Abundantly Blessed: Spring Misc

Here are few miscellaneous family events over the past couple months:

Virtual Piano Recital

Due to the coronavirus, I had to cancel my typical spring recital for my piano students. Instead, I conducted a virtual recital by having my students make videos of their recital songs and posting them on a private group page on Facebook. The format worked surprisingly well! Mostly, I was thankful that my students (including Cody and Jaden) could all showcase the songs that they had worked so hard to learn this spring. Here are the videos of Cody and Jaden's recital songs:

Cody - "Sword Dance"

Cody - "Let it Go" from Frozen

Jaden - "Captain Hook's Rockin' Party"

Jaden - "I Just Can't Wait to Be King"

A duet by both boys-- "Snow Fort Hideout"

Ian and Ryan's Birthday Celebration

For my nephews' birthdays in early May, they weren't able to have their usual friend birthday party. This coronavirus has sure been changing everyone's plans! Instead, my nephews invited Jaden and Cody to join them for an extended two-night, three-day birthday celebration. This cousin time was a highlight of Jaden and Cody's entire month! They talked about their adventures for SO long afterwards. My sister Kim and her husband Matt planned some perfect activities and kept all 5 boys well entertained. One big activity was going on a bike scavenger hunt around their neighborhood.

The boys had to solve various puzzles-- some of which included football teams or Pokemon characters (right up their alley for these boys!).

The puzzles led them to find hidden rocks.

Eventually, the boys had to arrange the letters written on all of the rocks to spell out the final hidden clue....

DRUMSTICKS! Yum! What a perfect prize for this warm day.

Other adventures included playing video games,

eating out at Panera,

watching movies,

eating doughnuts for breakfast,

having water wars,

and launching water balloons.

On their full day together, they drove out to Huntsville State Park. It had orginally been Ryan's desire to camp out overnight there, but the state park was only open for day visitors, unfortunately. They definitely still made the most of their visit, exploring and pretending to be ninja detectives. What a perfect boy day!

Since Ryan was still excited about the camping idea, Matt and Kim set up a tent for the boys in their backyard.

In the morning, the boys stayed inside the tent for Pokemon trading. What an amazing adventure these boys had! Thanks, Ryan and Ian, for including Cody and Jaden in your memorable birthday!

Board Games

With all our extra time at home these days, Jaden and Cody have been excited about learning new board games. It's been so great that they're finally ready for all of our "adult" games now. They've tried out quite a few new ones-- Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Stone Age, Pandemic, Life, Monopoly, Sequence, and two that we borrowed from my parents, Emporer's Challenge and Eureka.

Mother's Day

I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with these three wonderful kiddos! Along with Daddy, we spent the day together playing tennis and watching Aladdin.

Grandpa and Grandma Move to Texas

In late May, Jason's parents officially made the big move from Minnesota to become Texans! We are so excited to have them live only 15 minutes away from us and feel blessed that we'll be able to have them part of our regular lives. To prepare for their arrival, my kids decorated a Welcome Home sign to hang in Grandpa and Grandma's new home.

On the day they arrived, all three Schleicher families greeted Grandpa and Grandma at their new home (which we had recently cleaned for them too!). It was so sweet seeing all the grandkids excitedly waving in the front yard as Grandpa and Grandma pulled in.