Last weeks of 1st and 4th grade

 They did it!  They made it until the end of the school year!

Finished with grade school:

 A thunderstorm and hail

 A surprise from Dad for the last week - a Labyrinth!

 Mail from early April finally arriving:

 A last farewell party with Nathanel's classmates from the last four years:

 Walking out of the grade school for the last time:

Friends and Critters

The last few weeks of alternating school-at-home and school-at-school have been chaotic.  We are truly counting down the days until July 3rd when we can say GOODBYE to this schoolyear!  Nevertheless, the kids have had a lot of fun over these weeks, especially with friends.

 

 

 

 Yes, that is a duckling which they found all alone by the stream.

And since we are on the topic of critters.

This one surprised us IN OUR OFFICE one day.  The kids do not know it was there.  We got it out quietly!

Garden projects

After a year in our home, we decided it was time to begin a few more garden projects.

Gregory installed a gate!

 Though technically not our garden, we saw our window box flowers really bloom!

 

 Gregory planted red roses to grow up our arch!

 

 Nathanael had fun measuring our rainfall one afternoon!

EVA IS SEVEN!

Our precious Eva turned seven on Saturday!

We celebrated her the entire week up until her birthday, as she often gets a bit over-stimulated when everything happens on one day.

 She is a silly one.

She loves jewelry and makeup and anything that glitters.

 Picking out birthday dresses from Auntie Carrie and Uncle Drew!

 On her way to school on Friday, wearing her birthday dress for her birthday celebration at school.  (She brought popsicles to share with her seven classmates.)

 Her chocolate cake with pink icing

 And THIS is how she felt the day of her birthday! :(

 She awoke around midnight with a high fever which remained until about mid-afternoon.  It was so sad.  We had to delay her two friends visiting until sometime in the summer.  You can see she still insisted on wearing her party dress.

 

 And we managed to see a few smiles 

 

 This happier photo below was after a second long nap! 

The next day, she was completely herself and enjoyed chocolate cake!

We wonder if it could have just been excitement...but the fever was really high for 12-14 hours!  We are glad it went away quickly so that we didn't have to contact the doctor in these crazy times.

Happy Birthday to our Evangeline!

(birthday letter to follow sometime later...)

Dear Eva (7 Years)

Dearest Eva,

Happy seventh birthday to our delightful daughter!  We love you so very much, dear Eva.  You are a treasure.  We are honored to know you, to walk along side you, to encourage and support you as you continue to discover who God has made you to be, how He has made you to shine His glory into this world.  You definitely shine already with his love and compassion and extravagant expression!

What a year you have had!  You took that big step into school in September, and we are so proud of how hard you have worked during what turned out to be the oddest first school year we could have imagined.  You have had your ups and downs with learning, and it has been challenging to be one of the youngest kids (with a summer birthday), but you have really shown us that you are able to learn, when you want to and when you are ready!  You learned all your letters this year, began reading syllables and have made it into words and sentences, to your great disappointment.  You really do not like to read when there are a lot of words on a page!  You are actually good at it when you get over it and do it. ;)

You remained connected to some of your Kindergarten buddies for a bit this last year, especially during the summer and attending a music program together with them, but now you have truly bonded with friends in your class.  The exception, of course, is your best bud Mario with whom you made the Kindergarten to school transition.  You two with your active and sweet personalities are quite a pair!  We have enjoyed watching you bond with a few girls in your class, Eliza, Adele, and Victoria being your closest girlfriends.  In addition, we are grateful for friends at church, especially your dear Charlotte, whom we have missed seeing so very much these last few months of adjusted church during Corona time.  The gradual easing of the lockdown allowed you to get to know our neighbors really well, and you have really connected with Isabella, Annika, and Johanna as well.

Much was affected by everything suddenly and unexpectedly shutting down on March 13th due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Ballet stopped, something which you greatly missed.  You had begun in a new dance school which is such a great fit for you, requiring a bit more but still keeping it fun.  Your spring swim lessons were cancelled before they began, and you are excited to restart lessons as soon as we can.  You had been making some great progress with piano as well, even shifting from lessons at the VHS to lessons at home!  Something that you have been able to do more these last few months is riding your bike -- now with gears! -- and riding your scooter.  You especially love riding along the stream behind our home and looking for the neighborhood cat so we can stop and pet her!  We are really impressed with how far and well you are able to ride!

