Happy Easter Sunday!

Usually we take our photos on Palm Sunday, but with Trent out of town and the fact that I hadn't bought Easter outfits just yet meant I had to wait until today to get the family photos I love to take! Fortunately the weather was nice enough to do just that! We had a great Easter. We went to a friend's home for dinner and enjoyed being together.

Enjoy the photos of the whole crew.

Saturday, Rain, and Softball

It rained last night and we awoke to find out that the city had closed all the softball fields. It is hard enough to reschedule one weeks worth of make-up games, but 2 weeks in a row starts to get a little crazy. Finally, at noon, they opened 1 of 6 fields and so a few games were able to be played. Madelyn and Catherine both had a game (one at 12:45 and one at 6:00). They are both improving and enjoying themselves. Catherine even pitched an inning.

My last egg of this Easter Season

After doing the black and white egg, I chose a colorful one to end out this year's pysanky season. I love it. I love this little hobby. I love that it reminds me of my mother. I love how many people have commented to let me know that my mom taught them how to do them. I hope someday, I'll have shown just as many. Sp if any of you want to learn how, just come on over during the week before Easter. You know what I'll be doing!

Owen and his pajama day

Owen was in fine form today. Usually he is compliant and easy going. Today, he was not so much. He wanted to stay in his pajamas all day. That was the battle he chose. I let him win (after trying at least 6 or 7 times). As long as I wasn't trying to get him dressed then he was his regular old sweet self. He did offer to help me do the eggs though. So I helped him for a second. He thought he was pretty awesome!

The black and white egg

Today, I got to make this egg twice. The first egg I accidentally cracked while removing the wax right at the end. That was no fun. But, I went ahead and made it again and it looked even better than before.

Madelyn's first softball game of the season

Our Saturday games got rained out so this week so Madelyn had her first game today during her regular practice time.

Pysanky eggs

I have pulled out the box with the jars of dye. I have bought more beeswax. I have bought more candles. I have bought more eggs. We have all been trying our hand at the art of Ukrainian Easter Eggs. I love doing it! Here are just a few more from me and from the kids!

Sunday facetiming with dad!

While Trent is in Utah, the kids do enjoy facetime calls. Isn't technology amazing? I remember as a kid watching the jetsons and wondering if video conferencing would really be possible in my lifetime!

What I am sure is that I NEVER imagined how my kids would turn it into a silly face game all the time.

Busy Day # 3 -- scratch that

We awoke to rain and thunder and lightning. The emails started flying and by 8:45 everything for the day had been canceled.



We all slept in a little. Julianne slept in a lot!!!! And then we cleaned the house some, rewarded ourselves for doing chores by picking up a variety of bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes, and finished gathering all the supplies to make Ukrainian eggs. We had some friends come over and do them with us as well. At least 10 of the kids' eggs cracked and were thrown out today (not bad for the first time of the year) -- that there are ever any survivors of the process for the kids on the first day is pretty miraculous. Here is mine. I started it after the kids went to bed and finished up around midnight. These eggs take time.

Busy Day #2

I decide that everyone can just sleep in this morning or we might not make it through everything. Naturally Owen wakes up at 7:15. Catherine wakes up at 7:37 and comes in to tell us that she thinks we overslept. I explain that I decided to just take everyone to school so that everyone could get all the sleep they need. She considers this and then says, "Mom, is it OK if I just go ahead and get ready super fast and take the bus?" She is dressed, bed made, lunch packed in 12 minutes and she takes the bus to school. Madelyn and Adam slowly get dressed and have breakfast and I take them at 8:20 (only 15 minutes late). Julianne takes the cake. I wake her up finally at 8:45 and she misses athletics but makes it to school for 2nd period at 9:25. Trent is packing for his trip to Salt Lake City. Owen and I get ready for the day. Me, Trent and Owen head to Urban air for an hour before heading to the airport. I run a few errands and arrive home to a message from the nurse that Catherine bumped her head at school and was really teary about it although it did not seem bad. "hmmmmmm, I wonder if she is a little emotional because she got only 6 hours of sleep?????"

Using Catherine's head bump as an excuse, we bailed out of swimming today from 4:45 - 5:30. Not only would we have been in a huge rush, it also would mean going to the High school varsity girls' softball game with wet hair (and it is cold here today -- 45 degrees). So we all get dinner and head to the game bundled up.

Our team won and we all had a good time. We all chilled and watched TV and then called it an early night (well, except for me, since I am up blogging ;)

Also I am coming up with a game plan for tomorrow. Cool and rainy is the forecast. 4 softball games (3 of which I will be coaching or assitant coaching), 1 t-ball game, 3 team photos, 1 opening day parade -- thank goodness we live 1 minute from the ball fields.

