Photo Round-Up: School, Easter, and More

Now that David has a big motorcycle that he uses to take three of four kids (plus big back packs) to school, it warranted new safety measures: really cool helmets. If we didn't stand out before we do now. The kids love it.

This one was a little small on Sophia so we sent it back. She is growing and is destined to surpass me in height (which is not hard to do)

For our 15th wedding anniversary, I made Aunt Beth's Lemon/Key lime meringue pie and a cheese cake too. We also had a night away at a guest house. David ended up very sick in the night, but recovered quickly the next day.

Part of our morning routine while the older kids are at school is for me to work with Gabrielle. We do catechism, scripture memory, I read to her and then she reads to me (currently on lesson 66 or so). Then when it is time for me to exercise or run she does activities on her own OR plays with our helper. On this day I pulled out the shapes and Gabrielle played under the table the full 25 minutes of my Kettle bell workout.

Once again the 4th graders at school are doing soccer competition between classes. On this day Sophia's class won and she scored two goals. Short fields, 5 v 5.

 Since they won't keep clean water in the pool, our kids now use it as their 'skate park' for skateboarding. It works well actually with a nice little hill. 

 They're really not half bad, I was surprised that not too many scrapes have come from this (so far)

These kiddos dream of a tree house. If only this were our tree.

Every semester the kids have 'spring outings', all kids going to different spots across town. This time Gabrielle's kindergarten even had their own too. Thankfully she was slotted to go to the same place as Sophia. The kids love this, they pack junk food and get to have picnics with their friends.

And Easter. Easter is a BIG deal at our house, though it is not highlighted here much. It was a busy weekend, but the build-up to the celebration was fantastic. We used our Road to the Cross study and each day saw the OT point to the coming one. Then we listen to Jesus in the NT as he proclaims the reason for his coming, we followed Him to his death and rejoiced in his resurrection. It was a simple and sweet time of reflection. 

As our kids get older these times in the Word and discussions during Bible Study are precious and much deeper.
"Praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead" is the refrain of our life.

 And I was coaxed into an Easter egg hunt too. Last minute, but still fun, I hid about 100 eggs, and I think we are still missing about 10...out there for the rats to get.

On Easter our yard got resurrected. For an American yard this is nothing, but if you are in China, guard your heart against yard-envy :). We took up our flower (weed) beds, moved some trees, took down the fence, expanded the yard, and laid sod. This was my birthday present and it was so late because no one works during the entire month surrounding my birthday (always Chinese New Year).
We are so pleasantly surprised at the space. Let's just hope we can keep the grass alive!

And I leave you with this: 

 All four at the desks. This is completely staged, the older three were working on Chinese HW and I told David to go take a look. They called Gabrielle in for the picture. And yes, I am doing a little homeschool room renovation: cabinets on that wall and one long desk with drawers. And possibly in another corner a tall stand-up/bar stool computer/device desk. I will let you know how it turns out.