Easter

We spent Easter in Wichita this year. Thought I'd try something different with this post. Rather than posting all of these pictures individually, I put them into a collage to try to speed up the time it takes to upload pictures. (They take forever to upload here.) So in stead of taking an hour to get all the photos posted, I wasted a couple of hours putting them into this collage. So much for efficiency.


As you can see, the kids had a wonderful Easter. Definitely no shortage of candy and special surprises left by the Easter bunny(ies). And I have to think that we are probably the only family in America who actually uses the dyed eggs we decorated. Those deviled eggs Grandma made were delicious and our salads back in T-town have been great. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the incredible Easter service we attended with our family. The music was incredible. Trumpets and tympanies and choirs, oh my! Church of the Magdalen really knows how to do Easter Vigil. And afterwards, there was a huge Easter egg hunt for all the kids. What a treat. But, unfortunately, I didn't think to bring my camera to mass. The Easter Bunny made an appearance and none of our kids were interested in meeting him. Shocker.

Photos of the Mini Recital

Here are the photos from Lydia's mini recital a couple weeks ago. Still waiting on a better video. As you can see, she's really enjoying herself.

Lydia's Performance Debut

This is video of Lydia's first performance ever. The video isn't great, but you can see her! She did great for the youngest in the class. And she really enjoys it. Hopefully I can get a better video from Raegan's parents. I wish you could see her big smiles while she was dancing. I'll post some pictures as well in a bit.
You'll have to mute or pause the music down below in order to hear the audio on the video.

This Week in Sports

Cade started baseball last week! Well, technically, he's been practicing for a month now, but his games started last Tuesday. We had a bit of a schedule conflict that night as Cade's first game of the season was at 6 at the newly renovated complex out by Lake Shawnee and it was also the night for Lydia's mini-recital at her dance class at the Y, pretty much on the other side of Shawnee County. So we opted for the divide and conquer approach. Since Rusty is a coach on Cade's team, that was the obvious choice there. I went with Lydia and did my best to take pictures and video of her first performance. (That will be in the next post. Still working on getting the video converted to be able to post here.) So Lydia and I showed up at the bottom of the second inning and that's where the pictures start.

So here we go. Topeka Rattlers 2011 Baseball Team.
I tell you, watching Cade's team out there took me back to my high school softball days.
Gotta love the ol' maroon and white.

This one cracked me up.
It's like he's noticing me for the first time and wondering if I was taking his picture?

Missed the tag by this <----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
much or so.
Not exactly sure by how much though, because this was when I noticed the Sonic that is right across the street from the complex.
AND I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL LENT IS OVER.

This is pretty much where Lydia spent most of the game: the bull pen.

His first at bat that I witnessed.
He walked.

Aaaaaaand here he is takin' one for the team.
Ouch.
I heard this one from behind first base.

Scoring a run, getting ready to take out the catcher.
(Not really. He put on the Scooby brakes and ended up barely running into #11.)

Getting on base again.
He got on every time he was up. Walked three times and got hit.

Good game, Rattlers.

They barely* beat us.
The coaches have their work cut out for them. And I'm looking forward to spending most Tuesday and Thursdays out there. Hope you are, too, because that's what most of my posts are going to be from here on out. Know it. Love it.
I'm out.




*And I use the word loosely.

I forgot about Spring Break

So I realize I haven't really posted anything going on with us for a while, but I'm blaming it on muh allergies. This whole time I've been thinking, "Man, I don't have any pictures to post! I need to take some pictures or something." Then I picked up my camera and noticed that it had close to 200 photos in it. Huh. Oh yeah. We had Spring Break, didn't we? And it's not like it was a boring, unforgettable week. Oh, no. It was a blast. We started things off with Cade having a friend over. They created the 'Mother of All Forts.'

Pretty good, right? They put a fitted sheet on top of a circle of chairs, then put other blankets around the perimeter. It. Was. Awesome.

