speed racer

Today was the AWANA Grand Prix. Every child in AWANA took a block of wood, two axels and four wheels and created a car. Ruth helped as well as any 3 1/2 year old could in the making of a car, particularly in the painting and decorating.

On Wednesday they had a test run for the cars just to make sure every car would do well on the track. In the test run, Ruth lost to the other kid she was racing against. She was disappointed, and it was a great opportunity for us to talk with her about not always needing to win and having fun making the car with Daddy and Papa Greg. We also explained that this was only one test run, and the real races were still to come.

Fast forward to today...within her age group, Ruth took first place in the general race!! And as a bonus, she took 3rd place for design! You could say her countenance was slightly changed :)

(click photo to see it larger)

the writer

After the birth of Rebecca, we pretty much let Ruth take a break from the semi-structured reading we were beginning to do with her. However, in light of her recent interest in not only reading, but writing her alphabet, we began showing Ruth the various strokes of letter making.

This afternoon she, completely on her own, surprised us with her first self-written word!

Immediately following our praise, she began asking us how to spell various other family and friend names, so she could try her new-found skill! Watch your mailbox for a note from Ruth!

Cute kids

Some photos from this morning! (click on any picture to see it larger)

Garage Sale

Grandma Lou and Grandpa Steve are here. Last weekend we hit the local community-wide garage sale... somehow this ended up in our trunk!

Air Show

This was a while ago, forgive me...

We attended the 2010 Air Show at MacDill Air Force Base. The kids enjoyed seeing all the stunt shows, and of course, getting to see so many of the planes up close. Cameron and I loved that the weather was overcast and breezy, meaning the crowds were down and there was plenty of space to spread out and enjoy ourselves.

Among some of the many, MANY planes we saw that day:

An F-18, which when we tried to explain that Papa works on planes like this one, Ruth understood that he has a plane like this one. She may be disappointed when she finally understands the truth.



An amazing chance to view a B-52 bomber-- extremely impressive!




And, a Jayhawk, which we had never heard of, but being the die hard KU fans we are (namely one of us) we had to get a picture with it!

Easter Weeeknd

Saturday evening was our Easter service at church, and then Sunday we had our annual Easter Celebration at the beach. Hope your Easter weekend was as fun and meaningful as ours!!

Ready for church on Saturday evening-- when did she grow up?



Ready for the beach Sunday morning. Ruth was more excited than I was to have the same outfit as Rebecca!

Discovered Talents!

As told by Cameron:

This weekend we cleaned out the garage and hung out with the kids. We had a funny moment with Joseph. We were all watching a NCAA basketball game and were having problems with the reception because of the antennae. At one point the signal cut out and Joseph got up, stood in front of the TV and started talking to it. Right when he finished, the game came back on the screen. Joseph whipped around and faced us. He raised his hands in the air and yelled out, "I DID IT!"

Big Brother

This week Joseph had his 18 month check-up; he got an A+!!! Joseph is 34" tall and weighs 28 lbs. He loves to play basketball and golf, color with crayons, play in any amount of water (which includes washing dishes), read books, and eat! He also loves to knock Ruth over and/or tackle her unexpectedly if he finds her lying on the floor at any point in the day. He is our laughter, our delight, our comic relief! He is 200% boy. Most of all, he is a gift...