More fun!

Besides soccer, we had a lot of other fun during the week too!  Madgie got to go watch Abbey in her dance class!  She also got to come participate in Juliette's Mommy and Me dance class! 

Then on Friday Patch flew up!  He had to work during the week (yes, he retired, but now he is working 2 days a week at another hospital - I  guess he wasn't quite ready to be fully retired!), so he flew up on Friday morning and brought this bumble bee costume for the kids!  He knows how much the kids love to dress up and he found this costume (from Pottery Barn Kids) at a garage sale for $3 - can't beat that!!

Madgie played Zingo with the girls (a very fun game by the way)...

While Patch and Ben did word puzzles in his Batman activity book.  I think Madgie and Patch were pretty impressed with Ben's reading level!

 

Another soccer star!

Ben is not the only one around here who is into soccer these days...Abbey is finally old enough to play and she is loving it!  Her first practice started out slow with her wanting to hold my hand the entire time, but about 1/3 of the way through she let go of my hand so she could do one of the drills and I slowly backed off the field.  And pretty soon, she didn't even miss me! 

I was so proud of her - she was the only girl on the team who ended up practicing.  2 other girls sat on the sidelines too shy to participate and 2 other girls left early crying.  Way to go Abbey!

It was pretty cold that day too as we watched her...notice how freezing Madgie looks!

She had a lot of fun and is now asking me all the time if she has soccer today.  At her age it is only once a week, but if she does fall soccer she will be 4 by then so she will move into the practice and game twice a week situation!  GO ABBEY!!

 

Bowling!

After Church on Sunday, we decided to use our groupon and go bowling! Here is Daddy helping Juliette get it down the lane!

Even I bowled (and I really don't like bowling)!  Thank goodness for the gutter bumpers they put up for the kids (and me)!

And guess who was on a bowling team in high school and has her very own bowling ball at home (stored somewhere in the attic)?  Give us some tips Madgie!

Juju's got her own ball too it looks like...

The girls were having trouble throwing the ball hard enough to get it to go all the way down the lane, so they brought us this neat contraption that let them just give the ball a push and it would roll down the lane - much better for them!

Abbey used it about half the time, but the other half of the time she wanted some help!

Ben preferred to do it on his own though!

Nice form Daddy!

Here we go Juliette - just give it a push!

Then the lights went out, the music was turned up, and we found ourselves cosmic bowling!

It was actually pretty fun!

Madgie Visits!

Well we hadn't seen Madgie and Patch since Thanksgiving, so Madgie flew up to spend the week with us and see how very busy our weeks usually are! First thing we did was go to a Lowes Build and Grow where the kids made a plinko game (like the game in The Price is Right)! Here is Ben with his...

They spent a lot of time playing together too!

And Madgie got to see our soccer stars!  Here is Ben in his game doing a side kick!

Good defense Ben!

Did I mention who the coach of Ben's team is this year???  That's right...Daddy!!

And what are the girls to do during soccer games?  How about pick flowers...

Or run down hills...

Or better yet...roll down hills!

 

Easter dinner

After Church we headed over to the Acuff's for some family time and a wonderful Easter dinner! But first, the cousins got to play...Belle and Cooper I mean!

Oh and the other cousins too! Caroline and Hunter had set up an Easter egg hunt for Ben, Abbey and Juliette so they had a lot of fun with that as soon as we go there! Go Abbey!

Good finding!

Caroline helped Juliette find some too!

Good job Juliette!

Then we got everyone together for a picture, but those crazy dogs were in the way...what are they doing?

Here's a great shot of all the Chicagoland cousins (minus Cousin Tim, who is in college)!

And of course we had to get a picture of Cousin Andrew and Juliette, who both wore purple!

Juliette checking out her candy situation...

And this was our amazing feast!

Sorry dogs, you have to be outside during dinner!

But they had a great time playing together!

Juliette is going to be following in Ben and Abbey's soccer shoes soon enough!

And after all the soccer playing she needed to rest with Daddy...

It was a fantastic day - thank you Acuff's for hosting us and for the wonderful meal! I hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday

Sunday morning we woke up and immediately went to see if the Easter Bunny had come! Here we are waiting to go downstairs to see...

Wow - the Easter Bunny did come and brought baskets full of candy and even some toys! The girls got Ballerina Barbie dolls!

And lots of delicious candy too!

Then it was time to find all those eggs that he hid...are there any in the backyard?

Yay - there are some in the backyard!

Juju found one!

Good looking Ben!

Uh oh...the Easter Bunny maybe didn't realize that it was going to be so wet and dewey that morning...we found a few slugs on the eggs!

Juju announced that she was all done and quickly went back to her basket to eat more candy.

Then it was time for Church - the reason for the season - and look who got all dressed up and beautiful!

And very handsome too...

Ready to go to Church!

We found our friends there and quickly set up a coloring shop. The kids were very well behaved during church.

Here are all the kids after mass!

This was the best shot I could get of all 3 of the kids...