Chocolate and eggs

We had a super fun Easter weekend this year.  I love it when Easter is later in the season.  It just seems more springy and Eastery to hunt for eggs when there is not snow on the ground.  This year we were blessed with beautiful weather. 

Get ready for some picture overload.  The kids kept their tradition of coloring eggs.  

There were a lot of laughs and many a goofy moment. 

They wouldn't indulge Hailey and I with too much coloring.  You can see that their eggs are pretty pastel, but at least they did it.

Hailey made a Jesus egg. 

On Easter morning they hunted the house for eggs and their baskets. 

Since the weather was so nice, we switched it up this year and hid half of the eggs inside to hunt in the morning and half outside for the afternoon.  Hailey was thrilled!  She said it was her dream come true to have an outside hunt.

I don't know what Spencer is all about with that box.  Maybe his almost eighteen year old self didn't want to run around the yard with his basket.  I have learned to choose my battles carefully.

Hailey made her now famous bunny cake again this year.

We spent lots of the day outside.  Grama came over for dinner and to play some tennis with the kids in the street.

After dinner we tried to take some family photos. 

Grama took about a hundred pictures of us and I swear this was the best one.  Someone always had eyes closed or the angle was off.  It was kind of crazy.

Later on when the sun went down a bit we attempted to take a decent one.

The handsome boys.

I didn't even plan for us all to match.  It just kind of worked out that way. 

We have kind of perfected our family selfie game.  These turned out so much better than the other family shots.

It was a happy Easter!

Life lessons on the court

Evan joined the middle school tennis team again this year.  So far he has been loving it and having success on the court as well.

Yesterday he had his second competition and he and his doubles partner from last week were joined again to take on the competition.   His partner is a great kid.  He is a year older than Evan - he is not a super sporty kid but just really enjoys tennis.  I see him leaving practice carrying his cello and tennis bag while wearing his Mathletes shirt.   Neither he or Evan would be considered jocks - if we are assigning labels they would most likely be the nerdy kids - but you can tell they both really love to be on the court and they are both surprisingly good at it.

So back to yesterday.   The school they were playing only sent five doubles teams whereas our school had fifteen.  Evan and Matt were lucky enough to get to play against the other school for their first match instead of just scrimmaging with the rest of their team.    We found out what court they were assigned to and hauled our chairs and blankets over to watch them play.

It was immediately clear that the team they were playing was far below them in ability.  The poor boys had no idea what they were doing.  Matt was trying to guide them along.  You start serving on the right side.  You need to move back.  You get another serve if you miss the first.  He was being very helpful and not mean about it at all because he is just not that kind of kid.  The kids on the other team were not completely horrible.  They had a few good shots but it was obvious they needed a lot more practice.  It is hard to watch matches like that because I just want to run on the court and give them big hugs.  Predictably Evan's team won the match 6-0.

On the way back to the car after his matches I told him that he played really well (in his second match he had a scrimmage and was much more evenly matched - they still won 6-4).  I said how the first match was kind of hard to watch because the boys were not that good.  To which Evan replied - Yeah, and since they only had five teams those guys probably had to play non stop and got killed in every match - they probably feel horrible.  I hadn't even thought of it that way and immediately had a lump in my throat both for sadness for the boys and for the amazing empathy that my boy has for people.  I am so often in awe of him.  He is so much more mature than his almost thirteen years.

I told him that I was proud that he and Matt tried to help them in the match they played.  They were very respectful and helpful. The boys could have easily been given a team that would have been mean and snickered and laughed at how they played.  I hope they didn't have that experience with anyone on Evan's team.  I would like to think they are all better people than that.  I told him that maybe the advice that he and Matt gave them helped them in their next matches.  I hope it did.  I hope they learned something from Evan and Matt yesterday.  I know I did.

Monday moments: Sports edition

Spring sport season is in full swing around here.  I had to put the "taxi" sign back on my car after taking it down when the musical rehearsals finished.  

Last Monday Spencer had his first track meet.  I am glad he is participating in track, but track meets really are the worst to spectate.  The kids get a lot of social time hanging out with their friends, but the parents sit around for hours to watch their kid run for like thirty seconds.  Worst. 

He ran the 100 meter sprint.  He was in the second heat - which doesn't count for points.  He took first in the second heat - he ran 100 meters in 15 something seconds.  Crazy.

I told him he could probably shave a few seconds off his time if he pulled back that mop of hair.  He is insisting on letting it grow out.   I put it in a man pony one day and almost had him convinced to wear it but he pulled it out at the last minute.

I snapped this cutie picture as we were walking to the car after the meet.  Hailey and Spencer don't interact a lot because of their age difference, but he was being super sweet to her and she was loving every minute of it.  She is such a lucky girl to have two big brothers.

Tuesday at Girls on the Run.  It was a game day led by the girls.  These pictures didn't seem so far away when I took them.  Hailey is in the all gray with pink shoes.  

Thursday's track meet.  Spencer is just at the line running the 200 meter dash.

This time Hailey was with a friend at skate night so Evan got to come hang out with me to watch his big bro.

Evan's turn came on Saturday morning when we watched him in his first tennis matches.  He and his partner played three times and won all three!  Evan had some great serves and shots.  I was very proud of him.

Not to mention the head band just kills me every time.  LOVE this kid!

Two more track meets this week plus GOTR and tennis.  We are in sports mode around here!

Back to state finals!

Evan got the chance to compete in DI state finals for the second year in a row.  He loves this stuff and he is great at it.  For a shy not super social kid somehow he manages to be an amazing leader.  

All ready to head to the campus for his Instant Challenge.

Hailey decided to bring Evan's stuffie Laddie along thinking it would be a surprise to Evan and maybe good luck. 

He was excited to have Laddie and maybe the luck worked since they scored 95 out of 100 on their Instant Challenge.

An hour or so later we trekked across campus to watch them in their Central Challenge - this is the skit part they have to perform.

Hailey watching the team before them through the window and with a little help from Daddy.

Performing their skit.  It was about a science lab with genetically mutated owls and zombies.  Evan was a bounty hunting tracker.  He wrote most of the script by himself.  It was pretty creative.

 After the performance.

It was a gorgeous day - it felt like summer.  It was an amazing day to walk around campus.  We had to get the traditional picture in the quad.

We ate lunch and then went geocaching to a frisbee golf course where we found a "mustache cache".

The kids were mostly excited to get back to our hotel so they could swim in the pool.

We went for an early dinner before the awards assembly to celebrate a fun weekend and a job well done.

Evan relaxing after a long day. (With his mustache and Laddie and drink from the restaurant) They scored 9th out of twelve - he was not too disappointed.  He shouldn't be - he did an amazing job leading his team all the way to State!