The Accidental Boilermaker

 First off, I saw this huge snapping turtle on my run this morning.  It was just chilling in the middle of the trail. I named him Bubba. Jameson had a soccer game. He had a great save as goalie and scored a few goals of his own. We chatted with the family next to us whose daughter/sister almost went to Hope but then ended up at Indiana Wesleyan. After soccer, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the ballpark. Evelyn and Jameson had earned a free ticket through school and although the weather looked iffy, we decided to go even if it ended up raining. Well last nights game was canceled due to rain, so today’s event was a double header (2 seven inning games) and our tickets were good for both. The Tin Caps lost the first game, won the second and the rain stayed away till the drive home. Nate and I were even on the kiss cam. And Evelyn got to meet her favorite Indiana Tech women’s basketball player! The team was serving concessions as a fundraiser.  Evelyn made Nate pr...

 Another fun weekend in the books. Oma and Grandpa were here. Jameson had his first spring soccer game. I missed it; I had a coffee get together with the ladies from life group. Nate said he looked good. He had one goal and one assist.  Jameson has found a new book series at the school library he enjoys.  He tries really hard to finish before Monday when it needs to be returned.  Evelyn was invited to Natalya’s birthday party in the afternoon.  It was a Willy wonka themed with a chocolate fountain. Tamber said I could stay for the party since it is a little bit of a drive to their house. Natalya is a church friend so Evelyn didn’t know any of the other girls there, but no one cares. They just ran around and played and had fun. 

 This morning we split up girls and boys. Nathan and Jameson went to a coffee shop to read books and then went on a nice bike ride while I took Evelyn to a young authors conference organized by the school district.  When Jameson chose to do a science project, Evelyn chose to write a short story. I would describe the genre of her book as absurd fantasy (?). The story is about a boy and his grandmother who go on various adventures but it is told from the perspective of the narrator/bad guy. We only helped with spelling; she wrote the entire story by herself. She was chosen by her teacher to attend the conference. The leader of her small group was another 3rd teacher from Croninger and she knew one other girl in her group from church. Everyone read their book (Evelyn volunteered to go first which I told her was very brave) and then they gave each other feedback about what they liked. The large group session featured an children/YA author from Maine, Cynthia Lord. She was an excel...

 We had a nice Easter weekend. On Saturday we made hot cross buns. Evelyn and Jameson helped add the cross. We almost forgot to dye Easter eggs! So we did them after showers right before bed.  Sunday morning church downtown wasn’t until 11:00 so we made empty tomb rolls for breakfast. Except they weren’t empty; the marshmallows didn’t disappear.  I thought we did a good job of sealing the rolls, but they burst open, revealing the marshmallow.  Oh well, they were still yummy. Church was beautiful. Nate and I both really enjoyed the music and the message. After church we took a few pictures.  I got to work on dinner while Nate hid Easter eggs. Evelyn and Jameson are so funny. Easter eggs just “magically appear” in the middle of the day and they don’t question a thing.  The Easter bunny also brought them some new books and a Harry Potter perler bead kit. Evelyn read all day and almost finished her book. Dinner took some time and planning but it all turned out ...

 We intentionally had a very low key spring break. Normally we have something scheduled almost every night of the week, so I decided to just keep close to home this week. Of course the first weekend with Amanda and the boys was lots of fun. Monday was the nicest day of the week so we met Victoria, Addie and Freddie at the park. Tuesday we had no plans and the kids didn’t want to go to basketball drills and skills. So instead we waited for Nate to get home and we played basketball in the driveway. Wednesday more storms were predicted. We had an event at the library but it was cancelled/rescheduled so we stayed home and watched a movie. Thursday we saw the Super Mario Bros movie with Bella and Millie and then they came back to our and stayed for dinner. Friday we were able to go to our library event - a young writers workshop with a local author. It was lots of fun. And of course Good Friday service in the evening. So we definitely did fun things over spring break but it felt very co...

 Our fun activity on Saturday was a trip to the cat cafe. There were plenty of cats to love on and a few who wanted to play. We all enjoyed a treat after our time with the cats was over. Other fun Saturday stuff included decorating Easter sugar cookies, reading books, and playing several different real and made up games. Sunday turned out to be a much nicer day so we were able to make a trip to the playground in Leo before Amanda and the boys had to drive home. 

 Last night we had a scary storm blow through. It hasn’t been confirmed if it was a tornado yet. Amanda and the boys arrived for the weekend about an hour before the storm hit which was blessing number one.  Blessing number two was Nathan making the decision we needed to move the kids to the basement when the alert went off on everyone’s phones. Our house wasn’t damaged but it was the right decision. Blessing number three, when the basketball hoop tipped over it missed Amanda’s car. Final blessing was none of knew how bad the storm was in the moment; we never lost power and the kids never freaked out. It wasn’t until we woke up today that we realized how bad it had been. Nathan opened the blinds and said there’s a trampoline on the fence! I didn’t get a picture until he was helping the neighbors move the trampoline back into their yard.  There are a few places where the siding is damaged we think from the trampoline blowing across our deck or it dragging a deck chair. Out...