Wrapping up the school year

Posted on May 22, 2019 by jlcleve

We’ve had a sort of bizarre wrap up to our school year. We still have a few things to finish before I can officially say we’re on summer break, but we’ve definitely lowered the intensity of our workload already. We had to hit it pretty hard in April, so May has been a slower pace. We also often do various school-related things throughout the summer, so I’m okay with a more calm ending to the school year. But I haven’t taken any official final day of school pics. haha!

Ethan had his first standardized tests and did really well on them. He took them with a bunch of other CC peeps at our church, so that helped to make it a good first experience for him. Meanwhile, Micah and I went over to a nearby rec center and did school there. Afterwards they all played basketball and ate lunch together.

We had our final day at CBS and Micah “sang” with the kids at the opening. We also had our final lunch with cousin Matthew before he starts school at DC in the fall. They had their final piano lesson together recently, too. It’s been SO much fun being with them every week.

The boys earned two new books for their read aloud challenge – they read EVERY day of the month of April for at least ten minutes each.

And we had our end of the year party with CC. We celebrated all that they learned and did a little showing off by singing the timeline. This was also the evening that my new role as the Director at CC began – pretty overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. Mike wasn’t in town, so I only got the picture of the memory master gang (featured in a previous post) and this one of Micah’s class.

See You Laters

Posted on May 21, 2019 by jlcleve

Mike’s sister and her family moved to Georgia at the beginning of this month, so much of April was spent trying to soak up some time with them. We had a few dinners together and they were able to come watch one of Ethan’s soccer games. We also had Caleb sleep over so that Ashley could get a bunch of cleaning done more easily around their place. We loved all the time with them!

It was a pleasure to have a few years living in the same city and we were really bummed to see them go. But we’re hopeful and prayerful that they will really enjoy Atlanta and the adventures that await them there.

Further Catching Up

Posted on May 21, 2019 by jlcleve

Ethan’s been loving playing soccer this season. He’s found his favorite position – stopper! He absolutely loves playing defense and has even managed to score a few goals from back there because he’s got quite the kick! And Micah is a fun fan. =)

Micah started playing flag football through the rec centers here. He’s loved it and definitely improved over the few weeks that the season ran. I was out of town for his first game, but Mike took lots of pictures and videos. They watched some game footage to help teach him about the game before his second night of games. And then his final games were cancelled due to weather, so we’ll see if he gets to make those up later. He prefers to play center, but he did get a couple running plays called for him and snagged at least one flag! Woot!

Ethan worked SO hard on his Memory Master challenge this year and was able to get the official title. This meant he had to memorize every fact for all 24 weeks of 7 subjects. He had to recall this information 3 different times. We opted to do one with Auntie Mel (SO thankful to live by these guys again!!). Then he was quizzed by a tutor at CC and then by the director. It was a pretty arduous process, but he loved it and was super excited by the challenge!

Micah began going to Speech therapy and is making great strides there already. He seems to enjoy it okay and is pretty determined to do his homework!

And Ethan played the prelude in church again – In Christ Alone. Another fun bonus to going to the same church as family, Aunt Mel took a video! =)

He also had his final piano recital of the year – he played two pieces (In the Hall of the Mountain King and something about pirates).

And Micah is wrapping up drum lessons for the year. Here’s one of the latest pictures I took when one of his friends from church wanted to sit in and listen.

More Attempts to Catch Up

Posted on May 20, 2019 by jlcleve

Other happenings from the past months include our very first opportunity to provide respite care. I can’t give details here or show any pictures of our sweetie pie’s face, but suffice it to say, we had a wonderful time. I’m including some pictures from what we did that weekend (we had him with us for four days), as a reminder to myself. As soon as he left our home, Micah commented on how much he missed him and how our home didn’t feel normal anymore. Having three boys was lovely and we were thankful for the opportunity and looking forward to more to come in the future!

Here are some other pictures from various adventures over the months of April and May. My friend and I were discussing diagramming sentences after church and Mike thought it was hilarious. The boys are VERY into all things related to coins these days. We’ve been intentional to make sure the boys have quality time with Daddio during his time at home, so we had an adventure at Top Golf and also have been going for walks and playing at the park.

Attempts to Catch Up

Posted on May 20, 2019 by jlcleve

I have apparently lagged WAY behind in my posting. I’ll have to do a broad sweep of a few post updates so that we can get caught up again!

Kiwi Crates (I’m getting to the point of being over these, but every time they arrive the boys are thrilled! I just want to enjoy them for a month and then not have boxes lying around the house…sigh):

We had our dear missionary friends over for dinner while they were in town. You’ll recognize them as friends we stayed with when we were in Germany. It was SO good to catch up with them again and to hear how the Lord is on the move in their lives. It was also lots of fun to recall funny memories from our early days of dating and marriage as they were mentors of ours from the beginning of our dating lives. =)

Here are some shots from every day life around here. They include quite a few pictures of boys reading out loud (still doing their Read Aloud Challenge every month this year) to various people.

And a few from homeschooling, including pictures of Ethan working on his big Faces and Places presentation about Alexander the Great. He had to read his 5 paragraph essay in front of the community and he did a great job! You’ll also see some pictures of the boys either reading or listening to books because we’ve started a new habit of reading for 20 minutes any day that Daddio is out of town. It gives me a little break and shows them that reading is an important and fun part of all of our days. =)

More to come in this whirlwind update of the past two months.

Pacific Coast Highway, Part 2

Posted on April 1, 2019 by jlcleve

Day 4: We spent most of this day driving the beautiful coastline and making various stops to gawk and take pictures.

Day 5: We needed a day at the park and at the beach after our day of driving. Ethan tried hollandaise sauce for the first time and I committed to trying to make some this year!

Day 6: We spent this day doing a little more driving and then visiting my cousin, Caleb, at college. Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures. Oops. We were engaged in good conversation and sight seeing at Biola. So much fun to see him there!

Thankful for the gift of vacations with this crew, even when attitudes don’t match the beautiful scenery all the time. 😉

Pacific Coast Highway, Part 1

Posted on March 31, 2019 by jlcleve

Over our Spring Break we opted for a 5 day trip to drive the Pacific Coast Highway – starting in Santa Cruz and ending in LA. I had no idea what to expect as Mike is our trip advisor, planner, and researcher and I do very little prep for these excursions other than to pack everyone. =). Anyway, he did a wonderful job organizing another fun trip for us. We will want to do more of this drive someday – the sights were unreal!

Day One: early morning flight, a stop at Apple (where Micah lost another tooth) and Google and then a late night swim with Daddio

Day Two: we took a walk to the beach in Santa Cruz and explored that pier and saw seals before heading onward to Monterey where we played at the beach and then had the very best clam chowder ever for dinner. We also saw otters at dinner!