Mother's Day

I LOVE Mother's Day...it is a day just 10 years ago that I was not quite sure I would get to celebrate for myself.  But, God had some fantastic behind-the-scenes plans cooking I guess!  Thank goodness His plans are always better than ours!  So, 8 1/2 years ago I became Caleb's mommy...what a day!  I will never forget my first Mother's Day eight years ago and have cherished every one ever since!  Especially now that I get to celebrate that special day with two very special little guys in my life! 

So, this year was a bit different than the last five...I spent Mother's Day with just one of my sons...Caleb!  We had some scheduling conflicts that brought Jon and Josh to a very special graduation celebration for Katrina on Mother's Day.  Caleb, on the other hand,  had his big Mother's Day Spring concert that he and his group have been practicing for since January.  It was his only performance, so it was important to attend.  So...Jon and I had a little pow-wow and we decided to "divide & concur" to cover all those important events! 

Caleb's concert was at a beautiful church downtown.   This is his director...Mr. Bossman.

This was their first song and his group (in the sweaters)  was combined with the Concert Choir (in the vests).  This is a link to that song! Singing_Boys_Annual_Concert

After the concert...which I totally enjoyed by the way...we decided to go for a beautiful nature walk, just like Caleb's  lovely Mother's Day card said!  We brought clothes to change into, but I forgot my tennis shoes!  So, I hiked around with my sparkly flip-flops!  Oh well!

It was a lovely day and Caleb stole my heart when he declared, "Mommy, this is waayyy better than watching TV!"  Wow, THAT was a gift right there!  We really took our time and just took everything in...big and small!

We stopped at this little spot and took a break...my flop-flop feet were needing it!  We noticed a little lady bug walking around and talked all about how the world must seem so big to that little bug.  Caleb had all sorts of thoughts on the subject.  We also talked about how big the world is with all it's opportunities for a little guy like Caleb.    I thought to myself, "just cherish that my little boy can have fun walking with his mom, talking about lady bugs...these day's won't last forever (although I hope they will!"

We drove home after dinner and saw a hot air balloon overhead.  This is fairly common over our neighborhood (hot air ballooning is quite popular in SF apparently) but what made it unusual and fun was that they were traveling fairly low and they were talking to us!  Caleb ran along and followed them for a bit!

Later that evening, my other little miracle joined us after a long drive from the farm.. 

These two little guys complete me...

La Fiesta

Caleb had his annual Le Fiesta Spanish Immersion program &  fundraiser the end of April!  He has been so excited to perform!  The immersion program is growing, so each class only performed once, otherwise the program would have easily been over 2 hours long!  This year his class danced the tango.  Pretty amazing to see those kids do so well.  They had an extra challenge because their teacher was on maternity leave until the beginning of April, so they didn't get much time to practice their number.

Lots of kids there and lots of talent too!  It was so fun to see all of them perform.  The picture below is of all the current teachers.  All are native speaking and all are from Columbia (except the 3rd grade teacher in blue).  Caleb's kindergarten teacher was Sr. Giraldo, his 1st grade teacher was Sra. Calderon (in the middle in red) and his current teacher is Sra. Arias (also in red with the flower).  They are all great teachers and so passionate about what they do.  They also build fantastic relationships with the kids...they all love them!

Be sure to watch a rehearsal video on the next post!

Fiesta Rehearsal Video...

This little video was taken at the rehearsal.  Caleb commented that he looked at his feet to much and he wasn't going to do that on the "real" night!  Enjoy!

Don't forget to pause the music player at the end of the blog so you don't hear the video and my music at the same time

Gpa & Gma Fisher Visit!

The boys have been anticipating a visit from their Grandpa & Grandma Fisher for some time...and they were FINALLY here!!

We had fun at home drawing, playing games and racing cars!

 

Grandpa Bill drew a picture of the boys...how cool!

We also enjoyed a backyard fire with smores' in our new fire pit!

I think we were a bit sugared up on smores' and we got the idea to have timed races around the house...I don't think I have seen my dad run that fast in a long time :)   Looks like mom thought it was pretty funny too :)

We visited several parks around the area.  This was an old restored barn that we ran across at Arrowhead Park.  It was an old farm at one time and the owners wanted to to become a waterfowl wildlife preserve after they were gone.  This is only about 5 minutes from our house!

The boys always enjoy feeding the geese here.

We also visited a local greenhouse to research the kind of soil we should use for our raised garden and we looked at some succulents.  I would love to put together a little tabletop succulent garden someday!

I decided to take mom & dad to another favorite spot of ours.  The Outdoor Campus is a great place to explore and play.  They also offer lots of free outdoor education classes for kids.

We saw some turtles and these geese that enjoyed playing follow the leader with Josh!

We thought we would take mom and dad to a nearby camping/recreation area.   The Big Sioux Recreation Area is about 20 minutes away.  We love to picnic here and take Jessie along for some frisbee!

We found this neat old house from the 1800's...very interesting how well it has stayed together. 

There are lots of trails here to explore...

The boys love this suspended bridge.  They get a kick out of jumping on it and scaring mom half to death!

 

They also have this archery range...Jon hopes to come here when he gets his bow someday!

We were off to the Miller farm for the weekend.  We have not had my parents and Jon's parents together for several years, so we were overdue for a get together!  Dad also had the opportunity to share a sermon and a missions update with the Redfield church!

But first, we had to get in a little target practice!

Mom even took a turn!

Caleb thought it was a little loud I guess!

Then we were off for a little spin in the Corvette (or Blue McQueen as Josh has named him!)  Swing rides are also always a must at the farm!

Caleb even got to sing a solo at church...such a treat!

There is no end to the things to explore right in our backyard!  We took mom and dad to Garretson and Palisades State Park.  Garretson was an interesting stop to see the place where Jessie James took a famous jump across a canyon to get away from the local sheriff.  I think that is how the story goes!?!  It is also a pretty area to hike and we even came across a pretty decent sized waterfall for this side of the state!

I think my love for taking pictures is rubbing off on my youngest??   :)  I let him carry around my old camera and he had a great time clicking away!

This is Palisades State Park.  The boys love all the neat rock formations and areas to hike and play in the water.  Jessie likes it here too. 

Whew...we were busy exploring...here we are back at home and near the end of our visit!

We took one last outing to a western store and park before saying good-bye!  We loved having you two...come back again soon and we can find some new adventures!