Spring Break

 Spring break is currently still going on, but we squeezed all of our exciting stuff into the first four days. Saturday morning we dropped Sadie off at the boarder (which she loves) and drove to Zionsville to see Nana and Papa. Nana spoiled us with fun snacks while we watched March Madness, hung out, and played games. 

On Monday morning, Scott, Micah and I got up early to drive to Wheaton College for a campus tour. Nana and Papa wanted to see Wheaton as well, so they brought Matthew and Hannah a couple of hours later. They joined us for a chapel service and lunch. 

The original plan was that we were going to drive home on Monday afternoon. However, earlier in the week Scott's boss apologetically asked, "Is there any way you can fly to Chicago for a meeting on Monday?" Scott laughed and told him he was basically going to be in Chicago already on Monday. It was a win-win: Scott was able to uber in to the city for his meeting, and we got a little bit of sight-seeing time (with a hotel room paid for by work). 

The kids and I did an escape room near Wheaton to kill some time, then found some great deals at a Nike Factory Outlet. 

Micah wanted to practice city driving, so he drove us to our hotel in downtown Chicago. Amazingly, Scott finished up his meeting and arrived at the hotel at the exact same time as us! We walked around the city, including "the bean" at Millennium Park and some deep dish pizza for Scott. 

That's our reflection in the middle of the bean.

Hannah attempting to click her heels

Tuesday morning we made a stop at Stan's Donuts to get "cruffins" and some coffee for the road.

Thankfully, this trip to Chicago did not involve the emergency room, flash floods, or the jaws of life like our trip two years ago.  We made it home in time to shower and make some dinner before Hannah and I joined Gramme to see "Come From Away". The rest of the week will be much slower paced - sleeping in, playing pickleball in the driveway, watching March Madness, a few sports practices, and enjoying our last calm weekend before the chaos of April begins...

Talent Show

 Cornerstone's talent show is my favorite school event all year. Even when my own kids aren't in it, I still attend to enjoy the wide variety of actual talent, creativity, and complete disasters. Matthew went out big for his last year! He and three of his friends did a silly skit they titled "Spell Dat Word". What makes me so proud is that they did the entire thing with absolutely no help! They wrote the whole script, coordinated a time to practice, created costumes, and included both funny jokes and physical comedy. Pretty impressive for a bunch of 11-year-old boys!

Here's a link, if you want to watch it.

 Characters "Dem Flowers", "Dust", and "Bill Dollar"

For the past few years, Dr. Smith has closed out the show with a surprise act, and this year he invited Matthew to be a part of it. He told Matthew the basic idea, but part of the fun is that they don't practice it ahead of time - they just wing it. In the program, it was listed as "Matthew Gurley - Can You Feel the Love Tonight". Some of his classmates suspected that something was up, but most people were just surprised that Matthew was singing a solo.

If you want to watch the whole performance, here's a link. 

The cliff notes version is that Matthew came on stage looking pretty nerdy and lip-synced to a pre-recorded terrible version of Dr. Smith singing the beginning of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". After about 30 seconds, the show hosts kicked Matthew off the stage. Then there's several seconds of the student body chanting "show us! show us!", because they wanted to know what was going on behind the curtain. When the curtain opened, Dr. Smith and a couple other faculty members rocked out, to the delight of the student body. Then for the last refrain, Matthew came back on stage - looking much cooler this time - and finished the song alone, surrounded by smoke. 

What a fun way to end our last talent show at Cornerstone and the last day before spring break!

Party Planner

 Hannah has found her new calling as a party planner. Last weekend she hosted a surprise birthday party for one of her friends. All the girls chipped in, but Hannah and her friend Maria did the majority of the work. They planned a poker and movie night theme, complete with food, decorations, and activities. Their friend was definitely surprised, and it seemed like everyone had a great time. 

a popcorn bar for movie snacks

sugar cookies decorated as poker chips, cupcakes with poker chips on top, and chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries

Matthew on Stage

 There were two huge events for Matthew last week!

