Pink Pirate Portraits

Before yesterday's game started, I took each of the Pink Pirate's soccer portraits and then did a team photo. Cindy had asked me several weeks ago if I would be interested in taking the team's photos which I was more than happy to do! In prior years, she has hired a professional photographer to take each of the girl's photos and a team photo which I've always meant to buy but have never gotten around to it. She felt like it would be easier if I took the photos since I generally take photos at the game each week and send them to each family anyway. It was such a pleasure to do it for the team and it worked well, except it was very bright out! The girls had a hard time smiling with their eyes wide open, but did a great job! Also, Aria forgot that we were doing photos and showed up just as the game started, so I ended up doing the team photo again at the end of the soccer game. I didn't do a very good job organizing the girls into good positions, but they were all sweaty and tired and they cooperated really well!

Sofia wasn't able to wear her soccer jersey because she still can't raise her arm to put on shirts and must wear tank tops. Luckily, she still fits into the cute "S" shirt given to her by Cindy and Kevin from last season, so she fit in well with the team. I felt very flattered to be the "official team photographer" and hope to be able to do it again next season.

Our little soccer player with her broken collarbone

A close up!

It's just SO bright outside!!

The Pink Pirates (except for Aria)

Silly girls!

Love this picture! I got the idea from Pinterest

The entire team!

Easter Egg Hunt

After lunch, Kiron, Kyle and CK hid all the plastic eggs in the backyard. I stuffed them with jellybeans or chocolates so there couldn't be a lot of time between the guys hiding them and the kids finding them since I was afraid the chocolates would melt. There were six eggs each with a $1 bill in them as well as a few with 50 cents. We gathered all the kids and their Easter baskets and they started off on their search! Sofia and Grady stuck together and ran around the entire yard while the little ones walked and searched for eggs. Olivia had CK carry her basket and as soon as she found an egg, she wanted to stop and open it. Finally, we convinced her to collect the eggs and open them all at once. It was cute to watch her take her time looking for them. Sofia found the lion's share of eggs and we decided next year we'll have to hid them so it isn't so easy for her or she can help hid them instead of searching for them.

After 15 or 20 minutes, all of the eggs had been found (hopefully! We did find a plastic egg from last Easter many months later in our back yard). The kids enjoyed opening their eggs up and eating their candy while the adults dug into the desserts and had coffee. The kids continued to run and around and most played in the pool on the swim step. At one point, Oliver fell in the pool while Kari was helping Amelia go to the bathroom and Marco jumped into the pool to rescue him! It was very dramatic and we were all thankful for Marco's watchful eye! He went home, changed into dry clothes and returned. The kids were so full off of candy and jelly beans, I don't think any of them tried the desserts.

The Easter egg hunt begins!

Olivia opening her egg to find jelly beans. We had to convince her to keep searching.

Luca and Antonio

Our sweet girl and her basket

Olivia and her eggs

Sofia and her bounty. her basket was full of eggs!

Grady

Oliver and his find

Sofia assessing her catch

Olivia and their eggs

What's in this one?

Yum!

Happy Easter 2014

Happy Easter! To prepare for our Easter lunch, I got up at 6am and couldn't believe it when I saw Sofia heading down the stairs! She told me the day before that she couldn't wait to say "Happy Easter" in the morning, but 6am seems a tad early. Luckily, I'd brought the Easter baskets out with me so she was able to go through her things and decided to paint the bird and flower magnets while I got the slower cooker Potato Au Gratin ready, peeled and diced the carrots and made the chocolate rice crispy birds nests for dessert. CK got up a bit later and made the Resurrection Buns, which he made last year as part of our dessert that afternoon. This year, we decided to make them in place of our usual Sunday morning donuts and they were as delicious as ever! Olivia joined us around 7:45am, just as the buns were coming out of the oven. After they cooled, we enjoyed the cinnamon-sugar goodness!

CK showed Olivia her Easter basket and the very first thing she noticed about it was the gum! Of course, our little gum lover would pick that over the chocolates and Easter goodies. Once we were ready, I took some pictures of the girls and CK before we headed to Meeting. Weeks ago, I bought matching dresses for the girls to wear, but Olivia wanted to wear the Easter dress my Mom made for Sofia when she was Olivia's age. She wore it Monday when I took the girls to get pictures together and she loves the ladybug beads that my Mom sewed on the dress. The dress is still big on her, so I'm hoping she'll get a lot more use out of it. It's such a piece of art! After Meeting, we returned home and got started on the carrots, pulled out the Honey Baked Ham, stuck the rolls in the oven, etc. We had a fun crowd including Kiron, Mya and their son Grady, Kyle, Annie and their daughter Giselle, Kari who was solo with her kids Oliver, Amelia and Elise, and our neighbors Marco, Stacy and their boys Antonio and Luca. Our menu included Honey Baked Ham, a delicious fruit salad Annie and Kyle brought, rolls, the slower cooker Potato Au Gratin, rolls, honey thyme carrots, a fruit salsa and chips made by Kari and hummus and chips from Marco and Stacy. It was all delicious and we did a number on the ham!

