March 2022

The spring always seems to get busy for our family, and March was no exception. There were lots of activities this month! Here’s what we were up to:

We packed a lunch on March 1st and met Emily and Britni and their kids at Leathertree Park. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather!!

We were the only ones there for a little while, but then it quickly filled up with kids. Abigail had a lot of fun running around and playing with her friends.

Spring soccer season started up this month, and I took Savannah to a group practice session for all the 7U girls that evening. She was happy to be back out on the soccer field again.

Abigail scootered part of the way home from school on March 2nd…

…and then Savannah pushed it the rest of the way home for her ;) Abigail is lucky to have some sweet big sisters!

Mrs. Pride’s birthday was on March 3rd, and I organized a gift for her from the class. I had the kids write her a message on a balloon during duty free lunch in late February and then made this birthday poster with the balloons on it. Her favorite colors are pink and green. I thought it turned out cute!

I also collected money from the class to go toward a gift basket with some of her favorite things as well as several gift cards.

The kids also signed their names to the inside cover of a book that was on Mrs. Pride’s classroom wish list :)

We recruited Caroline, Savannah’s classmate and friend who happens to live in our neighborhood, to walk to school with us that morning and help Savannah carry all of the birthday stuff inside. Mrs. Pride was very surprised, and she said it made her day!

The first week of March was Read Across America week, and there were different dress up days each day. On March 3rd, the kids were supposed to wear Mill Creek gear or their house t-shirts.

That morning, Abigail and I went to the Knox Creek playground with a few moms/kids from church after a morning bible study. It’s pretty unusual for us to do two park days in one week, so Abigail was really living it up!

How many kids can you fit on one tire swing? :)

March 4th was Pajama Day, and Savannah wanted to do a special hairstyle.

Abigail even decided to scooter to school in her PJs that morning too.

Lilliana and Savannah on the playground that morning

Abigail wanted to help spread the peanut butter on her sandwich for lunch :)

The girls had a picnic lunch outside on March 5th…

That night, it was Brooklyn’s turn to have a date night with Daddy! She did not want to dress up, which fits her style. She chose Metro Diner and got chicken and waffles just like Savannah did on her date in February ;) Travis got breakfast for dinner and said it was great.

I liked this bird that Savannah created out of paper!

Savannah lost her 5th tooth on March 8th! It was one of her bottom teeth. She was brushing her teeth before school, and she had two very loose teeth. She had the forethought to plug up the drain, and it was a good thing she did because one of the loose teeth fell out in the sink! :)

She wrote a note to the tooth fairy that night and was excited to find her dollar in the morning!

On March 9th, Mrs. Pride invited some of the parents to come to a “reader theater” in her classroom. The kids were showing off their reading skills by reading lines from “Hi, Fly Guy!”

Savannah was cast as Buzz’s mom :) She had two lines to read by herself and several lines to say with the group. We could tell she was nervous, but she did a great job! I was so proud of her.

During the performance, I noticed that Savannah was making sure that Isaac (who was sitting next to her) had flipped his paper to the right page. I thought that was so sweet!! She definitely has a strong motherly instinct.

After the play was over, we were able to stay for about 15 minutes and visit with Savannah and enjoy some popcorn together.

It was so wonderful to be in Savannah’s classroom with her classmates and some of the other parents. The principal and vice principals came as well. We took things like this for granted when Brooklyn was in kindergarten and first grade, but not anymore!

Mrs. Pride and her kids! It was a great morning.

Later that day, Abigail didn’t eat much lunch and started running a fever and acting like she didn’t feel well. She wanted me to hold her for a lot of the afternoon, and then she threw up around suppertime. The other girls were very sweet to read to her and bring her stuffed animals to cuddle with. Savannah even sat in Abigail’s bed with her and read her a new Owl Diaries chapter book she’d just gotten (the whole thing!).

Sweet “get well” notes :)

Abigail never threw up again, and by the next afternoon, she was out riding her bike down the sidewalk. Thankfully it was a short-lived illness!

Mrs. Pride’s class visited the library on March 10th…

They also worked on their math using Lucky Charms :)

This month, Brooklyn and Savannah learned how to pump their legs to swing themselves on the swing set, and they were both excited to show me!

