A proud Moment

Tonight Simeon had a baseball game against the Cubs. The Cubs are the 2nd place team and Simeon's team (The Cardinals) is in 5th place. It was a very well played game by both teams. Lots of great hits, catches and running. There were also some blown calls by the umpire, and honestly there were more against us then them.
8:15 came and the announcment that no more innings could start was heard. The inning ended and we were tied. The coaches decided to play another inning to have a "winner". We got up to bat, got another 2 runs in, then in was their turn up. We fielded poorly and they got 3 runs in to win the game.
Simeon was upset-you could see it in his body language, but he high fived the other team will a smile on his face.
After the game he really wanted a piece of pizza and it was now 8:45 and I said Ok (usually I say no way). One our way to the snack stand we walked by a boy from the other team. Simeon walked over to him and said "Good job!" Then again, and again he went out of his way to tell kids from the other team "good job!". On our walk out of the park he even told a coach from their team "good job coach!" I was so proud of him for being such a good player even when his team lost. I wasn't so thrilled with how thier coaches acted when they won, (and didn't feel like saying good job to them) but Simeon looked past that and was so kind to them.
I was so proud of how wonderful of a player he was today!

The comings and going of teeth

We've had a busy month in our house with teeth. Some falling out and some coming in.
Corrine lost her 1st tooth on June 6th-the afternoon before the last day of 1st grade. She wanted to lose a tooth in 1st grade and was so excited that it finally happened. (We have late tooth getters and losers in our family.)


There's a story behind how it FINALLY fell out. It's been lose for honestly 8 months, but not until the last 6 weeks or so was it really lose. The adult tooth started growing in under it, but then started coming in behind it which made it hard to wiggle, and it also wasn't pushing it out. It was the afternoon before the last day of school. Corrine and Ammon were throwing a tennis ball around in the backyard. Corrine missed catching the ball and it hit her in the mouth. She came in crying. Johann said her tooth was about to fall out, so she grabbed it and it came out! Ammon was proud that he got to help her with losing her 1st tooth and Corrine got to go tot he last day of school and proudly show off her gap.


Now on the other hand little miss Rebecca has FINALLY cut through some teeth. She's had swollen gums for months and you could even feel the teeth ( 6 of them) under the gums, but they just wouldn't come through. This past month she has gotten 4 teeth. She started with a "fang", then she got her bottom front teeth last week, and her other "fang" just broke through this past weekend. Her two front top teeth are looking close, but aren't there yet.

Fathers Day

About a month ago the kids and I talked about getting Johann a snow cone machine for Father's Day. At dinner one night Ammon told him "We're getting you a sno... Oh I mean a freezer!" For the weeks leading up to Fathers day Ammon added to the freezer gift. It would be his own to keep his drinks cold, he'd be the 1st to use it, it would go in his room.
We didn't get the snowcone machine until a few days before Father's Day because to me Ammon kept begging me to let him use it before we gave it to Johann, so I decided it was best to not even have it in the house until just a few days before the big day.

On Father's Day we didn't have time to showcase "the freezer" before church, so we waited until after church. The kids led Johann into the front room with his eyes closed and set it in his arms. The kids were so excited they could hardly contain it.

Johann loved his gift, and told the kids he really thought he was getting a freezer! I was proud of how Ammon was able to keep it a secret for so long and kept adding to it.

Camp Heart Connection

The summer would NOT be the same without Simeon spending a week in Boone, at Oncology Camp. This year the camp got it's official name-Camp Heart Connection.
Simeon is in Flying Eagle with 11 other boys and 4 counselors. You read that right 16 people in one very small cabin with NO bathroom!!! He is very excited and picked the top bunk above Brian-one of his favorite counselors and DM people.

We spent some time at the carnival playing games and spending tickets on trinkets we really didn't need(except for the water bottle mom had Ammon buy with his tickets.) The kids get so many tickets for playing the games, and the prizes cost hardly any tickets, so the kids can get so many things so easily.



Rebecca got her 1st sucker today and she didn't want it to ever end!

Some highlights of the week: doing the zip line, making it halfway up the rock wall, going on a horse trail ride, archery, shotting a riffle, staying up until 2am Sat morning, getting 2nd place for earning tokens and getting a whole package of Oreos and not having time to shower the entire week (they did swim 3 times though!).

