Spring Visit

We've just been plugging along. Chris has been getting around on his scooter, and we have been doing the usual. It's softball or baseball nearly every single day, but we are having fun.

My parents were able to come visit us for a quick weekend. They were able to see Neil receive a student of the month award at school. He was pretty happy about that.

On Saturday all three kids had a game and none of them overlapped. My parents were able to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see them all play. It was a really long day out on the fields in the sun. We started bright and early with Neil's 8am game. Lucky for us it was his special game where all the kids got to choose a song to play every time they went up to bat. There was also an announcer calling out the plays and the kids as they came up to bat. It was a really fun game to watch. 

Grace played next and then we watched Claire. By the time we got home we were all ready to just relax on the couch. The kids were all happy to have their Grandparents there to see them.

The rest of our weekend consisted of mostly resting. We went to Chili's and Cream. We BBQ'd and played in the backyard. The kids even talked Grandma into trying her luck in the batting cage. She can check that off her bucket list. They also spent some time in the hot tub. Unfortunately, they had to leave Sunday night. It all went by way too fast! Thanks for coming though! We can't wait until you come back. 

Since that weekend we've been busy with end of the school year type stuff. Lots of parties to attend, teacher appreciation gifts to get sorted, and ball to play. Both girls made it onto a summer travel softball team. We are excited to see how that goes. It will be challenging for sure with 2 of them doing it. I guess we will have to divide and conquer.

The kids got their spring pictures back. They turned out pretty cute.

Neil is happy because he finally lost his first tooth. He had been working on it forever. He was so excited for the tooth fairy to come because he really wanted some money. In the morning he was a bit sad though. When I asked him why, he said he only got $1. I asked him how much he thought he should get and he said $10.  Sorry buddy, that's just the way it goes. 

Ouch!

Wednesday night was a busy one for us. I had the usual weeknight run around of getting kids to their various practices, and Chris was at his own softball game. He plays on a team with people from his work. It was a later game, so I was waiting up for him after 10pm. He had called me from the road to say that he had injured his foot. I didn't think too much of it though. He said he was able to drive ok.

He had been running from first to second base and stepped funny in a divot in the dirt. His ankle rolled and had immediate pain.

Once he made it home I realized that it was more serious than he had made it sound. He couldn't put any weight on it at all. After thinking through our options, we headed off for the ER around 11pm.

Unfortunately, it was a busy night in the ER too. We had to wait a really long time for a doctor to see him and order the x-ray. Turns out he had fractured a metatarsal bone in a couple of places. They splinted him up, gave him some crutches, and sent us on our way. It was 3:30am before we got home. The morning routine of getting kids up for school came really fast.

We saw the Orthopedic Surgeon on Friday, and so far it looks like it will heal nicely without surgery. For now he has to be completely non-weight bearing. They fitted him in a boot. In 3 weeks we will go back for some new x-rays. Hopefully at that point he will be able to put some weight on it. For now we ordered one of these sweet knee scooters. The crutches were just super painful. 

You can tell he is enjoying it. Here he is racing circles around in the house on it. Hopefully we don't end up with any new injuries. :)

He'll probably be in a boot for 6-8 weeks. So yay! Life just got a bit more complicated.

Easter Fun

We did the typical stuff on Easter weekend. The weather wasn't great so we spent most of our time relaxing. The kids dyed some eggs on Saturday, and then they spent Sunday morning hunting for them. They each got a new book, some water color markers, paper, and of course plenty of candy.

There was no school on Monday so I decided to take them to Six Flags for a few hours. We had a good time hitting up all our favorite rides. We even spent some time in the butterfly house. The kids had a blast trying to take pictures of every single butterfly.

The dolphin show is always fun too!

It was a fun way to spend a Monday for sure.

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!