March 2025

March was our last slower-paced month until the end of the school year, and we made the most of it by spending a lot of time with family and friends. Here’s what we were up to:

On March 1st, we drove down to Trussville for the day to celebrate Jenn’s and Brooklyn’s birthdays a couple of weeks late. Brooklyn didn’t seem to mind extending the celebration ;)

One gift that Brooklyn received was a rolling cart with drawers for her room that she was really excited about. She didn’t waste any time after we got home that night asking me to help her put it together. It didn’t take too long and looked great!

This cracked me up – I usually make a daily to-do list each morning while I’m eating breakfast, and apparently Abigail has been taking notes. Here are some things she wanted to accomplish that day ;)

Mrs. Pride’s birthday was on March 3rd, and I collected money from the other families in the class to put together a gift basket of some of her favorite things. I think we managed to surprise her and make her day!

Here are some random moments from 1st grade this month, including a visit from the “tooth fairy”!

Read Across America was the first week of March, which meant different dress up days at school. Here are some pictures of the girls that week!

The road construction near our house was paused for a while and then started back this month, which also impacted the walking path we use to get to and from school. The girls turned it into an adventure and had fun climbing over piles of gravel and dirt ;)

Abigail’s classmate, Ren, moved back to Japan over winter break, but the class kept in touch with him for the rest of the school year and got periodic updates on how he was doing. I thought that was sweet!

Mrs. Mills shared some pictures of Savannah’s GE class working on their coding projects.

Matt came over on March 6th to watch a movie with Travis, and Cassie was very friendly to him, even sitting in his lap and on his feet…haha.

Brooklyn worked with a group in her STEM class to build this marble run. She was excited about how it turned out!

Slow Saturday mornings leave more time for dress up and kitten snuggles :)

Spring break was March 10-14 this year. We opted to stay in town rather than traveling. Travis took several days off too, and it was nice to have extra time for getting things done around the house. Cassie and Willow got lots of extra attention too, of course.

Chloe came over for a playdate on March 10th. The girls played games at our house, and then we headed over to the nearby cul-de-sac to ride bikes. We ran into Gabriella and Mia, and they joined us for a while. It was nice weather and a fun afternoon!

Savannah and Abigail had a sister sleepover that night with their American Girl dolls, and Cassie decided to sleep where she wasn’t supposed to…on top of Abigail’s chest of drawers ;)

We crammed in as much friend time as possible in on March 11th. The girls spent time with Gabriella and Mia in the morning, the Johnson girls over lunch, and Abigail had Sadie over in the afternoon. It was a nice day, so Travis and I spent some time touching up the stain on the playset while the girls played.

March 12th was a milestone day because it was the first time that the girls rode their bikes and delivered the Millstone News all by themselves!

Abigail had Ella and Adelyn over to play that afternoon, and they stayed to eat supper with us before we all went to church. The girls had fun dressing up and pretending to have tea together.

One of Savannah’s baby teeth was very loose that night after supper, and Travis pulled it out for her. It came out super easily! It’s one of her two baby teeth that doesn’t have a permanent tooth behind it, so she will definitely need braces in the future to help everything line up correctly.

We spent a good bit of time on March 13th in the kitchen! We made pumpkin mini muffins as well as two different smoothies recipes that Brooklyn wanted to try.

The pumpkin muffins were for the treat bags that Cici helps her grandkids put together for some of the families at our church. We got together to assemble them on March 14th. After the bags were filled, the kids went outside to play and ended up making some really cool teepees out of sticks and leaves. I am continually impressed by their creativity when they are together!

We celebrated the end of a fun spring break with Jeremiah’s Italian Ice that evening!

The girls helped pass out the treat bags on March 16th after bible class :)

Abigail had to get a small cavity filled and get sealant put on her molars on March 18th, and I was so impressed with our new pediatric dentist’s office. They explained everything to her very thoroughly and in words she could understand. They made it quick and easy, and Abigail did great!

Abigail picked a dandelion for Mrs. Pride on the walk to school on March 19th :)

It was a nice afternoon on March 21st, so we waited outside in a nearby park for Brooklyn, Kate, and Olive to walk to us after school.

Michael was in town for a quick visit, and he came by to see us on March 22nd. We always love catching up with him!

We were excited to get the chance to see Luke and Barrett’s baseball game that afternoon since spring soccer games hadn’t started yet.

This month, Abigail got the idea to push the kittens around in her baby doll stroller. It was a hoot and also amazing that they stayed in it willingly for as long as they did while she pushed them around the house.

This soccer season, we decided to do something a little different and have Brooklyn and Savannah play on the same soccer team for the first time ever. This was going to be Brooklyn’s last season in 12U, and Savannah was supposed to move up to 12U this fall anyway. So we moved her up a season early for them to play together. Gabriella also moved up to be on the same team with Savannah. Brooklyn initially was pretty resistant to the idea, but with time, she came around😉 We had a big talk about how they should treat each other just like any of their other teammates and be kind/encouraging and not extra hard on each other. Their first team practice was on March 25th, and it went very well!

I ate lunch with Abigail at school on March 27th, and her friend Sadie joined us too :)

Willow is the sweetest snuggly kitten!