Camp is wonderful place that the kids look forward to each year. Simeon gets to make friends with other kids who have had cancer, or are currently going through treatment for their cancer. They understand was he's been through and can empathise with him. Simeon talked about a boy in his cabin who had new stitches in his head and what he wasn't allowed to do like it was so common and nothing out of the ordinary. I love how he sees things (stitches in your head, a child with only one leg, a bald child) as no big deal. We LOVE Camp Heart Connection and all it does for these kids!!

OUCH

Today at dinner Ammon was sitting on the very corner of his chair. He slipped off, hit his chin on the corner of the table and started screaming. He had just a little bit of blood in his mouth, so we though he had just bumped his mouth and that was all the damage done.
A few minutes later Johann pulled his lip back to check on it to see if there was any damage in his mouth, only to reveal this HUGE purple/red/black bruise on the inside of his lip. You can see the white spot where his tooth went through his lip. For some reason the hole must have clotted over really fast, leaving all the blood to pool behind the skin making a bruise.

Ammon kept saying the bruise was actually food that he had been eating that was stuck to his lip.
It didn't bother him and was gone within a few days-but while it was here it looked pretty bad.

MUD, MUD and more MUD

This morning I was woken up by thunder shaking the house. I thought "I hope this gets done before 6." Not even 2 minutes later, the alarm went off. NOT what we wanted.
I got up to face the day and our garage full of unorganized garage sale boxes that needed to be put out on the driveway to sell, but would end up having to stay in our garage.
The kids were having a snack stand and were so excited to take ownership of that, but having it on the wet porch where it could hardly be seen was not their idea of fun. The kids started running around and they accidentally found another fun thing to do-MUD.
Playing in mud is a right of passage for kids-especially boys so we let them enjoy themselves, with one rule-DO NOT COME INTO THE GARAGE!! They did a good job listening and enjoyed themselves. The part they didn't like about getting muddy was getting hosed off in the backyard.







It was fun to hear the ladies in the garage when the boys would come over. "You're a really nice mom." "Look at them!" "They are covered!" Many were surprised that we'd let them get that dirty. They were having fun, making great memories and did I mention-having FUN!!!

Ammon's 5th Birthday

Today's the day-Ammon is 5 years old!!! What an amazing day to celebrate 5 years with an incredibly strong and fun kiddo.



He really wanted donuts for his breakfast, so I headed out before he woke up to get them. He was excited to have his candle in his donut, but in the end he only ended up eating a few bites of it.
After we sang Happy Birthday I caught him talking to himself. I asked him what he was doing and he said "making my wish." I never found out what his wish was, but he sure was cute saying his wish. I'm guessing it had something to do with wanting to be a real army man.

Since today was the last day of school, he got to bring cupcakes and juice boxes to his class. He was super excited about that.
He got some really neat presents this year-a blue 2 wheeler scooter, a Star Wars ship and Star wars legos and camo clothes. He also used his money towards getting a DS and a game for himself.


We love having Ammon is our family. He keeps us on our toes everyday. He gives the best hugs and cuddles and is such a great big brother and helper with Rebecca. We love you Ammon, we're so blessed to have you in our family!

Last Day of School

As the title says it, it was the last day of school for Simeon, Corrine and Ammon.
Simeon's teacher has been on maternity leave for the last 2 months, and he was too cool for pictures with his friends.

Corrine had a field trip to Kent park, to hike, fish and play, so she had to wear pants and a long sleeve shirt today. She was super excited to go on her field trip. Corrine absolutely LOVED her teacher Mrs. Thrams and cried when the day was over because she wanted to keep her as her teacher. Mrs. Thram also felt the same way and asked if Corrine could be in her class again next year. It makes me so happy to know that she was such a good student and helper to her teacher.





Today was also the last school day having Mr. Bacon as principle. He got hired on at City High for next year. The kids are sad to see him go, but they told me "We'll have him when we get to City High." (I hope that takes like 100 years for that to happen-they need to stay small forever!)



I didn't take any pictures of Ammon today either because he just had graduation and a water day at school Friday. His teachers took some pictures on water day and I need to scan those pictures in and put them on here.

