Another season of kickball is underway! We started Sunday with the Jamboree and won 11-5. It’s a good start to the year. Jim has a great time playing short stop, and I have a great time hanging with the kids, taking photos, and being assistant to the assistant for the team manager.

We let the kids play at the park before the game…

And then they have to sit and watch the game, or at least stay close by picking flowers. 🙂

I love cheering on my husband!

Go Jiminy Kick-Its! 🙂 Team photo 2015.

Post game, Haley got a shoulder ride and a baseball cap to wear to the car. It’s visions of things to come… JT’s baseball season started this week.

We started Easter morning glad that Jim made it to bed about 2 AM, and a decision to go to late service at church. Preston spent the night, so the kids had fun looking through their Easter baskets with him while I made a late breakfast.

Then we got ready for church. Haley had a beautiful new dress from Grandma Keene, and I got lucky with white sandals for her and a nice blue dress shirt for JT just two days before at a consignment shop. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

“Men in Blue”

After church, we went to my parents’ house. My brother, Grandma, and nephew all joined us for Easter dinner so it was a nice size group.

Four generations of Christensen women

Jim and I drove home that night and left the kids at my parents’ house because we both had to work Monday and Tuesday (I was working in Dallas!) and the kids were on spring break.

A little story…

When Jim and I had our April Leadership Meeting, we discovered that the day before Easter was the only possible day to start and finish our yard project goals for the month. So, thankfully, Preston offered to come help and Jim got started about 7 AM with getting supplies and marking sprinkler heads. By 9 AM he was mowing, and then came thatching and aerating. By then the kids and I were home from workout, so we helped rake up the yard and started spreading truckloads of top soil. At 3:30 PM, Preston took the truck to pick up load #4 and Jim got a call from work that he had to come in immediately… and potentially for quite a while. Hmmm. By the time Preston got back, Jim was walking out the door. The truck was full of dirt and the yard was still piled with more, the boat was parked on the street, and we still hadn’t rolled, seeded, fertilized, covered with peet moss, or planted my new azaleas. I think I maybe could have killed myself and finished the dirt, but as it was, Preston saved the day. He took charge of the situation and completely finished the project. I was so thankful! We spread the rest of the dirt together, and then he went to get the lawn roller and moss roller while I fed the kids dinner. Then I helped finish rolling while he spread seed and fertilizer. I planted azaleas and started the clean up while he rolled peet moss. I also ran inside to tuck the kids into bed. By 9:30 PM, we were done outside. I finished sweeping and we made sure the sprinkler system was set before we climbed into showers. By 10:30, we were eating dinner on the couch watching a movie. Phew!

I turned the big 35 this week! As usual, I turned the whole thing into a larger event than just one day. On Friday, JT and I took a bike ride in the sunshine on the trail while Haley was at school.

Then we had a playdate with friends, then went to Goodnight Moon at Seattle Children’s Theater.

On Saturday, I had my birthday workout with my workout group, then came home and planted my new hydrangea.

That afternoon, JT went to a birthday party at a friend’s house and Jim was at work, so Haley and I took the opportunity to get our toes done!

…and also get some frozen yogurt before we went home. Right before dinner, too!

Sunday morning, the kids made me birthday cards and I got lots of hugs and smooches. It was pretty nice. Jim made breakfast so I could get ready for church in an leisurely fashion.

We also took a couple of photos to mark the date.

After church, we came home and packed up to go to Port Orchard. We stopped on our way to get donuts. Yum!

We got to ski even though the weather wasn’t great. Preston came too, and got this photo of me smiling away.

After dinner, we played our new favorite game (Wits and Wagers) and opened gifts and had cake and ice cream.

On Monday, I took the day off work. I only get one vacation day a year, so I use it wisely! It was beautiful weather and the kids both had school in the morning, so Jim and I planned a road bike ride on the trail. We did 14 miles and it was so fun.

Then we picked up the kids from their schools and hit the road north to Woodland Park Zoo. We met our friends at the zoo for the afternoon, and then went to a great Mexican restaurant for dinner by Greenlake.

The crew

Watching penguins

Feeding penguins

Dropping in the fish

Reading the map

The kids were really into the maps!

These three!

Fresh tortilla bar – yum!

Twelve for dinner, please.

We came home and put the kids in bed and settled in to watch Divergent and finish the rest of the birthday cake. I had such a fabulous weekend, full of people I love. I’m ready for be “late thirties.” 🙂

Our elementary school has the Watch DOG program, in which dads sign up to spend a day at the school. Jim signed up in September at the Watch DOG Orientation night, which was attended by over 200 dads (!). His dad finally came. JT got to choose a book for Jim to read to his class. He picked Gus the Friendly Ghost. I have no idea why.

On his way to Watch DOG day!

Jim got to help out around the school, go to recess, and hang out with the other Watch DOG dad for the morning. He had fun, and JT was super excited to have him around.

Last week was a whirlwind. I was gone for most of it.

We started Monday afternoon with a surprise to Red Robin for lunch, and to see the new Cinderella after. (I accidentally showed up right on time for the RPX showtime. What is that? I’m not sure, but it costs an extra five dollars per ticket. Awesome.)

Haley and I are matching, by accident

Totally wore them out with my fun plan!

Then a babysitter arrived and I went to the airport to head to a week-long conference. I led two days of training at the hotel, then attended for a day, then presented on Friday before flying home. I had four 18-hour days in a row and came home very tired.

I grabbed Chinese takeout on my way in town to share with my mom and children, and was greeted on the first day of spring by this lovely card and my favorite flower at home.

