SCHOOLS OUT!!

Okay...so Friday the 29th was actually the last day of school...I am a few days behind...but that is because we have been having SUCH fun since the boys have been out! Unfortunatly I don't have any pictures...but I picked them up from school at noon (when they were dismissed), and we went and picked up Papa and went to have lunch at Cam's favorite restaurant, Valentino's. It was SO yummy! They DEFINITELY need new management...but problems aside, the food was yummy and plentiful as usual! :-) Then we went back to Papa's house and checked out his new saddle. Did I tell you? Dad bought a horse! A Gelding...I think he is four. Right now his name is Sparky, but I think dad is changing it. He is brown with a little star on his forehead. Dad will be boarding him at Jeff's bosses house. She offered to let them board there if they fixed her barn and stables up. Jeff has been thinking for a long time about getting a horse, so he already knew that she would allow that...and she did! So, when dad gets back from his fishing trip in Minnesota, he will move the horse back to Lisa's ranch in Gretna. Anyway, then we went home and did some more grocery shopping. Fun, I know! :-) Saturday we were going to go look at some Miniature horses, but decided to just relax and get some things done around the yard. I actually had a walk that morning with Deana Ramsey. So, Major, Nehemiah, Deana and I walked that morning for CAR. Check out the website for more info. Cady was the niece of one of my friends, and this walk is in her honor. Anyway, Sunday we went to church and relaxed some more. We watched a few movies. Tanner and Dixie came over and watched a movie with us Saturday night. It was a scary one...Dixie wasn't thrilled...but she watched it!! We had friends with us most of the weekend...at one point we had 8 kiddos here. We had some spend the night and some of our kids spent the night with friends on other nights. So...it has been nonstop coming and going here! Today we had a couple of MaKenna and Major's friends over, and dental appointments!! What a way to end the school year!! :-) We have our 2009 SUMMER OF FUN poster made with TONS of things on there to do! Hopefully we will get started on that soon!!!

SCHOOLS OUT FOR THE SUMMER!!!!!!!!!

BMX trophy

Field Day!

Field day today at the boys' school was tons of fun!!! I volunteered to help out with the second grade from 9-10 this morning. So, MaKenna, Major and I walked up to the school and we manned the popsicle table. So...we were favorites among the second graders. I did get a few pictures though! They didn't HAVE to do any of the sports...they got to choose, or they could just run around on the playground. It was SO different from when we did field day in the "olden days"! :-) Major was loved by all the second grade girls. In fact, here is a picture with Major flanked by two of Jake's classmates...then Jake is over on the right hand side with a hoop essentially playing horseshoes with hoops! He is in the blue.Here is Jake's class in line for tug a war. His class had two competitions and they won BOTH!!!! GO MRS. KORVES-GUNNINKS class!!!! Jake is in the blue third from the back.
MaKenna spent a lot of her time running around on the playground.As did Jake....
After their field day, MaKenna, Major and I walked home. We went potty, got snack and at 11 we walked BACK to school...I really got my exercise today! I volunteered to help with the fourth grade field day. Once again, I was the popsicle lady...loved among all the fourth graders!! It's soo good to be loved! :-) MaKenna ran around with Cam mostly this time...Major hung out at the playground. He was followed again by many little fourth grade girls. Luckily they were within distance of me so I could see what was going on the whole time. He was in hog heaven though because they just followed him around and let him do whatever he wanted to...within reason of course. Anyway, Cam did a lot of the sporty things. He even let MaKenna join in on a few of them!Here is a picture of MaKenna in the jean capris and pink shirt...next to Cam in the black shorts and brown shirt...about to run an obstacle course together! She won!!! Of course she is so little she could get through the hoops faster!Here is Cam's class waiting for their turn at Tug A War. They had two competitions...they lost one and won one! Cam is in the middle of the picture.

After field day at noon, MaKenna, Major and I headed over to the park across the street and had a picnic with Cam and his class. That was fun. Last week was Jake's class picnic and we did the same thing with Jake. But...as soon as the food was eaten, we had to leave because Major was ready for nap. It had been a BUSY morning. He fell asleep on the stroller ride home, then slept for an hour and a half longer in bed while I mowed the lawn! He was really sleepy!

Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of school...they get out at noon. I plan on taking them somewhere for lunch to celebrate the end of the school year. Don't know where yet. Any suggestions? Thank you SO much to any and all of you that sent postcards to Jake's class. He got to bring them home today and he had SO many of them!! Thank you to ALL of you!!!

