We're trying something new...

Soccer

I have officially adopted the role as soccer mom and I'm not so sure it's a keeper. The kids seem to enjoy the sport so far but it's wearing me out to be at the soccer fields four days a week for practice and a game on Saturdays (Jacob). Luckily it's a short season! And so far the Saturday games have been rained/snowed out. Jacob has a game scheduled tomorrow. Although it looks like we have rain in our forecast again....
Here are the newest recruits on the Hot Springs Soccer League.....
The day they got their soccer socks in the mail they both were eager to try them on with their chin guards and kick the ball around the front yard.

Let's go fly a kite!

Yesterday was a perfect day to fly a kite!

We rode our bikes up to the park after naps and took Jacob's kite along which he got in his Easter basket.

I never thought a $1 Walmart find would work so well!!
Pat did a great job getting it started and the kids all had fun taking turns flying it.

Happy Easter!

After what seemed to be a quick Lenten journey this year (our days have been packed with soccer, school, Bible studies, home remodeling, yardwork, etc. and it feels like the time since we moved here has flown by)--- the kids had several days of Easter fun.....

Wednesday a package arrived for the kids. Here they are opening it and finding all the neat treasures tucked inside... (THANK YOU NANA and PAPA!)a new visor and swimsuit
a Lebron James t-shirta new book! a truck outfit!Jacob and Hannah quickly got to work on their new books from Nana and Papa.
We dyed Easter eggs on Friday during Sophie's morning nap....in hopes of a less-chaotic time for Mommy. It ended up being quite fun and Pat even took a break from his computer to dye an egg with us.
I love how colorful they are all lined up together!
Saturday we went to the community Easter egg hunt -- a quick but fun event! The eggs were lying all over the grass at the State Veterans Home and they had the kids divided into areas based on their ages. The person in charge of the hunt did a countdown to start the hunt and on the count of one there was a mad dash for the eggs -- a bit chaotic and not my idea of a hunt but the kids had fun. Here they are with the baskets we decorated. There is a neat thrift store in town called "Community Action" that is donation based. We found these wicker baskets at the store and I got Easter ribbon and a trusty glue gun to decorate them. It was a fun project to do together.
On Sunday we went to the sunrise Easter service at church and had breakfast at church following the service. We took a few pics in our Easter finest...And then changed into our comfy clothes and hopped in the car to head up to Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. We drove the game loop through Custer and saw several herds of buffalo, pronghorn, mule deer, and burros. Many of the female animals were looking quite full with child. It will be fun to go up there in a month or so and see the babies. It was a beautiful ride and we are so blessed to be so close to these parks. We're excited to explore them more this summer!
After naps on Sunday we had a more challenging Easter egg hunt for the kids. Pat and I had fun hiding the eggs while the big kids were out for a walk with Nana.
I can't reach that sneaky egg!
I cooked Easter dinner (the traditional ham, potatos, green beans, etc) -- and had fun trying out a few new recipes (cabbage salad and coconut cake). It was yummy and the leftovers the next day were even better. Hannah had fun designing fancy napkin rings for our Easter dinner as one of her school projects for the week. She is becoming quite crafty! A fun thing to share with her.
Sophia's 1st Easter

What we've been up to.....

Learning Letters (every afternoon during the week I work with Hannah on learning her letters). A few weeks ago we did the letter R and spent a day talking about rainbows. The kids were home for a snow day so we all had fun making this rainbow cake together -- and even more fun eating it!)

Climbing Trees (Jacob and Hannah made it up in the tree in our backyard last weekend while I was out bundling brush. They both had fun being up high -- Hannah needed help down which jogged my memory of a few times I called for my Dad to help me down from the neighbors tree)
Getting Ready for Easter (we made fancy Easter eggs to decorate our house for Easter -- can you guess who made each one?)