School Stuff

School spring pictures are here.

If you are great with details, you might notice Grace is wearing the same dress as in a previous school picture.  

The reason for this fashion faux pas?

This happens to be her only green dress.

Why is that important?  

Picture day was March 17th.

Who schedules picture day on St. Patrick's Day??

I wonder how many kids will be wearin' the green in the yearbook this year?

Grant took a good picture too.  

And yes.

The strips on his shirt are green.

Grace gave a presentation in class on her favorite state.

She picked Wyoming.

 

I think she has good taste.

My older scholars are working hard at school too.  Last Saturday they experienced one of the great rites of passage for all high schoolers.  They took the ACT.  Results in five weeks.  We are hoping for high enough scores to negate the need to repeat the test in the fall.  That might be a bit optimistic since they are taking it as sophomores this time.  We will see.

Baby K is doing well.  She is still a champion when it comes to being an easy baby.  We even took her on an impromptu road trip to Illinois to visit Grandparents and check on the farm last week.  She slept the entire way there and back.

Today has been a quiet day enjoying  the rainy weather and a chance to catch up on things at home.  Hope you are having a good weekend!

Career Possibilities?

Car detailing might not be a good option for grant. 

Customers might frown upon his feet planted on the hood of their vehicle. 

David didn't mind (too much) and I think grandpa would have been pleased to see a grandson washing his truck. 

Grant wrote this for school. Pretty good I thought. 

Grace's haiku styled poem for school. 

My cowgirl wrote a poem about horses. As if that surprises anyone. 

It says...

Snow piled six feet high

Snow flying behind horses

Shod hooves beating fast

Not much new here. Baby K is still here. Court date is set for next month. We have a few more weeks to go. He parents are counting down the days excitedly waiting to finally take her home. 

She's really changing!

She is much more alert and has really filled out the past three weeks. 

Grant's soccer team won their second game. Third one was rained out. 

Emily's team lost their first volleyball game. Another one tomorrow. I'll take pictures if she doesn't murder me for trying. 

Off to feed a baby!  Goodnight!

One Man's Junk.....IS Another Man's Treasure

After twenty plus years of marriage, it becomes difficult to buy any sort of gift for a spouse.

This was the dilemma David and I both found ourselves in when shopping for Christmas this past December.

Being the practical people we are, we overspent by a gazillion dollars and splurged on this pile of old barn lumber.

 

Not much to look at, I know.

But wait until you see what one very talented guy (not David) (sorry) was able to do with such an unpromising pile of salvaged wood.

The transformation was slow.  At times we were unsure if it would be done in time for NEXT Christmas!

 

But slowly things began to take shape.

 

 Something beautiful began to emerge from the sawdust and mess.

And now we have this beautiful trestle table sitting in our kitchen at the farm.

 

Well worth the wait I might add.

Merry Belated Christmas, David!

She's A Doll

She isn't actually mine so I am free to brag. 

This baby is a doll. 

She is an easy feeder, a good sleeper and hardly ever cries. 

She almost makes me want another. 

Then sanity regains control over sentiment and I remember the one hundred reasons I don't want to start over parenting another child. 

I love my job. And like the others that have come before her, Baby K has managed to steal forever another little piece of my heart. They might be in our home only a short time, but there is no doubt they will be in our hearts forever. 

Love you, Baby K!

Easter Surprise

Easter was busy this year. We were busy doing all the traditional Easter things...dyeing Easter eggs, eating candy, rocking a baby, celebrating the resurrection, changing diapers, eating candy, having an Easter egg hunt and eating more candy. 

The Easter Bunny brought us a special surprise a few days early. Baby K came to stay with us for a few weeks. 

She is just as sweet as she looks too. Her adoptive parents are visiting her as often as they can. And when they aren't able to love on her, there are many volunteers at the ZOO Iined up to take a turn snuggling with her. She does not lack for attention. 

In spite of all the baby loving going on here, life has carried on as normal.  We've been busy doing all of our normal things....you know.... Like drinking water from drainage ditches and watching movies in the car while wearing our swim goggles. 

Okay. So we aren't very good at doing "normal".  We are great at loving on babies. I think that makes us pretty okay. 

Even if we aren't normal. 

Happy Belated Easter!

Say what?

I think the words "Don't drink water from the drainage ditch!" just came out of David's mouth.

Guess who they were directed toward.

Good guess.

I think drainage ditch drinking takes top position on The Ten Grossest Things My Kid Ever Put In His Mouth list.  

The long standing winner had been the melted ice cream grant licked off the floor in Dairy Queen when he was a toddler.  

It still ranks a close second behind drainage ditch water drinking.

Eww.

We will be lucky if Grant survives to adulthood. 

Goodnight!

Lots to catch up on. Just not tonight!

It Finally Happened

I'm a soccer mom.

??.

. ssssarddd   ffaa

Grant is the first one from our family to play soccer.  

He loves it so far. I find that rather surprising since soccer requires so much running. I figured he would be done after the first practice. Not so. 

The other big surprise has been how much I enjoy watching him play. Let's be honest. I'm more the "anything indoors when it's this cold" mom.  Sadly my kids have never picked up on this little detail as they have continued to sign up for baseball and riding lessons through the years. 

The first soccer game ended in a tie. That is about as much commentary as I can offer. The only thing I know for sure about the sport is that a girl named Mia Hamm showed the world her sports bra when she won something really important. It's true. Check it out on the Internet. 

In other Shupe news, Emily is now playing volleyball with a local league. She surprised herself when she found out she liked playing on a team. Also, many thanks to our oldest daughter for picking a sport that takes place in a heated gym. 

Oh and look who crash landed his spaceship on my kitchen counter. 

He had a little help from his copilot, grant. 

These two make a funny pair. 

Grant spent an hour one day carrying squeak around in this tube feeding him lettuce and crackers. For the record, I think they were sharing snacks. I know hamsters can eat a lot but not all twenty crackers that disappeared.