It was the perfect place to battle Beyblades. BTW, I don't usually get overly excited about a new toy that Cade discovers, but this one was actually pretty cool. You put this zip-type stick inside a launcher and pull it out really fast and it sends a disc/top-type spinner or 'blade' spinning out. On the sheet it makes this cool 'wwwhhzzzzzz' sound. But I digress.
(Also note what channel the TV is on in the photo above. It will prove a point later.)

So, naturally, Lydia wanted her own fort. I mean 'fortress.' A big one.
So I pulled out the old stretchy ball thing (anybody know what it's really called?). Lydia stands in the middle of it and says, "This fortress needs some windows and curtains here and here, " while pointing to either side of the ball. I stood there dumbfounded and slightly embarrassed by what I just heard. It was then that I realized my addiction to DIY channel. You know it's pretty bad when your three year old starts decorating and renovating her own fortress.
Anyway, 2 windows with treatments and about eight blankets later, Lydia got her own fortress with no boys allowed.

It was the perfect place to get away and have a snack.

Also a pretty good place to watch DIY, I mean, Nick Jr.

Then Lydia started dance class for the first time! And guess who was in her class as well?
Yep! Raegan. Awesome. They love it. And I love it. What I don't love?

The fact that the teacher doesn't want parents in during class time. This is the view I get during class. Nice. Does she not know that I am the habitual photo taker of every second of every day of my children's lives??? It's killing me, I tell you. Killing. Me. I have to wait until next class when, for the last 15 minutes of the class, FINALLY we get to come in for a mini recital for the girls to show off what they've learned. God help me. I don't think there are enough digital recording devices in my possession to document the event. They should be posted some time next week. But you knew that already.

So then we went down to Wichita for a few days to visit with our nieces.
We visited the Exploration Place first.

The theme for this season was K'nex.
They had some pretty cool displays.

Can you imagine how long it must have taken to put this together?

This sculpture reminded me of those old string art pieces from the 70's and 80's, only way
more sophisticated.

The black light hall.
Didn't actually think this picture would come out, but what do you know?

I think this display was made just for Lydia, my little flower head girl.

Water fun.

When Cade was this exact age, he loved this toy every bit as much as Lydia did.
I have a very similar one of Cade somewhere.
Couldn't find for this post.

That's my kid, king of the sight gags.

She learns from the best.

They had a shark exhibit on the other side of the K'nex exhibit.
It was very interesting, but did they have to put blood on Brother Bruce here?

Another cool K'nex display.
Almost made me want to come back home and break out Cade's K'nex and build my own masterpiece.
Almost.

More water fun!

This was an F1 tornado simulator.
Doesn't seem as scary or destructive like this.

After lunch, we headed to the zoo.

Bats.
Why'd it have to be bats?
*shudder*

This guy seemed bummed that his ball didn't bounce.

Everybody:
"Oooohh give me a hooooome...."

Lydia said these were mommy and daddy birds.
Hhhmmmm....wonder where she learned that?

The only thing missing from this display?
A pint of Charlie Sheen's tiger blood.
(You might have to click on the picture to be able to tell what all is in here.
It was in a display right outside the tiger exhibit.)

She looks like she enjoying herself here.
She's actually about 2 seconds away from being terrified.
She thought it looked like fun, but upon actually trying it out, decided otherwise.

Everybody:
"Quick! Before the hyena come."

Then out of nowhere, a freak hailstorm hit Wichita.
The dippin' dots-sized hail slid down the slide and formed this little funny
shaped pile. You'll have to click on the photo above to get a better sense of exactly what the 'funny shape' really is.

We went swimming in El Dorado the next day, then went to Salina to see grandparents and celebrate my mom's birthday. THEN we hurried back to town to get Cade to mass since he was serving. He's actually served about five times now, but I haven't had a chance to get a picture until now and they really aren't that great. They didn't have the lights turned on when we got there.

He likes to get there especially early so he can light the candles.

This is Cade, Lizzy and Robert, all fourth graders at Cade's school.
Then we all lazed around on Sunday and drank lemonade.