We'll start with Easter, even though it was technically in March. It was a little chilly (I HATE Easter egg hunt pictures with snow coats on, but when you live in Spokane...) We dyed eggs on Thursday night and Levi was SO excited. "We do Eeser eggs when guys come home, mom?!"
We had a lovely Easter sacrament meeting and hosted the Daines for Easter dinner. I was very proud of my two gorgeous cakes and my table decor effort (something I generally don't like to do).
After we got home, we did our annual bike to Red Robin, hiking and Ryan continued his tradition of coming up with fun work projects for the kids to complete every morning.
Spring sports have been in full swing.
Emma: pole vault (PRd last week at 7 feet. She enjoys it and works hard.)
Gabe: track (doing really well. the 2 mile is his jam. He's one of the top three 2 milers in the district, with a PR of 9:46)
Jane: basketball, soccer and track (tried basketball for the first time... so love watching her try new stuff, loves her soccer team and coach, and is about to have her first meet on Thursday...high jump, long jump, 400 and mile)
Seth: soccer and running (he has some natural ability at both, and, as usual, is just always happy to be wherever!)
Faith: soccer (she's learning little by little to harness her natural speed and talent. Loves having Ryan as her coach).
Levi: making things SUPER FUN for the mom that has to drag him to all of the above mentioned events.
It's beyond crazy to get everyone where they need to be and to watch them do their thing, but it's one of the parts of mothering I'm pretty good at and really enjoy.
Ryan had a business trip in San Jose CA last week and I joined him for the weekend before. We left Emma with the kids and she did a great job, even with some pretty serious fevers and coughs. We appreciate how capable and helpful she is. We rented bikes and rode 20 miles around San Fransisco on Saturday and ate lots of yummy food. We did things we'd never done before (riding over the Golden Gate bridge and exploring Golden gate park) and it was the most magical day. On Sunday, we drove inland to go to church and have lunch with my dad and Genie. On our way back in, we swung up the coast and drove down to Pigeon Point light house. It was so pretty and there was even a playful seal on the sand! On Monday, Ryan worked and I hiked with my oldest friend, Tammy, explored San Jose's rose garden and did a little shopping. It was short, easy and so fun!
Levi is OBSESSED with Star Wars. We have an old chess set and he plays Star Fars fighting with anyone who will join him ALL DAY LONG. Ryan made him some cardboard light sabers and he used those for a while too. It's mostly cute (though those dang toys are EVERYWHERE) to see him love something so much.
We also got news in February that he was probably no longer allergic to any nuts, and we've been slowly introducing them. They wanted to hold off on peanuts until we did an In Office Peanut Challenge, where you hang out in the teeny doctor's office for 3 hours while they give increasing doses of peanuts and watch for a reaction. I had to get pretty creative to keep him happy, but it was all worth it when he was declared Nut Allergy Free!
Jane ran for middle school secretary last week and lost. She was so upbeat and prepared and confident about the whole thing. Her speech was great and we were so proud of her bravery! We were a little teary when we heard the bad news, but she talked it out, said she'd run again and celebrated her effort with some ice cream at our favorite restaurant.
We've had a warm warm spring and it's been wonderful. Blossoms, flowers, hikes, bike rides, even swimming in the lake are not usually things we see and do this early in the year, but we've been taking advantage of it!
