Battle of the Books

Megan joined Battle of the Books this year at school. It is a club for 5th and 6th graders. Each quarter they are assigned 4 books to read and then they have a "battle" based on the books. They have to answer questions about the books. The questions can be about any of the 4 books. This year there were so many students that joined, that they had to have separate battles for the 5th and 6th grades. Megan's team won a battle by getting a perfect score and they also came in 2 in 2 other battles. At the end of all the battles, the team with the best overall score for both 5th and 6th grades combined got to compete for the school at the district semi-finals. Megan's team represented Fulton!
The District Semi-Finals was held at City Hall in Chandler. There were 3 sessions set up. Each session had 10 schools and the top 3 teams of each session would move on to the District finals. This battle was much more difficult because it covered ALL 12 books that the girls had read. As we watched the battle I found myself very proud of Megan and her team. They were doing a great job, but so were many of the other teams. When a team got a question incorrect, I was pleased because that meant Megan's chances of advancing got better. At the same time, these were 11 and 12 year old kids who also worked hard so it was difficult to feel good about them getting wrong answers! Megan's team had a perfect score until the last question. They got the question wrong:( 3 other teams had perfect scores so that meant that Megan would not be going to the District finals. We were so proud of her and all the hard work that went into preparing for this. She is determined that next year will be her year!

A photo of all the teams that Megan competed against.

After the battle, Mrs. Sanders (the librarian) took the girls to The Urban Tea Loft for some sweet treats! The girls all ordered something different and then shared. They had a great day!

Playing with Auntie Marie

Joelle had so much fun in the yard with her Auntie Marie. Joelle really likes music and singing and she tries to make a musical instrument out of about anything. I mean really, an exercise ball as a drum?? Well, I guess whatever works and whatever is fun.

It's the Playoffs Baby- Video Style

So David is trying to be a baller- see how that works out!!

Megan doing a lay up.

David with a dunk and Megan with an attempt!

Alley oop!

Easter Day!

Family is so important to us. Because Steve and I are here in AZ without any family it is always a pleasure to be able to spend holidays with our family. The time we spend them is priceless!
Joelle has been very excited about the Easter bunny and Easter Day coming! She had an egg hunt at school and was all ready for the Easter bunny when the weekend came. Since we were in LA, the Easter bunny just hid the baskets for the kids. Joelle was so funny. She walked past her basket 3 times and never even saw it. I finally told her to get on the floor and look under things. So, she gets on her hands and knees and looks under the rug!! She finally found her basket and was very happy with the contents!

She just realized that there was CANDY in those eggs!!!

Megan found her basket much easier. I didn't even have to help her out. The Easter bunny and Grandma and Grandpa gave her some gift cards!

David found his basket fairly easily as well. And guess what, he got gift cards too! The kids are already trying to figure out what they want.

Grandma Pratt's Birthday!

To celebrate Steve's moms 82nd birthday we went to the Twin Dragon for some good Chinese food. This has long been a family favorite and Steve took me there once when we were living in California. Everyone was looking forward to a good meal and a lot of food and we were not disappointed.
Here we are, trying to figure out what to order. We ended up getting way too much food (I know, big surprise) but never fear, it will not go to waste!

Joelle had fun playing with the cherry that came on her fruit punch. She didn't actually drink the punch, she just played with it!

Ahhhhh, the food finally arrives.

As you can see, even after everyone has gotten a plate, there is still plenty more to go around. Everyone went home a happy spirit and a full belly!

It's the Playoffs Baby

David and Megan spent hours outside honing and perfecting their basketball skills. Joelle spent the time honing her singing skills and playing with Auntie Marie.

Megan working on layups. The kids were so competitive that they had to take turns practicing their skill. Megan went back and forth between layups and half court shots (half the yard shots).

David had a good time working on dunks. The hoop was only 7 feet but it sure was a lot of fun for them. They were stacking things up that they had to jump over in order to do the dunk! It was hilarious to watch.
Megan was trying to do dunks but they ended up being layups- sort of. Anything her brother does, she tries to do as well. It is a nice little sibling rivalry- most of the time!
David was getting some decent air. Who knew he had a little hops in him!

Getting Our Exercise!

