Basketball Season

Wyatt, Reese, and Hudson are all playing basketball at the Y this season, and they are all on different teams.  Add in Wyatt's indoor soccer schedule and it makes for some crazy Saturdays. 

 

Hudson usually starts our mornings with his practice and game at 9AM.  His age group practices for about 20 minutes and then they play a game.  He was stoked to be on the court!

 



He scored 4 points in his first game!



 

Reese's game was next.  She is having so much fun!  She hustles up and down the court.

 We missed her first two baskets when we were getting Jeter, but Mimi and Baba were there to see them!

 Wyatt is playing his fourth season and he is having fun learning new skills (he learned a lot at basketball camp last summer, too.  Apparently I didn't include that on the blog.  So behind.).

 BUT, he's lost two games and tied the third.  This is how he handles losing.  He hopped up off the bench with a huge smile on his face when they ended in a tie.  I think he was just happy that he didn't actually lose!

Fortunately, his indoor soccer team has been winning by double digits, so that softens the blow of the basketball losses.  Ha!

Reese's Sixth Birthday

I have never met a kid who gets as excited about their birthday as Reese does.  She actually made a video for me planning out her day in advance so that I would know what she wanted to do.  This included her menu for the day so I could shop.  Not even kidding.

Brian stopped at Party City for Frozen decorations, and I found a banner in our birthday supply box.  She loves to see decorations out "just for her."

 She also has the BEST reactions to gifts. She doesn't say anything until every piece of paper is off of the package (even if she can see what it is). Then she gets really excited, and runs and hugs the gift giver.

 Wearing pajama pants with nightgowns is her new thing.  And they don't match.

She loved the Palace Pet collection that Wyatt chose for her!

 Reese wrote thank you notes for her gifts the night BEFORE her birthday.  Even Finley is shocked by her prompt acknowledgment of gifts.

 Derek and Sophie were hanging out with Mimi for the day, so Reese suggested that we move her "pizza lunch" to Mimi's so she could share lunch and cupcakes with them.

 Finley was a big fan of that idea!  She loves a cupcake!

 Reese had tee ball practice, and then we went to her requested dinner at the "place with peanuts and mac and cheese," known to most people as Texas Roadhouse.  Then we had cake and ice cream!

 She walked around all day shouting, "I can't believe it's my BIRTHDAY!  I'm six!"

Happy Birthday, Reesie!  We love you so much!

As Daddy said,

Six years ago I had no idea what to do with a little girl. 

Six years later, I don't know what I would do without her. My Reesie is quite simply the most well rounded person I have ever met. Smart, funny, beautiful, loving and caring - great words that don't even begin to do her justice. My world is a better place because of her.

Happy 6th Birthday Reese!!

SIX!

Reese is going to be six years old on Monday!  It's hard to believe that six years ago she was here:

On Cpap before being placed on the vent, having to wait a week to hold her and feed her, and waiting 11 days to bring her home.

 To her first birthday smiles.

 To her second birthday, when she may have talked more than any other two year old on the planet!

 Best buddies with her big brother, and getting ready to evacuate for a hurricane on her third birthday!

 Excited to turn four!

 Celebrating Princess Sofia-style on her fifth birthday!

We are so excited to spend our day celebrating this sweet, funny, smart, caring little girl on Monday!  Happy Birthday, Reesie Piecey!

Dance Recital 2014

Another dance recital weekend is over!

All of my "performance photos" were taken with my phone at rehearsal last Thursday.  I forgot my real camera for dress rehearsal, and then forgot the SD card and battery for my Canon on Sunday.  Oops.

I just love watching her dance.  She's come a long way since her first recital when she was three, and she's learned lots of new technique since last year's recital as well. She's my perfectionist though, so she's always working hard to get better!

She danced twice this year.  A little ballet.

And some tap!

This girl was front and center in both of her dances.  She seems to remember her routine well.  And based on what I know about ballet (which can be summed up by saying I know the positions, and that you need to have your toes pointed, thanks to one year of dance!), she's a pretty good little dancer, too! 

She wore her costume like this for tap.  She practiced all weekend after her rehearsal.  I actually heard her in her room one night after I put her to bed, "Tendue, tendue, back, side, front.  Tendue, tendue, back, side, front.  Arabesque!  Arabesque!"

Her recital was at 12:30 on Sunday, and I knew that there was no way that Reese or Wyatt would make it through the entire thing with no lunch.  So like any good ballerina, she ate a cheeseburger and fries on her way to her recital.  I mean, obviously we protected her costume with a blanket.

