A Little Bit of Spring

The past couple weeks have gone quickly.  Before spring break, Owen had his music concert at school, followed by grandparents' day and an ice cream social at school the next day.  My mom came up and spent the day with them.  They had a great time.  We had a great evening to begin spring break and a pretty quiet week.  The kids spent a few days at the lake with my parents and Nick and I had a relaxed week at work, before the kids came home and we went back to doing our activities.

Really nice night right before spring break began.

Roasting hot dogs on the fire!

They decided to try to use the tramp again.

It works mom!!!

Nick helped them flip it over again

Done!  Seems pretty safe.

I think Tom loves the weather, too.

Glow sticks!

All lit up.

Owen started one of our mounds on fire.  Nick told him he could because the grass needed burned off.  I think Owen was shocked an so proud of himself when the fire actually started.  He used the end of a stick.  That was such a fun night.

Like I mentioned before, the week of spring break was pretty uneventful.  We just worked and the kids had fun at the lake.  It wasn't nearly as nice when they returned home at the end of the week, but they had the horses out for a couple days anyway.  Tom and I just watched.  Notice all the green!

Owen tried to ride dancer and at first she ran away from him when he tried to get on.  He tried to chase her and got kicked, but in the end he won.  She wasn't very happy about the situation.

Thor didn't want the other horses to go far.  He was a little upset when they were too far away to see.

Happy girl.  Owen rode Sonita, too, but I didn't get out fast enough to get a picture.

Pizza!  This was the first time we made pizza at our "new" house!

Nick let me make the dough this time.  I think it turned out all right.

Nick and I went for a walk around the pond the other night.  He was making fun of me for wanting a picture of the sunset.  I think it turned out alright.

Softball...it has begun!!!!

It was so great to have a beautiful day for the first softball games.  It has not been that way in the past.  Nick is excited to be coaching Gracie's team this year and they started the spring season off pretty well.  There were only two teams entered in the Columbia tournament this weekend, so they just played a double header.  Owen and I went to the park prior to the game while they were warming up.  So happy to see that he wasn't too old to have fun at the park.  It wasn't quite the same excitement that he had a couple years ago, but he enjoyed being outside.

Mr. Monkey, just hanging around.

Righty....

...lefty.

I was happy that Nick let the girls try a lot of things during this game and had a smile on his face the majority of the time.  Well, close enough to a smile for Nick.  It was fun to watch.  IT was a nice warm up to the season and the team looked good for only having two practices outdoors prior to this.

Gracie on 1st after a slap hit.

Catching

Pitching

Stealing 3rd

Overall it was a great day and I think the girls had a lot of fun!  After Gracie's 1st at-bat, (struck out) she settled down and did great; single, homerun, two slaps.  She got to catch, play shortstop and pitch.  They won both games, and I hope this is a good indication of how the spring will go.  I'm sure they'll face teams that are a little more challenging, though.

Grilling out at home after

Goofy kid!

Another goofy kid!

After dinner last night we all worked together to spread 40 bags of mulch on the back terraced flower beds.  It was dark by the time we got it done, but it already looks so much better.  Most of the lilies that we planted last summer made it and we'll need to plant a lot more to fill up that area.  But we have a good start.  We also had someone out to measure and give us an estimate for gutters.  Hopefully that will help with all the water in the back.  Slowly, but surely, making progress.

I'm so happy that spring is finally here!  I know there will still be days that aren't as nice, but we'll start getting more and more beautiful days strung together.  Gracie and Nick have already headed to Mizzou softball this morning, so Owen and I will have to figure out how we're going to spend our Sunday.  It's his turn to have baseball practice this afternoon!