Fleeting Days of Spring

Turn around and look away for a a tiny little moment, and life will slip quickly by you. That's the lesson that I'm being taught. And apparently, I haven't learned this lesson yet, because I keep getting the lesson over and over again.

Usually, I get that lesson when I purposefully slow down. I am at that point now -- deliberately slowed down. It's rather nice, and it's the reason why I absolutely love summertime. Sure, the gorgeous weather is a great bonus. But nothing beats the freedom of unscheduled days! It's my favorite part of summer.

So in my deliciously unscheduled time, I'm catching up on the days that have slipped so quickly by me. Yep, I'm still learning that lesson! Here comes some of what's been happening around here .....

Easter happened in those fleeting days!

The "spin factor" helps make Emma's Easter dress one of her favorites. Sometimes, she'll slow down long enough to get a photo, standing still.

The week before Easter brought us a full house of college kids -- and we absolutely loved having them here! Alyssa came to support Darcie in her DYW - Junior Miss - evening. Cameron and his roommates came along for the ride, having nothing better to do. No worries, since we put them to work, and they ate food like we haven't seen happen around here in a long time! And it was so worth every moment, to have some noise again in the house and laughter filling the rooms!

So, with a week off from college courses, they had an unofficial facial hair contest. This is what Cameron looked like after a week without using a razor:

And I think you might agree that Bon (in the center) was the winner of the beard contest:

We smoked a big bone-in ham for our Easter dinner. Oh. My. Goodness...... there is serious yum factor happening here:

And while Kerry was here for several days, she cooked some Texas favorites for us as well.

SO good!

And we couldn't skip our Egg-Cracking contest -- an expanded version, since we included the college kids and another friend with good timing!

And, the winner is ......

Miss Alys!

Once more, here's a link to the rules for our Egg-Cracking Contest. Or, you might find it also in the list of most popular posts in the margin on the right.

Emma has absolutely loved preschool this year. And she especially loves field trip days. (Who doesn't, right?)  One of their trips was visiting a fire station:

Switching gears now, ...... Darcie wrapped up her high school softball season. She's been hitting really well and has done very well at catcher, working with our less-experienced pitchers this year.

We loved having the team over for a Carb Feed -- pizza is always a winner, right? It's so good when Todd cooks it on the smoker, because it gets an extra crisp to the crust and tastes like it's been cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven. Seriously, SO good!!

Emma loves being right in there with the big girls.

I think the girls have come to expect some softball shortbread cookies, too:

(I think I like shortbread better than sugar cookies. Just my opinion.)

Darcie has also had some great throwdowns this season:

Her coach usually pulls in a courtesy runner for Darcie after she bats. At the end of the season, she actually ran bases during a game, though. The opposing team's catcher thought she might catch Darcie off the base, but here's Darcie's dive back:

She had a great cheering section show up for one of her games (while they were in town!):

And still had enough energy to play at the playground after the game was done. Oh to be young again! (You can hardly see it, but she's got ice on her arm from the game)

And finally, .....

Miss Emma has learned how to pump herself on the swings, too:

Oh, happy day!! (for all of us!)

Although she still loves for someone to come along and take away all the hard work, and push for her. And though she's not quite big enough to start herself, she can usually keep herself going pretty darn well. Success!!