Happy Easter!

Easter always reminds me of my mom because it was her favorite holiday. I remembered her today at Mass and while watching her grandkids enjoy the day together. I am so grateful that even though she is not with us, she continues to live on in the love I see and enjoy when her family is together. 

Our day started early with 8:00 am Mass then opening of Easter baskets with Amber, Tony and kids. We then went to Dad and Kathleen's for brunch and Easter egg hunt. It was great to spent time and see everyone. It was especially nice to see Marcus and Davida and Duane, Mary and Tucker. Such sweet, adorable babies (Davida and Tucker that is :). Finally, we had a very relaxing late afternoon/evening at Chad's parents with his siblings. 

 Nev loved her princess Easter basket

 

Thanks again to Amber for taking a family picture...not an easy task ;)

 

Cousins are the BEST!

Genevieve LOVED the hunt, she was so happy to find eggs and was excited about all of them. Happily, she was also content with what she got. 

Cade and Willem teamed up in their hunt, looking for the big eggs which had $1 each in them!

 I love how Jacoby looks up to Willem. A very happy Nev on the hunt!

 

Willem, shoeless as usual!

Tucker is ADORABLE!

 And so is Davida!

How is it that Amber and Tony's kids are looking at the camera and we cannot get one where all of ours are?!

 Nev was excited about the Easter bunny this year and, of-course, loved her Easter basket which has Polly Pockets, animal crackers, gum and fruit snacks in it.

Cade and Willem got Nerf swords in their baskets. Amber captured a few great shots of their battles!

 

Nev was watching TV at Grandma and Grandpa's house with the pumpkin pie in front of her...her fingers apparently couldn't resist touching every piece!

Also wanted to include this picture and the next from Friday. Jorja and Elle were great with Nev as they made cookies together and dyed Easter eggs.

Spring Soccer Update

Spring soccer season ended today for Cade and Gabrielle's teams (while Willem's just started today). Cade and Gabrielle's teams played in the top division of the Oregon Premier League based, mostly out of Portland, but with teams from throughout the state. Cade's Boca Jr team finished 4-0-4 and Gabrielle's Athletica was 7-0-1. Cade continued to play at forward and Gabrielle at outside defense. Elle started most games and Cade, with his knee problems, came off the bench a little more than he started this season. Both continue to improve and love their teams and coaches. Now it's on to the State Cup championship tournament over the next four weekends. Both teams hope to be in the final May 5th. It'll be a fun and nerve-wracking month! Here are a few pictures from this season.

Spring Break 2012

I am always envious of friends who head off somewhere warm for Spring Break. It's a little tough seeing all the Facebook posts of friends in tropical vacation spots. 'One of these years', I tell myself. For now we are resigned to stay in the Northwest mostly because of our kids' soccer commitments which leave us with only a few open days during the break. We did, however, make the most of what we had and I still really enjoyed the break.

The kids got a couple extra days of off with the six inches of snow that fell Wednesday before Spring Break. Nev loved it and played outside quite a bit; she and I made a snowman together. Cade, Gabrielle and Willem loved having cousins come over to our house and they all went to James and Jenn's where they played in the forest and had snowball fights...

Thursday night before the official break started, Cade and I went to the opening night/morning (12:15 am!) showing of 'The Hunger Games'. It was later than I'd like but it was fun going with Cade knowing how much he looked forward to it...

A couple days into the break, Gabrielle and Athena went to 'The Hunger Games' at the mall, so Genevieve, Willem and I enjoyed a few hours of shopping, eating and playing on the playground at the mall. I loved hanging out with my two youngest...

Enjoying frozen yogurt. Yummy! These two are looking a lot alike!

 Nev visited the Easter Bunny at the mall and she was so friendly and excited to see him. It was very cute and I was surprised since she was afraid of Santa Claus a few months ago.

The first weekend of the break, Cade played in the Oregon Development Program (ODP) regional tournament in Eugene which is basically a tryout for the state ODP team. It was a little nerve-wracking this year because Cade's knees have been hurting pretty badly recently so he was not 100% for the tryout. Thankfully, he made the team and was pretty relieved! The second weekend of the break, Cade had his first two state ODP practices (in Salem). With a couple days of rest, lots of icing and some Advil, his knees were feeling a little better and he did great in the practices. We look forward to more state ODP practices and tournaments in May and June...

Tuesday through Thursday, our three oldest kids did the EMFC Spring Break camp. Elle and Cade actually skipped out their Thursday afternoon camp because it was time to head north to the Great Wolf Lodge hotel/swim park in Washington. We all had a great time; Cade met a couple boys there and pretty much hung out with them the whole time, swimming and playing in the arcade. Gabrielle and Willem loved the slides, especially when Chad or I went with them; they also loved the arcade and just swimming. Genevieve enjoyed the smaller slides (after a little coaxing by us) but mostly loved just playing 'pirate' and 'swimming' in the kids' area. Our nearly 24 hours there went by very fast...

"But Daddy, I want a PINK life vest!"

After Great Wolf, we headed to Portland (while listening to our 'Eragon' books on cd; we are on the 4th book) and relaxed in our downtown hotel (the coolest hotel ever according to Willem)...

Watching 'Puss N Boots' in the hotel :)

The next afternoon, after Cade's ODP practice, we headed to the Portland Saturday Market, the riverfront and downtown for a little shopping and then some dinner. I do love Portland! Just wish we had more time to see all of our family and friends there! It was interesting to see, once again, that Cade really loves the city. He thought the Saturday Market was so cool and just loves being where the action is and around all different sorts of people. Will, on the other hand, is not as much a fan of city life; "It's just ok", he says and he definitely prefers the country. Elle is like me, she likes it but also likes the country; "I'm somewhere in between", she says :)

Willem and Genevieve loved watching the bridge lift and seeing the high water of the river

We were so lucky to have no rain and even some sunshine in our afternoon walking downtown.

In the 'Max' tram

Nev's new outfit; all pink of-course!

 Dinner at Rock Bottom. Yum!

Nev all snuggled up in our hotel bed 

One last fun pic of me I took in the hotel :) (our kids are always taking pics of themselves in the mirror...thought I'd give it a try!)