March Madness

 March is slowly slipping away and much has happened this month.  Matt took a group of 24 - AP U.S. History students to Boston in early March.  I decided to sit this trip out (even though it was so much fun last year). He has a Twitter account for his APUSH class.  I felt like I got to experience the entire trip without even being present.  We sure did miss him and were excited when he got back home.  The kids made him a sign that said "Welcome Home Dad" and when they flipped it around, it said "We Missed You."

Our chicken Dumplin' is still around and becoming more and more used to us.  In fact, she will eat out of Karson's hand now.  I've tried to be careful how much we feed her because she's not the most popular hen in our neighborhood.  She belongs to one of our neighbors on an adjoining street.  She gets in everyones mulch and POOPS everywhere.  She's a bit of a nuisance.  However, she's at our doorstep every single morning and ready for some bread.  If I don't feed her immediately, she makes this ridiculous clucking noise.  She's a bit demanding.

 

I believe at one point this month, we had at least 7-8 kids at our house one weekend.  The beautiful weather means kids are OUT.  We are ready for SPRING!  We love having playdates with our neighbors and friends from school.  

  

  Karson's friend Elizabeth hung out with us last Saturday.  We did some running around and started the morning off with a trip to Panera.  From there, we went over to Ollie's Army for some Easter candy and where the girls got these lovely tattooes. A samurai, really?  We also found Karson's Easter dress at my friends Boutique.  I love this dress and wish it came in my size.  I am still working on finding the boys some matching shirts.  I got a nice neon green one at The Children's Place.  I'd love to find a shirt in the baby blue color as well.  I may stick with black and a bright scarf.  I don't know.  I usually throw something together at the last minute.

There are lots of things to plan during the month of March, it seems.  As a mom, you have to plan the whole Easter outfit thing, Matt had to plan the Boston trip, you are looking to plan what you "may" do on Spring Break, March is a birthday month in our family which means you are planning for those, and I have also managed to put myself into the planning of both a 6th Grade Trip for Plano Students and my 20th high school reunion this month. 

 

We love Plano Elementary.  It's a wonderful school, and our teachers are simply awesome.  However, like many of the schools in our area who take big trips with their 6th graders, our school doesn't do that sort of event.  A few of us decided to take it upon ourselves to try and plan a special event for our 6th grade class.  After a few months of discussion and permission from our school's principal and the 6th grade teachers, we organized a fun day in Nashville for our class.  I set up a facebook account through our Panther Happenings page and also sent 80+ flyers home with the all the students.  I hope we have a good turn out - I know spring sports occupy lots of Saturdays.

 

I have also been a part of planning my high school's 20th reunion.   I set up a facebook group page, and a handful of us have been kicking around ideas for the reunion.  I can hardly believe it's already been 20 years!  Wow!  In the spirit of simple, we have decided to couple our reunion with a Friday night football game and picnic in the park on Saturday.  Most of our classmates have kids, and we wanted to do something simple that didn't require collecting money ahead of time or putting a deposit down and family friendly.  We felt like if everyone was actually in town for the weekend, different groups could plan get together's outside of those two events.

 

We celebrated my dad's 65th birthday last Sunday.  His actual birthday was on Thursday, but last Sunday was gorgeous and the perfect time to celebrate.  We went over to Shannon's for a cook out.  I got him one of those DQ Blizzard cakes which are simply divine!  They are my new favorite - solid ice cream with a cookie crunch center and icing.  YUM!

My dad isn't hard to please at all, but it is always tricky trying to figure out what to get him for his birthday.  I had heard the best things about comedian Brian Regan who was scheduled to perform at SKyPAC on Friday night.  Anyone who knows my dad, knows he's a character.  AND, I love a good comedian.  We decided to purchase tickets for the four of us to see him as a birthday gift.  We met at Buckhead for dinner and headed over to SKyPAC after.  Regan was highly entertaining and very clean, which is not mainstream comedy.

 

The church has its annual Easter Egg Hunt this afternoon at my parents house.  It was a bit chilly but sunny and actually perfect for an egg hunt.  Last year it was so hot that all the chocolate candy had melted by the time it was found.  It takes about an hour to hide all the eggs (over 1,000).  We intentionally separated the chocolate eggs into their own bag this year to try and remedy the chocolate mess.  However, the cool weather aided with keeping the chocolate solid.  Our kiddos always look forward to the big hunt.  We are officially down to only two egg hunters, and I'm afraid Isaac may be done after this year =(.  My babies are getting older and bigger.

They are never too big for bubbles.  There's nothing like holding them over the heat/cooling unit to make massive amounts of bubbles too.

Our hunters.  After my mom explained to the kids who would hunt "inside" the fence area and who would hunt "outside" the fence area, we snapped some pictures and off they roared.  I mean, literally, they roared.  It reminded of the 300 Battle cry.

The March Madness continues tomorrow as I celebrate my 38th birthday!  AHHHH! You may hear me scream a rather large Battle Cry!

Mom's gathering post-hunt.  Why no, we were not raiding our kids Easter baskets for goodies!