Conway Baseball Tournament!

 We headed to Conway a couple of weekends ago for a baseball tournament.  Blake stayed home with Nonnie & Poppy, so it was just Evan, Beau, Travis, and I.  We got there a little early Saturday, so Beau and I stayed in the car for a little while.  We had a little photo session:)  It's not easy to get a great close up picture of a wiggly 3 year old!

 Finally!!!

 It was Beau's first time to wear shorts this season, and we hadn't even started the first game before he got a big boo-boo.  There was real blood, and that is pretty catastrophic for Beau.  I had to clean it and put 3 Band-Aids on it before he would even stand up:)  Then he spent the rest of the weekend talking about, or showing everyone we came across about his big boo-boo!

 Just watching a little baseball.  Travis had a mouthful of sunflower seeds.

 We met up with the Townsends for dinner!  It was SO good to see Dottie and catch up a little.  I miss them SO much!!

 The kiddos enjoy catching up, too!  Beau was quite the entertainer at dinner.  He and Jake could get into a lot of trouble together!

 We stopped at Dick's to shop for baseball gloves.  Beau begged to try on  a "hat".  He wants to be big like Ev so bad!

 My bag of "tricks" wasn't as fun the 2nd day, so we had to branch out to the concession stand for entertainment.  This blue sno-cone did the trick!

 Brain freeze:)

 Obviously, it was pretty tasty!

 SO proud of this boy!  He played SO hard and so well.  He made some GREAT plays in the outfield.  He can catch a pop-fly like nobody's business!!

 We played 3 games on Sunday and they ended up coming in 2nd in the tournament. 

Trophy time!

SO proud!

 10u River Valley Bulldogs!!

Great weekend!  We got home late and exhausted, but totally worth it!

Projects & Prizes

 We FINALLY got the storage building officially emptied!  The last 2 big pieces of furniture went to mom and dad's house.  Dad put them right where mom parks her car so she would have to decide quickly what to do with them:)  

This dressing table was the one piece she just couldn't squeeze in her house anywhere.  So, she told me to put in on Craigslist. Within a few hours a had a prospective buyer, so I called to tell her.  She BEGGED me to please find a place to put it because she couldn't bear to part with it.  So, we started thinking.  And decided maybe we could use it in our bedroom to replace our computer desk.  The one we had Travis bought at Service Merchandise when he was in college;)

So, the next morning I started my "project".  Here is the before....

 In progess....

 2 coats on....

 Distressed and waxed!

 All moved in.  I really love it!  I also bought a new lamp to replace the one in the picture.  He is bigger and helped to balance everything out.  It really is nice to be able to re-purpose pieces that have such sentimental value!

 Blake and Evan both came home from school one day with good news.  Blake had most AR points in his grade and won a $10 Wal-Mart gift card.  Evan found out that he got Student of the Month!!! YAY!!  So proud of them both!

 Blake went to the 7th grade Quiz Bowl Tournament in Van Buren.  It was a little different from the other tournaments he has been to.  Not nearly as organized and a little chaotic.  They did ok and ended up placing 4th, I think??  I was glad that it was on a MDO day so I was able to go.  Poppy drove the bus so he was there and NaNa also came down to watch.  My children should never doubt how much they are loved!!

 One afternoon when the weather was nice, we went across the street to play with the neighbors.  They found some new friends.  Here is Beau with his snail named "Slimey".

 Liam, Siobhan, and Beau with their HUGE earthworm named "Cheesey".

CUTE!

Easter!!!

We had a really nice, smooth Easter morning.  It helped that we decided to go to the 11:00 service, so we weren't rushing to get ready:)  This year we didn't talk about the Easter bunny at all.  Not really on purpose, but we started doing the Resurrection Eggs with Beau, and he loved them so much, it was SO easy for that to be our focus.  Which is the way it should be.  So, on Easter morning I'm not really sure what he thought???  But he was thrilled to find his basket full of stuff, no matter!

 Beau is candy crazy.  He would live on a steady diet of candy and gum everyday if we would let him!

