March Randoms and Great Wolf Lodge

Read Across America Week: On the Friday of that week, the kids had a Hat/Pajama Day at school. They spent the whole school day reading. The school had a goal of reading 1,200 books that day and they did it!


I got to spend a day with my favorite two-year-old. He is seriously the sweetest little boy that I know!


The things I will do to save a few dollars. Taking this photo entered me into a drawing for free shipping for some books I was ordering. The good news is that I won!


Working out is always more fun when there's someone to do it with.


Bad photo, but a beautiful sunrise that morning.


We're officially on Spring Break, so we returned to Great Wolf Lodge again this year. I didn't take too many photos since my phone and water don't mix. But we definitely had a great time. I think there is something special that happens when a family gets away from home to do something fun together. There is a different kind of bonding that occurs as we create new memories together.












This bathroom tells the story of a family who had a great day at the waterpark.


There is an arcade at the lodge as well, so after drying off that night, we went down to play some games. This little bowling alley was a hit.






There are different programs at the lodge throughout the day. At 9pm, there is a little goodnight story and song. We went to this last year and the song became somewhat of an ongoing joke that we sang throughout the year. I was hoping they wouldn't have changed the program, because I wanted a recording of that song. They didn't! This program is definitely geared towards kids who are younger than ours, but it was worth it to attend and get the recording of that song!


Breakfast in bed!


Andy's birthday is coming up. One of the things he wanted was a new gym bag. Andy started doing CrossFit last month, so he wanted something to keep his stuff in. Each of the kids had different ideas about which bag he should get.




Spring Break continues through this week. Yesterday morning, Andy and Bella left for a trip down to North Carolina with a group from our church. They are helping with restoration after some hurricane damage. As our kids get older, I'd like to find more and more opportunities for them to serve. It's a great way to increase their awareness of different needs around them, to experience the joy that comes from helping others, and to open their eyes to how good they have it. I'm looking forward to hearing all about their time down there.

Basketball Season

Here are some highlights from Bella's basketball season.








Proof that I need to work on my sports photography. I got the basket going in, but Bella is almost not in the shot!


This is a fun sequence that I'm glad I captured. Bella is playing defense.


She steals the ball from her opponent.


And goes in for the layup! Towards the end of the season, this was a play that she did more and more of.


Curtis is proud of his big sis!


The season ended at the beginning of the month. At the awards banquet earlier this week, she was awarded the team MVP!! We are so proud of all her effort!




The ceremony was a little long. It included 7th grade spots up to 12th grade and included all of the girls basketball, boys basketball, and cheerleaders. We were there for about two-and-a-half hours. Curtis got a little bored.


Basketball season was a pretty busy time. Bella's practices were generally around 5:30-7:30pm and if it was a game night, she'd easily be gone from 4-9pm if it was an away game. I really value our family eating dinner together, so that was kind of challenging during this time. Because of this, I really thought I'd be more excited that her season ended; but when it happened, I felt a little sad. I really enjoy watching her play and will miss it. But, I will admit that the extra free time in the evenings is nice. And she has already started track practice, so we'll get to watch that soon!