spring soccer - jacob

 Jacob is yellow #4; he's throwing the ball in. He played forward and mid-field during the first half of this game.

 Jacob likes playing goalie.  He's pretty darn good at it!  He usually plays goalie for the second half of the game.

 Nice stop, Jake!

 Nice kick!

His crazy soccer teammates and coach with their end-of-year medals!

spring soccer - matthew

Matthew had soooo much fun playing soccer this year!

 His face totally captures how he feels after scoring a goal!

Matthew is #9.

 At the end of the season, each player gets a medal.  Cool! 

lego mindstorm

 Jacob participated in the Lego Mindstorm class after school this year.  Mindstorm is for 5th and 6th graders.  The fifth grade challenge was to work with a partner to build and program a lego robot that could navigate itself through a maze (The sixth grade works on a challenge).  Jacob went to the robotics class once a week for about an hour and a half for about 10-12 weeks.  The finale to this class was a competition at Lagoon with other schools to see who had the best/fastest robot.  The picture above is Jacob's robot going through a practice maze at the school. This is Jacob and his partner, Spencer, ready for competition at Lagoon.

All the fifth graders are lined up and waiting for their turn to interview.

 Looking thoughtful and maybe a little nervous.

 The first part of the competition is an interview with an engineer to explain how they built and programed their robot.

 Each partnership has two interviews.  This is the second interview, where they again had to explain how they developed their robot.  The final part of the competition is the actual maze.  The robot has one chance to run through a maze and it is timed.  The winners are determined by a combination of interview scores and maze time.  Jacob didn't win, but they did well, had fun, and learned a lot. 

 I went with Jacob to Lagoon as a "chaperone".  This is a quick selfie of us.

 A picture of Jacob and some of his mindstorm buddies.  The two boys in the middle took 3rd place.

This is a picture of the whole JP Steward mindstorm team (5th and 6th graders).  Jacob is sitting on the bench, the 2nd from the left.  It was a fun day!



 

ryan gets an award

 At the ninth grade awards night, Ryan was presented with an award for academic achievement -- the Presidential Silver Award.  To qualify for this award the students had to maintain a 3.5 or higher gpa during their 3 years at the junior high.

Way to go, Ryan!  So proud of you!

photos from home

We decided to take a quick trip home to see Mom & Dad over Mother's Day weekend.  I got a new camera for Mother's Day, so it was the perfect opportunity to try it out and take a few photos of home.  I had to start with the view from my parents front window.  Beautiful.  I got to see this everyday while growing up -- NOW I can really appreciate it.

 Matthew playing with one of the classic and orginal toys -- the FisherPrice little people house. I got it for Christmas one year when I was a kid.

 My mom always makes the best food -- what can I say?  She made this wonderful dinner for Mother's Day - roast beef, potatoes, jello, green beans, and rolls.  She makes the cheesy potatoes from real potatoes, and it is everyone's favorite -- that's why I had to do a closeup!

 

 After dinner, I decided it was time for a photo shoot.  My mother HATES being in pictures and always seems to pull funny faces and ALWAYS ends up laughing!  Which makes me laugh, which makes for terrible photos.  This one captures the somewhat funny face. 

 This one is one I think we can both live with, even if its not quite perfect of my mom!

 I decided to get my dad in on the photo shoot.

 And finally, with all those photos, I managed to get this one of my parents.  I love it.  I love their smiles.  And I love that my mom isn't laughing -- just truly happy.  I am so blessed to have such wonderful parents.

matthews birthday party

On Saturday, after Matthew's birthday, I had a little party for him.  He invited a few friends over and we started off with some pepperoni pizza.

Then Matthew opened presents 

 Next we played a few games.  The kids had balloons tied to one foot and had to try to pop the balloon of the other players without getting their balloon popped.

For this game, the kids made marshmallow shooters out of cups and balloons.  We had a target set up to shoot the marshmallows at, but it was more fun to shoot at each other!

What's a birthday party without a piñata? 

A quick game of soccer rounded out the birthday activites. 

 Matthew with his friends Cameron (orange stripe), Will (center back), Weston (green), and Jay (sitting next to Matthew).  I think everyone had a good time and Matthew loved having a party!

jared has a birthday

When G&G Vawdrey were here a couple days ago to celebrate Matthew's birthday, we also celebrated Jared's birthday a bit.  He opened his card and gift.  He got a new Oklahoma Thunder t-shirt and money!

 

 Since Jared's birthday was on a school day, he still had to get up early to get to school.  He got bacon to go with his cereal in honor of his big day!  This is a perfect picture of Jared's everyday morning -- a bowl of cereal for breakfast with the sports section of the newspaper spread across the counter.

Jared finally got around to opening his presents around dinner time.  Clothes and Twizzlers.



Gatorade from one of his brothers.

A new electric razor from Mark & I.  Not too exciting, but Jared couldn't think of anything for us to get for him!

Jared had a new request for a "birthday cake" this year -- chocolate ice cream!

Happy Birthday Jared!  We love you!