 Blake got a Duck Dynasty t-shirt.  Every boy needs at least one, right?

 NaNa had sent Easter gifts the day before, so the boys were excited to see those too!

 Blake immediately got a Sharpie out and wrote his name on all his good stuff.  He wanted to be sure that no one else tried to eat it.  Ha!

 My handsome boys!!!

 Awesome.....just being real.

 Travis and his boys!

 My boys and me!!

 We went over to Nonnie and Poppy's after church for lunch.  The table was so spring-y and beautiful!!  The boys all had presents sitting on their plates from Nonnie & Poppy.

 Lunch was delicious....ham, hash brown potato casserole, asparagus, croissants, fruit salad, and pound cake with strawberries for dessert!! 

 After lunch, the boys started talking about shooting and the next thing we know, Poppy is teaching Evan how to load a new clip at the table.  Really???

It was a pretty intense lesson:)

 It was beautiful outside so we sat out on the deck and looked at the lake.  The boys did some target shooting off the deck.  Beau LOVES the swing.  He sat in the swing and ate A LOT of jelly beans.

 Sweet thing!  Unfortunately, about 2 hours after he started his jelly bean gorge, they all came back up:(  It was his first time to throw up and he totally freaked out.  Bummer!

But, he did get in a little target practice before the throw-up;)  THIS is a scary picture!!  But,  I LOVE that my dad loves to do stuff like this with the boys!  They have so much fun "playing" with Poppy!

 I love this picture!  Doing a little fishing off the dock.

 Beau couldn't be left out!

 And, a family pic of everyone!  LOVE it!

It was a great Easter.  I loved that we were able to focus on Jesus's death and resurrection.  Teaching a little one brings everything back into focus.  As Beau loves to say...HE IS ALIVE!!!!

Quiz Bowl ~ The Pine Bluff Version

 The day before Easter Blake went to the Quiz Bowl Tournament of Champions at Watson Chapel in Pine Bluff.  I really wanted to go, since I haven't gotten to see him play in many tournaments.  Poppy was driving the bus so I decided to go and ride the bus with the team.  We left at 5:30 AM!!

Let me just say....riding a bus at 37 is much different than riding a bus at 17.  Miserable!!!!  But, totally worth it to get to see this guy compete!!

 I was very proud of Blake.  He is one of only 2 7th graders on the team, and he played a big part on the team.  He was aggressive and answered some really hard questions. 

 They served lunch to the kids at the school, so at lunch time dad and I hopped on the GINORMOUS school bus and headed out for some lunch:)  We found a hole in the wall place called "Leon's Steak and Catfish" and it was an EXCELLENT choice!!!  We knew when we walked in and looked around and realized we were looking pretty Caucasian, that it was gonna be GOOD!!!

 Truly, one of the best catfish meals I've ever had!!

 Beautiful!

 We went back and they team played a total of 12 matches.  They finished in 2nd place out of 12 teams!!  VERY impressive!! Blake and Jackson have become friends and I couldn't be happier.  They are cut from the same mold, and are some super smart boys:)

We made the 4.5 hour bus ride home and got home around 10:00 that night.  Late night, but so worth it!!

Easter Egg Dying Fun!

 The boys were out of school for Good Friday so we decided to dye our eggs a day early!  Nonnie always comes over to help, so we waited until she got home from school.  This was the first year that Beau "participated".  To be honest, I was totally dreading it, but it turned out really fun.

 My sweet, stripped down boy!

 Blake and Evan take their egg dying very seriously!  I love that they still really enjoy this tradition:)

 Beau got a little hungry during the process and had to stop and eat one of his eggs!

The ugly part:)

 Nothing like a little "book break" right in the middle of dying eggs:)

 And, the finished products!  They were so pretty and so fun!!

 I made a coconut sour cream pound cake for Easter lunch, and it was sitting on the counter so I took a pic.  YUMMY YUM!!

So glad to have traditions that all by boys love and enjoy!  Thankful and blessed!!