Baseball, Soccer, Basketball, and Skydiving

This weekend could be summed up with the word "Sports"! We started Friday night at Dalton's baseball game. Joel pitched for part of the game in his khakis and loafers. That is SO Joel!

Saturday morning brought the girls' soccer game. Ava had lost another tooth at school on Friday so I had to get a picture of her with 3 teeth on the top missing.

Then it was game time! We were playing one of the hardest teams in the league so we really wanted to win! The girls played so hard but we ended up losing the game 3-2. Elia scored one goal! Here is a picture of Elia with that determined look on her face.

I was so proud of how Ava played. Some of the girls on the other team were twice her size but that did not stop little Ava. She is small but mighty!

Here are both girls going after the ball:

And here is Elia after she scored her goal:

We decided to do something different Saturday night so we took the girls to a Grizzlies game. We started off on Beale Street.

The girls got to see the Beale Street Flippers.

Then we ate dinner at Miss Polly's.

Miss Polly's is known for their chicken and waffles. (I stuck to just the waffle part of dinner.)

Ava is my little carnivore who does not let the fact that chicken came from a live animal bother her one bit.

Then it was on to the Grizzlies game! The girls were so excited!

They had to get cotton candy and popcorn of course!

They also brought along their allowance to spend in the gift shop. Ava ended up with a stuffed Grizzlies bear, and Elia bought a Grizzlies basketball.

During the fourth quarter of the game, you could find Elia shouting and dancing in her seat.

And here is how you would find Ava at this point in the game:

Ava was fully passed out by the time we made it home! The Grizzlies won! Go Grizz!

We drove to Whiteville on Sunday afternoon to surprise Mindy on her 60th birthday. The reason we were in Whiteville was because Mindy was skydiving for her 60th birthday so we all met there to watch the big jump!

David Stalls was there with Sunny, and David decided to take the plunge as well. You gotta love the hearse they have parked out front!

Here is David coming in:

Here is David and Sunny after he safely landed.

After David's jump we had to wait a while because it started to rain. Once the rain passed through, it was Mindy's turn!

And her happy friends and family with Mindy who made it safely to the ground! Happy 60th Birthday Mindy!

The funniest thing from the whole day was the videographer who videotaped people's jumps. He is not only a sky dive trainer and jumper, but he is also an ER doctor and the town coroner. HA! I couldn't resist taking a picture of what was printed on his sleeve!

Brandy and I have made it our goal to sky dive on our 40th birthday! Look out!

Busy Birthday Weekend!

We started our weekend off celebrating my Nana's 93rd birthday. We took her to dinner at Mezcal and then for dessert at Yogurt Mountain. Poor Nana can't see or hear very well but she's got a mind that is stronger than we want at times. LOL! Here is me with Nana at dinner:

I think she enjoyed all the choices at Yogurt Mountain.

All the kiddos sure love Yogurt Mountain! In fact, we go there so much that Elia was just telling me today that it has been an entire week since we have been. HA!

The girls did not have a soccer game this week which was kind of nice because we got to chill out and just enjoy the day on Saturday. Saturday night we went to Fox Ridge to surprise Monica for her 40th birthday!!!!

I love my 2nd grade team!!!!!! (and Katy!)

We went to church Sunday morning. We have not been members at Faith Arlington long, but we are liking it more and more every Sunday. We have started going to the Sunday school class and we are really enjoying it. The sermon was a good one this Sunday too. It came from Matthew 28:16-20. Here are some notes I took from the sermon:

1. We have a divine mandate to follow- Go, Baptize, Teach

2. We have a divine message to follow.

3. We have a divine mission to follow.

4. We have a divine mentor to follow. (We are promised His presence and His power.)

This message really spoke to me!!!

We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon taking a Sunday afternoon nap, taking the girls to soccer practice, and getting ready for the week. 29 more school days until summer break!!!!!

Week Before Easter

We started this week off on Monday with Miley's 3rd birthday. She got a new "lambie" for her birthday which she loves!

All of my teacher friends were excited because this week was only a 4 day work week. We all decided to go to Yogurt Mountain after school on Thursday to celebrate! Here are all the girls with baby Livia:

Ava LOVES babies, especially sweet Livia!

Once we left Yogurt Mountain, we brought the whole entourage over to the cove so the kids could play. We had about 20 kids playing ball in the cove. They had a blast. Then we all went to Game Time for dinner.

We met my parents, and my brother's family at Rizzi's for lunch on Friday. Then we headed back to the cove for an egg hunt. Here is the gang ready to hunt eggs:

I love that the girls still love the egg hunts. I am sure next year, one of them may have out grown the hunts so I tried to soak up every second this year.

This picture is SO Austin. He lined up all his eggs to see how many he got.

After the egg hunt, all the kids headed to the backyard to jump on the trampoline.

Saturday morning brought the girls' 2nd soccer game. Their team won 1-0 and Elia scored the goal! She loves her sports! This is a picture of Ava before the game. I am not sure why I didn't get one of Elia.

Saturday night we headed over to Kevin's parents for Easter dinner. The girls love playing on all their land and climbing their trees.

When we got home, we set out the Easter baskets for the bunny, and the girls each wrote a letter to the bunny.

The Easter bunny came and here is what he left the girls! I was really glad the bunny was practical this year and got the girls things like pajamas and sidewalk chalk (things they will really use).

Ava woke up around 7am (yawn!) to check out what the bunny left. Then she enjoyed a Reese's bunny for breakfast.

Elia woke up about 30 minutes later. She took a while to actually wake up.

Then it was the mad rush to get everyone ready for church in their Sunday best. Church service was at 9:30 this morning so things were looking good when we were all ready by 9:00. That was until it was time to take Easter pictures. Someone was not happy about getting their picture made, or it could have been because the grass was green or the sky was blue. Who knows but she was sure a sour puss when I broke out the camera. Then things went from bad to worse. I was screaming at her, she was crying, Kevin was trying to get everyone in the car, and Ava was freezing. What a lovely Easter morning! HA!

Once we got home from church, Elia said she was ready to try pictures again and as you can see, I got better results this time. Our neighbor takes pictures so he also came over with his high tech camera and got some shots of the girls and our family. I will post those as soon as I get them from him.

After the girls changed, they tried to fly their new kites. However, the wind as not quite strong enough.

Once we went inside, I managed to take a GOOD 3 hour nap!!! It was so nice. Then I went over to Carol's, woke her up from her nap, and we sat outside while the kids hid eggs from each other one last time!

HAPPY EASTER!!!