Basketball, spring break, and other ramblings...

The kids just started school again after spring break. The break itself went by all too fast, as usual. Audrey seems to be having a little trouble getting back into the swing of things. Yesterday she sat down at the kitchen table to do her spelling. 30 seconds later she came and found me:

"Mom, I'm not going to do my homework tonight."

"What? Why?"

"I'm just not going to do it."

Lucky for me, Hermione Lili overheard this conversation and bounded into the room to deliver a lecture on work ethic to her little sister. It was hard not to giggle as she warned Audrey about how laziness now would affect her "later in life," but honestly, sometimes it is nice to have someone else do the lecturing for a while.

Speaking of my dear firstborn, her first season of basketball just ended. It was such a great experience for her to be introduced to the game with such a great group of girls from school. One of her classmate's dads and a VDM alum volunteered to do the coaching, and they really did a fantastic job.

Uncle Cole even made it out to watch the last game, which was actually against some pretty intense rivals. Our girls made it out with only a knocked out dental bracket and a broken pair of glasses, so I guess we should consider ourselves lucky.

The other sibling were riveted spectators, of course.

A nice blurry team shot....they won their last game, which was a great way to end!

An even blurrier shot of our post game Frozen Yogurt outing.

Lili's growing up way too fast...I took her shoe shopping for new spring sandals and she is now a woman's size seven (sob)

But she still spontaneously holds my hand in the mall (double sob)

Hopefully we have a little bit of time left together before everything I do or say humiliates her.

Easter 2012

Just a few shots of our Easter Sunday this year. It was a pretty relaxing day...up at 6:30 assembling Legos left by the Easter Bunny, Mass, a nice brunch with Steve and Cindy and an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard with Abby in the lovely Phoenix sunshine.

Sense and Sensibility and Easter Eggs

The girls and I dyed Easter Eggs today, which always makes me wish my mom was here, because no one loves making a colorful mess with kids more than Nanny.
But actually, we didn't really make a mess today. Maybe it is because Kateri is three and a half and I didn't need to be constantly worrying about someone knocking over everything or drinking the dye, but the whole episode was very calm. So calm, in fact, that I was able to sit back and observe yet again the contrast of Lili and Audrey's personalities. I should have named them Elinor and Marianne.

Every kid gets a limited number of eggs to dye, so Lili sits back, takes inventory of her eggs, compares and contrasts the respective merits of each dye bath, form a plan of attack, and then slowly and methodically carries out that plan.

Audrey just starts throwing eggs in whatever cup is closest, pulling them out again just as quickly, experimenting with different techniques, inadvertently mixing colors, laughing at her stained fingers, and generally stressing Lili out with her recklessness.

After 15 minutes, all of Audrey's eggs are done and drying. Lili only has two finished. She continues to stretch out and savor the experience for an hour or so, after which time she carefully makes a nest of tissue paper and arranges her eggs inside it. They look very nice, stashed prudently in the fridge.

Audrey's eggs are still in their soggy, stained carton outside. Most of them are a total mess...

...but a few happy mistakes are gorgeous.

Maybe there is a method to her madness.
And Kateri?

Kateri was just thrilled to be along for the ride.