JR. CAMP AT CIRCLE J RANCH

This week Isabel, Frankie and Maddie were at Jr. camp. On Thursday night they gave a rodeo for all the parents and family. they started the night with the pledges to the flags. Then the girls chased cows to try and take the ribbons off of their tails and they all tried to catch chickens which our three were all unsuccessful at. Adrianna did not care for the clowns at all which you can see by her picture. Then they raced to see who could fill a cup up with water by milking a fake cow. Bro. Mitchell preached the wordless book. Frankie baptized a girl and her dad who both were saved this week. To say the least we spent a beautiful night at the rodeo.

Kindergarten Graduation (Givonna and my class!)

This Tuesday we had a wonderful Graduation for our Kindergarten classes here at South Haven.
Our theme for Graduation this year was "The Army of the Lord".
We honored all military in attendance and sang "Proud to be an American"
We listened while Ashlea read about David and Goliath and then the entire class quoted Ephesians 6:10-17. We sang about 7 songs and quoted some other verses and each of the kids were able to come up to the mic and recite something. Then while we were putting on our gowns the parents were able to watch a slideshow of our year. We ended the night singing "God Bless America"with the K-4 class. The kids did an awesome job and I am so proud of them.

Givonna was in my class this year and we had a fun time. She is such a silly girl and brought a lot of life to our class.
I really had a great time with these kids and will miss seeing them everyday throughout this summer. I am happy to say that they will all be returning next year for First Grade.

Happy Belated Spring!

Here are some Spring Pictures that I took back in March, around Mom's Birthday.

It was so nice out and I was dying to get out and plant but it was still a little early so I made this wreath for our front door.

On Mom's birthday we went to Lowe's and bought some different plants to put in our yard.

The Lilac Bush we planted in Mom's memory.

Our winter blooming Camellias.

My pot of Ranunculas. One of my favorites along with Peonies.
Hopefully this summer or next I can get some Peonies planted.

I planted some Lily of the Valley last year and one plant came back, but no blooms.
I will just keep at it a little at a time and maybe one day our yard will look as nice as Mom always kept hers!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

On Saturday it would have been mom's 53rd birthday. It is kind of funny to me that mom did not like her middle name, Spring, because to me that is exactly what she was. She was Spring. Her smile and laugh were like the first flowers that you see at spring. For me, her presence was just as anticipated as the first warm day of spring that you just could'nt wait for. Every time spring comes around I just can't help but think of my mom. Thank you Lord for the beautiful reminders of mom that are always around me.

I thought some of you might like to see what you got mom on her birthday a few years back (1968 & 1969 to be exact) . I was reading through her diary that Uncle Scott got her for her birthday one year, and here is what she wrote on the date of her birthday.

What a great family!

(little) Girls night!

Here are some photos from when we had Isabel, Maddie, Givonna, and Adrianna over last Friday night.
I took the girls to a place called Monkey Joes. It is a large storefront filled with inflatables. The girls had a blast and ran around without stopping for about and hour and a half.



By that time it was time to head home and make Pizza!

Trevor Drew

Just had to stick in this adorable piture of Trevor at work with Noel and Colleen.
He got into the Post-It notes!
You are seeing correctly! They are stuck to his bottom!

Mission's Parade

(Me instructing the Kindergarten boys how to throw their confetti!
Up, not out!)

Every year our church hosts a week long Mission's Conference. It is a time to get to know more about Mission's and make decisions about our personal Faith Promise Giving (for missions). There are different activities that take place throughout the week and it is capped off by a huge Mission's Parade that our school sponsors.

Throughout the year each class raises money for a missionary family that will be attending our conference. This year the Kindergarten, along with a few other High school grades were raising money for the Gross Family to Muldova. They were a very sweet family with two small children and at about %50 of their support.

Gross Family

Our 25 Kindergarten kids were able to raise over $1,800 dollars for this family. Each missionary family received a total of around $5,000. It is so neat to see five year olds bring in money and know that they are helping missionaries go and tell others about Jesus and buy Bibles for people who don't have any.

Here are the kindergarten girls...the boys are hidden behind them.
You can see Givonna she is the 2nd from the left.

My class sang "Missionary Echo" and quoted Matthew 24:14 - And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.

Here is a couple of photos of the beginning of the parade when the missionaries get wheeled around the gym and pummeled with confetti. Needless to say this whole event is very "Hush,Hush" throughout the week.

Gross Family in the midst of confetti. Now you know why they are supposed to throw up not out!


Trevor enjoyed the aftermath of the confetti.

Some of my girls waiting for the parade to begin.

Trip to Rockford

William's Tree Farm

Grandma and her favorite grandkids :)
Just kidding Ann-Marie she loves you too.

All of us at the tree farm
(Isabel stood in for Candice.)

We were able to spend two weeks in Rockford at Christmas time. We loved being able to see everyone and spending time with our family and getting to know Brielle even more.

The Gaglianos were able to come up to Rockford for a quick trip. Frank and Laurie were at the Christmas party so they were able to see everyone and spend time with Grandma. Frankie and Sarah and their four were in Rockford for a couple of days and were able to enjoy the snow at Dad's house.


The kids had a blast!


Aunt Laurie loved the snow...Uncle Frank not so much!

Frankie and his Dad threw the ball around and lost it a few times in the snow.

Aliya loved the snow... for a while.

UPDATE!!!

Hey all,
It is Charity again. Sorry it has been soooooo long! But I am going to try and do a couple of posts to get you updated on some of what has happened here in the last few months.
We took Isabel and Maddie out to the pumpkin patch in the fall. Here are a few pictures.

I will do some more posting this week!