Busy day #1

3:00 Madelyn and Adam get home from school. They do their homework and reading and get dressed for baseball and softball practice. They lay out their nice clothes for the evening.

4:15 p.m. I take Adam over to our neighbors house. Their son has baseball practice at the same time as Adam even though they are on different fields. They are kind enough to drive him to and from practice each week for me.

4:20 p.m. Catherine and Julianne get home from school. Catherine does a quick change and hops in the odyssey with Madelyn and me and we all head to softball practice. Julianne stays home, does her homework, babysits Owen, and gets the 2 of them dressed nicely.

4:30 p.m. Catherine's practice starts with me as her coach. Madelyn hangs out and practices with us for a half an hour.

5:00 p.m. Madelyn walks to the neighboring field (30 yards away) for her practice. Adam is now at his practice.

5:15 p.m. Catherine's team starts their scrimmage game.

\ 6:00 p.m. Madelyn finishes her practice and rejoins me and Catherine in the dugout while we finish off the scrimmage.

6:15 p.m. Adam gets dropped off at home and gets himself dressed nicely.

6:20 p.m. The scrimmage is over and the 3 of us, drive home, do a quick change and we all get in the odyssey

6:30 p.m. We start the drive to downtown Dallas. Of course we haven't eaten so we pick up some chick-fil-a on the way.

7:20 p.m. We pull into the parking lot at the Music Hall.

7:33 p.m. We find our seats just as the lights dim and Mary Poppins starts.

10:35 p.m. We had a great time at the show. We are tired though. Owen and Adam fell asleep right at the end.

11:15 p.m. We pull into the garage and get everyone to bed.

The calm before the storm

Our upcoming next three days are going to be unbelievably busy. So today I decided I had better get really organized. Currently we had 2 bags that housed all of the softball and baseball equipment and whoever needed something just pulled it out of the big bags, but the schedule over the next few days often has 3 children in 3 different places and so it was time to separate it all out into individual bags. I bought the kids the baseball softball backpacks and had to get 2 more batting helmuts (we only had 2). Also even though there are gloves for everyone, Madelyn and Adam had been both using the same glove (and were both attached to it) so we went and bought a new one just like it so they have their own.

"Mom, are you making the boys' teams banners today??"

That is the question Adam asked first thing this morning. So, not to let him feel left out, I whipped up one more team banner today.

Softball Banners

The league we are playing softball in now has an opening day parade and each team has to make a banner. Since I am the coach of Catherine's team I would be in charge of hers for sure. As I am an assitant coach for Julianne's team, I figured I should offer to help. And if I am going to be doing 2 banners, why not see if Madelyn's team needs a little help too, right? So today, I made all three banners for the girls' teams. I got to use my silhouette cameo and I really had a lot of fun doing it.

I also bought a rainbow of sharpie markers to take up to the practices this week for all the teams to "embellish" them.

Adam and his journal

I have journals that I keep for each of the kids. I try to give them a chance to write in them as well. Not all of them like to. Adam LOVES to. He begs to write in his journal. Here is his entry for today!

Last day of camping

We got up and got all packed up. Then took all the group photos. We had a great time with everyone. We made new friends and enjoyed the best weather Texas has to offer!

All the cousins.



All our family there.



Just our family



Then we drove home, unloaded and started the laundry. There was a lot of laundry.

Day 3 of camping

Was a lot like Day 1 and Day 2. We fished, played games, played catch, played kick ball, ate, visited, and more. And somehow I took no photos today. I was just too busy having fun. We did have a little excitement when one of the families camping with us had to rush their son to the hospital because of appendicitis. Now that will be memorable for them!!!!

Day 2 of Camping . . .

Today we fished. and fished. and fished. And really didn't catch anything. Last night Adam ran down and threw in a line with Shad and they caught a large wide mouth bass, but today despite a lot of lines in the water we were mostly skunked-- Trent did catch one first thing in the morning but after that it was zilch for our family, but we had fun. The kids all learned how to cast and bait their hooks -- with LIVE minnows no less. I was surprised that even the girls would pick up their minnow and thread the hook through its upper lip and then back through the head between the eyes so that you didn't kill your bait and it would swim around on your hook in the water.





Little Owen sure tried hard to fish too, but mostly it just tired him out. I found Owen and Trent napping in the shelter later that afternoon.



I even had to go out and get 200 more bait minnows!



We roasted hot dogs, made s'mores, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.



















These were what the cute shelters looked like.





Once again we all gathered to look for the comet.





We never saw it. But we did take some fun silhouette pictures!



That is my sister Carrie.



Carrie and Owen



Trent and Owen



Me and Trent



Catherine