Amish Love, book review

Some of you know, I am reviewing books for Multnomah Publishing...also known as Waterbrook. Anyway, here is one book that they asked me to post about. I have not read this book yet, they just wanted this posted. Stay tuned for books that I HAVE read and review for you! I am an AVID book lover and reader, so this is right up my alley! These books posted about below sound AWESOME too! I can't WAIT to read them!!

Amish Love

What’s all the hubbub about Amish fiction? Major media outlets like Time and ABC Nightline are covering it, and authors like Cindy Woodsmall are making the New York Times bestseller list regularly. What makes these books so interesting?

Check out the recent ABC Nightline piece here (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=7676659&page=1) about Cindy and her titles When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and When the Soul Mends. It’s an intriguing look at Amish culture and the time Cindy has spent with Amish friends.

And don’t forget that Cindy’s new book The Hope of Refuge hits store shelves August 11, and is available for preorder now.

Tim Wildsmith

One of my best friends Emily Jackson, has a little brother named Tim Wildsmith. He is a singer and he also was Mrs. Hoskovec's (Cam's teacher), student in the 3rd grade. Once we figured out the connection between us, Mrs. Hockovec and Tim, we thought it would be fun for him to come in and sing for the kids. He has two CD's. His first one is Christian. From what I understand he is working or about to start working on his third album. He sings at places throughout Omaha and travels at times as well. He travels with a band and is a great performer. He was a HUGE hit with the kids. They had TONS of questions for him...mostly, "Have you ever met.....?" They are very intrigued with famous people out here in the midwest! They live a sheltered life! :-) Anyway, the girls were swooning, the boys all wanted to be him. They even wanted autographs at the end. Here is a picture of Tim singing.


Cam is sitting on the floor in this picture. He got to introduce Tim. The kids call him "Uncle Tim" because that is what Olivia and Brighton call him (he IS their uncle).
Here is Tim and Cam.

Here is the mad 72 kid mob wanting autographs!

Here is Cam, Tim and Mrs. Hoskovec.
MaKenna and Major see Tim from time to time...they weren't as thrilled....they here his music on my ipod...so they just looked at the fish....

Happy Memorial Day!!!

MaKenna and Major have a touch of something so we didn't want to take them out today. I wanted to go to the Services at the Blue Mound Cemetary in Milford, so dad came and picked me up at 8 this morning. Jeff was kind enough to stay home with two sick kids and two "tween" boys. The service at the cemetary was really nice. They had the 21 gun salute, the fly overs, it was really nice. Mom's headstone was put out recently too and it was really nice. The flowers were beautiful as well. The sun was bright on the bottom line there but it says, "Parent's of Rhonda and Tonya." Then in the left hand corner it says "God's Care" and the right hand corner says, "Forever".

The back of the stone says, "Grandparent's of" and it lists all their names. Guess we can't have any more kids. :-) The picture didn't turn out so well because there is a barbed wire fence running behind it, so I couldn't get a good angle without sticking myself.

For Mother's Day, I had dad take this little bear, that got REALLY drenched, and Rhonda had bought a very nice stake.Here is a close up of the stake. Very nice.Before we left I took a picture of that area...the top left is my Uncle Junior (mom's big bro), the bottom left is my mom's mom and dad, the center is mom, then the top right is my cousin Shane.

We have quite a few other relatives in this cemetary, dad and I went through and picked up all the flowers that he put out last week for the great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, etc. Then we went to the Mennonite cemetary and did the same thing with my dad's families flowers, even mom's grandpa is buried out there. We had doughnuts with my dad's cousin and his son, then we ran into Lincoln and had my favorite...Cracker Barrel. Yum. It was a very nice morning, with nice talks, nice company...it was just a nice day.....then I came home to chaos. But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. :-) If chaos comes with my kids, then I will take it.

BMX Friday night...MaKenna's first REAL race!

Last Friday it had rained too hard for the track, so we didn't have BMX...MaKenna had JUST gotten her new helmet...her official helmet...and she had to wait a week. But this past Friday with all of us watching along with Papa and Tanner, she had her first OFFICIAL race...she started in the gates with Daddy helping her. They didn't have a division young enough for her, so they put her in with the 6 year old novice group. She held her own! She did very well for being 2 years younger than the other riders. In fact...she made it to the MAIN race and the end...and took 3rd place! She even got a trophy!! I will have to take a picture of her with it and post it when I think about it! Granted...there were only 3 racers...but still!! Her VERY FIRST TROPHY!! She was absolutely THRILLED!!!!!