Brooklyn and Abigail played a game of chess together on March 10th after school. Brooklyn has learned how to play chess from a computer game, but it’s nice to have an actual board where she can play with her sisters and help them learn too.

That evening, the girls were upstairs cleaning up the playroom, and Savannah’s other loose tooth came out. She didn’t pull it–she said it just came loose in her mouth ;) She never wants us to pull her teeth…she prefers to just let them fall out on their own. So the tooth fairy came twice in one week!

Savannah wrote another note to the tooth fairy. I like how she always explains how the tooth came out.

This month, Abigail filled up her sticker chart for keeping her Pull-Up dry at night! She is thrilled to get to wear panties to bed now!! We are finally done with diapers/pull-ups now. This feels like a big milestone!! She might have been ready for panties at nighttime earlier than this, but I think she may have been staying dry at night sometimes and just using her Pull-Up as a potty first thing in the morning ;) But using the sticker chart helped her stay motivated to keep it dry and helped me know whether she was ready for panties or not. She also got a Skittle every morning it was dry…haha. It worked!

On March 11th, Brooklyn was wearing shorts to school…

…and then we woke up the next morning (March 12th) to SNOW! I think that’s why they say “if you don’t like the weather in Alabama, just wait 24 hours and it will change.” Haha!

It wasn’t too much snow (maybe ½ inch?), but it was enough to get out and play in! Since it was a Saturday, Travis got to play too. The funniest thing to me was that this was the first official day of spring break. Definitely a first for around here.

We had a snowball fight, of course. Abigail doesn’t like getting hit with snowballs, but the other girls love it. Brooklyn told us not to mess with the snow at the bottom of the slide because it was her “ammution” to make more snowballs…haha.

We attempted to make a small snowman named Snowy, but there was such a small amount of snow that we had to roll some of the snowman’s body in the backyard and carry it around to the front yard.

This snowman actually had a real carrot nose unlike the January version ;) We had a fun time!

After we came inside and warmed up, the girls helped make apple crisp from Savannah’s cookbook that she got for Christmas. We were having Travis’s family over for Sunday lunch the next day, and we thought it would be a good time to try out a new recipe. It turned out yummy!

I caught Abigail and Savannah sitting together and making their own cookbook later that afternoon :)

That night, Travis and and Abigail went to Fulin’s on their date! She had been saying for several weeks that she would try sushi on their date…she wanted to order a “kid size sushi” though. She also wanted to dress up and picked out a fancy dress to wear. However she didn’t’ want to wear a hair bow…just a plain ponytail ;)

I was so shocked to hear that she actually liked the “crazy roll”!! It had crab, eel, shrimp, cream cheese, avocado, and smoked salmon in it. She also tried one with mango, but she wasn’t as crazy about it. She ate 4 or 5 bites of the crazy roll! She even used kids chopsticks!!

Travis said she was great and talked as much as the other girls combined on their dates…haha. She needed to go to the bathroom toward the end of their meal and apparently they cleared the table while they were gone, so she didn’t get to have her fortune cookie or her refill of lemonade ;) She made sure to report on that when they got home.

Luckily, they went next door to Crumbl Cookies and got a cookie!! She chose the Fruity Pebbles flavor. What a sweet face! She had a fun time on her first-ever date night.

On March 14th, Brooklyn and Savannah rode their bikes to the greenway with me while I ran. (Abigail was napping, and Travis was working from home). I love that the girls are getting old enough to do things like that! It was about a 2 mile bike ride/run.

We stopped at the creek and rested for a few minutes. This is one of their favorite spots to play.

Savannah started running a slight fever later that afternoon and complained that her stomach was hurting. She took a nap, so we could tell she definitely didn’t feel well. The girls were supposed to do Paw and Rae Rae camp starting the next day, but we ended up needing to postpone it a day just to make sure we didn’t share any germs.

On March 15th, Savannah was feeling better, but we still stuck close to home. We went to the lending library in our neighborhood to check out the books inside…

…and got out the dot markers for some art time that afternoon.

