Optimist Swim Party

Well, better late than never right? Who doesn't like a cheap, fun evening of swimming? You can't beat three hours of swimming, in the middle of winter plus a snack, for just a couple of dollars. Last week I helped work at the 3rd Annual Optimist Club Swim Party. The event was held at Lighthouse Bay Waterpark at the Governor's Inn in Casselton .

The swim party is sponsored by the Casselton Area Optimist Club in which I am the President of right now. This is the third year that we have held this event and it just keeps on growing and getting more and more sucessful.

I just had to have a photo of this happy group of kiddos. These kids are ALL in my class and each of them enjoyed some time at the waterpark. Such a cute photo.

The first year we had somewhere around 60 kids, last year we reached 90+ children and this year, even though we were competing against the first night of the ND Girl's State B Basketball Tournament, we were able to draw in 82 chidren.

It just amazes me how successful this little event is for our club and for the community

. We are able to serve many kids all at one time.

The Casselton Area Optimist Club is a non-profit organization whose main goal is to be of service to kids, hence our motto "Bringing Out the Best in Kids." Our club is open to all adults ages college and on, but we also have a Junior Optimist Club that some of our young people can be involved in too. We have been up and running for the past 5 years and have been going strong since. Here are just a few of the projects that we are involved in: swim party, Safety Town, memorial golf tourney, Community Days fun, 5K Walk/Run, and many others.

I love being part of this group and knowing that what I am doing to help, is directly affecting the young people in our community.

I am so blessed to be involved with a group of people and an Organization that prides themselves in simply "Bringing Out the Best in Kids" . Thank you so much to the parents, kids and especially the other Optimisr members who made this evening such a huge success. The smiles on these faces say it all. Fun was had by all and memories were made. Until next year.

Homemade Pizza, Squirrels, and Memories

Family, siblings, homemade pizza, and Squirrels Girls Basketball, what could get any better than that? On Friday night we decided to make homemade pizza as a family and watch our Squirrels play in the Semi-Final game of the ND State Girls Basketball tournament. Joel and I both have memories of our own, making pizza with our families and discovered that those memories were some of our most fond. So I decided that we needed to make the same kind of memories with our own children, memories that I hope they will hold close to their hearts forever. So here they are three out of four of the loves of our lives.

Each one of the kids had their own job preparing the ingredients, which included some of the following.......

Jerrin cut the black olives and

Gracie opened the mushroom cans

Jerrin and Gracie each made their own pizza, while Jay just helped everyone. As you look at this photo you can see that Jerrin and his dad have a few things in common. The biggest being, that they take their food seriously and everything needs to be put on perfectly.

Gracie's creation, in which she was so very proud.

Gracie's pizza is on the top and Jerrin's is on the bottom. Don't they look scrumptious?

As we took these pizzas out of the oven we couldn't wait to dig in, but we had to get everything ready to watch the big game. We all piled into the living room in front of the tv to cheer on our Squirrel Girls. The night could not have gotten any better.

Adult - Youth Bowling Tournament

Last Sunday, February 28th this group competed in the Regional Adult/Youth Bowling Tournament at Red River Lanes in North Fargo. They all did a great job, bowling over their averages and finishing strong. Can't wait to hear if you get to move onto the next round.

Parker and (Jerrin's) Grandpa Dan

Bethany and (Jerrin's) Grandma Colleen

Dad (Joel) and Jerrin

Parker and Bethany

Bethany is on Jerrin's regular league bowling team in Casselton. They have enjoyed going to a few different tournaments together this year. Last year the two of them were

League Champions in their age group.

Jerrin on his approach. Jerrin struggled his first game of the day, throwing quite a few gutter balls and a lowere than average game, but he recovered by the end and bowled well. He bowled higher than his average 2 out of 3 games and pulled together a nice series total too.

And the release........

Oh yeah, we can't forget this funny man. I guess he wasn't getting enough attention.

So he tried to steal the show.

Nice form!!!!

Granny and one of her biggest fans. He was a great cheerleader, as he cheered his bowlers on.

Go Papa Go or Yeah Granny!!!!!!!

This photo was taken to include both of the team's extra cheerleaders for the morning.

Great job everyone, it was a fun watch you all.

Jerrin's Kindred Tough Guy Tournament

Here is to Jerrin's kickoff to the 2010 Casselton Crushers Wrestling Season. He was able to wrestle a few times during the Squirrels season before some of John's duals, but he had not wrestled in a tournament until now. I just was able to catch a few shots of the big day.

Wow, it looks like he is working hard here, will it pay off?

He held on to beat this kid not only once, but two different times, to bring home the first place trophy.

Way to go Jerrin, we are very proud of you. Maybe your big brother does know what he is talking about and his advice to you has paid off. Good luck at the Crushers tournament this weekend.

A sleepover

(I have to apologize first to my other children that I am once again writing about a story that evolves around Jaylen, but seriously, he is a story in himself. He is so darn funny)

Well, it all started with Granny (Yes, that is what he calls Grandma Colleen) stopping over last night to tell us that she would be able to watch Jay for us on Thursday. We were in need of daycare for the day and she was off from work....PERFECT! When she asked Jaylen if he wanted to come to her house for the day, he immediately answered her with a quick, "I go home with you now Granny." "Not tonight," Granny answered, "in two sleeps." BUt that was not good enough for Jaylen.

