Turkey Hunt

Joe and his brother-in-law, John, went on their annual turkey hunt.  Keenan was thrilled to be able to join them for the hunt.  Four turkeys later and they call the hunt a success.  

 Keenan with his Uncle John

Westward Movement

The 5th grade classes at Kira's school are getting ready for their Westward Movement presentation. As part of their presentation, each student had to make a covered wagon.  There were not a lot of requirements and the teachers encouraged the students to be creative.  Thankfully our neighbor, Karman, is good at craft projects so she was able to help Kira.  I offered a few suggestions but thankfully they ignored me.  

More Soccer = More Fun

It was as exciting as U-11 Soccer can be this past weekend.  My parents were able to visit for the weekend and really enjoyed watching Kira play.  Kira'a team, Synergy, won the tournament.  They played a good team in the semi-finals, the Kansas City Fusion.  The game went into overtime and remained tied at the conclusion of overtime.  Each team then had five penalty kicks.  After each team kicked five kicks it remained tied.  Then, sudden death and Avery Smith from our team kicked the winning goal. Synergy then won the final game against Hays.  

Keenan's First Communion

It was a special weekend for Keenan as he celebrated his First Communion at St. Thomas More.  

Keenan and Father Don Zimmerman

Keenan taking his first communion

They always have special cookies made for the kids

Keenan striking a pose by his banner he made

Kira took this picture of Keenan and me while we waited for Mass to start

Joe's brother, Mike, and his two boys, Tanner and Preston, traveled from Wichita to celebrate with Keenan

Joe's parents also were in town to celebrate.  Overall, it was a great day.

Easter

We hit the 9:00 a.m. full house Mass and then headed home to prepare for breakfast and an egg hunt.  

We had our neighbors join us for breakfast. Our neighbor, Karman, brought over stuff for a waffle bar which was my favorite.  We also had egg cups, also made by Karman, and I made biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs and I am still full from the good food. 

 Keenan loves breakfast food.

 Getting ready for the egg hunt

We were happy to finally have some nice weather and the kids could be outside most of the day.

Little Rock - Spring Break

We were so excited that we were able to make the trip to Little Rock, AR, to see Joe's brother James, his wife, Rachel, and their precious seven month old son, James a/k/a JP.  Because they live so far away we haven't been able to spend much time with Rachel but she has been a great addition to our family and we enjoyed our time with all of them this past weekend. 

Baby James is pretty hungry in this picture but Keylee had to take a moment to look at the camera.  All James wanted was for that spoon to make it to his mouth :) 

Aunt Rachel with James and her nieces and nephew at the park. 

We made a stop at the Air Force Base 

James and Kira

Joe with his brother James

James is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force and flies the C-130. Although we were able to go out on the flight deck and get in a plane I was not allowed to take any photographs of the enormous planes that James flies. James spends his time as the Director of Operations and he also spends his time instructing, grading, supervising and flying with new pilots. I thought being a Driver's Ed teacher would not be a fun job but I am pretty sure being in an airplane with new pilots might be worse.  James seems to love his job so I guess I am just thankful for people like him because I don't even like to fly with experienced pilots let alone new pilots and especially not with the huge and complicated aircraft I saw on the flight deck.   

James and Rachel have an ideal set-up at their house.  They basically have a lake in their backyard and the kids were able to canoe and fish just steps out of their back door.  

Although the drive was long, and I think even longer coming home, we had a great time and hopefully we will be able to make the trip again sometime.

Time for Spring Soccer

It was a rainy weekend but I was still glad to be out of town and not have to endure the madness that "Fake Patty's Day" brings to Manhattan.  Kira had soccer in Overland Park.  We were able to get in one game before the rain delay which eventually resulted in a cancellation of the second game. So far, with the one win, the girls are undefeated this Spring.  It is hard to believe we are already playing soccer games especially when there is still evidence of snow.  

Since the rain delayed us and we were in Kansas City the kids insisted on The Cheesecake Factory.  I was certainly not going to deny them, or myself,  a piece of cheesecake. 

The girls were on Joe's side of the booth and as soon as I got out the camera Keenan was on his side of the booth too.

 Kira felt bad I wasn't in a picture which was actually fine by me so she took this one of me and Keenan.