This has been a year of exercising your voice, and we are so proud of the ways you have consistently spoken up for how you feel and what you want and need.  Your sensitivity is strong and beautiful.  Your thoughtfulness and kindness are beyond your age.  You continue to love to laugh and tease and cuddle and tickle.  Your big smile is so warming, and your exuberant excitement is contagious.  You love to express yourself, be it singing or dancing, painting or drawing.  You are our tactile learner, always touching and learning through handling items.

Highlights from the year include:  graduating from Kindergarten, family weekend in Neutal, attending two English weeks at our church and with Kids' Teams and bonding with the leaders, Annual Conference in Frankfurt (where Heidi lived with Klara!), a few weeks in the States to visit all the grandparents and enjoy some USA time, a sleepover with Claire and Charlotte, having Opa and Oma and the Bryans visit for Christmas, riding a horse on New Year's Eve, the winter circus, Grandpa and Grandma time in February, and your first night in a tent during Easter week (in our back yard during lockdown)!  You also seem to like school from home, most of the time.

We love you deeply, our dearest Evangeline Elif.  You are God’s wonderful creation, sweet girl.  Continue delighting and expressing and dreaming!

Happy Birthday!

Your mommy and daddy

7-year-old Eva!

A New Type of School and a Sensational Spring

After nine weeks away from the school building and eight weeks of school-from-home, the kids are now at school for four hours, every other day until July 3rd.  With holidays, it ends up being 14 days total.  It was a bit of a stressful weekend helping them prepare, going through all their supplies and books and worksheets, finding small toys to play with alone at their desks and packing a bag for alone play in the schoolyard, making sure they understand the new procedures for arrival and departure, when they must wear masks, when they must wash hands, and on and on.  Oh, and Abstand, Abstand, Abstand!  *distance*  But we made it, and I must admit the admittance into school at 7:45 (for the two first grade "half" classes and their siblings) was not as stressful as I expected.  The 20 or so kids were all quiet and nervous and excited, and the adults were all simply doing our best to guide and encourage them in this big step.

On my walk home from school drop-off, I was simply overcome with the sights and sounds and smells of Spring.  I love every single season, and I love the changing of seasons.  Each season has its unique sensory stimulation, and Spring this year is definitely not disappointing.

The sweet scent of the wild rose bushes in full bloom all over is sensational.

 

And that scent mixed with the elder flowers is heavenly.

We have both types of wild flowers growing along our driveway!  But we enjoy the scents when we take walks along the stream as well.  We collected elder flowers a couple evenings ago and made syrup together as a family.  It is incredible mixed with soda water or even with a little white wine!

The sounds of the birds all around delight me as well.  We have a couple families of birds which visit our bird feeder multiple times a day.  One of these days we'll capture a picture of them.

This was my walking buddy along the stream.  I had seen him off and on over the last couple of months, but there was something special about greeting him again on this morning after dropping the kids off at school.  It just felt normal.  I like the continuity of finding him still in his habitat.

 And of course the ducks.  Gregory informed me there were ducks on our roof yesterday evening!

 These are some of my favorite trees.  I love the sound of the wind in the leaves. 

 And the wheat fields are beautiful right now.

Eva said to me on our bike ride yesterday, "Wow, Mom.  That farmer is working so hard.  He could feed the whole city with that field, right?" :)

This Kansas girl loves that we have wheat fields nearby.

Wrapping up week nine

Nathanael and his friend Elias created a large and detailed city last week on the floor of Nathanael's room.  It was so sad to make them clean it up!

Eva and I road our bikes along our stream to the McDs near Draschepark.  We had a wonderful ride, and it was fun to order and eat McDs outside.  (Restaurants opened on Friday!)  After finishing her french fries, Eva looked at me earnestly and said, "I feel like I'm dreaming this." :)