All about Ammon

I was looking through my pictures and realized that I had so many pictures of Ammon at different things that I wanted to share, so I decided to put them into one post all about Ammon. I love this little man of mine. He has been giving the best hugs and kisses lately. He'll go totally out of his way to give me a hug and kiss and I'm absolutely loving it!! I want this stage to last forever!

At Ammon's last soccer practice for the season he received a medal!! He was super excited about his medal. They had a small party with Popsicles after practice.


This year (fall & spring) was Ammon's 1st time playing soccer and he really liked it. He started to figure it out the longer they played. He had some good friends on the team, so some times during the game we needed to remind him to play not talk!!
During his last first game in the fall and his last game in the spring game he scored goals!



While we watched Corrine's games, Rebecca and Ammon would go off and play. To say they are sweet together doesn't do it justice. Rebecca absolutely, positively, LOVES Ammon so much x 1,000. That may be getting closer to it. She follows him around, copying him and showing off for him. Who needs toys and playgrounds when these 2 are together. The umbrella's were instant toys for these two, and a few puppies rides are always needed during the games.







Ammon and Rebecca were my helpers one afternoon as we picked out flowers. Ammon saw a pumpkin plant and wanted to get it so bad. I wasn't sure where a pumpkin would work in our yard, but his sweet face convinced me to get it and figure out a spot for it later. We decided that a bare spot (that was suppose to get filled in with hostas) on the side of the house would be it's new home. He pulled the weeds from the area with me, then lovingly planted his pumpkin. It's a "Baby Bear" plant, and the pumpkins are only suppose to grow to be 4lbs.


Johann, Rebecca and I went up to school to have lunch with the kids. It was a special day so the kids were eating their lunches outside. When we got outside Ammon was sitting with his friends way up on a play structure. As soon as he saw us he gave us a big wave, and made his way down to sit with us.

One last look at Ammon. He brought this home from school last week. It's all about Ammon, done by Ammon. Under every picture is another picture similar to the top one, except on his self portrait. I love the way he draws himself, so I had to include both of them.



The sections are:
This is what I look like
My Family
His favorite place to be is: Home
What he wants to be when he grows up: An Army man
My favorite things to do: play soccer
If I could have one wish it wold be: for an octopus

Not sure where wishing for octopus came from, but it's just like Ammon to put something like that!!

Seriously I love this kiddo so much. He keeps me on my toes daily. There are times I'm so hoping he'll grow up and out of some phases he's in and so many other times I'll keep him my little guy who loves to sleep, hates getting dressed if it means he'll cuddle with me, give me hugs and kisses and tells me how much he loves me a dozen times a day.

A Pirate preview

Today we got a box full of fun things for Ammon's Pirate birthday party. Ammon couldn't wait for the BIG boxes for his pirate ships to come, so he made a ship out of the box that came today that Rebecca took over as her own.





Yo ho ho and a box for a pirate ship!

Playing @ Lemme

When did my little girl become big enough for the big swings?


Rebecca is such a little monkey girl.




Climbing in the trees.


Simeon showed Ammon how to do backflips off the bars. Ammon LOVED it. He flip over and over.



Rebecca was so jealous that the big kids were higher then she was.


She's happier now being up with the big kids.


We have so much fun walking up to the school to play. Everytime we go up to play there are always a couple of other groups playing up there. There are 3 different playgrounds, a space net, a big blacktop, 2 huge soccer/baseball fields and another big field for football or kite flying.

YOU ROCK!!

This is what we came up with for a teacher appreciation gift when I saw a package of poprocks in the cupboard.


We got compliments from the teachers, but the librarian was so excited to get this. She asked if she could put a picture of it on her blog.

Little Miss Curly

Rebecca's hair has grown long and so curly the last few months. It's been so fun to have a curly haired kiddo again. After a bath her hair is so super curly that it's hard to really see how long it really is. It's nearly 4 inches long, but you can't tell.




Rebecca knew I wanted to take some pictures of her hair tonight, so instead of just smiling, she started being silly. She has such a fun, playful, silly, teasing personality.





Her birthmark on the back of her neck is still there, but with her hair growing longer you can't see it as much now. It still gets really red when she gets hot or cries hard.

I hope she keeps her curls. It keeps getting curlier, so I have a feeling she will keep it. Corrine had ringlets, until her and Simeon cut them off and made her hair "the icing" on the cake when she was about 2 1/2 years old. Ammon had lots of dark curls, until we cut his hair at 18 months because it was too long.

Simeon's 10 years old

How did this happen? He was just a baby, then all of the sudden he was a kindergartner, and now he's 10 years old! Wow did the last 10 years go by fast.


What a great kid Simeon is. We have been so incredibly blessed to have him in our family. He has taught us so much and showed us what real strength is.




Happy 10th Birthday Simeon!! We love you! We're so excited to see what you'll do in the next ten years.

Mother's Day

This morning I was awoken by my door being opened. In walked Simeon with a plate of eggs and a glass of orange juice. He handed it to me, gave me a kiss and said "Happy Mother's Day. Don't those eggs smell good!" and walked out.
Later I learned that the eggs smelled so good to him, that he went and made himself some!
Today really was a typical day of church, kids being kids and making dinner. We had Johann's parents and brother over. We also celebrated Simeon birthday, since that is tomorrow.





When Ammon came home from school on Friday I noticed that he made a detour in front of the bushes in the front yard. He came in and told me that I needed to not go over there for a few days because he had something hid there for me. Saturday night I was gone and he told Johann that he needed to go check on his present for me. He came back in crying because his present was ruined. A squirrel had dug out the flowers from the flower pot. They replanted them and gave them some water. This time though Ammon wanted to make sure it was safe, so he put it under his bed for safekeeping. Johann said one of the flowers was pretty sad looking and he wasn't sure if it would survive, but it perked up.



