Varsity Tennis x 2

Tennis season starts at the end of February and runs through the first weekend of May. Abigail was looking forward to her third season playing on the high school team.  Carly debated between track and tennis – she hadn’t tried either sport before.  Most of Carly’s friends were doing track, but she was able to convince her friend Madi to tryout for the tennis team with her.  Unfortunately, Madi didn’t end up making it onto a tennis team but Carly was excited to find she was a bit of a natural and made in onto the JV team with Abigail returning to the varsity team.

The girls had a few weeks of practices before their first match.  Unfortunately most practices were indoors due to the snow/rain and since we don’t have indoor courts the indoor practices mainly consist of hitting the tennis balls against the gym walls.  Not the best prep.

Carly’s first match on the JV team was her last.  She impressed the coaches with how quickly she was improving and they moved her right on up to the varsity team.  Carly was NOT happy with the promotion.  There was only one other freshman on the varsity team.  Carly didn’t share the confidence in her abilities that the coaches had and she REALLY wanted to ask them to move her back down to JV where she felt she had a better chance of winning.  It took a few matches and changes in partners for Carly to recognize she did in fact belong on varsity.  She started varsity playing doubles but eventually moved to becoming a singles player and being placed in a seeded position where her matches counted for team points. Her growth during the season was phenomenal.  Such a joy to watch.  She had a few matches that lasted FOREVER – seriously, hours long.  Carly very appropriately won the most improved award at the end of the season banquet.  We’ve always known she’s a tough athlete and it was so fun to watch her tack on another sport to her list of talents.

Coach Casey chatting with Carly between sets

I don’t think Abigail was necessarily thrilled to have her little sister playing alongside her and her friends, but Carly proved herself deserving and Abigail came to accept it 😊  Carly even played a doubles match with Abigail’s usual doubles partner.  I would love to see Abigail and Carly team up together – though I’m not sure either of them would love that idea.  

The head tennis coach is new this year and did things a bit differently this year. First off she actually coached the girls which was awesome to see (our prior coach didn’t teach them much).  Abigail had a strong season and moved up the “ladder” into a position that she could have chosen to play first seeded doubles or singles.  She still prefers to play doubles.  Abigail struggled a bit with the coach changing who  Abigail was partnered up with throughout the season.  I appreciated that the coach made the girls earn their placement on the team, but there is also something to be said about having some consistency with partnerships so the girls can develop a familiarity with their partner and get into a groove together.

Abigail and her favorite doubles partner, Kassi

Abigail was chosen to represent the school at KingCo on our doubles team.  I was in Utah for my niece Kaitlyn’s wedding. They fought hard, but sadly didn’t make it past the first round.  

Loved watching these two play together – can’t wait for next season!

April 2019

April 2:  Drew’s kindergarten concert was tonight.  Our school has SEVEN kindergarten classes so there’s roughly 150 kindergartners, add all their over eager parents, grandparents, godparents, neighbors, co-workers, and long-lost cousins that people invite to these sort of things made for quite the madhouse.  Even with my aisle seat it was impossible to get an unobstructed video or picture of the concert – apparently people forget their child is not the only child performing.

April 5:  Abigail sent Justin and I a little video clip this morning of her enjoying fries and chicken mini’s for breakfast at Chick-fil-A.  Both for free of course.  Apparently she has quite the reputation at Chick-fil-A for free food redemption – she makes her parents proud.  I was also passing by a Chick-fil-A today on my way to a luncheon with friends in Auburn and redeemed my free fries and sent her a picture. Yum!

April 6:  Conference weekend

April 7:  My fitness streak came to an end today.  I just couldn’t muster up the energy/desire to go for a walk in between conference sessions.  62 days is quite the accomplishment and I doubt I’ll ever see that again.

Spring Break 2019

I took some notes during Spring Break so I’d remember what we did.  I don’t have many pictures, but it’s still fun to look back at and remember what our week was like.

April 8:  I decided to still attend institute this morning.  Primarily because Carly needed me to pick up some groceries and I hate to run an errand without tying it to another errand or event.  So I was gone all morning while the kids hung out at home. Abigail still had school, work and a dental appointment.  Later that afternoon the three younger kids and I did a puzzle together and then I went to an evening class at the YMCA while Katie and Drew played in the kids area.  

April 9:  Carly left today for an overnighter with friends at the Great Wolf Lodge.  We typically don’t do “sleepovers” so this was a special treat for her.  Katie had her birthday party (see previous post).  And Jason went biking along Alki Beach in Seattle with his friend Hyrum.

That night Justin and I went on an impromptu date night to redeem yet another free cone at Ben & Jerrys and catch a late movie.

April 10:  Today was a stay-at-home day to catch up on life and laundry.  The younger kids were allowed some electronics time.  I ordered a bunch of prints to update the frames in our house.  Probably a trip to the library, cause we seem to go to the library at least once or twice a week around here.  The kids fly through books.  Not necessarily an exciting day, but productive.

April 11:  I did a bunch of baking this morning – banana bars, banana muffins, etc… The kids used to eat bananas like crazy, I’d buy 4 bunches a week, but lately they end up getting overripe and I have to bake em’ up into something.  We’ve eaten a lot of banana bread these past few months.  All that baking warranted an afternoon at the gym and the kids and I finished up a puzzle so we could get ready for a fun game night with the Gibbs.  

It was a fun night and the Gibbs brought lots of yummy treats - root beer floats, cookies, salsa.  Drew had such a great time that he included it in his school journal the next week.

“My spring break was so fun.  First the Gibbs came over to my home.  Next we played some games.  Then the Gibbs went home.”

