Spring Spectacular

So just in case you thought we had a leisurely quiet spring, one filled with long lazy weekends, you are wrong... dead wrong.  Here's our spring in a nutshell:

Spring Soccer

Livi just loved soccer and really caught on fast.  The first few games she was pretty timid, and just kinda ran with the pack, never really kicking the ball, but by the end she was getting in there and kicking the ball as hard as she could.  She scored her first goal near the end of the season, but really excelled at defense.  She was always the first one to run down the field ahead of the ball and 'clean house', keeping the ball out of her zone.  Her coaches were great, and I'm happy to say I'm finally a soccer mom.

Here are the fans

Since Dax had been traveling so much including weekends, we decided to take the kids for a 'hotel weekend'.  We booked a room at a nearby hotel with a pool, and let the kids swim, stay up late and watch cartoons and eat ice cream in bed.  All the things that are forbidden at home.  The kids had a great time, and as parents we learned quickly why it's important to have kids in different rooms.  Gage coughed all night and kept waking Van up, so around 3:30 am I called it and drove Van home to sleep in his own bed for the rest of the night. The kids slept in and went for a morning swim before I joined them for breakfast.  The kids still talk about that fun night, and point out the hotel every time we drive past it.

Spring Dance

The morning of her dance recital was also the morning of her last soccer game and soccer party.  Of course, it was a rainy cold morning as we raced from dress rehearsal, to the soccer game, and back to the recital to redo hair and make-up, then out to the restuarant for pizza and soccer trophies.  It was a crazy day, but we managed to make it all work.

Here's a blury picture of Livi getting her soccer trophy.  She's so proud of it and wanted to know if her dad would build a case with a light in it just for her trophy!

We flew kites...

we caught bugs...

we watched the baby birds grow in Poppy's tree...

Van played the piano and did lots of swinging...

We took the dumb cat to the vet... again

 and we helped Poppy plant our tomatoes.

We had a story about some ducks:

Some ducks came to our house to hang out one afternoon.  They eventually got scared of all the loud noise at our house and decided to go across the street to find a quieter resting place.  The kiddies didn't like that, they wanted the ducks at our house, so they came and got bread to put in the street to coax them back.  I had no faith in their plan.

I was wrong.

We played with our neighbors that kinda look like us...

we helped dad mow the lawn...

mom posed for one picture...

then made the kiddos pose for the rest.

(I made this shirt for Liv)

All in all it's been a crazy spring, and if this first week of school being out is any indicator, summer isn't shaping up to be lazy either.  Bring it on!