Corrine did the same thing, but she tried to hide her surprise in her room, but realizing that it wouldn't get sun she took it out back. She missed the activity day girls that they made a mother's day craft. One of her leaders lives down the street, so she had Corrine come over after school one day this past week to make her gift.


Our sweet little Rebecca having fun with mom.




I'm so greatful for all my kids. Lately the hugs and kisses have been more plentiful, which I love so much. I'm so grateful that I've been blessed to be their mother to help raise them and learn from them.

Pinewood Derby time

Today was the annual pinewood Derby for Simeon. I was at Corrine's soccer game, so I missed Simeon racing his car, and Johann started the races so grandma became photographer for the day.


We told Simeon that he was in charge of his car. We would help him, but he needed to ask. He drew his design on paper, dad cut it, Simeon sanded it and got it ready to paint. The Wednesday before the derby their scout meeting was a "get your cars ready night". Very good idea! They brought a saw, paint, weights and drills to get the cars ready. Simeon took his there and painted it. He had someone drill some holes in it for him to put weights in. One of the holes went all the way through his car, so he had a sun roof in his car!

By the time I got there he was already out of the race. He was a little down about it. They had a new fancy track that was electronic this year. The electronics weren't working, but it still was much smoother and nicer then the wooden track of years past.


We feel that boy scouts is for the boys to make and do the activities. They learn when they do it themselves, and not when their parents do all the work for them. I'm ready proud of Simeon for being on top of getting his car ready, and for following through on getting it done. Each year he learns something else that helps his car be faster. This year he added weighs to make it heavier to help it go faster. Next year he may change the design to see if that helps it go faster.

Rebecca and the pretty yellow flowers

Rebecca has an absolute LOVE for dandelions, and the Kickers soccer park has an abundance of them in a field at the park. Rebecca can pick them for half hour and not even make a dent in them. The fields are almost weed free, but this field isn't sprayed so it is filled with them.
Today I had Corrine's game time written down wrong. Luckily it was written down an hour early and not an hour late. This gave us plenty of time to just play in the field of pretty yellow flowers (as Rebecca calls them) without trying to keep an eye on her and watch a soccer game.




Picking dandelions is such a childhood rite of passage that sometimes it makes me feel bad that we don't have any in our yard for them to pick, but then again there are enough of them in other yards they can pick them there.

Isn't this Rainbow shirt awesome!! A friend was given a bag of clothes with a few girl items in it. She only has boys so she gave the bag to us and this shirt was in it. I almost didn't keep it, but I'm glad I did. All day Rebecca would point to the rainbow and tell us about it.

Simeon's Movie Theater

For Simeon's 10'th birthday he wanted to have movie party and invite both boys and girls. We ended up with 16 kids (including our 4) at the party. We watched the Movie: Percy Jackson and The Olympians, The Lightening Thief.



We had some guessing games for the kids to do as soon as they came. How many gummy worms are in the jar? How many belly flop, Jelly Belly's are in the jar? And how many TBS of unpopped popcorn are in the jar. We also had a movie trivia game for them to fill out.


Prizes for the game winners. Ammon wanted a Slinky so badly. He kept trying to sneak off with one. He ended up winning one of the guessing games, so he got a slinky. Unfortunately within 30 minutes he had ruined it, and was in total tears.

The kids started an impromptu baseball game in the backyard while we waited for everyone to arrive. I had no idea how wild boys that age can get! After pizza, they settled down some before we headed down to the movie theater.

We turned our basement into a very cool movie theater. We hung a blanket from the wall then used a projector to project the movie really BIG onto the blanket. We set up chairs in rows for the kids.



We had a concession stand filled with candy, popcorn and drinks. The kids were all given $5 in quarters (so glad the cricut could cut out the 300 grey circles we needed in only a matter of minute) that they used to "buy" their snacks. Before the movie started most of the kids were really careful about buying their goodies. We had an intermission during the movie for the kids to restock on treats.





Simeon wanted me to make a Hollywood Star for his cake, but it didn't turn out as I wanted it to, so we made star cupcakes and Simeon a big star on his. And really for this age group made up mostly of boys, they didn't care what it looked like, just what it tasted like!



This year instead of presents we asked the kids to bring a few small things for the treasure chests at the hospital. Each time a child has a "poke" (like a spinal tap, bone marrow aspirate or many other types of pokes) they get to pick a prize from the treasure box. Simeon had over 30 pokes, so he got his fair share of prizes, and wanted to give back. I was amazed at how many items were brought for the treasure chest. There are going to be some very neat prizes for the kids to pick from!!

The after math of a movie theater with 16 kids in your basement.


It took so long to get all the popcorn up. Luckily I got cups with lids from Panera ($1 for 20 cups with lids) so we only had one soda spill.

Simeon really liked his movie theater party. Now the other kids are expecting one just like it when they turn 10!

SUPER Seller Corrine

Tonight was the Cookie party where Corrine got her Ipod touch!! She is so super excited about it.

Corrine just got glasses a few days ago. I think she looks so much more grown up and even more beautiful!


At the party we met Miss Northeast Iowa. She gave a talk on making goals, working hard on your goals, achieving your goals and not letting others tell you that you can't do something.

To earn the Ipod Corrine needed to sell 750 boxes of Girl Scouts cookies. That was ALOT of cookies to sell, move, organize and deliver.
In addition to earning the Ipod she also earned every other prize below it, and $155 in cookie credits. She can use the cookie credits for summer camp fees and items at the store like patches or clothing.

We're proud of you Corrine for your hard work in making this goal and achieving it. Corrine was in charge of calling to take orders, delivering the orders and she even had a cookie booth on a day that she wasn't feeling good, and still sold over 50 boxes of cookies.