About that TIME...

• to put a little spring in our step.  Karson continues with volleyball and had two tournaments in Louisville and Columbia, Kentucky this month. 
  

  

  Yep, that's me yawning.  Volleyball tournaments can certainly make for long days.

   The Louisville tournament (Ultra Ankle Bluegrass) is one of the biggest we've attended. I've never seen that many volleyball courts under one roof.  It was held at the Kentucky Fairground and Exposition center.  My niece Elizabeth also played but it took about 10 minutes to walk down to her court from where we were at. 

This teenager keeps following me around and calling me "mom." It's kind of strange.  Guess I'll keep her.

 Karson reminds me of Michael Jordan with his tongue out - you can usually see her pink tongue when she's "attempting" a kill shot.

We had a Saturday tournament at Lindsey Wilson which was fun because it was small.  Our team faced the other BRAVO 13 team in the finals.  It's bittersweet because you want both teams to win because they are all friends, practice together, go to school together and even scrimmage each other. Both teams played great, but our team came out with the win.  

Karson D. with some major hang time.  She's got quite a vertical for a shrimp.  When we walk around some of these tournaments, we look minuscule compared to some girls.

Girls just wanna have fun OR pile up on top of each other!

Open gyms for both volleyball and basketball  at South start next month so it's going to be a busy spring trying to juggle everything. Speaking of basketball, the team had a banquet a few weeks ago.  It was nice seeing everyone.  Playing ball is so strange - you are with people all the time and suddenly you aren't.  It's nice reconnecting.  Fortunately, some of the girls Karson played basketball with also play volleyball.

About that TIME...

•  for dental check-ups.  Note to self: you know it's time for your 13 year old to leave a Pediatric Dentist when a crazy brother makes faces at her during X-Rays.  I had my dental check-up last week and Miles's is next week  We will all have pearly WHITES this spring.

About that TIME...

• to do some dying, and by dying, I don't mean your hair.

Karson and Elizabeth found some colored hair extensions at Five Below.

My little rabbits dying Easter eggs.  We had a smattering of options from basic dye to marbled or golden eggs.

Isaac chose to dye his hands mostly!

 About that TIME...

• to ride 4-wheelers and jump on the trampoline at Pap's house.

Coco the dog taking the kids for a drive.

About that TIME...

• to get all gussied up and take Easter pictures on our front porch.  Sunday was gorgeous! I didn't have the energy to get up and take pictures of the kids getting into their Easter baskets.  They got lots of fun goodies (Baby Bottle pops, bubble tape, Kit Kats, M&M's, Dove chocolates).  #parentfail #7AMistooearly

I love these special EASTER blessings!

 Worship at Greenwood Park with our family!  

We had a nice Easter lunch at my Mom's house after church.  Dad and I celebrated our birthdays with home made strawberry cake (Thanks Ms. Vicky) and Riley's - double the YUM!  Oh yeah, we had a great meal too but the cake was the best part!

The kids had a big egg hunt in the backyard.  Again, no pictures - what's WRONG with me.  Just trying to enjoy that TIME together, I guess.  That, or my kids are getting older and taking pictures reminds me of that.  OR, I am simply too lazy.  Since I'm almost 40 (eeek), I'll go with the lazy.

About that TIME...to sign off!  Have an eggcellent week!

March Happiness (as opposed to Madness)

It's already MARCH and the weather is beautiful (fingers crossed it sticks around)!  Vitamin D is exactly what I need to catapult me into the spring.  It's pure joy seeing all the daffodils sprouting up. I can't wait to get out in the yard and put flowers in my planters. And, we spring forward next weekend which means our days will be a bit longer - hooray! Karson is about to enter her "puffy-eyed" time of the year with all the mowing, fertilizing, pollination and tree blooms.  Thankfully in middle school, there is no recess which means she'll be indoors most of the day.  When she was in elementary school, I had to send in Visine in case she went outside.

  BRAVO continues...We had a tournament in Huntsville last weekend and have one in Louisville this weekend.  Volleyball practice and tournaments consumes most of our Karson's time. She doesn't seem to mind though and really enjoys playing and having fun with her friends.  I took her to Western Kentucky Orthopaedic and Neurosurgical Associates on Saturday because they were conducting $10 sports physicals.  With open gyms around the corner, I figured we might as well have it done (for cheap too).  It was an experience and totally LEGIT sports physical.  There were stations and trainers everywhere.  It took about 30 minutes to get through the entire process.  I wish we she had been better prepared for it. She didn't even have tennis shoes on.  I also didn't realize the physical would be "graded.".  She was way below the curve in many areas, and the report even stated that she was more likely to get hurt than all of her teammates.  One of the trainers came over and talked us through the report and basically told Karson she needed to do some weight training and work on her core.  I think she felt a little deflated by the report because she works hard on and off the court.  I told her not to worry too much about it, but I could tell she was already thinking about what she could do to work on her core and other areas of default =).  I might have to send her over to Uncle Paul's house for some CrossFit.

While we were in Huntsville, Isaac was competing for Plano Elementary in the district Governor's Cup at Cumberland Trace.  He qualified for Science content testing and also participated in the school quick recall event.  Governor's Cup is an all-day sentence, and I am thankful Matt's parents were gracious enough to take him to the event.  He didn't do as well as he would've liked in science, but the team did really well at Quick Recall and came in 2nd Place.  Colvin and Debbie were keeping me in the loop throughout the event.  His team will move to the Regional Event which takes place at Plano this weekend.  I've asked my parents to take care of Isaac while we are in Louisville.  Thank goodness for our wonderful village of helpers!

 Last week was cram packed as usual, but Isaac had a super special week.  On Monday, he got to see WWE Raw live at Bridgestone.  Pap Colvin got tickets for Isaac's birthday.

 

On Thursday, we finally got to celebrate Isaac's birthday in MARCH (sheesh).  Basketball, snow, quick recall matches and volleyball have monopolized much of our time the last two months.  Isaac had his heart set on Jump Air, but again, I didn't want to plan anything in January (or even February) because of conflicts and weather.  SO, we had it this month.  I scheduled it for a Thursday night because it's less expensive AND less crowded.  I've been there on the weekend, and it's an absolute madhouse.

 Isaac was super excited and loved having all of his buddies there to celebrate with him.  Jump Air is the perfect place for a winter party and a great deal!

 Isaac is all about COOKIE cakes, and I had to order him a 2nd one for his birthday party.  We had one at his Zaxby's party with family back in January.  He also loves it fully iced which makes it extra sugary.

 

I asked  Isaac to write his friends thank you notes while I was with Karson at her physical on Saturday.  His notes were so stinkin' funny.  One of them made me laugh hard - it read...

Dear _______, Thanks for the birthday cash.  I've been in the hole since the book fair.

Classic Isaac right there!  He's such a funny kid!