Spring Break Fun

This past week was Spring Break and, like in many years past, we chose to stay home and have more of a "staycation". Unlike in past years, I think we really made the most of our time this year. We crammed lots of fun in just one short week. Let's break it down day by day.

On Monday, we went to Enchanted Forest. For 13 years we have driven past Enchanted Forest. We even have had admission passes for the last 4 or so years and still haven't made it happen. I wasn't sure how the experience would be. My understanding was it was a nursery rhyme themed amusement park that was geared more towards younger kids. Given that Merrick is now 15, I encouraged him especially to keep his expectations low. To our surprise, while it is in fact a nursery rhyme themed amusement park, there were things to do and see that appealed to all of us. In all fairness, I do think Elsie enjoyed it the most. It was pretty magical in her eyes.

Tuesday, Jeremy took the day off and joined us on our adventures. We spent the day out at a campground called Camp Dakota. While we didn't stay over and camp, we bought adventure wristbands to participate in all the daytime activities. We did rock wall climbing, disc golf, Lego car building and racing, and tomahawk throwing. The highlight of the day, however, was the archery. It turns out we all really like archery and spent much of the day at the archery range. Elsie, in particular was set on mastering it. It was a struggle for her. She spent much of the day unable to reach the target, but she didn't give up. Time after time, she steered us back to archery so she could keep practicing. On our last visit, the girl running the station said that she thought Elsie was big enough to use the full sized bow and encouraged her to give it a try. With Jeremy guiding her on how far to pull it back and how high to aim, she was finally able to hit the target. We were all super proud of her perseverance.

Wednesday was a local day. We spent the day shopping. We hit a bunch of stores, including our favorite thrift store and went to lunch. It was a more low key day, but still fun.

Thursday, I was supposed to go help my mom start her bathroom remodel, but she wasn't up to it so instead, she and I went shopping for some of the remaining pieces she needed for the remodel. The kids enjoyed a day of hanging out with friends and cousins. Merrick started the day at the church playing basketball with friends, while the girls hung out with our family friend, Coco Salo. While they were away, the Brown cousins reached out and they all ended up going straight from hanging out with friends to hanging out with cousins. It worked out well because I had made plans to hang out with my BFF, Shaunell, that evening and the kids were all occupied until after Jeremy got home.

Friday, Jeremy took the day off again and we went to the Pinball Museum and Arcade. I know I have talked about this place before, but it never disappoints. After a day of about as much stimulation as we could handle, we wrapped things up with a trip to the Nike Employee Store and dinner out.

Saturday, our kids dispersed again and each hung out with friends.

That brings us to today. Today we went to church and are preparing for the week ahead. It's going to be a busy one, as usual. I'm just so thankful for this past week we had to recharge. Hopefully, it's enough to power us through the next 10 weeks until summer.

Welcome Spring (Sports)

 This past week we celebrated the first day of spring and I, for one, am ready for some sunshine and warmer days of spring. Spring is also a  really busy time for our family with spring sports and activities. Merrick just started baseball and had his first ever high school baseball game (a win). For the first time ever, he found himself not at first base, but in the outfield. He seems to be enjoying it overall, but the transition from basketball to baseball has been hard on him this year and in many ways I think this might be a make it or break it season for him with baseball. I'm sure I'll report more on his experience as we progress through the season.

Carrigan's spring sports will start in just over a week. I reported last week that she had her last dance competition a week ago, but she officially wrapped up the season this week with a friends and family performance. Up next, she will continue with horses, but is adding track and field. Once the season gets going, we will see what she ends up enjoying, but right now she is planning on participating in long jump and high jump. She will also be attending weekly volleyball clinics.

Also, in just over a week, Elsie will start softball. This week she had her softball opening night. She enjoyed playing some games and getting a softball signed by the high school varsity team. She is really excited and is already asking to have Jeremy take her out to practice hitting.

Things are about to start getting really busy around here (as if they weren't already). But first, SPRING BREAK!!!! We aren't going anywhere, but have some fun things planned. You'll have to check back next week for a full report on the fun. We've already started on the fun though. We took advantage of some good weather yesterday and headed to the park for some bike riding and batting practice. Batting practice may or may not have turned into base races and a base running relay race. It was good to have a quieter Saturday to just spend some time together as a family.

Juggling Act

 Parenting feels like a constant juggling act, especially as the kids get older and are involved in more activities. Getting everyone to and from where they need to be is a full-time job, on top of my regular full-time job. 

