Feels Kind of Like Spring...Finally!

If this is not an indication of spring, I don't know what is.  Rain + no grass = lots of mud.  The kids still seem to get excited about playing in mud.  We finally had a nice day on Sunday after it rained all day on Saturday.  Temperatures were in the 50s, but I'm not sure that was quite warm enough to be doing what the kids insisted on doing in the afternoon.  Owen was adamant about rolling in the mud and we warned him that he could not do that in his clothes and he would have to wash off afterward.  It still seemed to be a good idea to him and Gracie encouraged him the whole time.  He underestimated how cold he would be, especially after getting hosed off.  Maybe we'll wait until summer next time.

Someday we won't have a pile of dirt in our front yard.

Owen, after he had rolled in the mud.

Before playing outside, we visited River and Kaia down at the lake.  We finally got to take River his birthday presents.  Nerf Guns and Play-dough!

Gracie and Kaia.  She has such big beautiful eyes!

River opening his presents

Volleyball

The kids and I left home early on Saturday 2/24 to watch Gracie play in her first volleyball game which was a tournament in St. Charles, MO.  Her team played in 6 games throughout the day, starting with pool play at 8:45am.  Their team was in the Silver Bracket, which meant that they were in the bottom 1/2 of the 12 teams competing.  However, they were the only team that was all fourth grade, 10-year olds.  The rest were 12U.  They did pretty well for being so young.  They ended up 2nd in their bracket.  They had a lot of fun and Gracie slept the whole way home.  Owen is such a trooper for watching his sister all day.  I'm really glad we have an ipad with movies on it, though.

Gracie's team after the final game.

Gracie played almost all of every game.  She still has a lot to learn, but considering she has no experience playing volleyball, I'd say it was a good day.  She has only been to 1 clinic and 2 open-gym practices with this team.

She has a serve like her Auntie Annie.  Hits the opposite wall about 50% of the time.  

Annie was in high school, though.

Exhausted.  She slept for almost 2 hours on the drive home.

Last weekend

The previous weekend was spent in Iowa visiting my grandma and also attending the State Wrestling Tournament!  It was great to see my Ballard people and watch the kids compete.  The kids had smoothies and found the managers and former wrestlers to catch up with.  Nick wasn't able to go with us because of the Missouri State Wrestling Tournament held at Mizzou Arena, but I'm sure he wishes that he could have been there.  

We saw Grandma Jeanne at her new facility, which isn't quite as nice as the previous facility, but seems to accommodate her needs.  It was so good to see her again.  We hadn't been up to Iowa since Christmas, and Owen hadn't been up there since Thanksgiving.  She was able to bring some of her things from her house like chairs, a dresser and pictures.  We stopped right after the wrestling tournament while Annie and Chad were still visiting and came back later to stay for a little longer.  During that time, the kids and I went out to the mall for a bit to get some shopping done.  I'm afraid I spoiled them a little bit over the weekend, but we had a lot of fun.

When we returned to Missouri, Gracie made it to her practice for volleyball for awhile.  She also had a friend over and played with the horses before going to softball practice.  The weather wasn't quite as nice as I would have liked, but the kids enjoyed riding for a little while.  It was a pretty full weekend.  

Owen was the only one who could catch Dancer to ride her.  This was after Nick and Gracie had worn her out chasing her around.  She really does not want to have anything to do with a lead rope or halter.  I'm not sure what Owen is going to do when he is too big to ride her.  She has been the perfect mini horse for both the kids to learn on.

Nick is leading Sonita and Thor while Gracie and Hayden are riding.

I can't wait until the grass is green again.  Hopefully it won't be long.

State Wrestling!

Owen found his long lost wrestling partner, Jed!  Jed is in college now, but Owen remembers him pretty well from a couple years ago.  Jed is so tolerant and patient with Owen.

Gracie also found some friends who were very excited to see her.

Nicole is on the left.  She wrestled for a couple years when her older sister Rachel was still in high school.  Jadyn is on the right.  She is a manager and her brothers both wrestled.

Owen's new hair cut.  Not bad, Dad.

Owen was in much need of a hair cut and finally submitted.

Owen's new chair from Annie!

Last basketball game!

Gracie played with her team in their last game a couple weeks ago.  They had a great season and were fun to watch this year.  I think I mentioned before that she has improved so much since last year.  She's a completely different player on this team!

Next on our agenda...

Nick spent all of Sunday working on making our porch safe enough to pass inspection so we can close on our construction loan this week.  Finally!  I can't believe it has been a year since we began this process.  And it's really still not done. Maybe this spring will be productive for us.  

Gracie has started practices for softball indoors and will hopefully get outside soon.  Owen will most likely start baseball in April.  Wrestling is still going on for the older kids in the club team, but Owen still wants to go to practices.  Mizzou baseball and softball are underway, so we have more activities to go to.  Gracie is so excited to watch softball!  Nick will be leaving in a couple weeks to travel with the Mizzou wrestling team to Ohio for Nationals.  He was invited by the coach and I think he is looking forward to going.  Before we know it, spring break will be here!