Karate Tournament

Yesterday McKaleigh had her first Karate tournament. She has been taking karate for about 9 months, and has really enjoyed it! She really has had alot of fun at the lessons and practicing with dad.

When she was young, McKaleigh always wanted to take karate lessons, but we thought it would be great if she tried a team sport, so we enrolled her in t-ball and then soccer (which she played for 2 years), but she was never really EXCITED about either sport. Last Summer we decided to let her give Karate a try, and she has really found a sport that she loves!

Here is a picture right before the tournament began.
Grandpa Rod and Grandma Deb coming out to support! And what great supporters they were - we were 2 hours into the tournament before McKaleigh was up! Thanks, you guys were real troopers.
McKaleigh getting ready for her event, point sparring. The first one to 5 points it the winner.
Out of the 5 kids competing McKaleigh took 3rd place, but even more fun, was that she really enjoyed the whole tournament, and can't wait for the next one. We were so proud of her and seeing her so excited was the icing on the cake!

Family Fun

I love days like yesterday and here's why. After we got past the hectic morning of karate competition and baseball practices, lunchtime and naps, we decided to all get on our bikes and ride to Wheeler Farm. It was a beautiful day, nice and warm. It is so great that the kids are old enough for us to do this, because Brett and I love to be outdoors. We loaded up Alex's bike trailer with balls, snacks, drinks etc...and headed out into the road. I have to say it was a near perfect family afternoon!

Here are the kids feeding the ducks at the pond.
Alex said this "makes me happy!"
Dad and the kids with the last bits of bread.
This used to be a very large tree...dad said he would give $5.00 to either of the kids that could climb up to the top of the tree - McKaleigh tried, but dad kept his money that day.
Our family.
The boys posing on a tractor - with suckers in their mouths!
McKaleigh having her own moment.
Alex could have spent all day throwing rocks in the creek bed. He loves to throw rocks!
I can't wait for more permanent warm weather and more outings like this!

A Great Playdate

Alex has one BEST BUDDY in our neighborhood, and today we went to the Discovery Museum with him. This friend is only a few months older than Alex, and they love to play together, are both blond haired, blue eyed little guys. When they get together, they play until they are so tired, they just end up arguing! It is really great to have a good buddy down the street.

Here are the little boys in the "baby area." They made it more exciting by going down the baby slide on the see saws.
Here are are at the water station, working together to make it all work.
Here is a shot of Alex making a sandwich at the store.
I felt like we were at WINCO, with the boys cranking the food down the belt to be bagged.
Oh, Alex just walked into the room and looked at the picture of him and his buddy bagging good and said "this is serious work." What a cute boy!

The Pine Wood Derby

I will being this post with an apology to my son. Mothers were not meant to put the weights on Pine Wood Derby cars - Sorry Colt! Colton and dad worked together to build his car "Black Fire" for the Derby race, but unfortunately mom was to one that took it to the weigh in and added the weights, apparently in the wrong spot! Our poor Colton did not win any awards this year, but had a good time building his car. Maybe next year!

Happy Belated Easter

We really did have a great Easter, but it just did not feel complete without the big kids. It seems even more strange writing about it a week later, so much has happened in a week.
Oh well, that's just how it goes...

We received an invite to attend a neighborhood egg hunt, and I thought that is just what it would be. Every family had to bring 10 eggs for each child hunting. When we arrived, I soon saw that my neighbor, who hosted the event, out did herself! She had a petting zoo, Easter Bunny, wrist bands for each age group, face painting, a fishing pond and crafts inside her home! What a brave woman!

When we first arrived we had to steer clear of the Easter Bunny, but after awhile we could get close enough for a picture...Notice Alex is keeping an eye on him though!
A hunting we will go...It did not take our Alex too long to get his 10 eggs!
One of the crafts was a bunny hat, and here is Alex wearing his, but he did not really love it like I did!
A few shots of the petting zoo. The animals were so very tiny, and it was really great (but dirty) for all of the kids.
On Easter morning, we held off on the "Easter wagon" until dad woke up. Here is our little Alex doing a happy Easter skip with his present from the Easter Bunny!
Showing us all of his loot.

I could not get a great picture of dad and Alex checking out all of the sand toys, wagon and sifting through the Easter grass (why do I do that?)? to find all of the candy. Roxy wanted a piece of the action and was in almost all of the shots - nosy thing had to check it all out.

One of Alex's favorites was a bubble gun - I can say today (on 4/9) that I am glad we are now out of bubbles and I did not buy a refill!