Spring Cleaning...

When the bell rang and we all clattered happily down the stairs to eat lunch, the smiles quickly faded, not necessarily to frowns...but the sight of mom writing long lists on the white board usually means a lot of work is ahead, and we were not mistaken!!

This list may not look daunting but...each number goes to a cupboard or drawer that needs to be emptied, cleaned, scrubbed and the contents cleaned and then restored. We love all our cupboard space, but when spring cleaning come around it is a little how shall I put it...less lovable: )

Esther rounded up all our spray bottles, we have quite a few!

After filling them all up she labeled them all to their own specific place.

::Esther diligently cleaning the freezer::Mommy's helper: )

Mom made everybody help (we all tried to tell her that we had a lot of school to get done today, but Dan was the only one that came out ahead of that one. *smile*)

Even the pull-outs were pulled completely out and scrubbed within and inch of their lives: )

After we got all the cupboards cleaned, we headed out to the pasture for a quick game of croquet for our break time!Stephen was such a good lil' scrubber: )::John sorting the "junk" drawer::All the lovely clean chairs!What a rewarding sight!

Graduation Invitations

Today mom decided to tackle the job of making Joe's graduation invitations. So she grabbed every one that was at home and set them up in a very efficient assembly line.

-Mom printed them out, cut the paper and oversaw the whole process-

-Stephen was our official ribbon cutter-

Phillip marked the holes and I punched them out, he got slightly bored because instead of neat little marks (like at the beginning) they suddenly became, smiles, letters, circles...anything but small dots...to keep it interesting: )

After John threaded the ribbon, Esther would "perfect it" making sure the ribbon was the appropriate length, and nothing was amiss....so if you get a defected invitation you know whose fault it really was. *smile* (She did a great job!)

When we were finished Phillip remarked, "if I have to help with my own invitations, I am just going to send out an e-mail inviting people."

You will have to wait till you get one in the mail to see the finished product!

Basketball season is "officially" over.

The basketball season officially ended last night at the annual sports banquet. It is going to be quite different next year not having an older boy playing basketball!But Joe "graduated" from basketball with flying colors! He averaged about 21 points a game and was very smooth from the 3 point line as well including a record of 8 three pointer in one game. Way to go Joe!
Not to mention he looked especially nice all decked out in his suit!

It was also nice to see some good friends, Ann & Jenny Murphy from the basketball team!

You know your from a large family if.....

My brother posted this on his blog and it was just so funny!
Check it out!

Whoops.....

This was when they were in Oklahoma City: )

NCHEA!

NCHEA was so much fun this year! I got to be in the drama this year , and it was such a blast. Sorry I don't have any pictures to prove it. *smile*I had a wonderful team! Micah W. was not on my team, he was just playing some games with the kids. Nick Schriner, Amy Kruciak and Pamela Lu Vaas were the three people on my team.

I took a bunch of really great pictures....but then realized that most of them weren't on my camera: ) Whoops: )

I can't really believe that it is all over!
But as they say;

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
*smile*

I miss you.....

It just hasn't been the same without you Ellie! I have missed seeing you once a week at Goodnews Club, and our phone calls...well one 5 minute call over 6 weeks just isn't the same! I am counting the days till you come home! May God bless the rest of your time there in Africa!

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only True Friends will leave footprints in your heart."
~ Elbert Hubbard

Love you Ellie!