I have ever been to; the singing was amazing
Friday - I don't think anything fun happened as far as the kids were concerned - but they did enjoy the first morning to sleep in and relax all day, but the house got picked up and Matt and I went out with some of the pastors and wives late
Saturday - youth pancake breakfast, egg hunt, dye eggs, paint the front door, and take our annual robin bird eggs blue lips picture
Sunday - games and egg hunt, and a trip down to the beach
Monday - at home egg hunt; indoor roller rink
Tuesday - got out the bikes and put away the sleds
Wednesday - pool and whirlpool at the YMCA
Thursday - Big Hero 6 movie at the theatre
Friday - Night at the Museum movie - back at our friends
Saturday- set up the trampoine
Sunday - Muskegon Museum of Art - especially the Lego exhibit

And Monday - soccer, baseball, piano, and oh so many activities mom needs to figure out a way to clone herself.
Happy Spring!

These creations are made out of legos - so cool, the picture in the background shows a girl wearing the red dress

Maria had a PE assignment to do 'active things' with 'Flat Sara'. She took her for a run, a scooter ride, a ride on the teeter twirl and a jump on the trampolin

Some E cousin time

We had the annual Wild Game Dinner at church and Matt's brother Jeff always enjoys it, so they came once again for a weekend away.

Saturday afternoon was quite chilly but we decided it was time for a hike so off to Rosy Mound we went. Its a B E A utiful park and the views were gorgeous. There are 8 different letter boxes hidden in the park and we took the time to find two of them. We decided we need to go back when the hiding spot aren't covered by snow and we aren't clapping ice out of the log books and containers!  We do hope to go back when it is nicer. It is a gorgeous walk - even if it has over 400 stairs!

While Matt and Jeff went to the dinner, the rest of us headed to the Muskegon Lumberjacks hockey game. Brandon has an amazing teacher that houses one of the Lumberjacks. The team also has a reading program that gives vouchers for free tickets. She had over 60 vouchers, so I asked for 9 of them! Our whole clan went and the team won and we all had a good time. I couldn't believe how many people were there that we knew! Brandon had quite a showing from his class and a bunch of them sat together with his teacher!