Easter, spring, the end of 5th grade - brace yourself for a lot of pictures!

So, as usual, the spring has gotten away from me. Here are some pictures, with minimal reading for your enjoyment!

Easter 2017. 

 Final orchestra concert at Cavett! Sigh....elementary school is ending!

 Brian's 40th Birthday!! 

 Final chorus concert at Cavett....We sure love Mrs. Fusselman. We will miss her!

 Spring piano recital with Marcia and some of her other students. Great recital!

 Last day of 5th grade!! It was a party. They went bowling, to the park, had a pizza party, then came back to school and had a whole graduation ceremony and ice cream. I was able to get off of work early to go to the ceremony and see it. They gave each a certificate then the parents took a ton of pictures! After that, they played the graduation march over the loudspeaker while the 5th grade paraded through the building while all the other students cheered. I have some video on my phone I'll try to post. OMG! I can't believe they're done with elementary school!

 Grace and her BFF Jadyn.

 The boys with their friend Jared.

Playful Puppies

The kids' piano teacher had them write a composition and entered it in a contest sponsored by the Lincoln Music Teacher's Association. Grace's won an Honorable Mention in her category (late elementary). She was invited to perform on the winner's recital. Enjoy!

Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts

At the Blue and Gold banquet in February, the boys were part of a den of 5 boys who finished Cub scouts and bridged over to Boy Scouts. The ceremony was nice, with Troop 25 welcoming Will and Xander into their troop. They've already been going to meetings and will start camping with them this spring (they camp once a month!) and will go to a week-long summer camp with them also. So far they are enjoying the experience. They like camping a lot. 

Happy 11th birthday!

On the kids' birthday, they played in a piano extravaganza that their teacher signed them up for. It was a big concert with tons of pianos on stage and everyone playing duets at the same time. The boys were partners and Grace was partners with another student Hannah that also takes from Marcia. It was a fun concert, our high school orchestra director was the conductor!

Afterwards, we took the kids out to Ginger for some sushi and Mongolian grill for a birthday dinner. Then we went back to our house for black forest cake (their request) and ice cream. 11 years old! Hard to believe!

Christmas - Can't believe I'm posting this in Apri!

Since Easter is less than week away, I did what every good blogger does - posts about Christmas! We have been crazy busy this winter and working full-time means I really don't have much to do extra things like blogging and scrapbooking. At least we have a clean house, clean laundry and food on the table, but that's the best I can do right now!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas. the first few are from Firethorn Christmas that we go to every year. This year we only went for Santa and dinner, but we still had fun with the cousins.

Grace's dance studio danced at the Starry Nights Festival to benefit the City Mission. So, we spent an afternoon doing Christmas crafts and seeing Santa and watching Grace dance. Toby, Sebastian and Grandma went with us. Fun day!

We did our (what has become) usual Christmas routine with the grandparents. Christmas Eve day at the Niebuhrs eating a big noon meal then doing presents. We split up for church (they go to Southwood and we go to First to sing and play bells) then we meet back up for a soup dinner. It is a fun day with lots of great food and fun.

Christmas morning was spent opening and playing with presents from Santa and having both our families over for Brunch. After brunch was cleaned up, I spent another few hours in the kitchen making food to take to the Hoefs for the evening. That night was spent with more food and presents and a lot of fun with the cousins!