Everyone was still feeling fine on March 16th, so we got ready to meet Paw and Rae Rae in Cullman to send the girls off to “camp”. But first, we got Brooklyn’s new bulletin board hung in her room. I accidentally ordered a bigger size than I meant to, but it actually worked out well. She has filled it completely up and is always adding/rearranging her pictures and artwork. She loves it!

Rae Rae only took one picture during camp, but it sounded like they had a fun time! The girls stayed with Paw and Rae Rae from Wednesday to Friday. Travis took a few days off work, and we were able to work on several projects around the house, including restaining our swingset!

Paw and Rae Rae brought the kids back on March 18th in time for us to go to a scavenger hunt at the Milsteads’ house that evening. It had been raining earlier in the day, but the weather cleared up, and it was so nice outside while we were there!

After we all finished eating supper, Jim had us organize ourselves into groups, and he passed out maps and gave instructions. They live on several acres of land, so we quickly realized that this hunt was going to be an adventure.

Travis and I were in a group with our girls + Carter :) We were at a slight disadvantage than some of the other groups that had older kids or fewer kids because we weren’t moving nearly as quickly from one spot to the next.

We had a map, and we were supposed to look for treasure boxes hidden in each spot with coins inside. It was a lot of fun! We walked through a lot of thorns, so if they do this type of party again, we’ll have to remember to put long sleeves and pants on the kids for sure.

We didn’t win, but we had a great time anyway! The winning team snuck off with the last treasure box without anyone else even realizing it. We all got a kick out of that when we got back to the Milsteads’ house afterward.

The next morning, March 19th, Cici had her annual “spring fling” for the grandkids at her house. It was really the only opportunity to do it before soccer season started, and all our Saturday mornings filled up. It was a bit chilly outside, but it sounded like the kids had fun. Travis and I worked some more on staining our swingset while the kids were gone, so I didn’t witness the fun firsthand…

Love seeing their big smiles…

Which team will win the ball toss? :)

This water gun game looked like fun!

Picking out prizes = one of their favorite parts. Cici never ceases to amaze us with all the fun things she does for our kids!

March is all over the place in terms of weather here. You never know if you’ll be wearing short sleeves or snow gear! Abigail and I enjoyed some time outside on the 21st. She wanted to try out the new chalk she got at the spring fling ;)

March 21st was the first day back to school after spring break for Brooklyn and Savannah, and it was a super special day. Travis got to be the mystery reader in Savannah’s classroom that afternoon! We didn’t tell her ahead of time that he was coming ;) Mrs. Pride sent Savannah to the office to pick up the mystery reader, and she was so surprised to see that it was her own daddy! She told me that evening that him coming was the best part of her day ;) Travis really enjoyed it too! He read Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party, The Smart Cookie, and part of What Should Danny Do? to the kids. He said it went really well. Thankful for opportunities like these at school again.

The kids also wore blue and yellow that day to support World Down Syndrome Day.

If you know Travis very well, you know he can’t resist a good freebie. March 21st was Free Cone Day at Dairy Queen, so we got some free ice cream after dinner that night. The girls approved of the decision!

We met some friends at the library for storytime on March 22nd, and the kids enjoyed playing for a while afterward with puppets and blocks.

Savannah walked with Hannah for part of the way home from school on March 23rd…

Mrs. Pride’s class learned a lot about graphs and shapes that week.

They also got ready for another Reader Theater performance that would be happening soon.

We discovered this month that Abigail loves grapefruit just like her daddy. She sat right beside him on the couch with her little mouth open just waiting for him to share the next piece ;)

Savannah had her first soccer game of the spring season on March 26th at 9 AM. Their first practice was the night before. She has six girls on her team this season, including her friends Gabriella and Felicity.

The Mighty Mermaids played a great game today! Savannah said she was keeping score in her head, and they won 5-2. Coach MJ told the girls last night not to keep score out loud ;) She scored one goal and played great defense! She kicked the ball away from the other team at the last second just before they were about to score. She told us after the game “I was running so fast that I felt a breeze!” Haha! She had a lot of fun and loved running through the tunnel and eating a popsicle at the end.

