Days With the Duerksens

The Hesston High School track team hosted a youth track meet on Saturday.  Caiden participated last year, but this year there was much more competition!  He decided to do long jump, the 100M, 200M, and the 4x100 M relay.  The relay was a last minute thing, but they did an amazing job!  He got to run  with his friends Jacob and Timothy along with his friend/cousin, Ty.  He had so much fun, especially since his friends were there with him.  He finished 4th in the long jump, 2nd in the 100, 2nd in the 200, and the 4x100 relay got first place!  Way to go, kiddo! Lanes 1-4 in the 100M dash -- Caiden, Jacob, Timothy, Ty We thought we had Cambry convinced to run the 50M dash, but when she saw all the people, she decided watching and reading would be a better option!

Sunglasses! Happy cows in the green pastures! apple blossoms good water pressure after recent rains - what a blessing! new chickens - I think they are Barred Rock.  I hope they are enjoying their cleaned-up-side of the chicken barn! An early Mother's Day gift from Chelan!  Actually, this is 2 gifts - the cream separator was found during the chicken barn cleaning.  He cleaned it up and painted it.  Yesterday, he found this geranium arrangement - it's kind of like they are planted in a milk pail.  So clever! Planting with my girls! A new haircut for warmer weather!

Today is Cambry's first and last ballet recital.  She's decided that she doesn't want to do it again next year and I'm okay with that.  It doesn't seem to be "her thing."  However, recital time is such a special time that it makes me a little sad she won't get to experience it again.  I guess we'll see how Delaney likes it in a couple of years! Yesterday was dress rehearsal, so I got to take some pictures.  Cambry looks pretty good all spiffed up! Cambry and her friend, Summer - waiting for their turn checking something on her dress? I found this picture in my baby book - oh the memories! I was in 1st grade here - just like Cambry.   This little lady's class will be dancing the part of "David" from the Bible.

Caiden's third grade class has had a number of special days at school this year, including:  Grandparent's Day, Kansas Day, and most recently, Famous People Day.  He chose to research Muhammad Ali - and he really learned quite a bit about him.  Last Thursday, we went to school to hear their little presentations and see their projects.  His class was set up around the cafeteria, and I meandered my way through most of them.  Caiden really had fun with this one! "The Champ" Sharing his project with some 2nd graders! I guess Davy Crockett and Muhammad Ali didn't see eye-to-eye!

Chelan celebrated another birthday on Monday - well, we made sure he celebrated it!  He's not really into birthdays.  Since he claims he doesn't need gifts, I decided to feed him well!  Instead of a birthday cake, he got cream puffs.  For supper, we had grilled tri-tip.  Here's a background story on tri-tip: Every time we go to California (or nearly every time), we get served this cut of meat.  We had never heard of this before as it doesn't really seem to be found in Kansas.  We couldn't figure out why we can get it in California but not here - it's really tasty!  About a month ago, I was strolling around the grocery store and my eyes landed on a package of meat labeled "tri-tip!"  I immediately picked it up and kept it a surprise for Chelan's birthday.  It definitely lived up to our expectations! Happy Birthday, Chelan - you definitely are our rock in this family!  We love you! Cream puff aftermath!

My parents lost a very faithful companion this week.  Their Cocker Spaniel, Penny, died on Monday.  She was 12 years old and apparently had developed cancer in her stomach area.  It was sudden to all of us, but she was probably dealing with it for quite a while. She was always such a sweetheart, welcoming golfers to the golf course, Dad's companion to coffee in town, his shotgun rider on the golf cart.  We will all miss her, but my dad, especially, has lost a dear friend. Such a sweet puppy - I was ready to graduate from college when she joined the family.  I was so excited about her that I brought my roommates from Bethel to see her!

Way back in January, Caiden was working hard on designing and building an egg-drop container for the KU Engineering Expo.  This kind of project is right up his alley.  It turned out that they didn't get to go to KU because it was a snow-day.  Thankfully, the kids got to drop their creations last Friday at school to make up for it. There were about 10 entries - 5 from Goessel!  It was fun to watch, and Caiden actually placed 2nd.  Way to go, kiddo! Goessel Students Mrs. Sells dropped the eggs from 17 feet! It didn't break!