BIRTHDAY BOUNCING

Our fiery little friend Evie turned 3 today and celebrated with princess bounce house and rainbow themed party. The big kids (Cora, James, and Evie's big brother Grant were pretty much the only kids older than 3) spent most of their time outside, running around in the rain.

The stones in that wall were re-purposed from an old watch tower that used to stand on military park land (but collapsed many years ago).

The kids each made tie-dye tees (with lots of adult help).

Amy, Evie, and Grant getting down to cake business!

James, Grant, and Cora enjoying cupcakes and ice cream.

James especially enjoyed it, because he got to finish most of Cora's portions...

BUMMER SEASON

So, it's basically the end of March, and spring soccer started an entire month ago. 4 whole weeks. And yet the kids have had ONE game (that first game) and just two practices (the first one, on a freezing night, and the other earlier this week). We rushed to clean the house this morning ahead of company, Jay headed out to help a friend move, and I threw soccer uniforms at the kids while I ran upstairs to speed shower. 10 minutes later we were all dressed and ready to go when I got the text from Jay that the games had been canceled (no big surprise, really, since it had been raining all morning, but for some reason they held off canceling U5 and U6). I asked the kids what they thought about soccer games being canceled yet again, and this is what they showed me:

I'm pretty certain we won't do spring soccer next year... As fun as it is, it's also very frustrating for the kids to want to practice and play, yet not be able to. It's hard to retain the new things you learn when there are such long stretches between field time!

TUNNELING AROUND ORANGE LEAF

SPIDER JAMS

These cute Spiderman jammies were a birthday gift from Team Mitchell - perfect for our hot sleeper in the spring, summer, and fall (yeah, it's hot in our house at least half of the year...) Cora insisted that he needed pants before bed and that those were "UNDIES mama!" and not jammies, but it didn't deter James from strutting his Spidey self ;-)

(He was working on a Get Well card for Will here, about 30 minutes after bedtime due to soccer...)

SOCCER GIRL

With the time change (and enough dry days to finally have practice 4 weeks after the season started!) there was enough light for me to take some photos at Cora's U5 practice (and I would have taken photos of James' U6 practice afterward, but they played on a further field and deliberately stayed away from parents so the kids could focus better).

 Watching James play Angry Birds during a water break...

...then time for scrimmage!

 She scored 2 goals and she was THRILLED! It required her coming off the field for high fives and kisses and hugs. It feels so good to see her out there enjoying herself! (P.S. Jamie's face cracks me up in these - he was so upset that Cora scored a goal against him!) (P.P.S. She dressed herself, by the way. Ballet shirt, pink capris, and blue game socks... I thought she looked more like a baseball player!)

SHORT SWIM

We only had 30 minutes before water aerobics started and they kicked us out, but we swam hard for that half hour and had some fun!

After a snack, of course.

(She stole the leftover chips from my lunch)

ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2015

The prompt for this series of pictures was "Where's the Leprechaun?"

 After their green geared photo shoot, they helped Gramma take her suitcases to the car. At the time, I just randomly snapped a photo because I thought it was cute that they were helping her, but now that I'm looking more closely at their faces, it makes me sad. Such pitiful frowns! They did NOT want Gramma to leave. Cora broke down crying as I buckled her into her carseat (making both Gramma and I cry), then again when I dropped her off at school "because Gramma won't be there when I get home!" Poor kiddos. It's wonderful how much they love her though, that's for sure.

 When the kids got home from school, they were cheered up with a Leprechaun visit. They found tiny green footprints, a couple of gold coins and St. Patrick's Day balloons, and a giant cupcake with green and white frosting. I wasn't there, but Jay says they were convinced that Gramma did it. When he told them she didn't, they were convinced that the Leprechaun who did it had also moved all their stuff... (Sorry kids, but that was just mama cleaning up a bit after all the spring break hoopla!)

 After work, I met Jay and the kids up at Martin's for their now annual St. Patrick's Day deck party. We ate German food (well, the kids had grilled cheese) and each had a Guinness pour (while the kids shared a root beer), and I took home a green velvet babycake (Jay had some birthday cake while we were there). We bumped into lots of people we know and had a good time relaxing on the deck before I took the kids home to prep for bed while Jay hung out with some fellow Delta Brewers for a bit longer.

These things really make restaurant visits so much easier on us adults...

Carey and Jay (in his kilt for the occasion!)

She is all about the kisses lately!. And he is becoming more tolerant of them :-)

Putting on a show for us and snuggling with daddy before we headed out

And then we got this cute photo of cousins Eli (about to turn 6 like James!) and Addy (turned 4 in January!) in their St. Patty's Day gear too:

We sure miss these little sweethearts!

FIRST TRIP TO THE CREEK THIS YEAR

First, a quick stop just south of Rocky Springs at Owens Creek Waterfall because we figured with all the recent rain there would be more of a waterfall than usual. What we found was a little landslide and a closed trail. Sure doesn't look like it used to!

Just up the road, Little Sand Creek had a bit more water than usual, and the kids had a fabulous time running and splashing and digging and scooping and dumping. Buster and us adults enjoyed ourselves too. I fear our spring will be short-lived this year, since it was so warm today already...

Daddy was chasing Cora with a spider covered rock (which she had already picked up once and put in her bucket, not realizing it was covered in daddy long legs...)

She was not amused...

James squealed too. (He's been afraid of spiders ever since Jay was bitten by that brown recluse.)