New Life- Week 100 (!) (Elsie's 4th Birthday)

 Before I dive into this week's blog, can we just address that it's been 100 weeks since we first adjusted our lives for Covid.  100 weeks!!! Will life ever be normal again? I sure hope so.

Now on to the good stuff, this week was Elsie's 4th birthday!  As is tradition, she got to choose all meals on her special day.  She chose cinnamon rolls for breakfast, mac and cheese for lunch, and Papa John's pizza for dinner.  She had preschool in the morning and got to celebrate with cupcakes.  After school we played, read books, and made her birthday cake.  After Carrigan got out of school Elsie chose to stay at the school and play with friends at the playground.

That evening, after dinner, we had the family over for cake, ice cream and presents.  To say that Elsie was spoiled is a complete understatement.

Luckily for Elsie, that wasn't the end of her birthday fun.  Yesterday we had a party at the playground for her preschool friends.  Originally, it was supposed to be 50 degrees and cloudy but unfortunately luck was NOT on our side.  Too late to change the plan for the party, rain rolled in.  Not just rain but 100% chance of rain rain.  It rained solidly for the entire party and the temperature plummeted to 38 degrees.  Everyone was FREEZING!  Despite that, everyone stayed for the entire time. The girls played on the playground, did sidewalk calk, and made a springtime craft.  We definitely made the best of a less than ideal situation.

Now time for the weekly tournament update.  Since I blogged last week before the Monday games, we ended up undefeated and won the President's Day tournament.  That qualified us for the Washington state tournament, which we won't actually compete in.  This weekend we played in the same type of tournament as last weekend but in the next division up.  Yesterday we had two dominant wins and came into today in first place.  Today we played two very difficult teams.  The first game we led almost the entire game before letting them climb back in and having to go to OT.  In OT we were behind by 2 with about 11 seconds left.  One of Merrick's teammates ended up hitting a 3 point buzzer-beater to win the game.  In the second game, after trailing early on, the team climbed back in and took the lead.  They never gave it up and won by 10 to take the championship.  This was a huge win because while Merrick's team is a "B team", winning the tournament means the qualified for the state tournament in the A division (they had already qualified in the B division).  Now they have a decision to make.

The other highlight of the tournament was Merrick's defensive play.  He was ON FIRE! He had more blocks than I can count and literally shut down the other bigs he played against.  He ended up winning the "Chain Gang" award from his coach for a second time.  His coach even said a ref came up to tell him that Merrick was something special.  That definitely makes you feel good!

It was a good week and weekend.  Now on to the two state tournaments! 

New Life- Week 99 (Valentine's Day and Millie's Birthday)

 This week started with Valentine's Day.  Since it fell on a Monday this year, Elsie and I were home together.  She was my big helper as I prepared for our traditional "love hunt" and she helped me make special Valentine's sugar cookies.

Carrigan came home from school packing her bag of valentines and lots of candy she was ready to dive into.  Merrick came home from school with a love note from a girl asking him to be "more than friends".  EEEK!  I was not ready for that and neither was he.  He asked how to say "thanks but no thanks" without hurting her feelings.

I had planned dinner (chicken, pitas, and hummus) before I realized it was Valentine's Day so I improvised by scrapping the pitas and making homemade, heart shaped naan instead.  We had our Valentine's sugar cookies for dessert, but before dessert the kids were dying to have the "love hunt".

This was our first "love hunt" in the new house so it was fun to come up with new places to hide clues around the house.  As you may remember, at each stop there is some candy and a note with things we love about each child, Merrick was still the designated reader at each stop but now that Carrigan is a great reader this may be his last year as the reader.  He wanted to rush through the mushy love stuff, get the candy and move on to the next clue.  They had fun running around the house and Millie thought it is was fun trying to keep up.

At the end, Merrick got some basketball cards and a new water bottle, Carrigan got some shrinky dink and origami crafts, and Elsie got a Chelsea car with a new Chelsea and doggie.  Elsie was the cutest because she kept saying "All I can say is, thank you!" and "How much did this cost?!?!".  Jeremy also got me some beautiful flowers and I got us some new toothbrushes.  You can tell by his face how excited he was about the toothbrushes.  I thought it was a very practical gift since our current Sonicares are on their last legs, but he is pretty set that toothbrushes are NOT a gift.  Oh well.  I reminded him that one year for Christmas he gave me a blow dryer so I guess we are even.

Today is Millie's 2nd birthday and since she is a very spoiled doggy, she got presents and "pup cakes".  Elsie was hoping we would skip over Millie's birthday and go straight to hers, but alas, she has one more day before her birthday. 

Couple other random things, we finally got the new light up in the bathroom and it is more or less done so here are some "after" photos.

As for Merrick's tournament this weekend, we are currently on day two of the tournament and his team has gone 3-0 with BIG wins each time.  We have one game tomorrow and if they win that, they will have a second game, the championship.  It's been a good weekend!

New Life- Week 98 (Run Up to V Day)

 Even though Valentine's Day isn't until tomorrow, this week we got a jump start on the big day.  I started things off by making Valentine treat bags for my youth girls I teach in church.  They were full of sugar and love because, as I said to someone this week, is there anything better to be full of than sugar and love?

Carrigan had a church activity this week where they decorated cakes for Valentine's Day.  She was very proud of her a work and I think she had a right to be.  She used marshmallow fondant and candy.  She couldn't wait to share the love (and sugar) with all of us and I think we might all still be coming down from our sugar high.

This week Elsie got to have her class Valentine's Day party at preschool.  Since we won't have class on Monday, we decided to have it a few days early.  It was a sweet day, full of hugs and giggles, and, of course, sugar.

Merrick was the only one that didn't really get in on the early Valentine's Day action.  As you might have guessed, his week was all about basketball and baseball (which has officially begun now too).  He did feel the love at basketball practice this week when, during a team building activity, he was voted nicest on the the team. 

Today is the Super Bowl and due to that, Merrick doesn't have a tournament today.  He had a two game tournament yesterday and we get a rare Sunday off today.  Yesterday's tournament was a mixed bag.  They lost to a team they should have easily beaten and then had a blowout win.  Merrick also hurt his back in the first game and now we are dealing with the fallout of that.  Elsie and Carrigan had a great time at the tournament yesterday.  The upside of spending every weekend at your brother's tournaments, is that you make some sibling friends of your own.  The girls have definitely done that.