We went to LA for Easter weekend to see the family. Steve's sister recently had surgery for a brain aneurysm and his mom's birthday is April 19th so it was a double duty trip. We were so thankful to have Good Friday off and make the trip last a little longer. Joelle was mildly obsessed with the exercise bike in the living room. She loved turning the petals to make the wheel spin. As you can see, Megan and Joelle took turns doing the heavy work!!

Tea Party

So, we are in California and Joelle sees a tea set on the table in the dinning room. She wanted to play with it soooooo bad, but it was real, as in breakable, so I said she couldn't use it. Later on I walk in the room and she has all the little cups laid out in a row and she looks at me and says, "Mom, I'm having a tea party. Wanna join me?" It was not possible to say no, so Grandma, Steve and I had a wonderful little tea party with Joelle!

Like Father Like Son....

David had the wonderful opportunity of not only golfing with his dad and his uncle Michael a few weeks ago, but he got to golf at the Kierland. For those of you who don't know, that is a big deal!! It is a gorgeous resort golf course that charges an arm and a leg for a tee time. You can see by the picture that David is missing his arm, I am pretty sure it was worth it:) He had a terrific time and is looking forward to more golf outings with the "guys".

Seriously??

So, I was watching TV and had just eatten a great hamburger and hotdog (grilled by my fab hubby) and I had caving for some of Joelle's fruit snacks. The empty paper plate and empty wrapper were sitting on the TV tray next to me. Joelle walked in the room all smiles, and then she spots the familiar wrapper. She very seriously walks over to me, never taking her eyes off the evidence, and says, "What is going on here?"

Marvelous Megan

The pitching and batting machine is at it again! Megan pitched a winning game and had a real nice single to get on base in the last inning. The team was down by 3 runs going in to the last at bats. They sure didn't disappoint us! They ended up winning the game by 1 run. It was their first win this season and it was sweet, especially since Megan was the winning pitcher!

TouchDown David

David's football season has begun. This year instead of playing quarter back, he is playing tight end and doing very well due to height and size. He has been scoring at least 2 touchdowns in every game. At the game this weekend, the other team put in a player to just guard David. It was pretty cool! Once he gets the ball he is unstoppable. Just see for yourself!

Eggs Baby

David has to care for an egg. An assignment for his LCC class (Living Skills I am assuming) required that he blow out an egg, decorate it like a "baby" and bring it to class each day. As you can see, everyone wanted in on the fun! They had fun decorating their eggs with finger nail polish. David's egg ended up looking a lot more grown up, but it was a fun way to spend an evening-full of giggles and bets as to how long David would actually keep his egg alive! David's egg is on the left and Megan's is on the right. You guessed it, Joelle was not able to keep her "baby" alive long enough to paint it!

Ohhhhh, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!

One recent night some friends came to play. Reggie came to play with Daddy and Mason and KiKi came to play with Joelle. The girls were just so excited to hang out! They broke out the pretty princess dresses and showed us how they could dance. They got out lots of books and Joelle read her Dora book to KiKi. They really enjoyed making up the story. They colored and colored and colored some more. They even played princess with Joelle's castle. When it was way past bedtime, KiKi had to leave. Joelle was so bummed that she wouldn't even say goodbye! Needless to say, I got so much of enjoyment out of Joelle being old to "play" with a friend. She is growing up so fast and I can't figure out where all the time went.

Carseat Mischief

My "wonderful"child Joelle has discovered that she is able to undo the buckles of her car seat. Not just the ones on the top, but the hard one at the bottom. I am not sure how she does it. I was not even aware that she could do it until driving to her daycare one day. As I approached a stop light I put on the breaks and stopped. When I stopped, I felt something hit the back of the driver's seat and when I looked in my little "Joelle" mirror, she was climbing BACK into her seat and sniffling. She completely undid her car seat and fell into my seat in the process! Then she had the nerve to tell me that it was my fault that she fell out of the seat. The scariest part was the fact that I was in the middle lane of traffic right by the freeway- no where to pull over and MAKE her put her buckles back on if she chose not to. Thank goodness she was scared enough by falling into the driver seat that she got back in that car seat and buckled in a hurry! I have a feeling that there will many times that this could be repeated. It might be sign of things to come.