Winter weekends 2023

It's been another busy winter, with three kids in basketball, piano and flute lessons, and (unfortunately) lots of colds, step, and stomach viruses. But we also fit in a lot of fun on the weekends, usually watching basketball, of course, but some other things, too! Since tomorrow is the first day of spring (!), it seems appropriate to share a few.

A few highlights include dances, overnights, concerts, birthday parties, a fierce Battle of the Books competition, and days of playing in the snow. Here are some miscellaneous pictures:

A little painting time

They'd come home from basketball games to...play basketball. It was one way to get the driveway cleared!

Nellie and friends left for the Snowball dance in a snowstorm.

Starting the weekend right at Toads in Grand Ledge

District Solo and Ensemble! She did awesome at States as well, but I didn't get pictures.

Sleepover with Otto

The Superball called for an updated hat.

Buckling in some favorite friends

Bowling with cousins!

A visit to Impression 5 - it had been a LONG time and Mary couldn't remember ever going! The big kids were excited to show her their favorite spots.

We had a short getaway to visit my dad in February. It was our first time staying up there since New Years 2020, so it was a special trip and we got to spend lots of time outside in the (very sticky) snow.

Making a snow angel plan

Hiking with the big girls

The boys build a pretty good stash of snowballs to attack the girls from the fort.

Another highlight of the winter was the boys' basketball tournament. Although we were sort of, the tiniest bit, hoping it would be over the first day, DJ's team played in 6 games and won 2nd place. I think he's still recovering! They had a couple of exciting wins over teams who had been them before - even the sisters were into it! Eddie's team played well, too, and improved a TON over the season.

SUCH a nice group of guys and great coaches!

DJ and the varsity coach...maybe his future coach?!

I think my personal highlight was the Battle of the Books through the Delta and Grand Ledge libraries. DJ, Annie, Nellie, Kevin, and I all participated. We had a weak outing in the preliminaries, but snuck in a 3rd place finish in our semifinal group to make it to the finals, where we won 3rd! Most of all, we had a ton of fun. We convinced Kev to join this year and he provided a lot of comedic relief and helped us not to second-guess our answers. Eddie and Mary cheered us on (or maybe just played on the Switch) from the sidelines.

Getting serious

Third-place finish!

Lastly, as I mentioned, we've been sick a lot. This month Eddie and I both had strep throat so we spent a couple of mostly miserable days together, but it was fun to have some time just the two of us. Not pictured: Lots of work meetings on Zoom, naps, banana-flavored medicine, and Eddie destroying me on MarioKart.