The Mosh Pit, Or in Other Words Photos 133-139

Clearly I {or at least my blogging} was no match for the end of the school year and transition to summer vacation. I have loved doing the 365 photos project for the year, but it has really made me feel forced into posting things at least somewhat chronologically, and my brain just doesn't work that way most days. More often than not I feel like my thoughts are flailing and jumping around like a mosh pit in my brain fighting their way to get some air at the top {this is not to say that I have actually been close enough to a mosh pit to experience this first hand, but I imagine that's what it's like, and it's definitely how I have felt realizing how long it has been since I last posted any new photos and considering where to begin.}

I am sticking with it though, because I have some crazy need to finish what I started, so the next several posts will be my best attempt to recover. Bring on the pictures!!

Photo 133 of 365, taken May 16th:

Emma's gym teacher selected some 4th and 5th graders to run in a track meet. Here is the 4th grade team, our school was the only one who brought 4th graders, the other schools only brought their 5th graders, so Emma was super excited she even had the chance to compete.
Photo 134 of 365, taken May 16th:

Emma did the 400m race and the long jump. Here she is exhausted after the 400m. She had never done anything like this before so I tried to give her a little advice about the lanes, explaining that because they are staggered it can be deceiving how far ahead of you someone is etc...I wasn't sure she knew what to expect, but little did I know what I was about to see. I also overheard her gym teacher give her some advice about not starting out too fast, and that was it ~ the race began.

As they rounded the first corner, Emma was either in last place or second to last. I knew her strategy was to save some gas in the tank for the end of the race, but I couldn't help wondering what she was doing. I knew she was faster than that. This continued throughout the straightaway and then without warning she just turned it on! One by one she overtook the rest of the runners {people we didn't know in the stands were counting down the runners as she passed them as soon as they realized the move she was making to take everyone down}. By the final straightaway she was by herself. At one point I saw Emma glance at someone who was passing her, and I was way far away in the stands, but I thought I saw an expression of frustration on her face. She stayed true to her plan though and didn't get distracted. I don't know how you teach a kid patience like that. She surely didn't get it from me! In the words of her gym teacher, Herr Arndt, "Smart race, Emma. Smart race."

Emma and her sweet friend Ava who did awesome in the 70m and the softball throw.

Emma won the standing long jump too, jumping 6 foot 3 inches. Long term, track is not going to be a sport she will be competitive in, she's just not tall enough, and for the purposes of her gymnastics endeavors we will not wish away her petite stature. But for today it sure was an awesome day at the track!!

The same evening as the track meet, Alyssa told me she needed an updated photo for the sidebar of the blog...
Photo 135 of 365, taken May 16th:

I still have a hard time believing she's a teenager, mostly because I am pretty sure I was just a teenager myself last week. We recently got the question that was bound to happen at some point: Are you sisters?

Photo 136 of 365, also taken May 16th:

Once again, Rebekah was too busy playing for me to take pictures.

She much preferred to examine the flowers and run around the yard than sit and pose.

That weekend Rebekah danced at Maifest in Germantown.
Photo 137 of 365, taken May 18th:

There's not a whole lot that is more German than necklaces made of pretzels and beer before noon. Eins, Zwei, Drei...Zuppa!


Photo 138 of 365, taken May 18th:

Rebekah had recently asked me why when Alyssa is in a play she gets flowers after her performances, but that she had never gotten flowers after a German Dance outing. We couldn't have her thinking that somehow her dance wasn't as special, so Alyssa picked out some flowers for her on our way to Maifest.

Photo 139 of 365, taken May 18th:

After Maifest we headed over to celebrate a baby shower for our friends, Tanya and Paul. Baby Christa was just born on June 20th and is just precious! Alyssa and Emma are pictured above with Christa's very proud big sister, Alyssa.

Can We Do This The Fun Way?

I took the girls to the lakeshore to do the hike at Seven Bridges and before we started on the trail Emma looked at me and in a very serious tone asked, "Can we do this the fun way?" I kind of thought just the fact that we were there was at least a little fun, but I just told her that they could hike the path however they liked, as long as it was safe.

Photo 127 of 365, taken May 5th:

It was interfering with their "fun way" that I wanted them to stop and take a picture.

The fun way sometimes means re-enacting the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff on each bridge we cross. 7 times on the way to the lake, 7 times on the way back...I think the story is cute, but 14 times in row makes it a little much.

Today the fun way meant scaling rocks down to the water {not on the path, by the way}.

Wading in freezing water. Ice bath, anyone?

And rock hopping through the creek that trails to the lake {still not on the path}.

Rebekah insisted on doing everything the older girls were doing, of course, and in spite of the fact that she was wearing super slippery slippers {flip flops}. I could barely stand to watch, I thought for sure she was going to fall on the rocks. But she kept answering my many requests for her to join me on the path with, "But I just want to be like Emma." Emma's friend, Hallie thought it was so cute and offered to trade Emma her little sister so she could have Rebekah.

It was an awesome day at the lake.

We definitely did it the fun way.

The season of trips to the lake and wet, sandy feet being tracked every where is here again. And I am so glad!

Rollerskating Fun!

I got so excited to post about Alyssa qualifying for Nationals that I accidentally skipped over a couple posts I had in mind to write up. So here, from the weekend before Mother's Day are some pics from when Emma invited some girls to go roller skating as a late birthday celebration...

My favorite girls!


