Nursery

Willow has outgrown Sunday School at our church so she had a few options...attend the service, switch to the 11:00 service, or volunteer in a class. I work in the 1s class twice a month so she started with me, then ended up being asked to help in the Kindergarten class the other two weeks. She's loved it! It's been sweet to see her interact with the kids! She's learning to hold a variety of sizes of kiddos too, which is also good :)

 

Choir Concert and School Dance

Willow was able to have a normal choir concert (a first for us due to COVID) with 6th and 7th grades and no capacity limitations. Again, her director was very complimentary of their 7th grade choir and even took them to evaluations a few months ago where they earned Superior ratings! They did a great job!

Videos titled "Choir 7" include Willow and can be found here. (#4-8)

Willow has a big fan club!

As things s t a r t  to get closer to back to pre-COVID "normal," her middle school had a spring dance. She invited a couple friends over so they could arrive together. They had a great time!

We love seeing that smile!

Soccer

Willow enjoyed being part of the school soccer team this year. She'd done conditioning during the winter...even on cold days! She played left midfield most of the season, which was a new position to her. At points she was frustrated with her playing time, but always got to play the 10 extra minutes at the end of the game. They ended the season with a 6W-5T-3L record. Unfortunately Willow took a ball to the forehead in a game and ended up with a concussion and missed the last 4 games. She's excited to try out again next year though!

She had a big fan base at every game!

Check out this girl's toss in flip!!

Her glasses didn't break but made the impact to her face worse. 

Highlight video of her season!

Random Pictures

Willow was invited to see a local hockey game with friends. I always love when I'm sent pictures while she's gone!

We went to watch the middle school girls' basketball game and she abandoned me for her friends ;)

This 2,000 piece puzzle took me about 2 years. I was encouraged by those around me to throw in the towel but I refused. There were moments when I couldn't even look at it, or would sit down and barely get 5 pieces placed. I was closest to quitting when Whiskers was laying on it and when I went to move her, she grabbed in with her claws and messed up about 20 pieces, which nearly felt like the end of the world at the time. :) I think it was a reflection of the mental capacity I had remaining during my year of virtual teaching. I was happy to pass this one on to my principal to do next!

We got a couple Lego puzzles for Christmas and it made me soooooo happy when the kids were interested in helping AND helped on multiple occasions. Owen was even excited to do one of his Pokemon puzzles after these, as well as a cat yoga puzzle we're currently doing. 

Owen grew out of the baskets he'd been using for his clothes. We took the opportunity for him to help put together his chest of drawers. 

The sweetest surprise message on Pinterest from a high school friend:

We loved watching the Winter Olympics!!

Willow enjoyed getting to present her Science Fair project in the county-wide fair!

I was honored to be nominated for Teacher of the Year by my principal!

The boys will be boys...

The cousins had a sleepover with Nana and Grandpa and we got this text from Willow on Nana's phone. They'd been talking in History class about Russia's invasion of Ukraine that day. It's tough not being able to shelter her from all the *&#$^*#& in the world!

I found a time capsule kit that we filled out on 2-22-22 to be opened on 3-3-33. Who thinks we'll remember?????

I attended a reading conference in Washington DC and was excited to run into these former colleagues!

We took the train so we just had a backpack of clothes for the weekend. Go figure I won a doorprize that was bigger than my backpack!! Thankfully one of the vendors was giving out good-sized bags and I was able to snag one to get them home!

All loaded down for the train ride home with a few hours to hang out at the mall and take in the cherry blossoms!

I couldn't resist recreating Owen's picture from the last time we were in DC:

We had him hold his hand like this for the Washington Monument, then he did that for the rest of our pictures on that trip ;)

We found a building designed by IM Pei, which we have a book about at school. It'll be nice to show the students next time we read it!

We enjoyed a quick visit with Jan and Barb!

Owen's school read "Matilda" and Owen often wanted to read the chapter to us! He even volunteered to read it to his class a few times. I love his confidence!!

Basketball

Willow had one of her best rec basketball seasons! She took her frustration from being cut from the school team and practiced more on her own than she ever has! She even took Chris' and my advice throughout the season better than usual :) 

On our way to her first game, I casually asked her if she was the tallest one on her team. She said yes, so I warned her that she may be doing the tipoff of her games. Lo and behold, she did the tipoff for every game of their season! She played post and did a great job of getting offensive and defensive rebounds - some leading to dribbling or passing down the court, and some leading to easy shots under the basket. She ranged from 4-18 points per game. We loved seeing her confidence in that position! Her team had an undefeated season and her coaches had great things to say about her effort and coachability throughout the season!

It's tough playing against friends! Her friend has the ball and another friend is behind her.

She always had a big cheering section!

Willow's friend on the other team got knocked in the face by an elbow. The next thing we knew, she was over on their sideline to make sure she was ok. 

 

Check out this video of her highlights!