Catching up. . .

We just got home from Conner's last t-ball practice before his first game (tomorrow evening). He's really excited about the "big game" and is planning on wearing his uniform shirt to school tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be great, too - early 80s and beautiful! A great way to start a season.

His practice tonight was at the baseball fields outside of Monroe Elementary, which is the school he'll go to next year. It worked out well - kindergarten registration was from 3 - 7, so I dropped him off at practice, then Audrey and I went inside to sign him up. The two teachers that were inside taking care of everything said that of the 18 kids they'd seen, 16 of them were boys. (And one of the two girls would probably go to a different elementary school because her mom taught at a school next door.) Can you imagine?! Those poor teachers... I hope some girls show up! They were joking around about it and saying that they were running the New Richmond Academy for Boys.

Mom came down Tuesday afternoon so she could go with us last night to Anderson's Annual Donkey Basketball game. I wasn't sure how Audrey would do around the donkeys because lately she's been terrified of animals that she doesn't know, but she sat with Mom and watched pretty intently (but definitely didn't want to get close or touch them!). Conner had a great time and was excited when we ended up winning the game (in a sudden-death overtime).

We just got home from Conner's last t-ball practice before his first game (tomorrow evening). He's really excited about the "big game" and is planning on wearing his uniform shirt to school tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be great, too - early 80s and beautiful! A great way to start a season.

His practice tonight was at the baseball fields outside of Monroe Elementary, which is the school he'll go to next year. It worked out well - kindergarten registration was from 3 - 7, so I dropped him off at practice, then Audrey and I went inside to sign him up. The two teachers that were inside taking care of everything said that of the 18 kids they'd seen, 16 of them were boys. (And one of the two girls would probably go to a different elementary school because her mom taught at a school next door.) Can you imagine?! Those poor teachers... I hope some girls show up! They were joking around about it and saying that they were running the New Richmond Academy for Boys.

Mom came down Tuesday afternoon so she could go with us last night to Anderson's Annual Donkey Basketball game. I wasn't sure how Audrey would do around the donkeys because lately she's been terrified of animals that she doesn't know, but she sat with Mom and watched pretty intently (but definitely didn't want to get close or touch them!). Conner had a great time and was excited when we ended up winning the game (in a sudden-death overtime).

Easter

I hope everyone had a nice Easter! We certainly did, and really enjoyed the beautiful weather!

We made it to church yesterday morning with just a few problems... Audrey was excited to get her pretty dress on, but didn't want to wear the bow (it was a barrette that I clipped on to her ponytail... but I stuck it on really quick without her noticing!), then she decided that she didn't want to wear the dress, either. I was able to distract her without too much trouble, so the first big crisis was averted. Then Conner was upset because he didn't want to wear the new shirt I'd gotten him - he'd picked out a size 3 gray turtleneck with sports balls all over it. That obviously wasn't going to happen! Finally the kids were both dressed presentably and ready for church.


Conner was worried that the Easter bunny wouldn't make it to the house, but he luckily made it after church while we were getting ready for our lunch (with Papa Doug and Weyla Marge). The kids had a good time running around the front yard looking for all of the eggs.



On Saturday morning we went to the Easter Eggstravaganza at church. They had balloon artists, face painters, a juggler, and lots of games for the kids to play (not to mention lots of eggs and lots of candy!). The kids really seemed to enjoy their time there.



















We went home Saturday afternoon and (after Aud's nap) dyed some eggs... for some reason they all turned out pretty close to the same color! Maybe it was because Conner kept putting all of the eggs into all of the colors. He enjoyed putting stickers on them afterwards.

Spring Break

Today's our first day back at school from Spring Break - this year is going unbelievably fast! Mom and I took the kids down to Hilton Head over break to visit with Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob (and a couple of alligators and lots of turtles and other random animals). It was a long drive in the car, but the kids did great. We actually did a 7-hour day on Tuesday (on the way home) with only 1 stop at a McDonalds for a snack and to play. Amazing.

We left Friday after I got home from school - made it to the other side of Knoxville after a dinner stop, where we stayed for the night. We got up early (courtesy of Audrey's 6:30 AM wake-up!), ate breakfast, then hit the road and arrived at Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob's around 3:30. After dropping off our stuff, we went straight to the beach. I thought the kids would want to go and play but didn't think they'd want to swim - of course, Conner couldn't resist. He was wearing some jean shorts that didn't want to stay up when they got wet, so Mom and Aunt Jan and I had a good time laughing at him running around the beach holding up his pants.

On Sunday morning the kids and I went for a loooong walk while the adults (!) went to church. We'd brought Conner's bike with us, so he rode while Audrey and I walked (or I pushed the stroller, anyway, with a couple of breaks when she wanted to walk). The condo was probably a couple of miles from the beach - our plan was to go to the beach, turn around, and go back. (We almost made it!) We saw a couple of alligators, some turtles, and Conner even spotted a woodpecker on our walk. Conner went with Aunt Jan and mom to the beach in the afternoon while Audrey and I took naps.

On Monday we drove to a Plantation on the island called Sea Pines, which had an area called Harbortown. It was a cute little town-ish type area that had a nice big playground, shops, some neat boats, and a lighthouse that Conner and I climbed up in (114 steps!). It was a beautiful day to wander around. We went back to the condo for Audrey's nap while I took Conner to the beach.



The plan was to leave after lunch on Tuesday, so we wanted to do something active during the morning to get the kids a little worn out. Aunt Jan suggested a place called The Sandbox, which is an indoor interactive children's museum. It was a great idea - the kids ran around and played for a couple of hours and got some energy out before we forced them into the car for the rest of the day. Conner really seemed to enjoy the climbing wall, pirate ship, and airplane controls; Audrey played in the kitchen area for quite a while.We stopped on the way home at a hotel east of Knoxville that had an indoor pool to give the kids an opportunity to stretch their legs. Audrey looked so cute in her new bathing suit!