Birthday and Spring Break!

Chris's birthday this year coincided with our first day of spring break. Since he has an April fool's birthday, the girls are always trying to come up with ways to pull a fun prank on him. This year was no exception. On Friday we laid out his gift and attached a balloon to a box of donuts.

He was excited to see the donut box when he came home from work. It turned out perfectly. He opened the box and......

awwww! Sad face. We got him. The kids were quite pleased. Since it was his birthday and all, I did save him a couple of actual donuts. So everyone was happy.

The next day we spent driving up to visit family in Oregon. It was an nice uneventful drive and we spent the evening just relaxing.

Sunday we spent time outside playing catch and hitting softballs out in the field. We were lucky to have a break in the rain. The evening the whole family got together for a birthday dinner for Chris. His mom and sister even made him a super tasty Cubs cake.

Monday we spent the morning taking care of errands. The van needed new tires and we wanted to hit up the Nike employee store. We also stocked up on softball gear and took full advantage of no sales tax. That evening the entire family met up again. This time at Pietro's Pizza in Beaverton. We sat in a pirate ship and had the place to ourselves. Most of us played a fun round of laser tag and then we stayed later to play mini golf too. The kids were quite happy. They had been wanting to do laser tag and golf forever. 

Tuesday was spent hanging out. Chris went to lunch with some friends from his old work, and I took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast. We all really enjoyed the movie!  Tuesday night the kids had an evening with my parents and we went out. Chris's parents, brothers and sister in law joined us at a fun Indian place in SE Portland called Bollywood Theater. It's not somewhere that I would have probably ever tried on my own, but I really liked it. We ordered food family style and everyone had plenty. Afterwards, we headed to Whiz Bang Bar in Portland for some delicious soft serve. I really liked it.

Wednesday we spent hanging out with the family and playing games. The kids and I took advantage of the sunshine and hit up a park. We also indulged in our traditional pastime of pizza buffet at Godfathers. That night Chris went shotgun shooting with the guys, and the kids went to Grandma Phillips's house for crafts and a delicious dinner of tacos and donuts. (Their request)  I spent the evening catching up with some of my favorite peeps at PF Changs. I miss these ladies so much! It was great to spend an evening chatting it up like old times.

Thursday was a pretty fun day. We decided to take the kids to the Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark. It was in the middle of nowhere. About an hour drive and nothing to be seen all around it. Driving up was fun because you could see a giant 747 airplane positioned on the roof, and waterslides coming out of it! There were also all kinds of other cool planes parked all around. The museum area looked pretty fun. We spent many hours playing in the water there. I think the kids had a really great time.

Friday was a winding down sort of day. Chris went to lunch again with friends. The kids played with their cousins and with my parents. My dad and I went to lunch at Chang's Mongolian Grill. Yum! We had my aunt and uncle over that evening for a turkey dinner. It was delicious! Lots of food that day. :)

Saturday was our last day there. The kids and Chris played wiffle ball in the street. They had a good time trying to hit the ball onto the roof. That afternoon I went to Katie's baby shower while the guys and kids played games. We spent the evening relaxing an playing tons of games. I think we played games a million times over the week. It was lots of fun!

Sunday morning we were on the road again. We were pretty exhausted after staying up so late every night. Thankfully we got home around 3:30pm so we had some time to get ourselves ready for the upcoming week. 

Our spring break was fantastic! Thank you to everyone who helped make it so wonderful. Hopefully next time we will have more time to see everyone that we weren't able to see. Now it's back to life...

March Madness

I can't believe that March is already almost over. I feel like it just started. We have been super busy with the kids's sports lately. Every night at least one of them has something. It's so fun though! We are having a great time watching them play. 

On one rainy weekend I took my girls out shopping to the mall. We hadn't done that in a very long time. It was fun to hit up Claire's, Build a Bear, the Lego Store, and many more. Shopping is hard work so we had to grab some smoothies as well. It was girl time well spent.