This week Carrigan had an extra horseback riding lesson, which I was not aware of until 10 minutes after it started. Sometimes the juggling doesn't go well and the balls end up on the floor. But, despite the misstep, we all mostly got where we needed to be this week.  We made it to:

6 baseball practices

3 dance practices

1 dance competition

1 birthday party

1 state tournament basketball game

2 cupcake baking fundraising activities

2 horseback riding lessons

2 playdates

After this week, dance will be done and that will be helpful. Unfortunately, CC has asked if she can do track and field, which will have practice 4 days a week. Merrick's baseball games start this week and he will have games or practice 6 days a week. Elsie starts softball the first week of April.

Thankfully, I only have to make it through this week and then it will be Spring Break. Do you think I can just sleep the whole week and bank that time so I have more time in the day moving forward? If only it worked that way. Some people feel they need a landscaper or house cleaner. I could probably use that too, but what I really need is a chauffeur.

How do I say "no" though. Their cute faces and their smiles as they do the things they love make it worth it at the end of the day. 

Independence

 There is this thing that happens as your kids get older, they develop all these interests and have a whole life independent from you. It's happens slowly and then one day, you are left wondering when it happened that they became so independent. I have been feeling this a lot over the last few months. 

My kids have always been busy on the weekends. We have sat through more baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and volleyball games than I can count. Up till now we have been heavily involved with these things. Sure the kids were gone, but we were gone with them. 

Now, Merrick has shifted to high school sports where (at least for basketball) games were all the weekdays and he had his weekends mostly free. He started reffing and would be gone for a good chunk of the day. Add to that that most weekends, he goes off to church dances and on the weekdays, he has practice most days, and you have a recipe for why I feel like I never see him. Here is a picture of him from the dance yesterday. I wouldn't know...I wasn't there...

Carrigan has also started down this path of independence. She has been going to dance 2-3 times a week straight from school. They are also now in their heavy competition season. That means on competition Saturdays, she goes to the competition on the bus with her team and she is gone for about 12 hours. We show up and watch her perform, but mostly she is just gone.

Thankfully, I still have Elsie. Although, she is gone on playdates more and more. My grasp on her is tenuous at best. Just give it time. Maybe it's time for another baby...or maybe a hobby....definitely a hobby.

Let's Compete

 This week was a big one on the competition front for two of the three kids. Merrick had his last two basketball games of the season. They were both home games and against two of the better teams in our division. Tuesday, we won against Oregon City, no problem. Friday, we faced Tualatin, a team we lost to the last time we faced off, after leading for most of the game.

We were ready for a fight on Friday night and hungry to win on our home turf and for our last game of the season. Much like the the first time we played them, we jumped out to a solid lead in the first half. Then, much like the first time we played them, they started to climb back in it. Ultimately, they tied it up. What came next was a what can only be described as a battle of three's. Back to back, possession after possession each team scored three after three. Finally, we started to get some stops and we pulled away. We ended up winning 86-82. It was a really great way to end the season.

It was a great season for Merrick and I am sorry to see it end. I am already looking forward to next season, but lest you think we have a minute to rest, baseball tryouts start tomorrow. So, for Merrick, it's on to the next sport.

This week was a big competition week for C.C. as well. She had her second dance competition of the season down in SW Salem. Since we ended up missing the last competition, we were very motivated to get there nice and early. This time we made it in plenty of time and ended up seeing all of the first half of the competition (the second half is all high school).

In the end, C.C.'s team took second in the middle school jazz division. We think they were "hometowned" as the winning team was the middle school that fed into the host high school. The team did great though and we were so proud of her and the whole team.

Elsie's Birthday

For blog post #2 today, I wanted to report on Elsie's birthday. Elsie turned 7 yesterday and we had a great day celebrating her. We started the day with a birthday breakfast and opening family presents. We then spent the rest of the morning getting ready for an epic Taylor Swift party with seventeen 6 and 7-year-old.

After much prep work, the party was about as smooth as possible. We had loads of Taylor Swift fun. We painted guitar keychains, played T-Swift bingo, had pizza and cupcakes, had a karaoke dance party, and made friendship bracelets.

 Once all the friends went home, Elsie opened her presents from her friends. She was very spoiled and got TONS of Taylor Swift themed presents. She then got to spend several hours opening and playing with her new presents while we cleaned up and recovered from the party. We ended the day with a fun birthday dinner at Red Robin.

We are so thankful for Elsie and to have her as part of our family. Elsie loves big and feels big. She always brings the fun and energy. We can't wait to see what the year brings for her.