Volleyball and Pioneer Day

Emerson stepped out of her comfort zone and tried something new, volleyball.  She had 8 practices with the VolleyCubs camp at Nappanee Elementary with Kati Andrews.  She learned a lot (she'd never played before) and had fun with some new friends. I don't know if she'll stick with it or not, but I'm glad she tried something new.

Then, this week, the fourth graders celebrated their annual Pioneer Day.  All the students could dress up as Pioneers.  They made butter, did tin punching, had a guest speaker, a spelling bee, and square danced.  The kids had a lot of fun and learned that tin punching isn't the best way to spend their time (those poor pioneer children! 😜)

Honor Roll and State Robotics

This year in 4th grade was the first opportunity for Landon and Emmy to earn Honor Roll for getting good grades.  We are so proud to say that both trimesters so far, Emerson has been on the Honor Roll and Landon has been on the High Honor Roll.  I can see their dedication and all the hard work Emmy puts into doing her best.  She asks her teacher, Mrs. Taylor for help when she doesn't understand.  

Congratulations!

The weekend of March 9th, we traveled to Indianapolis for the State Robotics Tournament.  We arrived Friday night for the Pizza and Pool party at the hotel.  Then spent all day Saturday at the Tournament.  It was a long day, but Nate and Sara came up from Evansville, so we got to spend the day with them.  It was neat being able to see all the robots from other schools and watch Woodview compete.

Landon in his Eaglebots gear.  The only thing you can't see are his red light up shoes!

The Red and Blue teams made it to the finals.  Neither won State, but they BOTH won the Excellence Award which is given to teams whose STEM research award, teamwork, interviews, notebook, and skills scores are the best.  This is a great honor (with a ginormous trophy!) and qualifies both teams to be entered to win the Excellence Award at World's too in April.

These kids and coaches work so hard and it shows!  Congrats on a great day!

We finished off the day with a yummy dinner with Nate and Sara, spent the night again and went shopping before heading home.  It was a busy, fun weekend!

Daddy/Daughter Dance and Mystery Dinner

So, every year around Valentine's Day, the parks department puts on a dance for dads and daughters.  Every year, Emmy looks forward to it for weeks.  She talks about it, picks out her dress and how she wants her hair.  She just loves being able to spend time one on one with her dad at this special event.  Kenna and John come too and they have a blast together!  

Her hair is so pretty!

These girls have been loving their American Girl Dolls.  And what a surprise, they both picked out the same shoes to wear!

I decided to do something different for Valentine's Day this year.  Matt and I try to go out for dinner. (This year we went to Jesus Latin Grill...yummy!  I didn't take any pictures!)  But we wanted to make it special for the kids too.  I found on Pinterest a Mystery Dinner.  You assign all aspects of the meal a number and then everybody randomly chooses numbers and they are given what they order.  It was a lot of fun and we had some interesting appetizer, main meal, and dessert options.  Luckily we had a snow day on Feb. 12th so we had extra time to put into making the meal.

3 of us ended up with a hamburger as an appetizer and no drinks.

Everyone had plates for the main course, but Landon was still waiting on his drink.  Em and I both got cookies and raspberries for our main meal.

Here is our dessert course. 

It was a fun way to spend the evening, but it took a lot longer than a traditional dinner.  I love making memories with these guys.

Vertical Basketball

Landon had a great season of Vertical basketball (his last year 😔).  He played for the Thunder and Matt coached.  He definitely improved as the season went on.  He made several baskets most games and did a great job on defense.  He loves playing basketball and every Saturday, we were there to cheer him on.  He also had grandparents and an aunt and cousins at most games too!

Back row: Eli, Caden, Tim, Landon,
Front row: Kian, Moses, Peyton

Near the end of the season, NMC put on a Family Fun Night with bounce houses, roller skating, games, and free food.  The kids went off with their friends and just checked in every once in awhile, so we got to talk with other parents.  They had a great time....but I didn't get many pictures, except of Emmy roller skating for the 2nd time in her life!

Playa del Carmen Vacay

As I sit here on our 3rd snow/cold day off school and the coldest day of my entire life (no, really the wind chill was -38!), I realized I hadn't blogged about a much warmer time this winter...our trip to Mexico!  Matt and I went on a trip to an all inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen Mexico from Dec. 31-Jan. 5 in celebration of my 40th birthday last October.  It was heavenly.  We literally had NO responsibilities and could just relax and do whatever we wanted!

flying in

We got there on New Year's Eve, so we got to celebrate the new year outside in 80 degrees, a first!  It was a lot of fun, but we were so tired since we had to wake up at 4 am to be at the South Bend airport.

We spent time at the beach and pool.  It was a great time to go, not too crowded.

These little coati were EVERYWHERE!  They were rummaging around in the dirt and trashcans.

We spent an afternoon in town touring the shops and restaurants.

Our resort, Grand Sunset Princess!

We went ziplining at a really cool place in the jungle!

It was a lot of fun and even though it rained a bit, we had a great time!

waiting on the rest of our group to eat

We also got to go swimming in a cenote (natural sinkhole).

Our resort room was gorgeous!  It was spacious and the balcony overlooked the pool.

We went to dinner each night (usually around 9) and then just walked around the resort.  It was so nice being able to walk around even at night and not be cold or worry about bugs.

 Everyone was so willing to bring you drinks and help out.  Several employees were a little too insistent on us buying into the timeshare there and they kept asking us about it.  We eventually got smart and told them it was our last day, then they stopped asking!

It was a great week away, just the two of us!  We missed the kids (Emmy sent us messages about every day 😃), but it was nice to feel the sunshine and swim in the ocean.

Sunset on the way home