So today was the day after he had slept two times and honest to god he had not forgotten. After I picked him up from daycare, he asked right away if he was going to Granny's. I told him yes and then wanted to know what he thought he needed to bring with him to her house. This is how the conversation continued.

Mom: Jay, what do you need to pack to stay at Grandma's?

Jaylen: Probablyyyyyyyyy, my pillow and my blankie. The Elmo one.

Mom: What else will you need?

Jaylen: Ummmmm my plug, and my sleep bag. (We later figured out a sleep bag was actually his sleepover bag or suitcase.) I need diapers too mama.

Mom: Yes you do Jay, but don't you think Grandma wants you to go in the potty?

Jaylen: Ummmm Probablyyyyyyy NO!

Well, it seemed that he really knew what he needed and wanted to go to grandma's house pretty badly. As I left for church I told him to get his bag packed and when I got home, grandma should be there to pick him up. When I arrived home I walked in to see a completely packed sleep bag, a pillow, and a blanket all ready to go. You would think that he was really READY to get away for the evening.

The sad part was, he walked out the door with grandma, pulling along his sleep bag and acting oh so grown up. Daddy tried to get him to give him a hug and a kiss good night and he said no. Mommy finally got an I Love you, MAMA out of him as he headed down the sidewalk, but nothing more. He climbed into the van and away they went.

Why does he have to be growing up so fast? Why do mommy and daddy have to be the boring ones? Why does he have to be so independant? Why can he not stay little forever?

Jay, mommy hopes you have a wonderful night with Granny and Papa tonight and that you are ready to give hugs to mommy and daddy when you see us tomorrow. We know that you are growing up and want to be a big boy, but you will always be our little boy no matter what. I love you, Punk.

Taking something that is not yours is NEVER good!

I know that I have many older posts to catch up on, but I just have to share one of the funniest things I have ever seen Jaylen do. It was time for bed and Jayl decided he wanted to stay in Johnny B's room tonight, since he had gone back to his mom's and would not be back for the evening. Jaylen likes to stay in John's room when he is not home.

I continued to tuck Jaylen in, when he decided that he needed a drink before bed. I went downstairs to get a glass of water, when all of a sudden I heard little running feet above me and a rather loud bang. I hurried back upstairs to see what the matter was, only to find Jay bellied up to the bathroom sink spitting something out. I did not know what was going. I was a little nervous until he turned and looked at me. Oh how I wish that I would have had a camera on me, because the look on his face was hysterical.

I immediately received a "Sorry mommy" from the guilty boy, but I still did not know what he had done. I then asked him what was all over his face and his response cracked me up, I couldn't help but giggle. "That is yucky mommy, John's candy is yucky!" He continued to spit out the chocolate in the sink and almost shook from the taste. Jaylen had discovered that John had left an opened bag of Valentine's candy on his headboard that was just to tempting for him. What he did not know, was that he was going to get his first taste of dark chocolate. Needless to say, he may have learned a valuable lesson tonight. If you steal candy from someone without asking, it is bound to taste YUCKY!!!!!

I guess our lucky streak is over!!

Earlier this fall Joel and I had a conversation about how lucky we are to be blessed with healthy children. We have four wonderful kids and not one of them have been touched by any hospital stays, broken bones, or even stitches. Now we have had our share of earaches, colds, and a bit of asthma and allergies, but nothing so serious. Three out of the four kids have had their tonsils out and two of the boys have had hernia surgery, but neither of those surgeries could be prevented. (Now don't think I forgot about John's accident when he was little. I know he needed many stitches after being hit by the car. I am only able to report on what I know of since I have become the mama in the family.) We have not had one broken bone, stitch, or hospital stay.

Well, that was before December!!!!! Since then we have had a trip to the ER with Jaylen to get three stitches in his finger and to the clinic for x-rays to see if Jerrin had a broken foot.

Here are a few photos of Jaylen's mishap. I could not find the photo I took when he came home with his stitches, so I guess we need to settle with the photos of the "surgery" that took place to take them out. Yes, it took Auntie Amy, Granny, and Auntie Jen to take them out. Thanks you to the nurses and loving Auntie's in our family.

He didn't even flinch while they took the stitches out, but he was sure upset when he awoke, to find that his "spiders" were gone. (When he first got the stitches he did not like to look at them at all. He kept them covered at all times and called them his spiders.)

Jerrin and his boot. Jerrin's story starts with a fun trip to the Casselton Governor's Inn Waterpark with a good friend. The boys were swimming and having fun on the waterslide when Jerrin came down and his foot was really sore. When he got home he could not put much weight on his foot at all. That evening it just kept getting more sensitive to touch and by the time he tried to go to bed it was pretty swollen. We debated on taking him into the ER but opted out in hopes that the Ibuprofen, ice and elevation that we were doing would bring things back to normal in the morning. Well, morning came and it was most definitely not better. Jerrin could not put any weight what so ever on the foot at this time and it was still swollen. So away we went to the doctor.

After an app't and x-rays the doctor told us that she was pretty surprised there was not a fracture on the top of his foot. She was a bit worried about how sore the foot was and that the injury seemed to lie right over or beside his growth plate, so she decided to put a boot on anyway, to protect the injury and for faster healing. He would also need to stay out of all activities for 2 WEEKS! That is a long time in a third grade boy's world.

Everyone is now healthy again. I just hope that this unlucky streak with the kids has now ended, because if anyone know us at all, Joel and I are the two most UNLUCKY people I know in all other areas. So if we can keep the injury and sickness monsters away that would make us a very happy mommy and daddy.