Atlanta

 The kids and I left at 8 a.m. Friday and headed to Atlanta for the Charity Cup Homeschool Soccer tournament.  It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive.  We stopped at Buc-cee's in Birmingham.  We enjoyed getting to spread out in the new car.  Ben's first game was at 3.  We arrived at about 1 Eastern time.  They won their first game.  We checked into our hotel and then had supper with our friends the Dalumbas who moved to Atlanta at the same time that we moved.  It took us an hour and a half to get to their house because the traffic was so crazy.  It was great to see where they live now.  We've actually seen them several times since we both moved because we always schedule a trip to Southaven when they are visiting.  John left after work and got to Atlanta late Friday night.  It was freezing at the games.  We were wearing hats and gloves but needed long underwear!  We weren't prepared for it to be so cold in April.  It actually started sleeting during the game Saturday morning!  They also won their Saturday morning game and played in the championship game Saturday afternoon.  They lost the championship game to a team from Greenville, SC.  We were proud they finished so well after the bad start to the season.  They received medals for second place.  The pictures of Ben playing are all from the last game.  Ben is red #28.  The sun came out for that game and it was marginally warmer.

April Birthday Parties

April looks like it's going to be at least as busy as March.  We started with Ben's 14th birthday and both Ben and MG attending birthday parties.  Wednesday Ben's class sang happy birthday and dropped their pants.  Thankfully they were all wearing shorts or pants beneath.  I don't know what they were thinking but it was definitely coordinated.

More March

Just MG and I headed back to Birmingham after church on Sunday for the Alabama Winter Tournament Awards Banquet.  She got a ribbon for 2nd place overall in the Beginner Horsemanship class and 3rd place in Beginner Equitation. Annie got her costumes in for dance recital.  After losing the first three games, Ben's soccer team finally won a game and turned around their season.  They followed that win with another win and tied a team they had lost to earlier in the season the next Saturday.  Ben went to a paintball birthday party with all his CC friends.  I got a new car!  Ben's Mock Trial team met at a coffee shop.  The girls made volcanos to erupt during lunch at CC.  And MG's silly cat got on the mantle.  And that brings a very busy March to a close.

Hollemans

Friday we met our Desoto County friends the Hollemans in Birmingham at the McWane Science Center.  They were on Spring Break.  LeighAnne and I hold each other accountable for our daily Bible reading and text daily.  However, we haven't seen them in more than two years.  It was great to spend time with them.  And the McWane Science Center is a cool place.  We laid on a bed of nails, squeezed into a Hurricane wind simulator, petted sting rays, and learned about catepillars.  

March Continued

So we had one super crazy busy week in March where we went to Chattanooga on Tuesday, Birmingham on Friday, and back to Birmingham on Sunday. It's about two hours to Chattanooga and since we didn't just want to drive up there, play a soccer game and drive right back home, we left a little early and spent about an hour in Chattanooga at Coolidge Park.  We rode the antique carousel, walked across the pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee River and window shopped in some cute shops as we headed back to our car.  

 

Snow at Monte Sano

We planned our first camping trip for the spring months ago.  As the date neared the weathermen were forecasting snow for the weekend.  That same week we discovered that both of our HVAC units were broken.  A power surge or lightning had damaged both of them and parts had to be ordered to repair them.  The parts would not arrive until the following week.  We decided the warmest place to be was in our trailer.  John took Friday off so that we could get to Monte Sano as early as possible and enjoy one warm day.  It was in the 60s. Ben and John made their first rides on their new mountain bikes while the girls and I played on the playground.  Heavy rains began to fall in the evening followed by sleet, snow, and a frozen water hose.  Saturday morning we hiked in the snow.  In the afternoon, John, Ben, and Mollie Grace went back out while Annie and I stayed inside, rested, and played games. Since it was cold and our wood was wet, we made our S'Mores in the microwave this trip.  The unfortunate casualty of our freezing cold house was that Annie's fish Coral Reef died.  We had put his bowl upstairs in Ben's room because that is usually the warmest place in the house, but it wasn't warm enough.  He was floating when we got home.  Annie decorated a box for his casket and we buried him.