spring has sprung

The weather has been mostly beautiful the past few weeks. All we want to do is be outside. As a result, I've gotten a nice start to a horrible farmers tan. And guess what? I don't care! We've been shooting baskets, riding bikes, throwing baseball, playing at the park, walking, running, doing yard work, and eating meals on the deck. I feel like when the weather warms up we completely forget about things like homework, practicing piano, cleaning the house and cooking dinner. It's great! It also reminds me that summer is coming soon and we can't have days filled with nothing because the house will become a complete disaster and everyone will be fighting and crazy. 

When I was at the Women's Retreat Ben made dessert. He doesn't remember that this is a Matt Santen special - "Mom's Not Home Dessert" - peanut butter and chocolate chips.

And Ted stayed up late that night watching March Madness.

Two weeks ago Young Life leader and kids made 2 meals for the homeless and underpriveleged at the church that gives Ben his office. One Saturday. One Sunday. Sophie worked her tail off. Ted played basketball the entire time.

It snowed last Tuesday, April 15. I'm not kidding! Obviously not a lot. But it definitely flurried all day.

 Friday we did some bike riding in a school parking lot.

 And resting in the trunk of the car.

Sophie got on a bike and just straight up started riding. It was pretty awesome since she's really not like that when it comes to physical things. She's been practicing a lot and can now start herself and everything. She doesn't go too far yet. But we're working on that so we can hit the rail trails as a family. I'm so excited for her!

 We dyed some Easter eggs on Saturday.

And went to my cousin Jeremy's ultimate frisbee tournament. 

We had hotdogs for Easter dinner. Chinese for Easter lunch. It was great because I didn't have to cook. It was a beautiful day. We played baseball, hunted eggs in the yard, and played games. We wanted to build a fire in the fire pit to cook the hotdogs but didn't have wood. So we resorted to the tailgating grill to cook the dogs, even though we had a real grill on the deck. It's just more fun that way.

The beauty of warm weather is that my dining room table can look like this all the time because we just eat outside.

We placed 21 new leaders in the Mountaineer Area a couple of weeks ago. HERE are some pictures of all our teams. 

Students are done next week. We're ready for that. This week is everyone's last club. As rough as this semester started with all the snow, it has ended with a bang for most schools. We are going to do some fun stuff with leaders that happen to be in town over the summer. 

Ted started baseball a couple of weeks ago. They divided the league into two levels. He's a bottom player in the upper level. I'm learning a lot about myself and what I want for Ted. Do I want him to be a better baseball player or a better team mate who tries really, really hard and improves over the season? He loves it. Ben loves it. I love playing catch with him. 

The days are full and blowing by.  Happy Spring!