May Madness, Part 2: Everything Else

The madness continues...

Spring Soccer

Alyssa was the only one to play this season. (Courtney was signed up to play but had to withdraw right before the season started because she sprained her arm. Hey - it's been awhile...)

Alyssa loves soccer and has played every season (Spring and Fall) since she was four!

They still try to rotate the girls thru all of the positions, so here's Alyssa taking a turn at goalie.

On the move...

Getting her medal at the team party after the last game

Picking Strawberries

We had a hard time coordinating everyone's schedules this year, and it almost didn't happen. So glad it did!

Here are Joanna and Courtney among the berries (and weeds!) It was pretty late in the season, so maybe they just let things go!?

Courtney (the strawberry eater) and Melanie (the strawbery picker)

And here's the teenager - a strawberry in each hand and earphones in his ears. Not sure anything ever made it into the basket, and there's a rumor circulating that he only comes for the food.

Alyssa weighing herself at the farm's market

"There's No Business Like Show Business"
(a.k.a. the girls' dance recital)

Courtney during her ballet dance...

...and her tap dance

Courtney is right in the middle

Alyssa performing her lyrical dance

This year, Alyssa moved up to the performing company. For the rest of the year, that meant a longer class during the week, a competition, and a few extra performances. For recital, it meant an extra nite of rehearsal, more dance numbers (and costumes!), and performing in all three shows (instead of just one).

Alyssa during her jazz dance

Alyssa's cool stunt (is that the right word?) with her best dance buddy during their jazz dance

And now her tap dance...

...and then ballet (she's right in the middle)

Our two dancers after the show!

May Madness is almost over... almost.

May Madness, Part 1: Birthdays

Forget March Madness - May is the month when things get crazy at our house! All the girls in the family have birthdays...

Here's me with the kids right before opening my presents. (And one picture is plenty...)

We celebrated Courtney's birthday the next weekend. She picked her two closest friends and went out to dinner at O'Charley's.

Then we came back home and painted little wooden boxes...

...followed by cake & ice cream and a fun sleepover!

The other big birthday event for Courtney was FINALLY getting her ears pierced! Being eight is definitely great!

The next weekend it was Alyssa's turn for a party. She hit double digits this year - the big 10! She and her friends made suncatchers, played the Wii, did Mad Libs, made magnets out of perler beads...

...and of course, had cake & ice cream!

(I actually got lucky this year - the girls both wanted the same cake - just different colors.)

Alyssa & her friends

It should be noted that Alyssa's party fell on our 16th wedding anniversary. So when people asked us what we were doing to celebrate, we replied, "We're inviting seven of Alyssa's closest friends over!" =) Actual celebration postponed until June...

A Night at the Prom

The Church holds a quad-stake prom every year for the Priests and Laurels. I was so excited when this cute guy asked me to go...

...and we chaperoned the night away! =)

Mother's Day 2010

Jordan walked into my room this morning carrying a book and asked if he could read me a story. "Once upon a time, there was the greatest mom in the world, and she had these three awesome kids. They decided to give her something special for Mother's Day. So they brought her a nice drink." (Enter Alyssa with a glass of milk, complete with straw and paper umbrella.) "Then they decided to bring her a whole breakfast in bed." (Enter Alyssa with a breakfast tray with muffins and doughnuts.) "And then they decided to get her some gifts." (Enter Courtney with three envelopes - each with a note and a picture of a different flag for my flagpole on the porch.) "Then they decided to show her a video they made." (Enter Courtney with laptop.)

Behold their creation...

Definitely a great Mother's Day!

Spring Break Adventures

It's now become a tradition - meeting up with cousins at Nana's house for Spring Break.

Here's the whole crew - ready for the big Easter egg hunt in Nana's backyard. We're up to 15 kids now with #16 due to arrive in May.

The kids played cards...

and had pedicures on the front porch.

And baby Autumn was a huge hit. Luckily, she's completely happy go lucky (and so cute!) and never minded the constant attention from her admirers.

The big thrill of the week was discovering this huge vine down by the creek behind Nana's house. Jordan and Tyler cut it loose from the bottom of the tree and created a rope swing to cross the creek.

The only downside was the mucky shoes and clothes. =)

There were seven grandkids at Nana's house on Easter morning. The Easter bunny is obviously very smart and assigned each kid a different color. They each had to follow the trail of eggs to the right basket.

Enjoying their Easter surprises in Nana's sunroom

One afternoon we headed to the park. Here's Alyssa hanging out with Christian and Diego.

The dynamic duo - Courtney and Julia

(They even look a lot alike!)

Corinne and Jordan

We pretty much had the place to ourselves. (Or maybe everyone else just stayed far away from us!?)

The weather was perfect (even a little hot) the entire week, and we took the kids down to the lake. I love this picture of Jordan and Jayden. And yes, those are toboggans they're carrying. There was hope they would float.

They didn't. =)

It was still a little too early in the season, so the beach wasn't officially open for swimming.

We told the kids they could wade. =)

The water was freezing, but none of the kids really cared.

Courtney spent a good part of the time running up and down the beach. She was completely carefree.

Corinne, Anthony, and Alyssa warming up in the sun

It was a fun vacation, and as usual, no one was ready to head home!

How Did This Happen???

Jordan had his birthday a few weeks ago, and it's now official:

(This is the part when you think to yourself, "Oh, but Jason and Karen are much too young to have a teenager!!)

Jordan celebrated by going to see the Percy Jackson movie with some friends. Then it was back to our house for pizza, ice cream cake, and Wii.

It was the preference of the teenager that we all disappear upstairs, but I did manage to sneak in a few pictures. =)

Happy Birthday, Jordan!