Rain Rain Go Away

We are wondering if warm weather would ever come.  There was a little tease of it on Thursday and Friday when we had a rummage sale at our house.  On Thursday, after 2 1/2 hours of rain, it finally warmed up to 68 degrees.  On Friday, we were blessed with 80 degrees. I was completely amazed at how many people were out rummaging before 8am.  My friend, Stacy, and I planned on opening our sale at 8am and ended up having about 25 people show up to buy stuff starting at 7:15am.  I do feel blessed that we got rid of 2/3 of our stuff despite the rain.  

Friday evening was Ben and Cami's musical for K-3rd grade.  They sang songs and danced about being FIT and eating healthy.  Preschool performed during the intermission.

                                   

Justin ran the Crazylegs race on Saturday, placing 20th in his age group.  Over 17,000 runners came out in the pouring rain to run this year.  After the race, Dana and Ian picked him up and headed to his work so he could shower and change.  We then picked up the kids at Korean class and headed to Delavan to celebrate the baptism of Dana's cousin's youngest son.  We enjoyed the time with family and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins.

Sunday is filled with another race for Justin, this time the Bear Trax 20K then to the Voter's meeting at church.  

We are thankful for time together as a family this weekend.  It seems that time goes by too fast and it is nice to take time away from the everyday craziness in order to slow down and connect with the kids and with each other. 

Titanic

We had yet another busy weekend at the Marthaler house.  We spent Saturday cleaning up the house and taking the kids to their Korean language class.  Justin enjoyed a nice long run.  In the afternoon, Justin and Cami headed out for a father/ daughter date.  Cami was convinced that girls did not play sports, so Justin took her to a Girls softball game.  The UW Badger women played against Ohio State.  Being the girly girl that she is, Cami told Justin that she was cheering for the red team (Ohio State was red, UW was white) because they looked more beautiful.  It is good to know that she is learning that one can be athletic AND be beautiful.  We love our sweet and innocent little princess.On Saturday night, we headed to Door Creek church to attend their FamJam service.  It is a service where families can learn about a virtue together.  The kids in their Sunday school learn a virtue every week and then once a month the families come together to learn more and talk about the virtue.  We enjoyed the service and met some great people. They even gave us a babysitting directory.

On Sunday morning we headed to Milwaukee to go to the Museum.  They are featuring a Titanic exhibit.  Dana's Aunt Pam is a member of the museum, so she was able to get discounted tickets for us.  Ben has been reading about the Titanic from books he has taken out from the library.  He became interested in it after seeing a show on the History channel a while back.  All of the kids enjoyed the exhibit, especially the ice berg that they could touch...brrrr

We ate our lunch that we packed for the trip to give us a chance to recharge and then headed to the butterfly exhibit. The kids were able to see and touch real butterflies.  The kids were pretty tired after that, so we looked at a few other areas before ending in the Streets of Old Milwaukee.  Ben and Cami both asked if we could go back. Ben stated that he would prefer a trip there WITHOUT his siblings so that he could read more and see more.  I guess he realizes that they are young and their attention spans are not as long as his.  

On our way home, we stopped off at the Webers house for dinner.  The kids were able to play and the adults were able to talk and catch up.  Thankfully on our way from the museum to their house, all the kids took a nap.  It made for a much happier visit.  After a long day and a delicious dinner ,we headed for home.  

Before bed, Ian had a bit of a fever which carried into Monday.  After several phone calls to the nurse due to high temperature throughout the day (100, 103, and finally 104), Dana took him in to see the doctor.  Thankfully he is getting better from the medication for a double ear infection. 

Tonight we were able to have a dinner out with our Christ Care Small Group (bible study) at Benvenutos restaurant.  We just ended a 12 week Financial Peace course at our church and got together to plan out the next topics of our bible study.  Our neighbor (soon to be former neighbor as they just sold their house) offered to babysit for us so we could go out kid free.  Everyone had a great time!