For dessert, which we had after the Easter Egg Hunt, included carrot cake, the chocolate nests with jelly bean "eggs", Mya's homemade Peeps (yum!), amaretto and cream stuffed strawberries (a huge hit), and the seriously delicious tiramisu cake from Marco and Stacy. The kids ran around outside and played, while we all visited. CK played the guitar and Giselle sang "Let it Go" as well as other songs and the adult sitting outside thought we'd put on the cd. Giselle has an amazing voice and she and CK sounded great together! Kiron, Mya and Kari hung out until 5:30, which made for a relaxing fun day of catching up. What a fun Easter!

The girls' Easter baskets

Sofia's Easter goodies

Olivia's Easter basket

Sofia and her Easter treats

A still-groggy Olivia looks at the Resurrection Buns

Gum....

And a princess coloring book...what more could a girl want?!

Showing Papa her princess book

All ready for Meeting and a fun Easter celebration

I love Olivia in her Mimi-made Easter dress. It's such a work of art!

One of two ladybug beads my Mom added

Sofia and Olivia

Such sweet girls

Papa and his girls

The girls and me

Our little ham, Sofia

Our attempt at a family photo - even Buddy is in the picture!

Our Easter dessert tower!

Mya's homemade Peeps! Divine!

Giselle and CK playing "Let it Go" as well as other song. Giselle has an amazing voice!

CK and his guitar

Kiron, Mya and Elise

Bluebonnets!

We decided to take advantage of another soccer-free Saturday (thanks to Sofia's broken collarbone) and drive down to Ennis to look at the bluebonnets. We went last year and it was spectacular! This year promised to be just as good and the flowers are apparently peaking right now. We decided to take Buddy along with us, since he's an easy dog to travel with and loves being with us. We drove separately to the airport, where we left CK's car and then continued on toward Ennis. CK researched where to go and we decided to drive part of the north trail. We couldn't remember which trail we drove last year, but are pretty sure it was the south trail, although we did drive some sections that we recognized. Finally we found a field in front of a house where a lot of people had pulled over and we decided to join them. The bluebonnets weren't as full as in most of the other fields we passed, but those fields weren't accessible so we decided to take pictures where we could. Buddy loved getting out and stretching his legs and there were so many new smells for him to enjoy. The girls loved the bluebonnet field and Sofia took off running, which I'm sure all the other families taking pictures really loved since it meant she was running in the background. Once she came back, we had her run along the front of the field where no one was set up and she loved running back and forth, with Olivia following her. We did manage to take some pictures and CK captured some great photos of Sofia running in the bluebonnets. We were hoping to get a family photo, but didn't end up getting it done.

After enjoying the bluebonnets for awhile, we drove into Ennis. With Buddy we needed to find a restaurant with a patio and we found Bailey's, a tiny Mexican restaurant where we sat out front. The food was good and cheap with all four of us eating for $21! Even Buddy was able to enjoy some of Olivia's left over quesadilla. After lunch, we headed back to Arlington Airport where we dropped CK off so he could fly. Olivia slept the entire drive and woke up shortly after we dropped CK off. I suggested we stop by the bluebonnet field in Grapevine that we'd visited the same day as the Easter Bunny and Sofia was very excited to go again since that meant she could run like crazy again. Olivia was still pretty sleepy, but she went along with it and stuck with me while Sofia ran around. I was able to take a few more pictures of Buddy in the bluebonnets and Sofia wanted me to take a ton of her posing. Finally, we loaded back up and headed home.

Bluebonnets!

Sofia appreciating the bluebonnets

The girls and Buddy

With their Papa in the bluebonnets

With me

Running!

A gorgeous clump of bluebonnets

Lunch at Bailey's

A still-tired little girl at the Grapevine field

Love this picture!

Wish Olivia was looking at me!

Sweet sisters

So cute!

Sofia and her requested poses

More running!

Buddy!