It is so nice to not have to cook, fold laundry, or pack lunches for a week. But I will say that I really, really, really love being at home with my family the best. I’m glad to be back!

Here we are again, another year of welcoming in summer with spring skiing. Most people in our area are referring to spring snow skiing, but we are happy to be out on the water! (Although one item on my list to do is snow ski and water ski in the same day.)

We found the slalom course at our favorite lake drowning underwater, marked off with milk jugs. We’ll have to wait for the water to go down some before using the course.

JT was so excited about his new purchase: a Ski Nautique G23 remote control boat. Unfortunately, about 15 seconds into its first run in the water, the propeller fell off and sank. He was such a good sport about it, and didn’t let this major disappointment ruin the trip. We are working on ordering a new propeller.

The lake calmed down a lot, and Jim got some amazing water! 

JT was pretending to be asleep as flagger. I thought he really was asleep, because he forgot to tell me when Jim fell!

We had a wonderful first trip out and look forward to many more this season.

This season with Upward basketball was a wonderful experience, and it flew right by. We can’t believe it’s already over!

JT had his last game on Saturday. Aunt Jennifer, Travis, and Russell came, as well as Uncle Jeff, Preston, and Grandpa and Grandma Cole. It was a pretty full cheering section!

JT had a game highlight moment when he stole the ball, dribbled down to his hoop, and scored!

Then, on Monday, we had the “Awards Banquet.” They should rename this event “End of the Season Celebration” because there are no awards and it is not a banquet. The players stood on their chairs and we clapped for each team. There was a video with footage from games and practices (we saw JT at the very end!). There was a magic act that was pretty fun for the kids. There was a speaker. The kids each got an Upward drawstring backpack, and then we left. Uncle Jeff made the drive all the way from the peninsula after work to come watch a kids’ magic show. 🙂

On Saturday, JT had his pre-season evaluation for Little League. He was asked to play machine pitch this year! He will have the same coach as last year, which is great. Coach AJ emailed me that JT is “positive and calm” and that he hopes it will rub off on some other kids on the team. Practice starts in April.

This past weekend, there were two birthdays in our family. First, we celebrated my grandma’s 90th birthday with a family reunion. It was so fun to see cousins who I haven’t seen in ages, and meet their children and spouses, and be all together again. We missed only two cousins (my brother, and one other) so it was pretty successful considering we have family living in eight states.

She didn’t want “a big fuss.”

All the grandchildren (minus two!)

All the great-grandchildren (minus five!)

Working on crafts at the kids’ table

The whole group

On Sunday, we celebrated my mom’s birthday. We went out to Chinese food, a favorite for my mom, the kids, and me.

Then we opened gifts and had cake and ice cream at my parents’ house. One of my mom’s gifts was a new game, Wits & Wagers Family Edition. We played before dessert and it was a lot of fun! Preston and Haley were a team, and they won!

Guess who’s happy about winning? First prize: first one to get cake.

We kicked off Valentine’s Weekend with me being the parent helper at Haley’s school for her party and bringing her class Haley’s half-birthday cupcakes.

Haley’s placemat for her party

Delivering Valentines

Parent Helper

Russell got glasses… soooo cute!

On Saturday, we went to workout and did some “school pages,” as the kids call it. I got two new books for the kids that have some great practice activities for afternoon post-lunch quiet time.

Then after lunch, we gave the kids our Valentine’s gift: a bag with a letter and some envelopes for a weekend full of surprises.

Envelope 1 wasn’t really a surprise: Haley and Jim’s Dad & Daughter date to Husky gymnastics, and JT and I had our friends Lisa and Trent over for bike riding, pizza, and games.

Dad and Haley are gone – time to get crazy! 😉

JT and Trent getting ready to play games – fuzzy. Grrrr.

Sunday morning we went to church, and then came home for lunch and envelope two…

Envelope 2: Family swim at the pool.

JT got to go down the slide (so fun) and Haley enjoyed the diving board (not old enough for the slide, booo). You’ll have to watch the slide video twice because it happens so fast. I barely caught it because I was swimming with my children (what’s with all the moms sitting in the stands watching?) and had to scramble out of the pool and walk oh-so-quickly-without-running to the other side to grab my phone.

Envelope 3: After dinner on Sunday, a trip to our favorite gelato place, followed by family movie night (very rare for us!). We watched the original Disney’s Robin Hood and the kids giggled their way through.

Envelope 4: Monday morning, we all slept in until about 8:30 (awesome) and then we told the kids to go get the next envelope. It was for wearing our pajamas out to breakfast at our favorite pancake restaurant! Haley loved her chocolate chip pancakes, and JT finished off his as well as Haley’s leftovers and the side of bacon.

Envelope 5: We invited some friends to Lake Meridian for lunch and boating on this beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately, our boat engine overheated because the impeller got clogged/stopped working and wasn’t pulling lake water in to cool the engine as it should. Thankfully, our friend Carl was able to kayak us back to the dock.

We didn’t let this hiccup ruin the fun. We had lunch on the dock and then the kids and I went kayaking. I couldn’t believe what a great job JT did controlling his kayak. It was super fun! What a gorgeous day.

Envelope 6: Okay, we said there were five. We had a hidden bonus envelope in case we had enough time. 🙂 The bonus envelope told the kids they could open the Amazon boxes that arrived at the house on Friday. (We get so many Amazon boxes they don’t even notice or ask what’s in them.) Inside were two new games and some new science project equipment, like a microscope. We played Apple Letters tonight before bed and we’ll break into the science activities tomorrow.

We had such a great weekend spending time together. It’s easy to spend lots of money on gifts, but time is so much more valuable and that’s how memories are made. Hooray for three day weekends!