THE EWELL FAMILY: April Happenings

First day of Preschool- take 2

We started a preschool co-op group with some friends at church for Sydney and a bunch of her other friends at the beginning of the year. By November it had fallen apart due to people moving, babies being born and just business of life. I was kind of bummed about it because I worry already about making sure Sydney gets the same opportunities that the other's have had. She does have a bit of the "middle child syndrome" Hayden is the first child so he get's a lot of attention that way, Rebecca makes sure she isn't forgotten about. She kind of demands attention. Luke is the baby so he gets attention, and I fear that Sydney gets neglected sometimes because she just goes happily on her way, generally not complaining too much. I tried to do my own preschool stuff with her, but it just didn't happen. Too often it would get put on the backburner and I'd realize I hadn't done any "learning" with her for the day. I was really worried about it, and trying to figure out what to do and I found a preschool very close to our home that was much cheaper than any other option. Preschools out here are just priced outrageously high, in my opinion. Jerry and I both felt it would be good to put her into the preschool, even if it was just the last 2 1/2 months. It was still very worth it and I have no regrets about it. It was at the Stratford Baptist Church, and she just LOVED it. I'm so glad we were able to do it for her. She fit right in from day one and made lots of friends.

Jump Rope for Heart

Ugh...Fundraisers. The kids school really pushed this fundraiser, and guilted the kids into raising as much money as possible. We figured ultimately it was for a good cause and the kids were really excited about it. Rebecca even wanted to make sure we were eating Cheerios for breakfast rather than sugar cereal because it was "heart healthy" The school makes a HUGE deal about it. A couple of the schools in the district met at the high school to do their jumping at night. I went and took pictures and helped out with the teams where I could. It was good for them, and they got nice and worn out jumping so hard.

Playing some cards during his down time

So while I was at the jump rope for heart with Hayden and Rebecca, Jerry had to run to the mall with Sydney and Luke to return some stuff. He had a much more eventful trip than planned for when our van (which we'd just spent $350+ a few weeks earlier to repair) started smoking on the freeway. It was lulling and not wanting to go anywhere. Jerry was extremely blessed to be able to take the closest exit, which was right by the mall. He stalled a couple times, the car was smoking, and overheating. He was getting looks from everyone I'm sure. Luckily enough he was able to at least get it down the hill into the mall parking lot. He went into the mall and waited for me to come. We called AAA and waited for them to come tow the van. As we waited and waited my phone battery was draining and the reception in the play place in the mall wasn't good and I missed the call from AAA. Then the mall was closing so we all waited, crammed into Jerry's little car. Kids were tired and hungry after jumping for the last 2 hours and our phones were about to die. Because of their missed call to us, and me calling back to give them Jerry's number to call instead of mine since my battery would be dead I'm pretty sure they lost our info. We waited for so long until we told them we'd leave the key in the car and they could tow it.
That lead to finding out it would be at least $1000 to fix one problem of the van to at least get the van to start. ($600 for just the part, and there was a chance the part might not even fix it completely) But there was a good chance that once that was fixed there would probably be other problems, but they couldn't know that until they could start it etc. What a pain. So we decided to say good bye to our ugly Kia. We have wanted a new van for a LONG time. But it was paid off and even though we wanted a van, we didn't want a payment. We always figured we'd drive it to the ground, and I guess we did. We got a whoppin' $300 for parts. I guess that helps with the new tires we got 3 months before it died, the repair a few weeks before it died, and the $70 in gas I put in the very morning that it died.
Then the fun car shopping began. It didn't take long for us to find the van we wanted at Carmax. We LOVE it! It's nice to have a vehicle that we aren't embarrassed to drive.

Spring Break

We stayed in town for Spring Break, and it was still kind of chilly, but we made the very most of it. We went out to eat at one of the kids' favorite restaurants one night, IHOP.

The Library has museum passes that you can check out. They only have a few and it's first come, first serve, but we've been lucky to be able to use the passes and number of times. My kids love going to the Children's Discovery Museum.

We got kites at Target one of the days of spring break and flew kites in the backyard. I love our yard.

And, I really can't remember what else we did on our break. This is why it's a good thing I'm getting caught up, right!

Easter

We had fun dying Easter eggs on Saturday night. It was almost forgotten, so it's a good thing we remembered right before bed.

Sydney wasn't quite feeling herself on Easter, just really tired and a slight cough, and Luke just wasn't going to do pictures so this is the best we could muster as far as a picture of all the kids together before church went. Luke fell asleep on the way home so getting a group shot after church didn't happen either.

Oh, this boy is so handsome!!

Such a pretty, silly girl. She was so funny during these pictures.

This poor, pretty thing, just wasn't feeling herself. She tried to give good smiles, but she just wanted to go inside and rest. She was feeling totally fine the next morning, just an odd day.