Happy Birthday Andy!

 We celebrated Andy's birthday the way Max wanted. Max has been dying to take Andy to Caldwell BBQ and thought this would be the best time. Max loves this place, but not as much as his dad's BBQ. Max and I have had it a few times, so he wanted to take his dad. We got the family of four meal with pork, brisket, and turkey. We chose their potato salad and coleslaw for sides. Their pulled pork is amazing, but again, Andy's is better.

We did presents.

Andy chose Coldstone for his "cake" instead of a real cake.

Another year around the sun and a very happy birthday to Andy!

Happy Easter

We started the Easter weekend by decorating eggs. This is always a fun time.

We celebrated a win!! Andy and I enter into March Madness brackets with our friends, and whichever family loses has to buy the other family dinner at Ocean 44 or Steak 44. We won for the second year in a row, so a toast with champagne was definitely necessary.

The Easter bunny came and gave Max a very nice basket and hid eggs throughout the backyard.

It didn't take Max too long to find all 30 eggs.

But, he had trouble finding the straggler high up in the tree. Andy had to help get it down. Soon, Max won't need any help. He's now taller than me.

We hosted a very small group for Easter lunch/dinner. I was very bummed to realize that night that we forgot to take the annual photo in the backyard. I honestly can't believe I forgot to do this. With no photo evidence to share, we had Grandpa T and Grandma L at the house for Easter ham, potatoes, and Max's favorite corn.

March Roundup

 March ended Q3 at Max's school and he again landed on honor roll and he received the PACK award for his good behavior. Max was thrilled to get honor roll again.

Quarter three also ended with Field Day, where I volunteered again to run the water race with a good friend of mine. It was a nice, warm, and sunny day, so it made the water races fun for the kids.

Getting sushi with Grandpa to kick-off spring break.

Max spent time with his grandparents and myself during his two week break from school. He went to the Cubs spring training game with Grandpa T, Grandma S, and Beau. 

I took him to Pecan Lake for some fun with his friends. They did the ropes course, games, putt-putt, and go-karts.

We ended Spring Break at the Ostrich Fest with friends. The boys had a great time riding all the rides, and Max ended up winning a giant panda. He was thrilled to win his first large stuffed animal from the fair. 

Zoe seemed to link the Panda too. She liked using it as a pillow until I made Max store it in his room. 

Time is going by really fast. So fast that I didn't even realize I missed a whole month of blogging. We are creeping toward the end of Elementary school, and it's sad, but also exciting at the same time. 

End of February

 I received Max's Spring photo from school, and he's such a handsome man. I will say that Andy's genes run strong in this kid, but my mom recently sent me my school photo from when I was 12, and I have to say he looks a lot like me.

It has been unseasonably warm here in AZ lately, so Max has been sweating it out at golf.

We saw Stella play Sven in Frozen. It's always nice to watch her do what she loves. We were talking about the first time we saw her in Frozen when she was probably 8 years old. Boy, time flies!

The last weekend in February, Andy and I went to Vegas for 24 hours. It was a quick getaway to see NKOTB in concert while Max hung out with Grandma L. We had a lot of fun just having a weekend away and being "young" again. 

This month we visited the Farmer's Market which is becoming a regular event for a Saturday morning. This time Max got a chili dog for breakfast.

Max had a recent sleepover with his buddies and they each made their own pizza for Andy to grill on the smoker.

We went out to brunch for our friend's birthday. 

We also celebrated Valentine's Day in our low-key style. We exchanged small gifts and had surf and turf at home for dinner.

Andy's grandma also recently passed away. We wished the whole family could have traveled back for the funeral, but it was too hard to get a dog sitter on such short notice, so just Andy went back to WI. I am glad he was able to go back and see his grandma for a quick visit last month and then that he was able to attend her funeral. It was hard but Andy knows she is in heaven and not in pain anymore.

The End of Choir

 Max just finished his elementary choir career. He participated in choir the past two years and really enjoyed it. He mostly enjoyed the field trips, but he also had fun singing and learning new songs. They ended the season off with the District-wide choir event for all the elementary schools. Each school's choir sang and they also got to see the high school choir groups sing. I was lucky to be able to attend again this year.

Grandpa T also attended again this year and enjoyed watching Max participate in his last performance as an elementary student. As of today, he does not plan on continuing choir in junior high.