It was so much fun to watch her dance - they even had a music mishap and she had to come on stage three times before it worked!  They all handled it so well, though.

Wyatt on the other hand...do not bring a seven year old boy to a recital.  Yikes!  I made him go because she sits through ALL of his sports, but a three hour recital might be too much payback.

This girl loves her flowers!

She is still deciding about taking dance again next year.  I don't want to push her and make her do it, but I also think she's angling to see if she can try something else instead - like horseback riding.  I think this because she actually told her teacher that she'll miss her next year, but she's going to taking horseback riding lessons, so she won't be at dance. Where in the world does she get this stuff?

Tee Ball's Over, Too!

Reese ended her tee ball season two weeks ago (I know.  I blog about all the latest information).

She had so much fun playing tee ball this year.  She is eligible to move up to softball in the fall.  I'm not getting in the middle of the "discussion" she and Brian are having about whether or not she's moving up!  I'd love for her to play more tee ball, but I know she wants to play with girls and not the boys!

She is my lightning fast girl!  At her team's pizza party, another mom walked up to her just to tell her that she loved watching her run because she is so fast,  and she wished she was as fast as Reese is! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous of her speed, too!

She played second and pitched, and managed to get two outs in her final game!

Love that her trophy has a ponytail on it!  She came home and made a space for it immediately.  She's very proud of that thing - but we are much prouder of all her hard work and effort!

Can't wait to see what she chooses to do in the fall - soccer or baseball?  Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Tee Ball Girl

Reese is having a lot of  fun playing tee ball this year. The weather has really gotten in the way of practices and one or two games, but she is so excited on her game days!

She loves to run the bases - but this girl is fast!  It's hard to get her out - unless she hits the ball directly to first base.

 She is getting good at catching and learning where to make plays.  She tried her best to get this one.

 This picture of her taking off from home plate cracks. me. up.  Goodness gracious, is she ever intense about running the bases.

She got to be pitcher at her game last week, and she did an awesome job!  She even managed to get two outs!

Of course, how could you have a bad game when you've got the cutest cheering section ever?

 Even when they're being a little silly.  Or in Hudson's case, stuck in baby jail (yes, that's what we call the stroller for him).  Wyatt prefers to run off and play with his friends during Reese's games, and Hudson doesn't really tag along.  Reese and her friends actually play with Hudson, so he doesn't really run off during Wyatt's games!

 I can't believe how close we are to the end of baseball season - the extended winter weather, lots and lots of rain, and cancelled games have made for a slower season than usual!  Of course - it just means summer's on horizon.  I should probably start looking at camp schedules!

Color Me Rad

My mom and sister called a few weeks ago and asked if Reese and I wanted to run the Color Me Rad with them. If the race were held on any other Saturday we wouldn't have been able to participate, but Spring Break gave us a free weekend, and we decided to run!

Reesie loves my brother's dog, Charlie.

Before the race!

She enjoys running.  She doesn't have any stamina, so she would sprint and then walk. She is really fast though, so when she sprinted Katie and I would have to as well.  But the race course was packed, and there were four of us, so there wasn't a whole lot of actual running taking place anyway.

Of course, once we got about halfway through the race, she decided that she needed a break.  Aunt Katie to the rescue!

Brian surprised us at the finish line!  He mentioned that he might come see us finish the race, but it was cold, rainy, and super windy, so I wasn't sure that he would bring the other three kids out in it!  It cleared up a bit, so they made the trip.  Reesie and I were so excited to see our favorites cheering us on!

Thanks for inviting us Katie and Didi!

Reese's Spring Program

We had Spring Programs at school last week.  Reese and Hudson had their performances on different days, so we got to go twice!

Last year was bittersweet for Wyatt because it was his final time participating at preschool, and this year was Reese's final performance.  We think. We think.  We are really going back and forth constantly about what to do with her.  We LOVE their preschool, but we feel much more at peace with the idea of sending her to public Kindergarten than we did when we were making the decision about her big brother!  We know the public school now and we love it, so it's making the decision a little tougher.

This scatterbrained mom forgot to grab the SD card out of the computer before we left for school, so even though I had my Canon (and even got snap happy with it before I realized my mistake), all I've got to show for the day are iPhone pictures!

They sang their songs and then went back to class for their party.  They followed the party up with an Easter Egg Hunt!

And of course the Easter Bunny showed up to surprise them all!

4 year old class

3 year old class

I can't believe how big she's gotten since she started school three years ago - and she's learned so much!  I know she'll miss her preschool, but she is soooo excited to go to school with Wyatt again next year!