JUST KEEP SWIMMING

This little girl is growing like a weed lately! She's outgrown all her swimsuits except one, so we're seeking out deals and replenishing her stock (we spend about 6 months in the pool and creeks around here, so we need lots of swimsuits!) James, on the other hand, while gaining inches nearly as fast as his sister, still fits best in size 4T and 5T trunks (so if he hadn't worn out the back side of a couple of them, he wouldn't have even needed any this year!)

BBQ PLAYDATE

Since California and Mississippi spring breaks don't overlap in the least, the kids are distractedly slogging through their school days just to get back to seeing their buddies. They wish they could be with each other all day and all night (Manu has already invited them over to the hotel for a sleepover - no idea why Sopie and Alex vetoed that one...), but Sophie and Alex are actually here for work (both are still ERDC employees, they just work remotely), so the timing is working out just fine. Besides, they have a lot of friends to catch up with while they're in town, not just Team Lindsay (much to James' dismay). We have lots of plans for the week though, and this afternoon's BBQ was a great way for the kids to play while the adults hung out and had their own fun.

Teaching Manu all about Minecraft. For about 20 minutes.

Lauren is big enough to zip solo now!

Manu, James, Will, Cora, and Lauren in line to zip

Cora and Will spent a good chunk of time decorating the carport for us...

...with Lauren's help

Leo has gotten so tall and is speaking so much more (and his hair is every bit as soft as it looks!)

The kid table is getting wild these days...

Laser lights to end the night...

THE MADNESS CONTINUES!

October/November and March/April are by far the best months to visit the Deep South. Seriously. Come now, or wait until next fall (or suffer the extended summer heat and humidity with us...) This month we've had a record number of visitors and we feel very lucky to be seeing so many wonderful friends and family (first Robyn, then Jean, then Kelly and Val, and now the Sanchez crew)!

Sophie and her family got into town late last night, so as soon as our kids got out of school today, they rushed home to meet up with Manu and Leo. Big hugs all around! The kids busied themselves with dirt and worms and the usual outdoor play at our house while Jay, Sophie, and Christina busied themselves catching up (yes, Jay rubbed it in that he got to see Sophie before me - I was on the late shift at work so that Jay can attend an LDP function later this week).

Superheroes are here to make your day brighter :-)

I got all these photos from Christina, so I wasn't there to see who authorized double riders ;-)

 After work and spin class (side note: the first time back on a spin bike after a 5-month hiatus hurts in all the worst places...), Jay headed out with the kids (they had met me at the gym so I could get hugs and kisses, and so Jay could enjoy the return to spin class too - it's probably been over a year for him), and I hurried over to The Hat for a late dinner of nachos and mojitos with Sophie and Christina. We closed the place down, but didn't take any photos. No worries, they'll be here all week!

WORLD TRAVELERS IN THE DEEP SOUTH

My graduate school labmate and fieldwork partner in crime came through Vicksburg this weekend. He and his girlfriend have been traveling across the US (and Canada, and Puerto Rico, and soon Ecuador) for the past 6 months, and stayed with us a couple nights in the Deep South to eat some catfish and fried green tomatoes, hike around the military park in the rain, and share some delicious beers (both theirs, from their travels, and ours, to show off some Mississippi brews and Jay's current homebrews). We had a great visit and are so glad Kelly and Valine were able to put Vicksburg on their route - hopefully we'll do it again someday (here or there or wherever they end up) and it won't be 5 years down the road (we last saw Kelly on a Christmas trip to California, when we went down to Monterrey Bay Aquarium for the day, where Kelly was working at the time).

We had intended to take them down to Mint Springs Bayou, but the trail was closed :-(

Jumping out of the dense horsetail to scare Valine :-)

It rained (sprinkled, really) throughout our hike and the creek was cold, but that didn't stop the kids from jumping in and getting themselves (and us) soaked. It's cool, we had towels and changes of clothes in the car.

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!