We now look forward to another busy week, including Thursday event of Town Hall For Hope LIVE with Dave Ramsey.  It is being broadcast LIVE nationwide at 7pm CST.  Check out www.townhallforhope.com if you are interested in attending this free event.

Easter

"I wonder if anyone is watching"

Ben and Cami ready for Easter service.

Ben found his easter basket

Cami found her basket

Ian was happy to dig into his treats.

Family picture in front of church

Kids in front of church. Yes, Ian is sound asleep.

We look forward to Easter as it is a time of renewal as we celebrate our risen Lord. The kids have enjoyed learning about Jesus resurrection in school.  When asked if they were excited about Easter and the easter bunny, Ben responded with "it is when we celebrate Jesus being raised from the dead".  It brings joy to our heart that he is learning about his Lord and Savior.

We seem to be plagued with illness this year, however, we made it a little over 2 weeks without anything until Easter weekend.  Ben and Ian both developed a cold.  Ian spent a few nights having trouble sleeping due to coughing and congestion.  We were disappointed to miss the Kenyon family Easter in Lake Geneva on Saturday because of lack of sleep and illness.  

We awoke Easter morning bright and early as the kids were excited to go on the hunt for their baskets.  The kids were excited to find their treasures of treats and toys.  We left for church and enjoyed a nice service.  It is unfortunate that church can't be that full every Sunday.  Ian fell asleep toward the end of the service (as seen in the pictures above).  

We pray that you all had a blessed Easter and were able to celebrate Jesus resurrection! 

Birthday party for Ben

Ben and his cake

Ben's Star Wars birthday cake.

Yvonne and the kids watching the start of the movie.

The kids are ready for the movie!

Morgan and Ben

Ian trying on Ben's Star Wars mask

Cami is proud of the present that she got Ben.

The kids had fun playing outside on the play system.

Ben liked the present Zach got him!

Cami and Morgan didn't mind being the only girls at the party.

Kobe, Ben, and Caleb waiting for their food.

It was a fun, yet busy day. The kids got pjs on and watched the Star Wars movie.

The kids collected over 200 eggs between them.

Caleb, Ben, Cami, and Jared showing off their bags of eggs.

The kids ran around collecting the eggs from the lawn, trees, and sidewalk.

Posing with the Easter bunny.

Another busy week for the Marthaler family.  Who knew that being unemployed I would actually become MORE busy instead of less.  

On Friday we had an early birthday party for Ben.  His birthday is April 14, but since that is right after Easter, we decided to have it a little early.  Ben invited 8 friends to come to the house for pizza, then to the movie theater to see Monster Vs. Aliens 3D, then back to the house for cake and ice cream and opening presents.  The kids also enjoyed time outside in the backyard playing on the play system while they waited for their parents to pick them up.  It is a good feeling to see a smile on your child's face after a party and they keep telling everyone how 'awesome' it was.  Since Jared and Caleb came from Milwaukee, Ben had invited them to spend the night.  He always enjoys spending time with both of them, so after his other friends were picked up, the boys got pjs on and played with Ben's new toys and then watched part of the Star Wars movie.

Saturday morning came very early as the boys and Cami were up very late.  Jason Weber and Justin spent the morning with Ian playing Frisbee golfing.  For those that are unfamiliar with this sport, it is actually quite fun and we would love to take you frisbee golfing sometime.  I took the four older kids to Easter for Families at St. Paul.  The kids always enjoy this event as they get to do crafts, dye easter eggs, meet the Easter bunny, go on an easter egg hunt, hear the REAL Easter story, and collect a HUGE bag of candy.  This year they concluded with giving away 8 bikes. For the Preschool Girls age group, they called Cami's name.  Cami was so excited!  

We returned home to show Justin and Jason our bags of stuff (crafts, dyed easter eggs, candy, etc) and Cami's new bike.  We enjoyed some lunch and then had to say good bye to Caleb and Jared and Jason.  

We look forward to church on Sunday where the kids will participate in the Easter Cantata and then hopefully the family will have a nice long afternoon nap!