You've been drafted to Bootcamp

Ammon has been counting down to his birthday since Corrine had hers in February. Something about turning 5 (maybe now he can go to kindergarten) is so magical and exciting.
He planned his "Army" party months ago and we'd been slowly getting things for it the last few weeks, including 2 5 foot tall cardbaord army men.
Saturday morning he had 6 kids over for an Army Bootcamp. We had 5 stations they need to complete to pass bootcamp
The kids started at UNIFORM CHECK where they got dog tags with thier initials on them and a camo helmet. We played YES SIR SERGEANT, YES SIR. Ammon showed them how to stand at attention, how to stand at ease, how to do jumping jacks, sit ups and push ups. It was really cute to watch Ammon, who was dressed from head to toe in camo tell them what to do. Earlier in the day we went to a cancer curvivor celebration where Ammon got his face painted. When he wiped it off, it left him looking dirty, which went perfectly with his camo gear.

We then headed downstairs to FIELDS TRAINING. (We were going to have field training out back, but it's been so wet and rainy that we decided to stay dry and clean inside.) Johann made a really fun obstacle course. The drove a tank, shot a missle, climbed through a house, bounced on a trampoline into a box, climbed over the couch and crawled to the end where they shot nerf bullets at the fireplace. The kids were really fun to watch doing all the parts of the obstacle course.


Once all the the boys went through the field training course twice we went to the MESS HALL for cake and ice cream. Ammon had a tank cake complete with chocolate donut tires and hershey chocolate bar treads. The cake turned out really cute. A certain little someone walked army men on the cake, so it had footprints along on side of it! We had found Sergeant Camo ice cream at the store and had to get it since it went with the theme so well.



We finished the party at EXPLOSIVES TRAINING. We had a waterballon holder with a timer that pops the balloon at a random time (it's like hot potato). Ammon wanted to kids to play dead when they got out, so he showed them how to do it. The game took a while, so we let the kids just throw the rest of the explosive water balloons around.


After the kids finished all the stations, they passed bootcamp and recieved a completion certification, and we took thier picture with the army man.


For the goodie bags we gave them all camo notebooks and pencils, parachut men and a few peices of candy in a camo bag of course.
Ammon was so excited to have his 1st real birthday party with lots of kids. He loved being the birthday boy and having the attention on him.

Cancer Survivor Celebration

This was our 3rd year of going to the cancer survivor celebration. The kids always have such a fun time. This year it was held at the University of Iowa Field House, which is an indoor track. They had all sorts of sport themed games to play, face painting, a catered lunch, cheerleaders, Herky and of course gift baskets.
The kids loved all the games to play-golf, soccer, basketball. Corrine got a ping pong ball in one on the fish bowl games-it was amazing!!
Rebecca was really interested in Herky, but didn't want to get too close to him. She kept watching him where ever he went.
Simeon won the gift basket themed "A Little bit of Everything". It sure did have a little bit of everything-a Cars blanket, crayola markers, a Toys Story 3 puzzle, silly putty, ball game, airplanes, a 3D drawing activty and some other things. He was super excited to win it.
Corrine wanted to get her face painted the whole time we were there, but we kept putting it off. We got in line towards and end and waiting almost 30 mintues to get a turn. The wait time was worth it for the amazing job the lady did.

This sweet stuffed dog also came in the gift basket. It was the only thing allowed to come out of the basket until Simeon got home from his friends house after 8pm that night. He sure loves his Rebecca!

Ammon's Preschool Graduation

Tonight was Ammon's preschool graduation. He has been so excited about it. He told me he was suppose to come home from preschool, get changed in his most handsome clothes and come back for the graduation. We actually had 2 hours to wait before we could go back and those were the longest 2 hours ever!!


The graduation ceremony was very short and cute. There is a morning class with only 5 kids and the afternoon class with 9 kids. The walked in in a line an stood on their sitting spot. They sang 3 songs-Welcome, The Fishy song (that's what he has always called it), and 5 Monkeys in a tree.






The teacher then called them up for thier certificates. Ammon and her had decided before hand that they would shake hands, not hug when it was his turn!



Then it was picture time and there were LOTS of pictures taken.





They had told us there would be refreshments afterwards, but instead they had a full meal.