The Smiths: Marching Along!

We picked up the pace in March with a fun-filled Spring Break, baseball season opening, a visit from Christine, Nate's birthday, Pi Day, Field Day at school, a stake Primary activity, science projects, a new quilt for Ms. Asya, family history, and some warm sunny weather. I love March.

We met Nate for lunch and a tour of the tunnels and skyscrapers downtown during Spring Break. Here are a few pics from my phone.

Heading into the tunnels that criss cross under the city.

View from Nate's office.

Does this picture give you vertigo?

I love this picture of Isaac looking up.

We ate lunch in the tunnels at Beck's Prime. But not before passing a few pastry shops that made our hearts skip a beat. . .

Blue Bacon Burger with Sweet Potato Fries.

We met up with some other families in the ward for a Family Night lesson and a game of kickball.

Baseball season opened in March. Isaac and Brigham's ages lined up again this year so they can play on the same team. Go Rangers!

Carrying the banner. . .

Baseball opening ceremony.

Here's Brig about to steal third.

Isaac is playing catcher this season. Taking after his father.

First game victory!

Brig still bats left-handed which, in kid-pitch league, really throws the pitcher off.

All our time at the baseball fields gives the girls ample time to meet new friends play in the orange dirt, climb up ant hills, roll in the grass, jump in mud puddles, swing from the bleachers, and pick weeds and wildflowers. Yup, they love everything about baseball season!

Jess, Whitni, and I made a quilt for Ms. Asya. Jess did about 95% of the work, Whitni did 4.5 %, and I did all the rest! It was gorgeous, if I do say so myself. And Asya loved it.

The stake primary presidency (me) put together an Easter activity at the stake center - Easter egg hunts, bounce houses, carnival games, pop corn, prizes.

Isaac procrastinated some yard work and ended up having to do it all during a torrential rainstorm. I love the umbrella he set up for his tools.

Still smiled about it though. And did it without complaint.

We invited some neighbor kids over for soda-pop rocket launchers.

Eliza collected all the first blossoms of spring in a paper cup. I still can't convince her that flowers are sometimes prettier left to grow.

Clayton spent some long hours building a to-scale replica of the earth, inside and out. This is a lot harder than it looks. This was more than just an art project - lots of calculations were made and measured and made and measured again.

When all was said and done though it looked pretty cool and earned him an A grade in Science.

Now that spring is here, Brig is out catching lizards again.

And all the boys are out with their basketballs, soccer balls, and baseballs.

The girls are out with their mermaids and high heels.

We spent most of Spring Break riding bikes over to the park.

Where Eliza and Lydia played in the sand,

The boys played tether ball,

and we all went "Texas sledding" down the hill on cardboard.

(with only a few casualties).

But the biggest accomplishments happened on the swings. Eliza learned to pump. (yay! no more "mommy can you push me?") and all the boys discovered (and survived) the thrill of jumping (and flipping, shoving, yanking, rolling) out of the swings with surprisingly no trips to the ER. (except for me watching them who almost needed to go for a heart attack!)

We celebrated National Pi Day in March. Nate and the kids got really into it - measuring, discussing, and philosophizing about Pi all morning. I just made a few pies. Which we ate for breakfast at exactly 9:26 a.m.

Look at Clayton's eyes and Eliza's smile!

We tagged along on a cub scout nature hike. I think we were supposed to look for birds and other animals.

We didn't see any. But we did see some cool boardwalks and bridges.

And giant holes in trees.

I took pictures for the yearbook of our school's Field Day. Which meant I got a lot of pictures of my own kids. Here is Brig tossing the Frisbee through the rings.

And bright-eyed Eliza.

Picnic time!

Eliza. . . oh Eliza. Do you see what I deal with? I could not get her to do a regular smile for the life of me!

Brigham with a few of his friends.

Isaac's teacher.

I love these two boys. They have been best friends since kindergarten and have such similar personalities - they are hilarious together. And loved by all.

The girls filled the month with art projects and crafts.

Lydia learned how to play chess in March. Not even kidding. It kind of blows my mind, actually, watching her play.

Eliza brought home a bean plant from school and planted it in the backyard. It has quadrupled in size and we tease her about using magic beans to grow such a huge beanstalk.

We caught the family history bug in March. With a lot of help from our amazing ward family history consultant, we discovered several distant cousins living right in our own ward. . . and here we thought we didn't have any family in Houston!

Also, look at this! I always knew Jess and I were meant to be friends. Our lives (and the lives of our ancestors) have intersected more times and in more ways than I would have ever imagined.

Our kids have been calling each other cousins for years and now they have heritage to prove it!

One incredible line of mine connects me to more than 60 members of our ward - all descendants of Aquilla Chase. I'm not making this up. Brigham did a Family Night lesson on Ezra Chase (a descendant of Aquilla).

He talked about how Ezra was called by the prophet Joseph Smith to lead an expedition to Wisconsin to cut wood for the Nauvoo Temple, how he left everything behind to move West with the Saints, and how Brigham Young gave him an assignment to get gold for the church in California.

We even did our own "panning for gold". Which the kids loved. Which made a terrible mess.

The best part of the month was a visit from Christine! While she was here Isaac said, "I like Christine. She's fun to talk to and be with. I pretty much talk to her about anything!" Then Brigham chimed in, "Yeah, I like Christine too because we always go do fun stuff when she's here." It's true. Life's a party when we have company!