Finishing the School Year

 Micah's track season was primarily wet and cold, but he still enjoyed it.  His head coach is amazing, and I'm so thankful Micah gets to learn from her.

His last couple of meets happened to be on days that he also had soccer practice.  He was one tired boy by the end of the day.  

Matthew has been playing soccer on a U8 development team.  It's fun to see how much they are learning.  He has played goalie several times, but he's also doing great in the field.

Hannah and I went to see her friends Ainsley and Gwen in the ballet "Cinderella".

Little Peanut loves when she gets to play outside!  She has also discovered a love of books. (She still can't resist the urge to chew on them sometimes, but now she enjoys reading them just as much.)  We haven't had any in-person story times yet, but she gets excited to watch Miss Sarah's story times on youtube.

So much laundry.  Always.

Matthew did a great job at his school Author's Night reading a story he wrote about laser tag olympics.

Cornerstone's art teacher is a talented artist.  Some of her work was being displayed at a local gallery, so we made a special trip to see it.

We are so thankful to still be involved with "Baby L" and her family.  I went to go see her on her birthday (she turned 4!).  She and her sister both love Hannah, so we have them over to play occasionally.

Cornerstone does two special Fantastic Fridays at the end of the year.  Matthew got to do biking.  Hannah did obstacle courses one week and an "Amazing Race" activity the other week.

Team captains 

Gramme and Poppa came for a visit.  They helped with our activities, saw each kid play soccer, took the big kids for long bike rides, and cheered on Matthew and Hannah for field day.

Matthew won the 200m dash

Hannah's event was the mile.  She was very determined to beat her good friend Stella.  She ended up also beating all the other fourth graders and most of the fifth graders!  We might have another runner in the family!

They also had class picnics.  (Micah had a class picnic, too, but I don't have any pictures.  I heard his team won the kickball tournament, though!)

Matthew's fruit of the Spirit award this year was patience, and Hannah's was gentleness.

Last day of first grade and fourth grade!  (Micah did not pose for the last day of 7th.)

Now it's summer vacation, which means they have more time for chores!

Memorial Day Weekend

 This weekend Micah and Hannah played in a soccer tournament.  Saturday was cold and wet.  These kids are tough, though.  They still played incredibly hard.  Sadly, Hannah's team didn't win any games, but we were still so impressed with them, especially on Sunday's game when they didn't have any subs!  Micah's team played some hard games and finished 2nd in the U15 division.

Matthew was a supportive little brother.  Thankfully, the Oysters kept Little Peanut for us all day on Saturday.

Micah played goalie for the 2nd half of the championship game.  (Cue Deb's anxiety...)  Don't get me wrong, he's a great goalie, but look at how little he is!  With big, physical 15 year old boys [men] crashing at him....I get so nervous.  Scott wasn't worried, though, and turns out he was right.  Micah held his own.  He had a couple shots go over his head, but he jumped at the right time and would have had them if he were a little taller. He also almost stopped a one-on-one point blank penalty shot.

For comparison, their goalie was well over six feet tall:

(Several of Hannah's pics were from another mom)

This morning we kept up our tradition of the Memorial Day race in town.  We all had goals...and we all crushed them!  I have not made exercising a priority in the past few years (mostly since we started fostering), and this was my first 5k since rupturing my Achilles.  So my goal was just to be under 30 minutes.  I was very happy with my time of 28:38.

Hannah agreed (reluctantly) to attempt the 5k for the first time.  Her goal was also to be under 30 minutes.  She really wanted to stay with me, but after about half a mile I convinced her to go ahead of me.  She finished with a time of 26:09!!  (That's a 8:26 pace.)  She was the youngest girl in the race and got 5th in her age group.  We are so proud of her!!

Micah's goal was to be under 21 minutes.  He finished with a time of 19:52 (which is a 6:24 pace).  He also got 5th in his age group.  Fourteen-year-olds took the top three spots, then his buddy Ben inched him out at the finish line for fourth place.  He's already looking forward to next year. 

They accidentally dressed alike, and I loved it.  

And lastly, Matthew ran the one mile race.  We offered to have one of us run with him, but he wanted to to do it himself.  His goal was to be under 9:30, and his finish time was 8:47.  They don't divide the mile run into age groups, but if there had been a 7 and under category, he would have won.  

We decided to reward ourselves with some waffles before heading home to rest.