Where's Waldo?

Nathan had a choir concert tonight. Biggest group of choir kids for Mrs. Angle. She said there were around 210 6th graders on that stage! They did a great job. Nathan played the temple block for one of the songs.

Can you find him? .....................Where's Waldo? .........................He has red and white on. :)

Then it was time for some late night logic! Thank you to his "Career's" Class. Were really not sure what this class is for!

He has ISTEP testing tomorrow!! He needs to go to bed! Who assigns homework and especially on a night they have a concert! (I know......these were all of HIS excuses!)

We love this kid! He works hard to do his best. Lately, we have been really praying specifically that God really guides us and gives us wisdom to be the best parents we can be to Nathan. Those teen years are beginning! :) (At least that is what he is telling us!)

Garden & Patio Wishes

This is just a quicky post. I need to get out and help Rob with mowing, which I really do love to do. Just put my headphones on and mow away with no distractions, for the most part.

Well, Kelsi likes to be outside helping with yard work also. She will go outside with Rob whenever he is out. I picked her up from Grandma Blucker's the other night and she was helping her dig around the trees. So you get the picture!

The other weekend she begged to stay overnight at Grandpa & Grandma Blucker's. While she was there they went to Bell's in Waky to get some plants. She has been asking about starting a garden and I said no. I used to have a little one. Here are a couple pictures I was able to find.

I did enjoy having one but it was so hard to get it planted at the end of the school year. Then harvesting at the beginning of the school year was stressful. So this is what it looks like now.

While Kelsi was with Grandma she talked her into buying a strawberry plant!! Bell threw in a few other plants on top of that! So.... guess what we need to do..... plant a garden!

So here are the projects for the summer:

Project #1: Build a little box garden for Kelsi to tend to this summer.

Project #2: Build a patio. (I've been waiting!)

I will try to keep you posted! Rob is not too happy with me posting this. Now he feels pressured! :)

Two in One! Shedd Aquarium and Organizing

Got up early Thursday morning to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I thought Rob was nuts! He insisted we get there when the doors open. We left the house at 7:00 a.m. and arrived in Chicago at 8:21 (their time). We were the first car in the parking lot!! It didn't open till 9:00 but there was a line already for the one-day ticket holders so we stood in line shivering for about 20 minutes. Thankfully, the night before, Rob ended up getting us a membership on-line, with a family of 5 it is about the same price of tickets for a day. The membership line was empty so we were right up at the doors.

We were so thankful when the doors opened! We were freezing! So we got our wrist bands, tickets for the show, and headed on in. First, we checked out the Amazon. People were slowly trickling in. We still could look at everything without waiting. Then we went down to the Wild Reef. Nathan was in heaven! He wants to be a biologist but that means he probably won't be sticking around here! :(

By now it was time for the Fantasea Show. So we headed on in and got some good seats. There were lots of people now. My pictures didn't turn out very well. The flash had to be shut off and I didn't know what to do! (Can't wait until June! I am taking an on-line photography class with Karen Russell. Then I will be a pro! :)

When the show was over the Aquarium was packed! Surprisingly we ran into a couple people we knew. They both said that they were too late to get tickets to the Fantasea show. For us it was time for a snack, the kids were running out of steam. We finished up looking at the other areas and were ready to go. By the time we left you should have seen the line to get in!! It was all the way down the steps and down the sidewalk. I couldn't believe all the people. Guess my hubby knew what he was doing!

I talked Rob into going to Schaumburg for a little shopping. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory. Rob and I shared the Red Velvet Cheesecake! Sooooo yummy! Then we went to the Container Store and Ikea. I was so thrilled! :) I have been organizing all spring break and now I feel like I have control over all the paper clutter. Here are some of my accomplishments:

In the computer armoire I got some nice boxes to store things. My biggest problem is my husband. I'm finally teaching him that everything needs a "home". He just jokes about it but I am training him, just taking a long time! :)

I got this LifeStyles Drawer kit from The Container Store. It was so easy to put together!

These crates I just got at Walmart. I saw this idea on another organizing blog. For Nathan I just had a big tub and concocted my own files but it was really too big. I'm finding I need to just keep the really important stuff, not everything. Having a smaller file helps me to accomplish this and it looks cute!

Kelsi help me put in all the tabs. It is so weird to think of the years they will all graduate! Nate graduates in 2016, Kelsi 2021, and Karli 2024!

Easter!

Grandma & Grandpa Jans came for Easter! The kids were so excited because this meant wild and crazy fun! What do they like to do with Grandma & Grandpa??? Well, here you go!

Nathan plays chess with Grandpa. He actually beat him this time! Then he pulled out the poker chips and played poker, that's right! Grandpa taught Nathan how to play poker when they went camping last summer! We warned Grandpa that if Nathan has a gambling problem in the future it is all his fault. :)

The girls pull out their own games to play with Grandma. First, it was Sorry Sliders and then they all liked playing Guesstures. That is a site to see! Karli likes to get right in there and do her own acting out with her own ideas.

Saturday, while the boys went off to do their stuff, us girls did our own fun things. We went to Wakarusa for their Easter Egg Hunt. The weather had been beautiful the day before but today it was suppose to rain. We found the girls' areas to race and waited. Karli and Mom spotted the gold egg in their section right away and were determined to grab it when they announced the hunt was on and she did! Kelsi ran as fast as she could to gather up all of the eggs in her area. When all the eggs were found we took Karli's gold egg up to receive her Easter Basket prize. She was pretty excited!

Later, while it was pouring down rain, we colored some eggs. When we were done we had a beautiful surprise out the front window! A rainbow!

Sunday we enjoyed our church service and then Easter dinner at our house with Rob's parents, my parents, and Rob's sister and family.

Grandma & Grandpa had to leave Monday morning. The kids were sad and I am sure Grandma & Grandpa were sad but ready for some rest. It is just go, go, go when they are here. The kids try to pack it all in! We were all glad to have the time to spend with them!

We love you!!