Goodbye #1--Schmitt Family

As I have mentioned, this summer is gonna be a tough one for me. I have three close friends that are all moving away within a few weeks of one another. As if one weren't enough--oh no, it has to be all three! I honestly haven't taken much time to process it all since it's going to happen whether I spend time thinking about it or not. So I have just tried to put it out of my mind until I absolutely had to deal with it. And the inevitable happened......my first goodbye of the summer.

The Schmitt family is moving to New Zealand for a year-long fellowship for Bill and although we are thrilled for them, it's sad for us! Not only will they be embarking on a fun year-long adventure but they'll also be living in the same city as my sister and brother-in-law (who happens to be Steph's best friend). Yes, this would be a great year for me to finally make it over to NZ! But this goodbye might be the easiest only because there is hope they will return (hint, hint Steph).

Steph and the kids joined us at Wyatt's baseball game one night and then came over the next morning to hang out for the last time for an entire year---aaaaghhhhhh!

 Wyatt definitely had the most fans at this game! (Although Claire seems quite disinterested)

We had only a few hours to soak up as much of these kids as we could!

Ellie was loving Sadie's babies...

..while Claire was half-fascinated with what Blake was doing and half-plotting to see how she could get her hands on whatever he was playing with.

Claire rockin' the banana clip

These boys had so much fun in the basement together!

Sadie was spinning Ellie in the chair and she was loving it!

And then Wyatt (car-lover) introduced Charlie (only kid I know who loves cars as much as Wyatt) to the CARS2 game on the Wii. (So sorry Steph!) Our rule in the summer is that the Wii stays off all summer unless it's a rainy day. Lucky for Charlie, it started raining while they were here and Wyatt immediately wanted to show Charlie this game.

Which Ellie took as her opportunity to high-tail it out of the room with her hands full of the boys' goods!

As a quick side note, I have given Steph all of Sadie's old clothes and it's so sweet for me to see them on these girls. This little pink polo dress was one of my favs and it brings back so many great memories when I see Ellie (or Claire) wearing it!

Steph intervened for a bit to help Charlie have some success at the game.....and Steph, those old Nintendo skills came back pretty quick!

Love these boys--they are so similar in so many ways

Possibly the best picture from the day...and the most telling....Charlie looking up to Wyatt to see what he should do next. It's pictures like this that make saying goodbye so tough!

And then we quickly move from the sentimental picture to seeing Blake scaling the staircase with the girls quickly following (these girls are like female versions of Blake---but there are two of them! To say that Steph is a busy mom would be a slight understatement!)

Now Blake's coaching them on how to get up...but they don't need it because they just grab the railing and pull their entire 23-lb bodies up with those killer biceps!

Our attempt at a cute picture of these three..

At least we got a cute picture of Ellie and Claire!

And a few attempts at a group picture...

Um, can we say 'stale smiles'?!

Back to the CARS2 game, but this time Ellie was into it

Check out her mad skills on the remote!

Sadie has loved seeing these girls from the moment they came home from the hospital--it's been such a fun few years watching these girls grow from tiny little babies into toddlers! And although Sadie doesn't get to hold them as much as she would like anymore, she loves showing them how to play babies, put jewelry on, and be a girlie girl!

I have no idea what Ellie was smiling about here, but I love that little face!

Charlie and Blake reading a book together

And Ellie making one last attempt at a getaway with her loot!

Blake hugging Ellie goodbye for an entire year! 

Oh man...these pics kill me

(gotta love the chocolate chips Wyatt was giving all the kids as a treat for getting in the car quickly!)

And they're off!!  Thankfully Steph and I didn't say goodbye, we just hugged and said "See you later!" which we will....and even if they aren't living in the same city, we know we'll be having family ski trips together! Especially after the B.S.T.E.!

Off to New Zealand....and I survived my first goodbye!

Kindergarten Graduation

Sadie's class had an official 'graduation' ceremony. As I referenced in the last post, Sadie's Kindergarten year was certainly not everything I had hoped it would be. There were issues with some of the kids in her class as well as with her teacher, but thankfully Sadie's love of school carried her through.

Sadie and her teacher, Ms. Eull, with her official diploma

WHAT???? Class of 2025? That's crazy!

Sadie's favorite teacher--her gym teacher--Mr. Spring. He was an amazing teacher and I wish Sadie could have had him as her Kindergarten teacher! He is one of the greats and we will definitely miss him! (Can't you tell by the smile on Sadie's face?!)

Sadie and her new friend Delaney....we met Delaney through school this year and found out that her family just moved into our neighborhood this year from New Jersey. Sadie and Delaney love playing together and Sadie asks me almost daily, "Can I play with Delaney today?"

Sadie and Ms. Eull

Sadie rocked Kindergarten and despite all the distractions this year, she learned so much and still loves school and teaching and all that comes with it!

Last Day of School

This was the first day of school back in September..

And now the last day of school!

New glasses since the fall, two front teeth that grew in and a few more that fell out---2nd grade is in the books!