Savannah was excited and a little nervous leading up to their first game on March 29th. The girls’ first two practices together went well, and I could tell that it looked like Savannah was holding her own just fine. Their first game was at 10 am on Dublin 5W. It had been lightly raining that morning and was overcast but not too cold. Brooklyn and Savannah both started the game. I think Savannah was playing left midfield and Brooklyn was right midfield. It was really neat to see them out there together. We could tell that Savannah wasn’t entirely comfortable at first in her position because she was trying to figure out where to be on the field, but after a few minutes, she got more and more comfortable and didn’t seem as nervous. She did great and definitely seemed like she fit right in. Their teammates scored several goals, and the other team never really had any good chances to score, so it was a pretty lopsided game. Savannah sat out the 3^rd quarter and played defense in the 4^th quarter. Brooklyn played the whole game and played a mixture of midfield and defense. In the 4th quarter, it was neat to see Brooklyn, Savannah, and Gabriella all playing defense together. I think it is going to be a fun season watching them all out on the field together! Their team name is the Dragons, and Coach Theresa is their coach. Brooklyn scored one goal toward the end of the game. They won the game 6-0, and both girls had a lot of fun.

Abigail’s game was at 11 am on Dublin 4. Travis is her assistant coach this season, which she is thrilled about, and she has the same head coach from the fall season (Coach Bosse). We walked over once the other girls’ game finished, and they were already in the 2^nd quarter I think. Abigail’s team is the Berries this season, which I thought was a cute name 😊 The Berries had a few chances to score that I saw, but none went in. Abigail had a great corner kick that rolled right in front of the goal, but her teammate couldn’t knock it in. Abigail played hard and ran fast today. She is excited to be with Allison again and Emily and meet several new teammates as well. They didn’t win today, but she is looking forward to a fun season!

Brooklyn has been participating in a monthly middle school class/get-together with the girls from the Gooch Lane congregation this year, and they have been working hard to summarize and illustrate stories from the Bible that will be translated into Chichewa and bound together in books for the kids in Malawi, Africa. Brooklyn chose the story of David and Goliath, and I loved how she drew her illustration for the front cover!

Travis took Savannah and Abigail to the All Pro Dads meeting before school on March 31st :)

Our kittens love boxes!

We ended the month with the 4th Grade Dinner at the Mill on March 31st. It was space themed, and the kids played a couple of songs on their recorders and sang some songs in Spanish. Savannah was also excited to show us her constellation artwork that she did in art class. It was a fun night, and we were proud of her for being brave on stage!

March Notes and Quotes

• 3/1/25 – Abigail: “When I’m a grownup, does that mean you’ll be a grandma and Daddy will be a grandpa? EWWW. That means you’ll have wrinkles!” Me: “What’s wrong with wrinkles?” Abigail: “I’ll still come visit you…I just won’t touch you. What if the wrinkles suck up my finger??” Haha!
• 3/6/25 – The kittens are mischievous but so sweet, cuddly, and fun. They keep us entertained and on our toes every day. Willow is especially cuddly and loves to be held. She will just let the girls pick her up and carry her around anywhere. She LOVES to be held and is extremely patient. She isn’t quite as playful as Cassie, but still likes to wrestle with Cassie and play with toys (especially plush toys). She seems to be a bigger eater than Cassie and is noticeably plumper at this point. Cassie likes to be held too but only on her own terms. She is extremely playful and loves chasing balls, string, and anything you throw for her or dangle in front of her. She likes to walk all over our pillows at night and eat my hair, which wakes me up. We have started closing our door at night most of the time so she doesn’t bother us 😉 She LOVES Travis and will always choose to sit with him in the evening if she is choosing between the two of us (much to my dismay). She is very curious, which has gotten her into some pickles. She got her head stuck in a hole underneath Travis’s desk and it took him 15 minutes to get her unstuck! She and Willow also knocked Brooklyn’s crab tank off her chest of drawers, and her crab Waffles escaped because the top fell off when it hit the floor. That happened just a few days ago. Savannah, Abigail, and I got home from school, and I heard Abigail started shrieking, “It’s a crab!! It’s a crab!!” I came running around the corner, and Waffles had made it all the way across Brooklyn’s room into the hallway. The kittens were surrounding her and watching her scuttle back and forth across the floor. Somehow Waffles survived the incident and didn’t seem any worse for the wear. They are not scared of people at all! When we had our small group dinner here a few weeks ago, they stayed out pretty much the whole time and even laid down in the living room when we were all sitting around talking. We feel like we got the two best, sweetest kittens at the shelter!  
• 3/18/25 – Savannah lost her 12th baby tooth today at school. She said she was eating her snack, and it came out in her mouth, and she felt something hard. Mrs. Davidson gave her a bag to put it in, and she brought it home after school.
• 3/23/25 – We were talking about cars that can hover or fly. Apparently, the first hovering car prototype has been invented. Abigail wants to buy one, but Travis said that sounded like chaos, and he wouldn’t ride in one. Abigail replied, “Chaos is fun! You just wiggle this way and waggle that way and get there so much faster!” :)

Thanks for reading!!