Blue-Eyed Ainsley

Recent picture of Ainsley, sent from John and Colleen

16 Months Old

CBC Kids' Choir Concert

Macy and Marshall have enjoyed being in Kids' Choir for the second year in a row. Last night was their concert to end the year. Hard to see them, but Marshall was on the front row, and Macy was on the back row....and this was just the 4 and 5 year olds!! Thank goodness for the big jumbo screens on either side of the stage which showed good close-ups of all the kiddos. Super job, Macy and Marshall!!

Sean always does such a great job when he gets up in front of the congregation. Since he is the pastor for the elmentary age children, he was called upon to give the final invocation at the end of the concert. He will be doing his first real sermon at CBC on April 4th and 5th! (He's growing a beard, because he will play "Jesus" on Easter Sunday.)

Mimi Reads the Pigeon Books to Macy's Class

It is Texas Public School Week and Macy's teacher invited parents and/or grandparents to read a book to the class. Since Monday is "Mimi and Marshall Day," he got to go with me. You can't see them, but they are side by side right in front of me. Macy thought long and hard, but "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late" by Mo Willems were the two short books she picked for me to read to her class. We also had fun eating lunch with Macy in the cafeteria that day. Marshall is just about ready to join her at school NEXT year!!

Macy, the Writer

When a child is first learning to write, teachers call it "inventive writing." You almost have to have the child read it for you in order to understand what it says, then you say, "Oh, yeah." Well, this is a story Macy wrote at age 5, in her inventive writing, about what happened at their house a few nights ago. You have to start at the bottom and go up, and it says, "MAX ATE 14 GRAPES." The picture at the very bottom is of Max and then a picture of his "throw up." Then it says, "GOOD." Yes, it was good that he threw up the grapes, or he would have died, probably. Macy and Marshall had been eating grapes out of a bowl and left it on the coffee table. Mom went into the bathroom and helped them get baths, then came out and saw Max scarfing down the grapes as fast as he could. Julie knew they were toxic to dogs and called her Uncle Herb, the vet. He said to force Max to drink several spoonsful of hydrogen peroxide, in order to force him to throw up, which they did. Shortly afterward, Max threw up all the grapes, and has lived to----probably be the reason to write more stories!! Great writing, Macy. Your Mimi, the English teacher is going to keep this paper forever!!

Second Cousins

My niece and her family recently moved back to Floresville (where my brother and sister-in-law live) from North Carolina. She has three children. Macy and Madeline hadn't seen each other in about 4 years, and they hit it off great. Madeline is a year older than Macy. We all met today for lunch at Alamo Cafe. Here are the two girls doing some coloring and puzzles before our meal came.

After we ate, the kids wanted to go outside and play. Here is Marshall with the girls.

Kollman, on the far right is the same age as Marshall. Ryan is 22 months old and he really didn't want to be a part of the picture-taking, so I barely got him in the next photo!

When we had to leave, Macy wanted to know what neighborhood Madeline lived in. I told her Floresville and she wanted to know how long it took to get there from her house. I have a feeling the girls (and the boys too), will be seeing lots more of each other!

Scooter Boy!

When Grandpa Ernst used to talk about John, his only grandson, he'd lovingly say, "If you could buy him for WHAT he was worth, and SELL him for what he THINKS he's worth, you could make a million dollars!" Well, that sums up Marshall this afternoon! He had a three-wheel scooter for about a year and was always wanting to borrow Macy's two-wheel scooter, which didn't work very well for him--because Macy wasn't willing to share it as much as he wanted her to. I told him I would buy him a new, two-wheel scooter, which he picked out yesterday. It's a "Hot Wheels Scooter," and is very COOL. He also has some brand new "Bumble Bee Transformer" shoes, so he was feeling like a million dollars this afternoon.

The funny thing is Marshall pumps with his right foot, and Macy pumps with her left foot! He was going very, very fast and has learned to lean in with his turns as well as to use the brake on the back wheel of the scooter.

Macy was putting on quite a "Scooter Show," and she even told her mom and me exactly how to "vote." If they were bad, we did thumbs down, mediocre, thumbs sideways, very good, thumbs up! And if they were VERY, VERY good, it was both thumbs up as high as we could raise our arms. Then she said if they were extra, extra good, we were to do a little cheer (thanks to the Churchill High School Cheerleader Camp!), with our arms out to the side, then up, then down, etc. We got a little confused, but did the best we could to cheer on our scooter champs! Macy, I love your helmet AND the skirt (so athletic!), and the High School Musical shoes! It's all about fashion, you know. Both kids had great fun entertaining the neighborhood this afternoon in their huge cul-de-sac....Then, came.......

SUPER DAD!!!

(The beard is for his role as "Jesus" at his church on Easter Sunday!

Hayden Finishes a Season of Basketball

Hayden played his last basketball game for the season yesterday. It was a hard-fought game, but the other team won by ten points! But, wait until next year!! Now, he is ready to start baseball!