March Stuff

We had Samuel and Caylie's parent-teacher conferences at Global Village Academy.  I'm happy to say that they were the best conferences we've had in awhile!  Great reports for both kids!

Here's Samuel with his Chinese teachers, Miss Yu and her assistant whose name I forget, haha. 

 I didn't think to get a picture with all the others.

Caylie with her Chinese teacher, Li Laoshi.

And her English teacher, Miss Kruger.

We got a new doggie!  This is Benji.  He came to us from the Denver Dumb Friends League, like most of our other dogs in the past.   This first picture was on our ride home from the shelter.  He is a "terrier mix", but the vet we went to thought he might be at least part Irish wolfhound. 

 He's doing great!

And we finally have a back yard!  This was the day the sod was laid.  It's much greener now. 

Keelan's First Baseball Game

Keelan played his first baseball game for Gateway High School today.  He did a great job, going two for two with two RBIs, and a hit-by-pitch. He also made several good plays at second base.  I was very proud of him!  Jim was traveling for work and had to miss the game, so every time Keelan came up to bat, we FaceTimed him, ha!  

All of these pictures are taken from behind the fence, so the blurriness you see is the fence between me and the field.  I was able to focus on Keelan, but that darn fence was always there!  

He has 19 games, and I will try to get to most, if not all, of them.  I'm sure I'll be posting plenty more pictures!

Sidewalk Prophets Concert

On Sunday evening we went to the Sidewalk Prophets concert in Denver to represent Anderson University at their booth.

Sidewalk Prophets is a Christian band that started at Anderson University back in 2004.  It was fun chatting with the lead singer, Dave Frey about that.  He has fond memories of Ivanhoes ice cream, as we do!

Jim and I met at Anderson College (now University) in 1984,  and Brittany and Brad met there in 2008!  (Jim's dad and cousin, as well as my sister, are also alums, and my niece is a sophomore there now.)  It was fun to talk to potential students and their parents, and had a great time meeting the band.  Samuel had fun at his first-ever concert!  We got home late that night, but it was an awesome time.  Thanks to our friend Scott for inviting us to do it!

The four AU alums and cutie pie Tessa. 

 (Sam's taking the picture.)

A couple of shots from the concert.  

Samuel with the band's photo background. 

 He helped the road manager set it up.

Jim, Samuel, and me with Sidewalk Prophets.  

A fun night!

Keelan's Birthday

I don't know how it happened, but Keelan is about to graduate from high school and just turned 18!  He is still working at Dairy Queen, taking automotive mechanics classes at tech school, playing guitar with the church worship band, and this spring is also playing baseball!  Some days I don't see him at all.  He is a busy little bee.

As I mentioned in the previous post, he got his letter jacket for his birthday.

His birthday dinner was at HuHot Mongolian Grill, a yummy place that we discovered last year.

Taylor, Destiny, Keelan, Justin.

Me and my Tessa.  

(She's looking for her daddy to come back to the table!)

Caylie, Samuel, Jim, Brad, Brittany

Keelan chose Kansas Dirt Cake, which Jim made for him.

It's getting hard to blow out a-l-l those candles!

And here's an extra, just 'cause I love it. 

This is baby Keelan at his first birthday party, crying because he was overwhelmed by all the people.  Or because he was afraid of the candles.  Or because he didn't like that kind of cake.  Who knows.  But he's being comforted by our friend Jeff, who has been Keelan's teacher, friend, and worship leader over the years.

And here they are now, playing their guitars on the church stage.  I love that they've had this long relationship.

Happy Birthday, Keelan Josiah!