A week or two ago was Neil's 120th day of school. All of the first graders were planning to dress up as very old people. (100+) This was Neil's outfit. He had the added bonus of glasses and hearing aides. Although he wasn't super happy about taking a picture, he had a great day.

This picture of Neil is him bench pressing a 5 lb weight. He's very pleased with himself for doing his exercises.

A few random pics of the kids enjoying the nice weather at Grace's game. They are all good sports for supporting each other. We try to all watch everyone play.

Friday was St. Patrick's Day. It was a super crazy day for me. We prepped the night before by painting nails and laying out everyone's bling for the next day. My Mom of course sent the kids a fun package with all sorts of green stuff. They were pretty excited!

 Neil really doesn't like having his picture taken in the mornings. He is just not a happy camper before school starts. :)

After dropping the kids off at school, I spent my entire day at the first ever Livermore Softball Golf Tournament. I set up, sold tickets, checked people in, ran errands, and helped out wherever I could. It was a long, exhausting day. I had a blast though! It was gorgeous outside and I had a great time socializing with all of the people that I've met through softball. 

Opening Day

It's that time again. We are in full spring sports mode. Last Saturday was crazy because it was opening day for softball and baseball. We had to divide and conquer.

Neil is on the Angels this year. He had his team pictures first thing in the morning. It was pretty chilly at that time, like in the 30's! Poor little guy. Afterwards he walked in his parade, participated in a hit-a-thon (where he was inches from winning a tv), and then played his first game. He was pretty happy with his prizes of bubbles and a t-shirt. The girls and I were able to sneak away to see his game. He played the Cubs team and everyone did really well.

The girls and I spent the morning at the Softball opening. We got there early to set things up for the raffle at about 8am. I'm on the board so there was lots to do. They had a good time helping me make posters and hand out orders. This year Claire's team is Top Gun, and Grace is on the Vicious Vespas. The girls all lined up and had their own parade. It was so great to see all the girls out on the field in their colorful uniforms that I ordered. I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment. After the ceremony we went to watch Neil play. Then we all hit up McDonalds for a quick lunch. Afterwards, it was back to the fields. Both girls played their first games and won. It was a VERY long, but very fun day for all of us. We headed home around 6pm. 

Happy to have the sunshine back!

Valentines

February has been nice. We've had more sun and less cold. Softball has started and with it has come the busy nights. It's fun though. I wouldn't change it.

Ahhh, sunshine! Love it!

Set up the cage in the back to get some extra practice in.

This year I saw an idea pop up on Facebook that I loved and decided to try. Starting on Feb 1st, I taped a heart to each of the kids's doors with a personal message on it. Each day I placed a new heart. After a couple days Neil started asking me what the next one would say. They looked forward to seeing their note each morning. It even inspired them to write their own notes to each other. I ended it on Valentines Day and gave them a special treat. I think I would do it again.

The night before Valentines Day, Chris came home from work with this bouquet of flowers for me. The most impressive part was that he arranged them himself. They had a flower arranging activity at work and he was able to make me this. I loved it! They are still going strong and smell amazing. 

He also gave me a pair of ear crawler earrings. I was pretty surprised. I gave him a new picture frame for his desk at work with pics of the family. He also got a Cubs dvd about the world series. 

I have to admit that I was pleased with my Valentines this year. Since he had already given me my gifts I didn't spend the day wondering about it. I spent the day with Grace on a field trip to Stockton to see a play of Charlotte's Web. After Neil's baseball practice we headed home for a tasty fondue dinner. We did cheese for dinner and of course chocolate for dessert. It was delicious!

Now that softball is ramping up I am crazy busy. Since I'm the uniform coordinator for the league it's my job to order and distribute uniforms to all 450+ kids. It's a big job for sure! I'm still in the thick of it right now, so hopefully I survive.

And, that has been my month so far. Opening day is coming up fast, so soon it will be ball games galore. As long as the sun sticks around I'm game for whatevs.