Days With the Duerksens

How many times can a 9 year old celebrate her birthday?  It turns out the answer is 4 - this year anyway! At school:  I happened to be subbing in her class the day she celebrated - that worked out well! Happy Birthday dance party With Church Birthday Buddies: Lunch with Alma and Lois - May 26 birthdays  With Family at Home: With Friends: Whew - that's a lot of celebrating!  At 9 years old, Cambry loves playing with her sister, enjoys helping Mom with things (especially in the kitchen), is trying softball for the first time, is mowing for the first time, is still creating and crafting, and loves origami.   We love you, Cambry, and were so happy to celebrate you each and every time!

Cambry's birthday is tomorrow, but she's already celebrated her birthday 3 times!  One of those times was with a birthday party at our house with some of her friends from school.  We don't do birthday parties very often, so she was really, really looking forward to this!  Luckily, I hadn't planned for them to do anything outside because it rained the entire time they were here! She sent out owl invitations, so that was the theme we went with for her cupcakes. I also led them through making clay owl charms to put on a necklace.  I don't know if any of the girls will ever wear them, but they had fun making them! The kittens were quite a hit - they may have made it down into the basement (but don't tell Chelan that).  Any chance the girls had to play usually involved the kittens! I am thankful that Cambry has such sweet friends in her class.  And we are glad some of them could come and celebrate Cambry!

Just as Caiden moves on into middle school, two of his cousins are moving on to high school!  We had fun attending Cale's and Addi's 8th grade promotions last week.  Cale has almost 200 students in his class!  And Addi has almost 70 - both quite a bit larger than what we're used to!  After hearing all those names called, Cambry decided she's happy to have 20 in her class.  :) It's been neat to watch these kids grow up and develop their gifts and talents.  Addi is quite a swimmer, a creative and artistic genius, and a very easy-going, kind young lady!  And Cale, it seems, will try almost anything - from setting up and running his own snow cone business to designing and wiring up a sound system for Grandpa's mailbox.  He seems to have a knack for problem-solving!  Addison and Cale, we are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for in the next few years.  One thing is sure - great things are coming your way!  

If only the weather matched the door's message!  It's only 53 degrees outside for our first day of summer. . .

The last two days of school were very busy for Caiden.  On Monday, I went with him and his class to Kanopolis Lake to hike around in Horse Thief Canyon.  We had a great tour guide.  She showed us some of the edible plants around including:  yucca petals (did not know they were edible), sandplum bushes, blackberry bushes, and black willow tree bark (used for aspirin).  We also got to hike up into a couple of caves.    Trying the yucca plant for the first time   We also went to the Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands.  There, they learned about the wetlands ecosystem and they also got a chance to dissect owl pellets.  Caiden didn't find very much in his besides a lot of jaw bones from little mice or rats.  Some of the students found up to 6 skulls in their owl pellet!  It was quite interesting!   I had never been to either place, so I was happy to have gone along! On the last day of school, Caiden's class ha...

What does a farmer do on a rainy Saturday?  He plays "The Farming Game" inside, of course!

For the 4th year in a row, Caiden competed in the Hesston Youth Track Meet.  This year, it was a GIGANTIC meet - around 350 kids!!  Caiden was competing with 6th graders this year, so we didn't know how he would do.  It was fun to watch him compete and to know that he was enjoying it.  I think he ended up 7th in long jump, 10th in the 100, and his 4x100 meter relay team did come in 5th out of 10 teams.  He was happy to get a ribbon for that - even if it was green!  Next year, we're hoping the girls might want to give it a try!

Delaney's last year of pre-school has come to an end, and with it, came the last day of the Kinder Haus Pre-School as well.  While pre-school will continue in Goessel, the location and the teachers will change after 36 years.  This was quite a monumental occasion!  We were happy that all three of our children got to have their grammy as a teacher as well as the owner, Gayle. Back to the field trip - they went to our neighbors' farm and got to experience peacock calls, donkey calls, llamas, baby chicks, bunnies, ponies - a whole host of animals.  I think they had a lot of fun on their last day. In a few short months, it's on to Kindergarten for Delaney!  Delaney and her friend Lydia The Last Kinder Haus Pre-School Class

Four years after transplanting these irises, they are finally beautiful!  The recent rains have helped them this spring.  We have definitely enjoyed their color!

With all the rain we've had recently, it was nice to see a rainbow - a double rainbow!