And my little girl graduated from Kindergarten and is off to 1st grade--I'm gonna miss her during the day so much!!

Off to the Kindergarten bus stop after lunch for the last time

One of the many things I loved about half-day Kindergarten were the bus drivers. Wyatt had a great one and Sadie's was no different--we even liked her better than Sadie's teacher!

Ms. Shirley was SO wonderful and the kids just adored her!

It wasn't just the kids' last day of school this year, but it was also their last day of school at Liberty Ridge. The kids both had some difficult things come up at school this year and we have always considered sending them to New Life Christian Academy, but in the past we just didn't feel the timing was right. As things started to unfold this year, we both immediately thought of New Life. As we started to look into it, we discovered that Wyatt's class has had a waiting list for the last two years (meaning that there are kids that have been wanting to get in but haven't been able to because there hasn't been room). Matt and I both weighed the pros and cons of public vs. private school and neither of us could come to any conclusion. We prayed about it and neither of us could come to any conclusion about what was going to be best for our kids. It was at this time that our entire family was studying Genesis in BSF. As Matt and I read Genesis 24 (especially vs. 12-14), we realized that we hadn't been praying as specifically as we could be. So we both prayed that if the Lord wanted the kids at New Life, that they would both get in. We knew there was a good chance Sadie would get in but Wyatt was more of a long shot. We chose not to tell many people as we really wanted to put our trust in the Lord and have him make the decision clear to us. We have friends with 'connections' at the school that could have gotten the kids in for us and we have friends who might have issue with us leaving the public school and going to a private school, so we really wanted to rely solely on the Lord and allow Him to lead us.
We got the letter that the kids both got into New Life about a month before the end of school. We didn't tell the kids immediately as we wanted to wait until we could talk about it together, but we had told the kids that we were considering it and that we'd all be praying about it. We visited the school and the kids had interviews with the principal. Wyatt had been honest about not wanting to switch schools because of all the unknowns--friends, routines, lunchtime, car pickup, etc. Sadie was excited about the prospect of a new school with new friends and being able to learn about Jesus at school. The interviews went well and, ironically, Wyatt wore the two New Life t-shirts that the principal had given him to school the next few days. And he immediately assumed they would be going to school there. I'm not sure why he did this, possibly to prepare himself for a change, but I think it helped when we finally told them.

I was actually a bit nervous about telling the kids and I was a bit nervous as well---although change doesn't usually bother me, this was a lot of change--but I kept reminding myself of how the Lord had answered our very specific prayers and that I needed to trust Him, not my fleeting emotions about something. We sat down to tell the kids and Wyatt immediately dropped his head to the table while Sadie got all excited. Matt began talking through all the normal emotions Wyatt might be having about a new school and change and how Matt dealt with his family moving when he was kid. We both had been expecting this from Wyatt and my Dad happened to arrive at our house at this very moment (he was in town for a work meeting). He quietly joined us at the table and as Matt kept talking to Wyatt about dealing with the changes, Wyatt lifted his head up and said, "I'm not worried about all that. I just don't want to wear a uniform!"

We were so relieved to hear that this was his biggest concern! And as parents, we are SO thankful that the kids will be wearing uniforms! So many blessings--it puts everyone on the same level, it takes away the pressure of name brands, it makes shopping easy and it eliminates any clothing discussions before school! Woohoo!!

There are still some unknowns but thus far, the kids have been talking about their new school openly and telling our friends and family about it and they seem to be pretty positive about it! Praise the Lord!

Rising Stars

Sadie finished her first year of gymnastics at Rising Star Gymnastics and loved it. She hadn't done any form of gymnastics before and really wanted to try it, so I signed up both Sadie and Blake together on Wednesday mornings. It was a huge blessing to be able to do it during the day (another bonus of 1/2 day kindergarten) and although Sadie is still working on doing a cartwheel, she did look forward to it every week. 

(She is my daughter, after all, and I could never do a good cartwheel--have you seen the length of my legs and the size of them?! No way my little arms could get them over my head!)

At the end of the year, they did a 'spring show' and divided it up by levels.....Sadie usually only has 4 kids in her class on Wednesday mornings but the spring show was ALL the kids who were Intermediate Gymnasts. It proved to be a lot of action but she loved it and did great!

Warming up doing their bridges

Here she is in the background running towards the springboard

(Can you spot her in the background about to bounce off the board?)

The bars

The trampoline 

Balance beam

And her floor routine

They called each gymnast up by name to receive their medal and stand on the podium....She loved being 'on stage' and we were so proud of all she had accomplished this year. 

Blake's class did their version of a 'spring show' during his last class and he was pretty excited to get a medal of his own, but was actually quite shy about standing on the podium. For as athletic and strong as he is, he didn't really enjoy doing any of the skills in front of people for them to watch. If the sole purpose is for the viewing pleasure of others, he's not into it.

Blake with his great teacher, Kristy

These two had such a great year together, not only in gymnastics but in everyday life. Having Sadie home all morning was such a blessing and Blake and I are really going to miss her next year. (I don't think Blake will know what to do without her around during the day!)