My favorite field trip by far!

Last week, I went on a field trip with Levi to the Kentucky Derby Museum.  (Who knew they had a museum?!!)  You guys -- let me tell you something... I LOVED THIS FIELD TRIP!  Maybe even more than Levi.  I wasn't thrilled about going along with the whole second grade, mostly because I knew I would have a group of kids to keep up with.  However, they had so many parents sign up to go, I just had to keep track of Levi.  Win, win!  

We arrived at the perfect time!  It was 15 days until the Derby and with all the bad weather we've had, they were behind on getting Churchill Downs all cleaned up and ready.  We were told they are working day and night to have it ready for the over 160,000 people that will roll in!  There was a man who did a short presentation introducing the kids to all things horses. (He did a FABULOUS job keeping the kids engaged for 30+ minutes! I give him props for that!)  Then he told us that the horses would be out exercising on the track until 10:00 am and we would get to see them.  Insert kids squealing with excitement.  And, see them, we did...

  

It was pretty incredible how close we were!  They explained to the children that these horses are only babies.  They are two years old and very skittish, so they had to be quiet and gentle while we were near them.  

A picture of the famous twin spires (you can see underneath them the scaffolding set up for cleaning and painting).  

 Happy boy! :-)

Then, the trainer brought one of the horses over near the kids...

AND HE LET THEM PET THE HORSE!  In my best mom voice, I reminded them to be gentle.  Lord have mercy, we had quite a few anxious boys!! Ha!

A second horse came by and one of the boys (quite loudly) said, "Wow, girls can ride horses, too?! 

After our tour of Churchill Downs, we headed inside to the museum.  I was very impressed with how kid-friendly it was!  

Of course, there was a display of all of the Mint Julep glasses from the past.  (Yum!)

And we were told that the trophy for the Kentucky Derby winner is the only trophy in sports to be made entirely of 14K gold.  Impressive!

I think he's already too tall to be a jockey. ;-)

I love seeing him and his little friends hang out together.  So sweet!

 After all the Derby fun, we headed for lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  So yummy!  When we walked in the doors, Levi said, "Wow, this is sooo fancy!"  I guess it is compared to Chick Fil A or McDonald's!

What a great day with Levi.  I love this age.  He still enjoys being with his Momma.  I am grateful that he wanted me to go and that he even wanted me to ride in the back seat of the bus with him.  Gag.  

If he would just stay this age forever, I would be okay with that.  :-)

Friends, Easter and a little Griffin update!

I love Easter!  It is right up there with Christmas or Thanksgiving for me.  I love the food, the activities and I especially love it when the weather was like it was this weekend -- SO GORGEOUS!  

Friday evening, I spent some time with my sister and some of our first friends.  I love that we have stayed in touch during our adult lives.  I adore my sister.  She has THE biggest heart of anyone I know!  She is a beautiful person, inside and out.  We are so different in a lot of ways (for starters, she works at the jail and takes grown men down to the ground daily -- if people treated me the way she is treated, I would cry!  She just laughs and brushes it off).   

Lisa, on the left, has been our friend since we were toddlers.  Jill, on the right, has been our friend since Middle School.  

We met for dinner because our friend, Karrie was in town.  She's all the way on the right.  Karrie and I have been friends since birth.  Ha!

When we get together, it's as if time has stood still. 

In reality, 30 plus years have passed.  We've all married.  We all have kids.  We've gone in different directions, but we've kept in touch and still have a beautiful bond.  I love these girls!

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Saturday morning, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at my parent's church.  They throw a big shindig and the kids look forward to it every year!  This year, G and the kids met up with us.  I'm so glad they did!  It sucks when your bestie lives two hours away and you don't see her that often.  So, short visits are good, too.

The kids had a great time!  

A quick little update about Griffin:

Lots of people continue to ask me how Griffin is doing.  Thank you so much for continuing to remember him.  He is doing really well!  He was back to school ONE WEEK after his open heart surgery.  He still has some restrictions such as how much weight he can lift, can't run, no baseball for a while...but other than that, he is doing wonderful!  He is back to the happy, silly boy that we know and love.  His sister, Emmy, had a great report at the cardiologist yesterday.  They had her checked out, just to be safe, and while she has a murmur, it is normal.  Praising God for the miracle he did in our family.