Whoa, Em, don't fall!

Photo 125 of 365, taken May 4th:

Emma's friend Willow brought bff socks that have now become Emma's absolute favorite pair of socks. Emma has the strawberries, Willow has the apples and Dara has the peaches. Poor Emma looks like she needs some longer jeans...both she and Alyssa seem to be getting super tall, super fast. I can't seem to keep them in jeans that fit right.

The girls had so much fun! Emma got a turn in the cash cube to grab all the tickets, coupons and real cash that she could {it's harder than it looks according to Em} and just look at all the tickets the baby earned on her favorite game {I think Alyssa had something to do with Rebekah's big score}.

The sweetest card from Natalie and the coolest pink bouncy ball with a sharpie drawn pig from Ada. Emma sure does love cute pink piggies and her thoughtful friends know it!!

Photo 126 of 365, also taken May 4th:

After roller skating we went back to the house and roasted some marshmallows. From the looks of it, no one was having any fun at all. Nothing better than sugar filled, happy kids running around the yard on a beautiful Spring evening.

End of April Photos...

Photo 114 of 365, taken April 18th:

Back at the school where Alyssa has her singing lesson we checked on the status of the underground ocean hallway and much to Rebekah's excitement they added mermaids! Now all the fish, no matter how cool, have fallen to at least second place on her favorites list.


The girls had been asking for a picnic lunch all week long, and we had a nice afternoon on Saturday, so we decided to grill out. Dave grilled some chicken and a few turkey hot dogs, but other than that I just threw together some leftovers that I wanted to get out of the fridge. I looked at the hodgepodge of food I was about to serve and felt kind of bad that their much anticipated picnic wasn't going to be fancier. Emma walked up mid-way through my microwaving process and she said, "Mmmmm, I can't wait, it's such a yummy picnic." Bless her.

Photo 115 of 365, taken April 27th:

Our first outdoor meal this year. We had some of the neighbor kids stop by last minute to join us and all the kids raved about the leftovers. I wish it was always this easy to feed them!! And I will let you decide if Dave has something in his eye, or if he is trying to avoid being photographed :-)

The girls love stumbling upon heart shapes in unexpected places {and it's both fun and funny how often we find perfect hearts in places you'd never imagine they could be}! This month it happened twice with food...Emma had a heart shaped cheese curd when G&G took the girls to Culvers, and Rebekah got a heart shaped chicken nugget a few days later.

Photo 116 of 365, taken April 19th:

Looking through her kindle, it appears that Emma spent some time this month taking self portrait photos. Here she had given herself a black eye with some eye shadow.

These were all taken on the way to church one Sunday morning.

Photo 117 of 365, taken April 29th:

At the gym lately, Rebekah has had more interest in practicing while I coach than she has ever had before. But when she's not busy with her own group I can usually find her doing something silly like this ~ giving her tiny teddy bear a swing on the kip trainer.

Photo 118 of 365, taken April 30th:

Gymnastics practice might be one of a very few places where it is the coolest thing ever to accidentally show up wearing the same thing as your best friend.

Fieldtrips with Friends

I recently went on a fieldtrip with Rebekah's class to the art museum.

The super cool Milwaukee Art Museum.

We had the most amazing German speaking docent for our fieldtrip. That meant it wasn't an overly informative fieldtrip for me, but the kids loved her and it was so neat to hear them interacting in German with her.

Photo 113 of 365, taken April 24th:

We stopped to look at this artwork, by a German artist. This was his very dramatic representation of his village after an explosion. {I think that was what she said anyway, I could not understand much of the explanation}



Rebekah told me this was her favorite piece of art we looked at all day. The old man's eyes kind of scared me a little.

These next photos are a bit out of order. Dave also went on a fieldtrip with Rebekah's class back in March. I just recently saw the photos he took off his phone:

She loved her day at the Milwaukee Public Museum, and loved that Dad was there too!


Thank you, Dave for this wonderful photo of the girls in front of my favorite honey tree :-)

Rebekah and her sweet friend, Ramsey. They have been best buds this year in 1st grade!!

Good Friday

It has become a Good Friday tradition to go to the noon service at church and then come home to decorate eggs.

Photo 81 of 365, taken March 29th:
Emma's friend, Willow and Rebekah's friend Skylar came over to help us with the eggs.


Willow is one of the funniest kids I have ever met, Emma just loves her! Someone at church asked them if they were twins, they were dressed similarly at the time as a result of raiding our closets looking for matching outfits, but they look nothing alike :-)

Photo 82 of 365 taken March 29th:

I thought Rebekah's expression to dropping her egg into the wrong color was too funny.

She was trying to make a pink egg, and accidentally used the red dye on the left instead of pink. The red egg turned out beautifully!

The pretty eggs.

Alyssa was so proud of this centerpiece she created on the kitchen table with a glass bowl and some of our cute plastic eggs.

Thank you, Lord for Good Friday. The very foundation of our faith rests on what you did on this day and our whole lives are changed because of your sacrifice. Thank you for your incredible love.

"You see, God knew however high they reached, however hard they tried, people could never get back to heaven by themselves. People didn't need a staircase; they needed a Rescuer. Because the way back to heaven wasn't a staircase; it was a Person.

People could never reach up to Heaven, so Heaven would have to come down to them.

And one day, it would."
~ excerpt from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones {staircase referenced from the people's attempt to build a giant staircase to heaven with the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11}