She's been counting down the days since she turned 7 last year!
Hard to believe it's our last one!
Courtney with Nana & Grandpa
With Joanna & Craig
With Melanie & Ben
With cousins Anthony, Christian & Diego
Not pictured (but still adored): Aunt Kelli (the photographer), Aunt Jodi (the pianist), and cousin Autumn (the cute baby in the car seat) =)
We love you, Court!
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 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!
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!
Alyssa & her friends
...and we chaperoned the night away! =)
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!
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.
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 
Corinne and Jordan
We pretty much had the place to ourselves. (Or maybe everyone else just stayed far away from us!?)
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.
