Soccer's Over

Soccer's over.  No more super early dinners (4:30 is crazy early to eat), washing soccer uniforms twice per week, threatening Wes with taking away tractors just to get him to put on his uniform, or keeping up with 15 different pieces of equipment.

But we'll miss soccer.  Josie really enjoyed the sport and would continue through the summer if we let her.  Wes quit playing after the first game (he was intimidated with all of the other players out there).  They are REALLY proud of the trophies they got at the end of the season.  Each has their trophy perched front and center on their own dressers.  Until next season soccer....

How beautiful....

is this girl....

Indiana or Bust!

As you all know, our daddy has quite an obsession (to put it lightly) with antique tractors.  Recently, he decided that there was one in Indiana that he had to make his own.  

So....we loaded up and headed north (and a tad bit east).  It took us 12 hours to get there, and when you're going that far, obviously one isn't enough.  

While the tractors were being loaded, we played in the 'tractor yard'....sitting on each and every one that we thought looked interesting (which is all of them obviously).

It gave us a chance to stretch our legs and get pepped up for the LONG trip back home.

The kids did so well the whole trip.  We sang lots of songs, watched movies and just had a really good time being a family.

When Dave first said we were headed to Indiana, I thought he was crazy, but it turned out to be a great trip.  You know you're a close family when 26 hours of driving in a vehicle over a 3 day period doesn't drive you all nuts.  I don't want to pack up and do it again next weekend, but it was another great adventure for our family.

Walking the Trail...Again

The kids and I spent Saturday morning with some of our really good friends, the Ostranders, on the BEAUTIFUL Palmetto Trail.  The kids had lots of fun picking up sticks, ladybugs, and of course, we took our time getting across the 'big bridge' (which is an old converted train trestle).  

After snack time, they spent 30 min or so throwing rocks off of the 'big bridge', which gave us Moms a nice quiet chat time (which as moms we don't get too often).  The kids loved it and it was nice and quiet so we could let them run ahead or lag behind, at their own paces.

Its great that we have such great outdoor activities nearby!  And its even better that we have great friends to share in these outdoor activities with!

Family Picture

I didn't post any of our pictures from Easter, but here is the family shot we took, which Houston of course :)

Strawberries

Its April, so that means its time for our annual strawberry picking trip.  And this year, we had just as much fun as any other.  

Neither of the kids eat strawberries, but I did bribe them with a trip to Chick Fil A (which we were gonna do anyway) if they ate one.  Surprise, surprise, they DO like strawberries :)

BobBob and JoJo went with us, but after JoJo's big fall 2 weeks ago, she's not able to get around 'quite like she'd like' so she watched from the sidelines...giving instructions as to which ones the kids should pick.

We were able to pick 7 gallon buckets in 30 minutes (and by we, I mean BobBob and I) and they are beautiful!!  We can't wait to decide what we want to make...jam, strawberry salsa, syrup...the possibilities are endless.

But most of all, we fulfilled a yearly tradition...the ladies of the family taking the kids to pick strawberries on a beautiful spring day in SC.  I'm not sure it gets any better than that.  

Egg Hunt!

Saturday at church we had an Easter Egg Hunt.  But first, we drew pictures on the sidewalk to represent our sin.  Like this sidewalk chalk, our sin can't be erased by our own doings....it requires God's grace.  Hopefully some time between now and Easter it will rain and the children will see the sidewalk chalk washed away...much like Jesus's death and resurrection washes away all of our sins.  

After the lesson, it was time for the hunt.  Josie and Wes have done this a couple of times already...at school and at BobBob's house, so they understood what to do.

And of course they had to compare their findings...because after all, its always more fun to show up your brother/sister, right?

They had a great time and its always wonderful for them to get together with other children to learn all about our God.

We are gearing up this week for Easter!