April 12:  Spent a huge chunk of time today going through Jason and Katie’s clothes and sorting out what no longer fit.  Going through Katie’s clothes took a long time because she also has a bunch of clothes from her older sisters that we needed to try on and sort.  Abigail was taking the ACT the next day so she spent the day studying.  The girls have been babysitting a family in our neighborhood for nearly three years and tonight was the first time Carly (or Abigail) had ever actually interacted with their kids.  The kids have always been asleep in bed when they arrived – even if it was as early as 6pm. So crazy – bout time in my opinion. 

April 13:  Today was a baking day for me as I prepped for Katie’s birthday tomorrow – rolls, cake, chicken for her requested gnocchi soup.  Justin and Jason went to a movie with Benjamin and Talmage Reynolds.  

April 20:  This morning was the neighborhood Easter egg hunt (see Easter post). 

Jason went to his buddy Jack’s birthday party today at Gameworks in Seattle.  Most tween and teenage boys are gamers.  Since we don’t have a gaming system Jason doesn’t have many opportunities to play.  He definitely enjoyed it, but he felt way behind compared to the other boys.

Today was also the pinewood derby.  Since the church changed age the kids advance into young men’s and young women’s in January Jason started attending deacons at the start of the year so he is no longer in cub scouts; however, our ward invited the activity day girls to participate in the derby.  We initially said we weren’t interested.  Justin pretty much despised having any role in the derby, but Katie’s leaders bought her a car and told us we could simply “leave the wood as a block, nail the wheels in, put on the stickers…” So we reluctantly participated. Let me be clear, Katie was excited about it – it’s her parents that weren’t.  Justin rounded down the block just a tad and Katie gave it a paint job and it performed as well as the effort we put into it.  Katie’s car raced in four heats – she placed last in three of those and second in one.

Each kiddo was given some sort of award – Katie earned “Most Realistic”

Just two crazy kiddos

April 21:  Drew lost his first tooth a few days ago.  Reluctantly we’ve let the tooth fairy back into our lives.  

Look at that cute little gap!  I told him that he can’t lose his top two front teeth though cause those are my favorite. I’m typing this two months later (mid-June) and we pulled out his second bottom tooth as we were walking into our pediatrician’s office on May 29 and he’s already working on wiggling the next one loose. I wouldn’t mind if this kid would stop growing up so quick.

April 25:  I love this tree in our front yard – and that little boy in the background trying to get more comfortable riding his bike – (yep, still on training wheels).

MoPro {April 27, 2019}

Abigail was asked to MoPro a week before the dance.  A senior named Cole asked her at seminary with a cute little vase of tulips. She said yes and the search for a modest dress began.  Finding a modest dress is hard enough when you have time on your side.  We had one week to find a dress and get it shipped to our house (ain’t no way we’d find one in a store in the area) and hope that it fit. Abigail ordered two options from an online store and I ordered three from JCPenny.  All were supposed to arrive before the day of the dance.  Abigail got her order, but one of the dresses was totally not what she ordered and quite immodest.  My order from JCPenny arrived several days AFTER the dance (and even then was missing one dress – grrr) – so if you’re following the saga – we had just one dress to choose from – guess it’s the one!  Thankfully, Abigail really liked it.  I thought the front V-neck was too deep so we had some adjusting to do. I worked some sort of magic with a bunch of safety pins to close up the neck a bit and we ended up cutting a few inches of tulle off the bottom and wala – a beautiful dress for my beautiful daughter.

Abigail and her girlfriends got ready at Morgan’s house and I met up with them there to take some pictures of all the girls.  At the last minute the boys decided to come to the house as well to pick them up so I was able to get some pictures of the dates too.  Of course, there was a more official photo session that evening, but since I don’t have those pictures I’ll just share the few I took.

Morgan’s deck comes to a point off the hillside – it felt very Titanic-esque

Abigail had a great time and loved being in the same group with her closest friends.  I also love that they all went to Chick-fil-A for dinner.  What a fun group!

Easter 2019

The Easter festivities started on Friday, April 19 with the teen flashlight hunt. Abigail, Carly and now Jason went and came home with chips, drinks, candy and a few gift cards.

Jason had a birthday party the following morning so it was only Katie and Drew that attended our neighborhood Easter egg hunt at Jeanne Hansen park.  Before the hunt started we figured out that the “golden egg” this year would be the bunny shaped eggs.  Drew and I spotted several in his little area and I thought he was prepped and ready to gather them as soon as the whistle blew; however, once everyone started running our game plan flew out of his mind and he ran right past all of them.  Katie did secure a bunny egg, but it was one of the few that didn’t have the special blue slip of paper inside that would have rewarded her with a big basket full of special goodies – perhaps we’ll have better luck next year?  I mean, winning isn’t that important, right? The movement from giving out candy to allergy-free treats is a bummer, even for this mom that has three kiddos with severe food allergies.  All those little toys end up in the trash within a day. So, a little disappointing in the egg stuffing.  

The kids really look forward to waking up on Easter morning and searching for hidden Easter eggs.  We’ve talked about moving it to Saturday or waiting until after church, but the morning just makes sense even if it does seem to take away from the true spirit of Easter.  It’s almost like Christmas morning.

getting a little physical

Each of the kids had a little wrapped gift hidden somewhere with their name on it.  

Once they were all found the kids were able to open them up and quickly deciphered what that meant.

Hopefully, the kids aren’t expecting a big summer vacation announced via our Easter egg hunt each year.  Last year we did something similar to let them know we were heading to Europe.

We enjoyed a delicious German pancake breakfast before heading off to church.

And one with their mama cause I wouldn’t be getting my annual Mother’s Day photo this year and I LOVE this tree in our front year during the spring.  The blossoms are beautiful!

I was trying to get a picture on the sly of Abigail and her little buddy Drew during sacrament meeting, but that girl has a sense for a photo op…

Love these kids of mine and the memories we are making!