Spring Activities Begin

Spring break ended in an eventful manner.  We went bowling, had more softball, and had River as a guest for one night.  Gracie's team was recognized at a Mizzou softball game, and Owen got to go to a big birthday party down at the lake.  There are many other events I will update on, as well.

Bowling!

The kids enjoyed this a lot!  It turns out that I am the worst bowler in our family.  I had a score of 1 after three frames.  Yep, pretty good.  Needless to say, I was a little rusty, but we had a good time anyway.  Gracie and Owen both did better than me, but that's ok.

Gracie is getting ready

Here we go....This reminded me of the last time we took the kids bowling in Missouri.  We were at the Lake for spring break in 2014.  Owen was only 3 years old and he would lay down and watch the ball roll slowly toward the pins.  He has grown up so much since then!

Here's a throwback to 2014.  

Softball at Mizzou

Later that weekend, Gracie's team was recognized at the home Mizzou softball game.  They had a great time.  Nick took her to that, while I took River home and Owen to a birthday party at the Lake.

Gracie with some of her teammates at the new stadium

Standing with the Mizzou team during the National Anthem

While River stayed with us, we took him out to see our property in Ashland.  It was a muddy mess, but it passed the time and was fun to see some more progress on the house.

Gracie posing with River

Watching cartoons in the morning

Owen forcing River to take a picture with him

Picnic tables are for standing on, right?

Owen fell in the mud, of course. So Nick had to help him wash off without falling in the pond.

Gracie is showing River a deer leg.  He was not impressed.

Party at the Lake!

We celebrated one of my parents' friends 60th birthday.  

There was also a kid's birthday, too, so it was fun for all!

Owen loved this Razor 360.  It was pretty sweet.  There was a break on it that made it spin around and throw sparks.  I think Owen would really like one.  Too bad we'll be moving to a place without pavement again.

River loved celebrating too!

Owen is getting some advice from Laird.

Shots for the birthday boy!

Cake for the kids!

This is a random picture of Owen putting his legos together.  He spent about 2 hours working on the step-by-step instructions for all of the robots and buildings.

Softball!

We have decided to dive into the world of competitive softball this spring.  Gracie will be competing on a team called Galaxy, and also in little league on a team called Lightning.  She had her first tournament on April 8.  The first game was pretty rough and hard to watch.  It was as if they had forgotten how to play.  Gracie admitted later that she was so nervous and she was shaking when she went up to bat the first time.  I, however, was not nervous, like I was last year.  I ended up keeping stats for some of the games, so that kept me occupied.  The day kept getting better with each game, so that was a good thing.  She got to play catcher, third base, short stop, and pitched for one batter, which she struck out.  She did a pretty good job defensively, but needs to keep gaining confidence when she hits.

At third base, communicating with her team.

First at-bat

Catching

Third base

After the games we let the kids play at the park for awhile.  It was a good end to a busy day!

Playing with dad

More playing on tires

Relaxing on the triceratops

Wrapping up wrestling

It seems like such a long time ago already.  Wrestling season for the club actually didn't end for the older kids until mid March.  The banquet was held on April 12.  It was a pretty nice production and a lot of people came.  They gave awards for each age level.  Owen received an outstanding wrestler award for the 6u team.  He was one of three outstanding wrestlers.  I think his division had about 20 kids total.  I was very surprised because he only competed in 2 tournaments.  However, his coach recognized his commitment to coming to practices, as well as respect, hard work, and good attitude in the wrestling room.  We're pretty proud of him, and Owen was so proud to receive his "first wrestling trophy."  It was fun to watch him this year.

Owen with his Outstanding Wrestler trophy

Hanging out with dad while setting up for the comedy show at Mizzou Arena

The kids and I had a very full weekend while Nick was working.  Gracie had practice last Friday night, and after that we watched the rest of the Mizzou baseball game.  I got to see one of my students pitch for the first time, live, and another one of my students hit a homerun!  I'm so glad that Gracie and Owen like going to watch events with me.  The next day we went to the spring football game, saw Nick at work for a little bit, then went to a track meet.  They wanted to go to the baseball game again Saturday night, but I thought it would be nice to be at home for a night.  We watched part of the game on the ipad.  We needed a little bit of sleep before the Easter Bunny showed up.

On Easter, we went to the Missouri United Methodist Church in downtown Columbia.  This was only the second time going there.  It's a bit different and bigger church than we're used to, but it was good to go.  The Easter Bunny brought candy, of course and we headed to the Lake to have dinner with my parents and Reefers.  The pool had been opened and it was heated to a warm 88 degrees.  Gracie and Owen swam for over an hour.  

Jumping in the pool

One, two, three!!!

The first few weeks of April have flown by and I can't believe next week is the last week in April.  Owen will start his baseball games the first week in May and we will be at the ball park 4-5 days per week.  Owen still has a few Scout activities going on and Gracie will have dance through May.  They had their multicultural night at the school tonight, and I will post pictures of that soon.  It has been a fun night both years that we have been at New Haven Elementary.  It's amazing how diverse their school is, considering how small it is.  Gracie and Owen love learning about all of the different cultures that their friends come from.  Gracie did a sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for her art project.  When I asked her what he did that was so special, she said, "He changed the world, mom."  Yes, Gracie, he did.

We have another busy weekend and hopefully the rain will hold off so Gracie can play in her tournament.  Really, that's all we have planned this weekend, but I think it will be enough.