We got back to town on Mother’s Day in time to catch brunch at one of our favorite restaurants in a neighboring town. It was challenging to peel JoJo off me to eat since she really missed us while we were gone and seemed to think that the only way to keep us close was by sitting on us through brunch.

A few weeks ago, Leann started feeling ill and ended up in the ER for an emergency surgery. They found a malignant tumor on her ovary that had exploded causing a lot of internal bleeding. A couple weeks after that, she underwent a CT scan and again begin to feel ill. On Sunday she was admitted into the hospital again and a second surgery was moved up from May to this week. That surgery was a huge success, which we are so thankful for! The next step is for Leann to recover and undergo chemo treatments as soon as possible.

Because Leann was such an integral part of our lives, I feel like our daily lives have been turned upside down. Izzy especially asks about Miss Leann almost every night, wondering if “Miss Leann’s belly feels better yet?” I took pictures of Leann shaving her head in preparation for chemo and showed them to Izzy. She’s not too fond of Miss Leann’s new look. Leann misses the girls and the girls miss her, but we know that God is in control and that He is bigger than cancer! We’re going to continue praying for Leann, please join us.

Her parents are keeping this website updated with the latest news: http://www.caringbridge.com/visit/leannludlow

These eggs are filled with things like a toy donkey, three silver coins, a crown of thorns, linen, a cross, and a rock. The last of the eggs is empty which symbolizes the empty tomb. All these items tell the story of Easter starting with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and ending with his resurrection. It’s really the perfect way to tie together the secular version of Easter with the real reason of Easter.

If you do the Resurrection Eggs, I would suggest that you buy yourself a book that will help tell the story and keep your child engaged. I bought “Benjamin’s Box” to go along with our eggs. It’s a little long, but it tells the Easter story from the eyes of a young boy. I plan on breaking these things out on Sunday during our Easter gathering with friends and also make some Resurrection Rolls with the kids.

Resurrection Rolls are made with a marshmallow (symbolizing the body of Christ) dipped in butter then cinnamon and sugar (body anointed with oil and herbs) and wrapped in a croissant dough (the tomb). When the bread is baked (referring to the three days), then removed from the oven, the inside marshmallow (ie. body of Christ) is gone! What a great visual lesson for kids. I’m super duper excited about doing this on Sunday!

Then, we started hearing stories about what public high schools are really like from our babysitters. We started to get concerned especially since we have two beautiful girls. And then we watched a documentary called “Waiting for Superman”. If you watch this documentary it goes into the issues that a lot of public schools in the United States face and explains the difference between public and charter schools.

After we watched that documentary, we started researching how the two charter schools in town compared to our public schools kinda casually. Then as school enrollment drew closer, we poured ourselves into exploring ALL our school options. We toured the charter schools, talked to parents with kids at public and charter schools, toured the two Christian schools in town, and researched everything we could. At the end though, there’s only so much exploring and researching one can do.

Here are the main points that I came out with. Some higher quality public schools are perfectly fine if you are not able to get into a charter school or pay for private education. If you are an extremely involved parent, you can bring change to your public school. Charter schools typically have a more rigorous academic program, but lack in extra-cirriculars. It’s also a complete toss-up whether you get into the public charter school since admittance is based on a lottery drawing. If you want to end up at charter school, your best chance is to get in at the youngest grade offered. There may be less spots open in the upper levels. Some parents sign up for the lottery list when their child is born so the just don’t have to think about it later! Currently both of our town’s charter schools have a lottery list of over 200 students with only 30ish open spots for kindergarten.

Private schools are expensive. The quality of education is usually on par with charter schools although some are a little lower. Christian schools, however, can start to feel like a bubble if you’re not intentional of getting your child interacting with others outside of school and church. But since all parents must be professing Christians to send their kids there, I would hope that it would limit unsavory exposure to things that do not line up with our moral, ethical and religious views.

Then there’s homeschooling, which is a great option that some parents can do well. But for Izzy, we’ve noticed that she pays attention and learns better from someone other than us. She also craves that social interaction with her friends at school. Plus I don’t trust myself to do a good enough job in teaching her!!

So after a couple months of research we’ve finally settled on our education plan (for now). Izzy is going to attend a small Christian school next year for Pre-K. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that her name will get drawn for either of the two charter schools in town but really are hoping for the one charter school that was rated as one of the best high schools in Colorado by US News. If Izzy gets into a charter school JoJo will be able to get in to that same school without a problem. If Izzy does not get into a charter school we’ll either keep both girls in a Christian school for as long as we can.

Here’s the thing though, because our girls are 28 months apart, that means that even though Izzy has left the terrible twos and horrible threes, JoJo is now just entering those really hard years. Her favorite word for the last couple weeks is “NO” and she communicates her frustrations with screeches and stomps her little feet. It seems like every single little thing can set her off into a teary breakdown or tantrum.

Bottom line, I’m anticipating a total of 4 long years of dealing with a two/three year old. I’m bracing myself for these next two years, and grateful that there are no more kids on the way for us!

The theme of Hannah’s shower was bow ties and mustaches. Dara and I made the shower invites. I helped Dara make the sugar cookies and she decorated them and did the ‘stache pops. Amber made tea sandwiches. Robin and Amber made the adorable top hats. Robin made the garland decor and cupcakes. The games and photo area were Amber’s brain child. Kayt and Katie brought cold drinks, and pitched in with decorative balloons and table cloths. I brought some random finger foods and bow tie pasta salad.

Overall success! Thanks to Hannah, for giving us a reason to throw a party and celebrate!!

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Bear completed we headed to the Dairy Queen drive through to pick up the Blizzard cake and brought it into the office where the girls gave Luke Soccer Sammy Bear and had a slice of cake. Later that night, we had a family dinner out.

Last weekend, we filled our van Luke’s friends and headed up to the mountains for a day of snowboarding. We met up with his friends wives (and my friends) for dinner where Luke had to wear a sombrero while we all sang happy birthday. Thus completed his birthday celebration. Happy 35th Luker! You are well loved!

When JoJo was a few months old, I also bought her a lovey. I bought two identical loveys. It’s also pink, but her’s has a bunny head on it. She calls it “bunny”, appropriate right? JoJo LOVES her bunny. She goes everywhere with bunny. If JoJo is crying, bunny makes all things better. About six months ago we lost one of her bunnies. It was a small disaster, but I took JoJo to Target to try to find that same bunny again. The bunny was discontinued, so she picked out a replacement “bunny”. A pink blanket with a giraffe head. It sufficed but she wasn’t crazy about it.

Skip ahead to last week. Tuesday afternoon. Her one and only, favorite bunny is missing. I couldn’t remember if bunny went to school that morning, but bunny didn’t come home that day. JoJo was a mess that evening, so I got online determined to find that exact bunny. I did. On Amazon. For $41… After picking my jaw up off the ground, I kept searching and found a handful on eBay. I promptly purchased two, for double what I originally paid for bunny.

Wednesday, we scoured the school for bunny and couldn’t find it. Thursday, my babysitter reminds me to look IN the school toys because JoJo likes to hide bunny. Lo and behold bunny is IN a toy at school. JoJo is reunited with bunny and is ecstatic. However, bunny needs a bath because it hasn’t been washed in weeks. So JoJo suffers through another night without bunny.

Today, two packages come in the mail. The eBay bunnies have arrived!! I give JoJo a bright white, clean bunny; confiscate old dirty bunny to run through the wash, and store the second new bunny away in a closet. As long as I can keep track of the bunnies, all will be okay. Fingers crossed!