Brooklyn didn’t have a game today. Their season got a late start because the teams didn’t get formed until late Thursday night, so they ended up having their first practice today instead. She is happy to be on Coach Joe’s team again with several of the same girls from last season. Brooklyn has apparently been playing soccer during recess with some of the boys from her class, and I think all that practice has rubbed off. She had a great practice! She is enjoying playing striker, so we’ll see if that’s where Coach Joe plays her this season.

That’s Savannah and Abigail scootering home together from school on March 28th. I think this is the scooter version of the three-legged race…haha!

Brooklyn is practicing on field 9 at Dublin Park this season, so we are getting our exercise twice a week hiking up the big hill ;)

“Mommy, can I have a piece of paper please?”

It was a super windy day on March 30th, but somehow we didn’t blow away, and we made it to the lending library so Abigail could pick out a new book.

Abigail’s legs aren’t strong enough to pedal up our steep driveway, so she has to hop off her bike and pull it up to the flat part instead. The memory of her doing this will be forever cemented in my head because it was just so cute!

Savannah’s classmates performed the Three Little Pigs in another Reader Theater on March 30th. Because Savannah had a speaking role in the Fly Guy performance, she got to be a director this time instead. Only the parents of the actors and actresses were allowed to attend the show, but it sounded like it went well!

Abigail’s hair is getting easier to French braid!

This month, Mill Creek started allowing parents to come eat lunch with their kids again for the first time since Brooklyn was in 1st grade! Finally!! We had to sign up online ahead of time because they were limiting the number of parents who could come each day. I signed up to eat with Savannah on March 31st and couldn’t wait. This was her first time ever to have me eat lunch with her in the cafeteria. It was a little different than pre-covid days because we sat at a table separate from her classmates, but that was okay. I enjoyed hearing how her day was going, and she liked telling me all the kids she recognized from other classes. It’s amazing how many kids she knows that aren’t in Mrs. Pride’s class. My little observer!

I’ll end this recap by bragging on my amazing husband. Travis found out with only 24 hours notice that he would be receiving a coin on March 31st from the Under Secretary of the Army, Gabe Camarillo, who was in town visiting the Arsenal. This guy is apparently the 2nd in command to the Secretary of the Army! There were several others who were recognized (shown in the group photo above), but Travis was the only one from his program. General Barrie introduced Travis and explained why he was being recognized, and then the Under Secretary shook his hand, gave him the coin, and told him he appreciated his hard work and service to the army. It was a surreal moment for Travis! Wish I could have been there. He said he didn’t pass out (thankfully), but he was pretty nervous. I’m glad his hard work is getting some recognition, because he definitely puts 110% into his job.

So cool!!

Notes and Quotes from March 2022:

• 3/3/22 – Abigail was talking about watching “Lightning the Queen” (Lightning McQueen) in the Cars movie :)
• 3/4/22 – When I ask Abigail to do something, she will frequently say something cute like “Sure I will!” or “I sure can!” Something sweet I want to remember.
• 3/20/22 – Abigail, peeking under Brooklyn’s door: “Brooklyn’s awake!” Me: “I don’t think so. It doesn’t look like her light is on.” Abigail: “She usually just uses the blind light.” (i.e. opens her blinds). Haha.
• 3/23/22 – Abigail: “Hey Mommy! Want me to tell you a word I learned from Daddy for when a team loses and gets hurt?” Me: “Sure!” (Daddy was standing in the kitchen too). Abigail: “I have to whisper it to you.” Whispers in my ear: “Piddly!” (Which is exactly right…she’s been listening…haha).
• 3/23/22 – Brooklyn: “When I grow up, I’m going to live out in the country. And I’ll have running water, but I won’t have a lot of electricity except for a computer and a phone, and maybe a TV.” :)
• 3/28/22 – Abigail and I were in the frozen vegetable aisle at Kroger, and suddenly Abigail exclaimed, “I see corndogs!!” I looked down and realized what she was talking about. “That’s corn on the cob, not corndogs”, I said. Abigail responded, “Oh that’s silly of me! I didn’t mean to say corn on the DOG!” Haha!
• 3/31/22 – Abigail, talking to me: “When I’m 5 and I go to school, you can play with whatever you want in my room while I’m gone.” :)

Thanks for reading!!