Swim Team Ends & Soccer Begins

Spring means Soccer in our house.  Both Kate and Will play in the Soccer West league and really enjoy it.  Will is on a
 Co-Ed team and has really gotten more aggressive this year.  

Kate continues on the "FireBalls" who have been playing together since she was 6 years old.  She loves Coach Corey and all her friends on the team. 

Will has really taken a love to defense this year.  

Now that it's spring, the kids take any chance they can get to go play in the woods and creek behind our house.  Our lot with the woods, trail and creek with a little island is what sold us on the property 12 years ago!  The fact that we live in the middle of the city, but feel like we are out in the middle of nature is what will most likely keep us where we are at forever!   

And who doesn't love picnics!

Living by the woods does challenge us a bit as far as having adequate sunlight to grow a garden.  The south side of our house has the most sun and we are taking advantage of it the best we can.  Kate and Will are really excited about planting, tending to and reaping the rewards of our garden this year!

The swim banquet this year was lots of fun!  These 9/10 Girls come from all over DSM to be on the swim team and have really become great friends!  

Its so weird seeing them all dressed up and not in their swim caps, suits and goggles!  

And these 2 have really become close this year!  They absolutely have the best time together during practice and at the meets. 

And Finally, the 8 and Under Boys team is a super energetic, fun group this year!  Will is our social butterfly and manages to always squeeze in some fun with his friends when they're swimming laps, diving or exercising on dry land! 

The Ninja and Fun April Activities!

Spring means..... No more comfort food and turning the menu to lighter and healthier options.  I have been really wanting one of these Nutri Ninjas to make yummy smoothies for breakfast for a long time.  Well, 1 April night, Brett told me he was running to Target to get some new socks.  But instead he surprised me with THE NINJA!!!!   

Thank goodness for our Costco membership!  I can buy a lot of greens and frozen fruits in bulk and make up a bunch of these smoothie packs to pop in the Ninja each morning.  

I LOVE IT!!

On April Fools Day Brett tricked the kids by putting their bowl of cereal with a spoon in it in the freezer over night!  When they tried to lift the spoon from the bowl to take a bite they got quite the surprise!!!

There are A LOT of kids in our neighborhood.  Specifically, there are a lot of 4th Graders!  One warm April day they gather in our driveway and put together a lemonade stand.  

I sent a quick text to Kate's teacher and told her about the little business women in her class and she decided to surprise them and stop by for a glass!   The girls were SHOCKED and SO excited to see her!!

We try to eat outside as much as our Iowa weather will allow us to.  Brett found some fun deck lights for us to enjoy while we eat.  

And Ms. Kate started the Harry Potter series.  She is an amazing reader and loves to crawl into her bed with a good book most nights of the week.  

Brett's firm participated in a charity event at Valley West Mall where they had to design and construct a piece completely out of canned goods that would be donated to the local food pantry after the event.  I think they did a great job!

And finally,  I just had to reveal Kate and her friend Avery's locker at school.  WOW!  I never had anything close to this in my locker at WHS!!!

Easter Fun!

Our church had a Huge Easter Celebration for all the kiddos before the Easter Services this year!  It was our first time participating in the fun activities and Kate and Will had a lot of fun!

They collected quite a bit of candy. 

And played quite a few games.  

The games were geared more to little kids.  Will had a great time and Kate was a great big sister and took him around to all the games and helped when needed. 

Grandma & Grandpa Schaefer had an egg hunt too!  Each year, the eggs get harder and harder to find :)

It took Kate awhile, but she eventually found all her orange eggs. 

Grandma always has all the new fun accessories to take egg dying to a whole new level each year.  

Each child gets 1 dozen eggs to dye.  Kate takes her time planning each design for EVERY SINGLE EGG.  Will on the other hand was done with all 12 of his eggs in about 10 minutes.   Drop um in,  wait for a few seconds.......... take them out, and DONE!

He did get a little creative with 1 of his eggs towards the end. 

We headed over to Nana & Papa's to celebrate the next date.  Will found the comics and sat down for awhile to catch up for a bit. 

Papa organized an AMAZING Scavenger Hunt this year.  Kate and Will were really excited to get started.  

The first clue.....

Lots of additional clues.....

Clues were all over......

Even high up in the tree!  They LOVED EVERY Minute of it!  Especially when a Phone call to Uncle Johnny to ask where the key to the locked treasure chest was revealed the key was in Will's coat pocket THE ENTIRE TIME!!!  Great Work Papa!  You really Got Em that Time!!!

We finished up our Easter Celebration with a stop in Pella to see Great Grandma Trudy.  We had some yummy desserts and coffee and enjoyed visiting her in her nice apartment.   

Kate's First Communion- April 2016

Kate completed her first communion classes and was really excited to participate in communion with our family for the first time in April. Kate was selected to be one of the Bible Readers and Both Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa Schaefer were able to come join us for the ceremony. 

She did a great job for her first time.  She MAY have dunked her wafer deep into the wine a few times like it was an Oreo Cookie in Milk,  but hey that's okay....... Right?!?

Kate enjoyed taking the classes with her friends Annie and Ashley. It definitely added to the fun of the whole experience.