Easter Weekend and Spring Break

Wow! What an exciting week and weekend we had! For the last week, the kids have been on Spring Break! My business partner and I also worked it so each of us could have our own Spring Break. So, for the first three days of Spring Break, I was off work and she got the last three days off! It worked out really well. All together, we got a 5 day stretch of time off! Wooohooo!

For most of the time, the kids and I were home and while I had planned to do some "spring" cleaning, I ended up sick in bed with a terrible sinus infection. My nieces came up and spent a couple of days with the kids which is always fun! The first day, they went outside and played and manged to find mud (they always do), but the second day was rainy, so they were stuck inside. However, they played knockout on the basketball goal in the basement, hid Easter eggs, played Star Wars, and played on the Wii Fit! Friday night, I took the kids to "Monsters vs. Aliens". This was our first family visit to the movie theater since the time we took Marshall and he rolled down the aisle during the movie! He was much better behaved this time!

Saturday morning I spent doing laundry and cleaning and then Saturday afternoon Greg's parents arrived. We took them, along with my mom and our family to eat at the Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse, which is a Hibachi style restaraunt where they cook the food on the grill in front of you! I have wanted to take the kids for a while, but it has just never happened. My mom and Greg's parents were a little leary since it was Japanese food and they didn't know what to expect, but everyone had a blast! Marshall even tried to catch a shrimp in his mouth!

Sunday was Easter and we all went to church where the kids got baptized along with my niece. I am so happy that all three of them got baptized at the same time! I think that is really special! After church, we had a multi-family get together at my brother's mother and father-in-law's house. We had a great time visiting and watching the kids play!

Today the kids went back to school and we are on the trail of another busy week! I'll post more later!

Allison, Morgan, and Marshall playing Star Wars. I'm not sure what the scenario was, I'm just the photographer!

Morgan was very excited to get to use chopsticks!

All three of the kids at the steakhouse!The Farrells in their Sunday best!The kids are racing bunnies to see who has the fastest. Morgan's was a quick start, but Maggie's slow and steady won the race!

This is our crazy face picture! Everyone likes bunny ears, right?

Ever notice how once you have kids, there are no pictures of you, just them. Well, here is one of just Greg and I!

Kids' Baptisms

This was a very exciting Easter for our family since all three kids were baptized! Our pastor had announced a few weeks back that he was going to do baptisms on Easter Sunday . I was very excited to hear this since Morgan and Maggie had both talked about baptism for quite some time. However, our church baptismal flooded the last time it was used and caused water damage in the basement of our church.

So, when the pastor announced that they were going to be baptisms, we jumped on it. When I discussed it with the kids, all three of them were ready to be baptized.

Below are the pictures of all three kids, as well as my niece, being baptized. What a wonderful day for our family!

April 3-5, 2009

What a busy weekend! We started out on Friday night at the school at a fundraiser for Morgan's traveling basketball team.

The kindergarten and preschool classes opened up the evening by playing a little bit of basketball against each other! Marshall had a blast playing with his good friends Brian and Jakub. They actually got to wear their jerseys, which match their older brothers who are on Morgan's traveling team.

Later on in the evening, Morgan's team played two games and won both of them. Morgan played really well and had some awesome layups! He is working very hard and having a lot of fun playing basketball.

Saturday morning Greg and Morgan headed out to a Boy Scout clean up day at our local Boy Scout camping area. Then, later that evening, we had a carry-in dinner and awards ceremony at the Methodist church. Morgan earned his first merit badge and his Boy Scout patch, which is the first rank he can earn as a Boy Scout. He was very excited! We had to immediately sew on his patches so that he could wear his full, official uniform to his Sunday night meeting!

Maggie played in a basketball tournament for the first time Saturday. The girls' coach had invited her to play and I was a little leary because she can be a drama queen if she gets injured. However, she played two games and only got knocked down one time. I was impressed because she didn't even cry! She did a really good job even though she doesn't pay much attention to her brother's games!

Sunday was my nieces' combined birthday party at the skating rink in Cameron. I think it is safe to say that all three of the Farrell kids had a great time! They skated the entire time with just a few breaks!

Marshall playing in his big game!

Morgan in his official Boy Scout uniform!

Maggie playing basketball.

This past weekend!

Well....I must first begin by saying "What kind of weather are we having?" It snowed, sleeted, and rained on Saturday, but was in the 50s yesterday! WOW! Missouri is the place to live if you are interested in extreme weather!

Morgan played in two basketball tournaments this weekend! Including the games played on Saturday, we had 9 ballgames in 6 days! Friday night his team played in Eagleville (almost Iowa) in a 5th grade tournament and Saturday afternoon his team played there in a 6th grade tournament. We were the only school to have virtually the same team in both tournaments and our boys placed 1st in the 5th grade tournament and 2nd in the 6th grade tournament! Not too bad for a group of mainly 4th and 5th graders (and one 6th and 2nd grader!)

