Birthday Party!

We had such a fun time at the kid's birthday party this past Sunday. We were able to celebrate with family and some close friends. As always, we greatly missed having Ippel presence there, but got to communicate with most of them via Skype on the kid's individual birthdays. We are so very blessed with overflowing love from family and friends!

I had fun making each child a cake of their choice (or my choice in Ella's case).

Isaac's

Kendra's

 Ella's

Julie with Sam who is just 1 week older than Ella.

 Ella has been trying to climb up and down from this chair ever since getting it. There have been a few falls. She is turning into quite a little climber.

Isaac has been working on this Lego set little by little each day. 

Kendra loves her scooter!

This kids were all overjoyed with the gifts and have been very entertained with them!

I love how Kendra'a braids are flying in this picture!

 It wasn't her first attempt at eating cake. She still liked it a lot!

One Year Pictures

We decided to go the Spring Grove Park today to try to get some one year pictures of Ella. It was a little tricky b/c she was scared to stand or sit on anything other than concrete :)  Here is what we came up with.

I just imagine her thinking "Are we about done here?!?"

Graduation

Isaac graduated from Young Fives tonight. We are so proud of him and how much he has learned in this year. He loves school and I can see the joy in his face as he learns new things.  It was a really fun school year.

He got to lead the procession with a tambourine. As you can see (Through the blurriness) he was really proud.

Playing the air guitar. Isaac's was the most realistic :)

So awesome to watch these kids praise God!

Mrs. Kamps was such a great teacher. She has such a passion and gift for teaching these kids to know and love God. 

Kendra loves her too :)  Maybe she'll have her some day.

Tulip Time

Once again Torie and I took pictures of the kids with the tulips. Here are just a few pictures of the over 200 that Torie took!

This picture is so typical Ella. She is ALWAYS playing with her tongue.

First Game

A game consists of 3 innings. Each player gets to bat once each inning and automatically runs to 1st base and continues around the bases as other kids hit. It's funny to see the things that the kids do to mimic the players that they have seen on TV.  Isaac loves it and is super excited to go every week. 

Toward the end of the game no matter where the ball went there were about 5 kids all running for it and ending up in a pile trying to field the ball.

That's right - lefty.

Ready for a warm Spring day

We took our 1st Spring hike for the year. It was a bit windy, but fairly warm. Ella loved riding on her daddy's back. (Jon's back didn't like it so much...)  The hike reminded me of a hike that we took this time last year when I was almost due with Ella. It's unbelievable to me that she is almost 1 year already!

This is a robin egg that the kids were checking out. Isaac had me take several pictures of nature so that he could "sketch them" in his sketch pad afterward. The robin egg was one of them.

Impromptu family picture. A little blurry and I wish Ella were looking.