The first was on Wednesday. He got to leave school at lunch time, change into his basketball uniform, and drive to Cleveland with Scott. All of Tallmadge's travel boys teams (grades 3-6) met at the Cav's arena. After they got their special access badges, they were able to shoot around on the game floor!

both 5th grade teams

Then they had a free throw contest. (Each team chose one representative for the contest. A third grader won!) Then each of the teams got a chance to scrimmage. The third and fourth grade teams played against each other. The two fifth grade teams decided to mix their teams up to make it a little more fun. Matthew's team lost by one point. Then the two sixth grade teams played each other. 

sitting on the visitor's bench

Matthew made a free throw during their scrimmage. When a Cavs player missed a shot on the same hoop later that night, Matthew said, "Even I can make that shot!"  

Everyone had to leave the building after the sixth grade game. Scott and Matthew got some pizza across the street with a couple of other families. Then they went back to see the Cavs beat Miami and clinch their spot in the playoffs.

The second big event of the week was the All School Unit performance. ASU is when the entire school does the same unit of study for 4-6 weeks, then does a culminating show at the end to demonstrate what they learned. They've done topics like the tabernacle, stewardship, Asia, and the Olympics. This year's theme was entrepreneurship. Matthew got to have one of the leading roles! He and two of his classmates acted out a storyline between each of the class performances to tie the show together. The idea was that Matthew was showing two old friends around town and they were learning lessons from each business to help them start their own company.

Cornerstone has outgrown the venues we've used in previous years, so this year it was at the Chapel. The students spent the whole school day at the Chapel practicing. Since our church building is a gigantic maze, I offered to spend the day with them. I spent all morning walking all over the church (I had 14,939 steps by the end of the day!), showing people how to get from one place to another, supervising children, and finding whatever was needed. 

They didn't need as much help in the afternoon, so I got to watch most of the dress rehearsal. It was so fun to get a sneak peak! Here are a few videos:

Matthew has a broom on the back right

One of their speaking parts

The fifth grade dance

The first song had some older students dancing on stage and the rest of the school dancing up and down the aisles. 

getting their final instructions from Dr. Smith

It also happened to be my birthday, so Gramme met us at home that afternoon and made dinner and chocolate pie for us before heading back to church for the performance. I didn't take many pictures in the evening; I was just enjoying the show. 

getting mic'd up

Scott caught Matthew dancing along with the younger kids.  

Matthew really gave 100% to the whole performance - acting, singing, and dancing. We were so proud of him and really enjoyed watching him shine. Our last All School Unit is complete!

fro-yo at sweet frog afterward, of course

The Lull

 Matthew's travel team finished their season last weekend. They made huge improvements from last year and continued to get better all year long. In youth sports, finding a good coach is a treasure. This team has three wonderful coaches and a great group of boys. I'm so thankful!

Some highlights of the season: making it to the championship game in three different tournaments, Matthew making a 3-pointer (as well as a foul shot and a few 2-pointers throughout the season), the team's impressive self-control when faced with poor sportsmanship from the other team, and Matthew's improvements in speed and defense.

Video foul shot

What they lacked in height, they made up for in hustle. If there was a loose ball, you could guarantee that multiple Tallmadge boys would be throwing themselves on the ground to get it. Their games always had lots of jump balls and steals, because they took every opportunity to grab the ball. 

Matthew was often tasked with guarding the biggest kid on the other team. 

The team has one more event together - a scrimmage at the Cav's arena! On Wednesday, all of the boys travel teams from Tallmadge get to shoot around and scrimmage each other on the game floor at the Rocket Arena. Then they'll see the Cavs play the Miami Heat that evening. They can't wait!

So now we have a lull - there are NO sports competitions for the entire month of March! I mean, sure, Micah and Hannah have track practice every day. And Matthew is doing strength and conditioning with his football buddies twice a week. But soccer games and track meets don't start until April! 

We used our first free weekend in March to go skiing with the Oysters. 

Matthew stayed with me the whole time. He was cautious at the beginning (understandably, since the conditions were very icy), but by the end of the day I had to work to keep up with him. There was a jumping competition on one of the hills, so the other kids stopped halfway down a run to watch for a while. This picture was as Matthew and I went over them on the ski lift.