Fun stuff!

Dan has been growing his goatee out for a while now - maybe 6 months?  It finally got so long and scraggly that we needed to give it a little trim - but he loves measuring it by Kylie's hand length, so he had me take a picture of it before we trimmed it!

At school, they have a Daddy's and Doughnut's morning - where Dad's get to come in with their kids and have doughnuts for breakfast!  The kids were super excited to have Dan drive them up and go with them!  Dan said it was packed out and that he knew a ton of dad's there!

I had the opportunity to go in and be a Mystery Reader at Kylie's school again (I had done it in October before)!  I asked Grammy if she wanted to go instead - and she did!  We brought the class to the front hall (Kylie's teacher and principal were so kind in arranging it all!) and Kylie LOVED having Grammy there to read to them!  Grammy gave 5 clues about herself to the teacher and the teacher read them throughout the day so kids could guess who would be there - they were:

1.  My favorite colors and blue and yellow.

2.  I love planting flowers in my garden.

3.  I love going to the beach with my family.

4.  I love tomato juice! (This is the one where Kylie KNEW it was Grammy!)

5.  I'm a grandmother!

She read Emil the Octopus and lots of poems out of Poems to Read to the Very Young! 

Random Happenings

 Kylie and Jack used my phone to take pics of themselves with their names they wrote in dominoes :)

 Jack's name

 We attended our church's Children's Volunteer Appreciation dinner.  I assumed it would be some random dinner.  I should have known better!  It had a baseball theme, dinner from Potbelly's and loads of entertainment!  Cracker Jacks, Take me out to the Ballgame, Babe Ruth baseball clips, a "Good News" Bear mascot, slingshot tshirts (where one also got stuck in the rafters) and a relay race!  Megan and Jack got to attend, too, since they volunteer in the toddler rooms every Sunday!

Relay race!

 Fun table decorations - AND Jack won 2 tickets to a Nats Game in May because he was the youngest volunteer!  He's excited to attend with Dan!!!

 Megan's been having LOTS of practice for the upcoming musical!  Here she is onstage in the middle left practicing "Momma I'm a Big Girl Now"!

We've been LOVING the warmer weather and the chance to get out and play with our neighborhood!  And getting to see this little one outside a bit, too!

Kylie had her friend over for a playdate and they had a great time having snack and playing outside!

 Then the next week we had another friend of Kylie's over and played kickball outside with the kids!  Mr. Corey even joined in and was the only one who was able to get Jack out!

 Jack's team won by a landslide - but the other team kind of had fun :)

 Spring sports have started!  They've had a lot of rained out practices, which has kind of been nice - but the first games were chilly outside!

 Kylie had her first 2 games on the same day and hasn't had a game the last 2 weekends!

 Headed to practice!

 Posing with Pappy!

And watching Jack's game!  His second game he scored and it was an awesome shot - he was one on one with the goalie and instead of booming it into the corner, he kind of tapped it with the outside of his right foot and sent it into the far right corner and totally faked the goalie out - it was awesome and such an amazing display of skill and restraint!

 Megan has started another season of volleyball in a different program and different format!  She has practice and then plays her game right after the practice!  It's been really fun to watch her!

And at church on Palm Sunday, we had a Christian Passover Sedar meal!  It was amazing to walk through it and see what happens and why!  They set the table all up and then had 4 kids partake of it - all the while, reading through the scripture and readings that go with it.  

 It was very cool!

Family Get Together at Mom Mom's

We got to spend the day at Mom Mom and Pappy's house hanging out with Matt and Tiff's family and Sarah's family!  We hadn't met Jimmy, Matthew or little Cylis, so we were so excited to finally get to meet them!  We had a great time there, celebrated March birthdays in the morning and had a yummy lunch in the afternoon!  I also got to update Mom Mom's pictures of their grandkids for their wall - since I could take pics of Matthew and Cylis!

 Megan opening her present from Mom Mom and Pappy!

 Dan opening his present!

 Mom Mom and Meg

 Cylis (a happy boy!)

 Matthew

And all the kiddos having dessert!

Basketball Party at Coach Bev's Home!!!

Jack's basketball coach had an end of the year party at her home on March 23rd!  We had heard that the house was amazing and that it was such a great time from the kids on the team last year - so we were so excited to go!  Her husband owns his own Masonry business, so their home is AMAZING!!!  All brick and slate and stone - the driveway, the house, everything about it!  They have animals and land and a river and I could post for hours on what a great time we had and the stories she told us, but I'll try to keep it short(er)!  

She did tell us to have the kids wear clothes they could get muddy in and to bring an extra change of clothes, as well as extra shoes.  Parents could either drop them off or stay and siblings were welcome!  We stayed and had a blast!

A side view of the house - amazing brick porch and brick columns!

Coach Bev took the boys (and any sibling that could fit) on her 4 wheeler to go see the Black Angus cows they have!  Dan and I and some other parents followed her daughter through the woods and along some fencing to get to the cows.  

When we came to this electric fence, the 7 year old daughter ducked through it between the second to last and third to last lines.  We asked what we were supposed to do and she said to just go through it - so a parent grabbed the top line, not thinking it was electrified.  It was.  And she got a huge shock - but was so good about not being to rattled by it!  She was a trooper!  The daughter came back for us and explained that two of the lines weren't electrified, so we could just go through them - and we did!

Coach Bev explained to the kids and parents that they have 70 Black Angus here that they breed and sell and that they have them bred within 2 weeks of each other, so that in the spring they calve almost all at the same time!  She said that they normally lose about 4 calves - 3 to not surviving the birth and 1 to mountain lions in the area!  (Dan and I didn't even know there were mountain lions in the area!)  

Then we walked up a bit to the Angus - but couldn't get much closer since some were new mommies and really protective!

Me and my Tweeter

 Then all the kids piled on again to go down to the creek!

 

 The girls rode up front and the boys in the back!

 

This fun creek we got to walk along for a while!  Coach Bev explained that she uses a chuck wagon triangle to call her kids to come back inside on most days - they are allowed to roam anywhere on her property, but they have to be within hearing distance of the bell - and have to be back in 10 minutes when they hear the bell, or the time gets shortened the next time!

 

Kylie had fun walking on downed trees and Jack loved throwing things in the creek!

 

This crazy tree on the far side of the bank was growing out of a rock that jutted in the creek!

 Me and my Moopert

 

 Coach Bev's house and yard is insane!  Her husband explained that he has built it all himself - over the last 15 years.  He normally has 1 project each summer that he works on to complete!

A koi pond with a water wheel and waterfall

 A pergola with a hot tub in it - and iron gate that locks to keep kids out when they aren't using it!

 Beautiful flowers that they've planted all around - Coach Bev's husband explained that he planted everything so that at all times throughout the growing season, something would be in bloom always!

They had an amazing portico that he's just finishing - with a huge stone fireplace and HDMI plugs for a tv, a fridge, a stone sink he's putting in and these cool ceiling fans!

 The pool that separates their house from her parent's home!

 Dan on an amazing brick bridge that runs over the little river in their backyard from the Koi pond

 In ground gas fire pit!

Megan on a rock in their back yard pond

They have fun animals, too!  They have ducks and geese and bunnies in these three yards here - and two houses!

 

They have a goat who lives with 2 pigs!

 Dan loved the goat - Kylie loved the pigs!

The pigs were 475lbs each!

 Kylie in the chicken coop!

Trying to catch a duck!

And driving home after an amazing day!

We had a wonderful time and loved getting to see everything and know them a bit more!