Sports, Books, & Easter

After our blissful week off from work and school, we jumped right back into the routine. Lacrosse and track are in the home stretch. For lacrosse, the JV team fell apart. Too many girls quit or were injured so they could not field the two teams. Kara has received a lot of playing time on the varsity team. In fact, at the last game, she played the entire game. District finals are this week. Our team is in last place, so they have to play the first-seeded team. That should mark the end of the lacrosse season. Anna is glad she didn't quit and is even talking about playing over the summer and next year. Kara definitely wants to keep playing. It has been really fun watching them try a new sport and I have enjoyed the games. So, I hope they continue.

Track is also wrapping up. I am not sure how districts work for them yet. Jack ran the mile on Saturday in 5:34. His goal was 5:30, so he was slightly disappointed, but it is still faster than the last time he ran the mile, so he is making good progress. The fastest times are around 4:30. Jack's time put him squarely in the middle of the pack. Considering this is his first year of track and he has never been a runner before, he has accomplished a lot. He enjoys it and plans to try cross-country in the fall. We also enjoy watching the track meets. I knew I would like watching Jack run, but I was surprised to find that watching a track meet is also pretty fun. Those kids are amazing athletes! 

I think he looks so strong!

Luke's Battle of the Books team won their first round and get to move on to finals! We are super excited for him. For the first round, they were in a division with 19 schools and only the top two moved on, so it was a nice accomplishment. The finals are next Wednesday.

The battle of the books team.

School's Facebook post congratulating the team. Last year, based on the same format, I thought each group was only 5 teams, this year I figured out that they only list the top 5 teams from each group. 

I enjoyed this weekend. Thomas and I were off from work on Friday, but the only thing we did was go to Walmart. Super exciting. We did go to Kohl's Friday night to check out their winter clearance. Most of us found some things that will be useful for our Alaska trip. Saturday morning I visited my dad. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and chatted.  He is dong pretty well. They removed his ankle monitor. Officially it's called a wander guard, it sounded an alarm when he got too close to the doors and he hated it with a passion. We had a nice visit and traffic was surprisingly light (comparatively speaking).  I was even able to make it to Jack's track meet. After his meet, we went out to a late lunch at 4Rivers, which we both enjoyed. When we got home, Kara and I watched a movie (Family Plan, it was okay). It was a busy, but nice Saturday. While we were doing that, Luke and Thomas were in New Smyrna Beach for baseball.

Sunday, I went to Luke's tournament. They did not win, but again, it was an absolutely beautiful day. I know those days are numbered. Next week, we are creeping close to 90 degrees. Because they lost their first Sunday game, they were eliminated from the tournament, making it an early day. While we were driving home, Anna texted asking to go to Universal. We haven't been in months, so even though we were tired, we agreed. Jack and Luke did not want to go, so we took the girls. The spring break crowds have left and we had a good visit. We didn't realize it was the last day of Mardi Gras, so we got to see the last parade of the year. Normally, we love the Mardi Gras event and go multiple times, but with lacrosse and track this year, that just wasn't possible. We were very happy we got to see it. We also tried the Minion Cafe for dinner, which we all thought was just okay. 

You can't see it too well, but it is raining confetti :)

I should try and write every week, because I don't remember what we did the week before this one. Oh! Easter! We started the day with the traditional egg hunt. Jack is not eating added sugar, so he was not interested in looking for candy, but did find one of the special eggs, which had a little bit of cash. Marta, Frank, Elizabeth and Travis joined us for dinner. Marta brought the kids an easter basket that included two new (to us) types of Uno: Uno Flip and Uno No Mercy. We played both and had fun. We also played Scattergories. It had been a while since we had seen them and it was nice to be back together. I didn't take any pictures, but Anna had a couple:

This was okay on Easter, but amazing in the following days. 

Elizabeth brought some adorable frosted cookies. They were delicious!