First Communion and Baptism

What a great day today! The sun was shining, Gabrielle celebrated her First Communion and Genevieve was Baptized! Gabrielle was really looking forward to today and has been such a good, big girl lately leading up to this. She was also a little nervous! She did great and enjoyed the day with our family party afterwards. She, her cousins and her friend Jorja played outside all afternoon. Genevieve was so cute during her Baptism; she smiled at Father Steve almost the entire time causing us all to laugh many times! It was great having our families over for brunch after especially Genevieve's Godparents Uncle Marcus and Auntie Cindy.

Our girls! Gabrielle & Genevieve

Gabrielle was very proud and looked beautiful!

It was a little tough as always to get a good family shot!

Another family shot!

The whole First Communion group

Gabrielle & Opa

With Grandma & Grandpa

Genevieve sure enjoyed her Baptism!

Father Steve baptizing Genevieve (She liked the water!)

Again, mesmerized and enjoying the interaction!

Just a cute picture!

Genevieve's Godparents, Uncle Marcus and Auntie Cindy

The yummy cake!

Genevieve enjoyed the tissue and the presents!

Cousin Photo Shoot

Selene dressed and made-up Meleesa, Gabrielle & Athena today and then I asked them to pose. They are getting too big and are too cute! I can just imagine them a 7 years from now when they are 15 & 16!

Jog-a-thon & Muddy Kids!

Today was the annual Jog-a-thon at the kids' school. And our kiddos worked very hard! They are all so competitive and wanted to be first in their classes. The preschoolers (Willem's group) ran for 15 minutes and Willem completed six laps in that time. They do let you finish the lap you were on when time was up, so he actually ran about 5.5 laps in 15 minutes. He did great and was first in his class! Gabrielle and Cade ran for a full hour in the hot 80 degree weather. Gabrielle was such a star pushing through her pain to get one more lap than last year - 20 total (5 miles!) - and top out of the girls in her class. She was hurting and walked from time to time but mostly ran/jogged and really pushed herself. Cade was also hurting; he had a bad side ache for the first 20 minutes and was mad at himself for not training more but he also pushed himself, was first in his class and did 30 laps (7.5 miles and the same as last year). Great job kids!

Willem and Cade after their run

Red-faced Jorja and Gabrielle!

Gabrielle and her friend, Emma

After the jog-a-thon and school carnival, we brought cousin Meleesa and Cade's friend, Jace, home with us and the kids played in the sprinklers and then the mud! My lawn is in pretty bad shape in one corner (ugh!) but they sure had fun!

Willem, Gabrielle, Meleesa, Jace, Cade

Nooooo....Man U Loses!!

Today was the Champions League Final which is like the Super Bowl in Europe for soccer. And it didn't go the way our boys wanted! While the game was on, I went outside to plant some flowers and heard a loud cry. So I ran in the house thinking Willem was hurt...but no, much worse, Barcelona had scored a second goal on Manchester United (Man U) and Willem was crying pretty hysterically! The game was almost over and it looked as though Man U and the boys' favorite player, Cristiano Ronaldo, were going to lose. I thought to myself, 'where does this come from?' and thought how he was overreacting but then I remembered when I was a kid on my knees in front of a cross that hung on a wall in our house praying (begging) to God that the Dallas Cowboys would come back in a play-off game (I think against the Steelers); I probably had a tear in my eye as well (the Cowboys lost)! After school, Cade watched the Man U game and, after the second Barcelona goal, he too got very irritated and almost cried. Our kids are definitely passionate! I love these shots I snuck of Willem in his despair...

Reno Basketball Tournament

Chad, Cade, Willem, Genevieve and I left Thursday night after practices for Cade's basketball tournament in Reno! Gabrielle had been excited about going but decided after her first practice with her new U10 soccer team that she wanted to stay in Eugene with her cousins to play in her soccer tournament at home. It was strange not having her with us but fun to get her phone calls a couple times a day with her updates!

After eight hours in the car we arrived at the Peppermill hotel at 3:30 am Friday morning. Aside from the police officer stopping us at around 2:15 am (Chad got off with a warning!) the ride went great, Genevieve slept the whole way until the police floodlights shot into the van! Amazingly we got to sleep in until 9:00 am the next morning which was much better than we expected.

On Friday we relaxed by the pool. Genevieve got in her first ever swim; she loved it and I loved seeing her in her little swimsuit! We played in the arcade and gorged ourselves at the Peppermill buffet. Yes it was quite different from Chad and my previous Reno trips....no gambling....but it was a fun day!

On Saturday, it was tournament time. Cade's Flight team won both their games! After the games we headed to Grand Sierra Resort with the rest of the team families and hit the pool and arcade there. Cade and Willem said the best part of the afternoon was playing a football game at the pool's beach volleyball court; they had a blast playing with a big group of boys!

Sunday, we got to sleep in again which was great and then it was off to Cade's one game of the day which they won. There would be a championship game on Monday! After the game it was more fun in the sun, another good meal out and another adventure at the arcade (I actually relaxed in the room with Genevieve while Chad took the boys arcading!).

On Monday, the boys won the championship game 38-18! Then it was back on the road. Aside from the spilled DQ chocolate sundae in the car (whoops, Cade!), we had fun talking and telling stories on the trip home. It was great to see Gabrielle again when we got home; she had a great weekend too with her cousins and playing soccer!

All in all it was a fun weekend and maybe the first of many trips to Reno for basketball! Here are probably way too many pictures but it was just too hard to choose...

(One more thing...Genevieve rolled from her back to front for the first time this weekend!)

Fun at the pool....

Look, mom, wrinkled hands!

The boys had sooo much fun at the arcade with their buddies, each other and dad...


Having 'the best time' playing a pick-up football game...


Just a couple good pictures in our hotel room...

Just before Genevieve rolls over!

Here's what the little siblings do at the games...


And lots of basketball pictures...


Champions....