  

^^ Mags is just thankful to be able to hug Griffin again. :-)

On Easter, I had to be at church really early, so Eric was to take care of getting the kids ready.  He did bring Maggie to the choir room so I could do her hair! Ha!  I asked him to get a really cute pic of the kids in their Easter clothes and this is what he sent me:

 I ABOUT DIED.

He did make up for it after church and got this for me.  Love my kiddos!

So thankful for a weekend to celebrate our risen Savior!  He is risen indeed!

Spring Break (only two weeks late!) and some BIG NEWS (no, no baby)!

Yes, Spring Break was about two weeks ago.  And, I'm just getting around to posting about more fun that we had!  Sue me.  ;-)

One day, we met our neighbors/friends at Big Splash water park for a day o' fun!  The kids L.O.V.E.D. it!  

Last year, Maggie wasn't quite so adventurous in the water.  At all.  But, this year, she took off like a bat out of hades and was all over the place!  And really cute, I might add. :-)  I was glad that our friends were there to share the day with us!

After our day at the park, we headed to Chicago's Pizza - seriously the best pizza place around!  I know the adults were WAY more excited about eating than the kids...it may have something to do with their fabulous cinnamon pizza dessert.  Just sayin'.

The same group of us decided to take the kids bowling one night.  My kids really like to bowl.  It's quite hilarious to watch Maggie's ball!  She drops it on the lane and then about 5.4 minutes later, it MAY hit one pin.  Occasionally, it turns around and comes back the other direction before hitting any pins.  (EXHAUSTING, I TELL YOU!)

Nonetheless, they had a great time!  I just adore my little fam!

These kids were sporting their UofL red and black on game day!  Kinda sad how the game turned out, but we were proud Cardinal fans.  (I can only say that because my Hoosiers weren't in the tourney!!)

Our Spring Break ended, but I still had one more surprise for the kids - a trip to Bowling Green!  Our breaks were on different weeks, so I decided to pull Levi out of school one day for a visit.  Poor guy, he's been missing Pierce BAD.  Levi wanted to go and stay 3 nights, and while I'm sure Paul would have looooved that, we opted for a day trip.  Jami and the boys decided to go and I'm so glad they did!

Seeing the kids together again...well, it gives me a lump in my throat because we miss them SO MUCH.  Hope and Maggie...there are really just no words for how adorable they are.

And the boys?  They just do their thang.

After some play time, we headed over to Brittany's for lunch and come chill time.

And, of course, a little Frozen...

Love it!

I also love these girls.  So much.

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So, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and call myself a once-a-week blog updater!  Say it ain't so!!  I'm trying to get around to more updates...it just isn't happening all too often.  And this may be part of the reason why...

EEK!  We've listed our house and I've been CRAZY busy trying to get done what needs to be done.  It's very bitter sweet, but we are excited about the next chapter!  I will blog more about our decision to move later.  Don't worry...we are staying local! :-)

Spring Break Shenanigans

Last week was our Spring Break and I'm kind of in denial that it has come and gone.  This is the first year our school corporation has switched to the balanced school calendar, which means we originally had two weeks off for Spring Break.  But because we had such a harsh winter with a BILLION snow days, they took the second week away from us.  Boo.  We made the most of our week off, though!  Our first day off, we hit the road with Jami and crew...

She asked if we wanted to go to The Common's in Columbus and let the kids play.  They had a lot of fun!  

The two littles crack me up!  They always walk around telling each other they are best friends and constantly say, "I love you!"  So stinkin' sweet!! 

Seriously...Maggie's smile kills me!  

Love my babes. :)  Great day, great fun!

That evening, when we got home, Levi had BIG plans!  Eric made arrangements for the two of them to go flying with a friend of his.  Flying.  On a little 4 seater plane.  EEK!  I was pretty nervous for them to go, but made it out to Levi like it was NO BIG DEAL!  I honestly didn't think he would go through with it, but he did!

Eric said they checked out the plane and Levi started to get nervous.  He thought he may start crying.  But, he stood strong.  Joe told them that if they got up in the air, all Levi had to do was say "I'm done" and he would turn around and land.

I'm so glad I wasn't there!  Levi probably would have sensed my anxiousness and backed out.  I would have probably said, "are you okay?" a thousand times!

During takeoff, Levi left his coat over his face.  Ha!

But, once they were in the air, he thought it was pretty cool and came out from hiding!

Levi and his new BFF, Joe! :-)

Such a FANTASTIC experience for him!  I'm so glad he went through with it and LOVED it!  Sometimes he simply amazes me.  Love that boy.