I've posted pictures below of the two teams. Notice that most of the players are the same. We had a 6th grader for the 6th grade games, and some of our 4th graders played only in the 5th grade games!

Maggie managed to wiggle her way into a sleepover with her papaw and cousin Aubrey Friday night. My dad and his wife were at the games and had my niece for the night and Maggie managed to invite herself to spend the night as well! The girls had a blast together!

Well, that is all for now. This will be a much slower week as Elementary basketball is over! What will we do with the time we have? I'm sure we'll find something!

The 1st place team in the 5th grade tournament!

The 2nd place team in the 6th grade tournament. Marshall and his friend Jakub (both little brothers of players) managed to wiggle into the picture as "managers" of the team! They are both future basketball players in training! Notice the long faces, they played a good game, but were discouraged at the loss. No one was real excited about me having to take the picture!

Basketball, basketball and.......more basketball

The last 3-4 weeks have centered around "official" elementary basketball season. Morgan has played with a traveling basketball team since November, but the school-affiliated basketball started in early March. The first week of March they played in the Pattonsburg tournament where they placed 3rd. The Winston Shootout has been going on for the past two weeks with him playing two games, two nights a week. Their team has played very well and Morgan has enjoyed the season.

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures of him playing ball throughout the past few months.

Update for the Past Two Weeks

NO.....my computer is not broke! I have just been BUSY! The last two weeks have flown by and while I have meant to get online and update the blog, I haven't been able to get it done!

Morgan has played in ball tournaments for the past couple of weekends. The first one was a round robin style tournament with 3 other teams. His team lost one game to their "arch rivals", Stanberry, so I guess that means that they would have won 2nd place. This past weekend, he played in one in Bethany and they did place 2nd. Yesterday, he got sent home from school with a fever, and he is home again today. Hopefully tomorrow he will be well enough to go back!

A couple of weeks ago, Maggie participated in a cheer camp with the Varsity cheerleaders. On Friday night, the girls who participated got to do a cheer and the dance that the cheerleaders taught them! She did great and was very excited! Right now, basketball is not her thing! She also got her wire on her braces a couple of weeks ago. She was very excited about that!

Last week was Homecoming week at school (courtwarming for those who have football...which we don't). The kids had fun dressing up for Spirit Week, although the days were some of the craziest spirit days I had ever heard of!

Other than that, things are just plugging along! We are trying to avoid the sickness as much as possible. A lot of the kids at daycare have been out with one thing or another! Greg had the flu last week and I'm pretty sure that is what Morgan is dealing with now. Maybe just a few more weeks of this nasty weather and we can get to Spring!

Valentine's Week

Valentine's week was fun with the daycare party and classroom parties on Friday! It got quite hectic at daycare handing out all the kids' valentine's! I was a co-planner for Marshall's kindergarden classroom party. I ordered 2 dozen cookies from a bakery in Maysville that I just learned about. They were picture-perfect Valentine cookies and delicious! I was also in charge of games (which I don't like), but we only had time for one and Marshall deemed that it was "really fun"! So, I guess that's all that matters!

Morgan played in a basketball tournament on Saturday and his team got consolation! Unfortunately, the first game they played was against their "arch-rivals" from Stanberry. They played a good game, but those boys are a little stouter than our little guys and we just couldn't pull off a win. However, in the second game of the tournament, we were really ahead and the coach put in Marshall and another of the boy's younger brother! Marshall made a "buzzer beater" shot. He actually thinks it was the winning shot! The boys did a really good job of getting him the ball so that he had an opportunity to play! Needless to say, Marshall is still talking about making that shot. The third game proved to be a challenge, but in the end, we pulled off a win! The boys were really excited!

Following the tournament on Saturday, we headed to Gilman City to watch the Varsity Girls' Team play in our conference tournament championship game. They won 1st place. The last time our school won the tournament was in 1991! That's when I was sitting on the bench with the team! (I was on the team, but played only when a loss or win was assured...if you get my drift!)

My kids pretty much spent the weekend nights with Granny! My brother and his wife were in Las Vegas for Valentine's Day, so Granny had 5 of the grandkids spend the night with her! She assures me that she is getting good sleep and enjoying them. I did take Marshall and Maggie home with me Sunday after church so that they could get a nap and be recharged. I've mentioned before that a tired Maggie is not good! ;)

Today I am at daycare with 3 kids! It is President's Day and school is out, so attendance is minimal! We have been playing and I have GAC on for some background noise....like we need it!