Happy Easter!!!

There are just a few more hours left of Easter 2013.  It's been 3 straight days of celebrating with friends and family for Maurer Party of Five.  There were 5 egg hunts, one scavenger hunt, egg toss games that left us covered in yolk, bounce house fun, confetti eggs and WAY TOO MUCH candy.

Though there were a lot of fun and games, we tried to make sure and not lose sight of the true focus of Easter.     Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice and died on the cross for us so that we may be saved.  What a gift!!!  Easter is a remembrance that He is alive, alive, alive forevermore.  I'll follow up with more Easter fun posts later this week, but here are the kids in front of our chruch cross.  

Jack time

Last Friday we had a fun visit from Jack.  There's a lot of love for that little boy in our house.  Avery wishes he could live here.  She insists it would be more fun and that she would be able take care of him.  This conversation always leads to her requesting I have another baby and sometimes that discussion leads to questions I am not quite ready to answer.

Anyway, here's a few pics from Jack's visit.

Air Rookie

Rookie is starting to fit in with our crew.  Here he is in super hero mode!!

Little League 2013

3 kids = 3 tball schedules = 1 VERY BUSY spring.

Austin is on the CHICAGO CUBS in the tball 6 division.  Wes is managing the team.  They hit off the tee the first half of the season and then move to coach pitch.  I think we're going to see some great things from this guy this year.

Caleb is onthe HOUSTON ASTROS in the tball 5 division.  Wes is coaching his team.  This is Caleb's first year of tball.  Can't wait to see him show us his stuff!

Avery is a FLORIDIA GATOR in the 5/6 tball softball division.  I'm managing the team.  Avery's has some pretty awesome skills so we're excited to see how well she does out on the field.

 

It took me almost an hour to put all three of their tee ball schedules in my Outlook calendar last week.  There are some weeks where we'll be out at the ballpark four nights straight. Avery & Caleb play on the same nights and there are a few overlaps but at least they play at the same complex this year.  We'll just take one night and game at a time and pray we manage to get everything else done in between.  Play Ball!

Caleb the Robot

Caleb was tasked with making a robot when they were learning the letter "R".  This was his creation.  It was a group effort and Caleb was super excited to get to take "Caleb the Robot" to school.

We've got a Smartie....

So I will be one of the first ones to get in line to stand behind laws/rules/regulations that decrease standarized testing in schools.  BUT I am all about taking tests that tell/remind parents how smart their children are :)  Now that Avery and Austin are in public school, we are in a whole new ballgame.... so far, so good but we do see the differences.  Early fall, all Kindergartners in the school district took an apptitude test.  From those test results, a handful of high scoring students were asked to take the Stanford 10 achievement test.  Austin was one of those students.  We were a bit surprised as Avery had been the one to excel in the classroom... she's a reading maniac and loves school, but apparently Austin knows his stuff and I have a feeling it has to do a lot with the fact that he takes his time to get things done. (Avery rushes through just to get done.) Austin scored way above average in the initial test.
Fast forward to a note we received this week with Austin's Stanford 10 test results.  Austin rocked it!!!  His reading scores were almost perfect and he did amazing in math.    He will be a part of the GT (gift and talented ) program at school for the next 4 years.  We are so proud and excited to see him grow academically!

Happy St Patty's Day!

Hope you had a great Spring Break and a great St. Patty's Day!!!