Spring Break

Allia spent some time with a friend

 

We finally made it to bowl together as a family. It was a fun outing!

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we left town to go visit our friends, the K family. The kids had been looking forward to this for weeks!

 

 Our BBQ guys

 These two were the cutest little curly haired buddies!

The next day we hit the art museum which was full of cool activities for the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 Oldest and youngest boy. They were cute buddies.

 

 Allia was braiding bracelets in her free time for each of the K family girls. She gave Carolyn some tips.

We were sad to say goodbye, as always, especially since we were returning home to the beginning of COVID quarrantines, school closings, etc.

After we returned, we had our Goddaughter's birthday party, which would be the last social gathering we attend, besides mass that evening, as the world began to shut down.

Braiding

The girls have wanted french braids a lot lately. They lament the fact that I am the only one who can do them, so Gloria has decided she needs to learn. Anastasia kindly agreed to be her model after attempt on a doll were deemed unhelpful. It made for some nice sister time.

Braces!

We went to the orthodontist for a consultation to see when Gloria would be ready for braces, estimate cost, etc. They said she was ready and had an opening, so into braces she went!

February?!

Dear February, Where have you gone?!?
This was by far the busiest February to date, hence the lack of blog posts. We had FIVE swim meets this month, Solo festival for piano, Valentine's day, 40 days for life Benefit, Ash Wednesday, Anastasia's First Reconciliation retreat and receiving the actual sacrament, a trip to Lito and Lita's, a couple of illnesses :/, a robotics competition, a local play, a very busy month of work for Austin, and all of our usual busy-ness. And all in the shortest month of the year! Whew!


She loves Manah's house and often camps out while the rest of us are running around town.

 Robotics team "SaBOTage" (The competition was on Valentine's day!)

  Anastasia swam in her champs meet. We were actually going to skip it, but it was in Cypress the same morning we were visiting Lito and Lita! It was a great experience for her.

Fun decorating cupcakes at Lito and Lita's house

Anastasia's photography

The boys went out for some guy time

 Gloria was so amazing at champs. She moved up to the next time rank in all of her events. It was her first champs meet to wear a tech suit/kneeskin and shave for the meet since she is in the Junior group now. It was a new experience for her and really seemed to help!

 

Stephen swam very well, and his relay actually qualified for TAGS. But sadly they cannot swim there because one of his teammates turns 11 before the meet, and they qualified as 10 and under. So disappointing, but he still earned a team parka which he has wanted for some time!

Their first year to help serve at the 40 Days for Life benefit.

Mariana even served my table! :)

 Making cheese pizza together after Ash Wednesday mass. One of Mariana's Lenten commitments is to cook with Anastasia!

 First Reconciliation...so precious!

 And our little tag along buddy wanted a photo too

We burned the paper that she used to write down her sins when we got home...and we may have grabbed a chick fil a shake on our way home. ;)

These two played beautifully in the piano solo festival. Stephen even had Allia's piano teacher as his judge!

Allia swam in her champs meet and improved in all but 1 of her events!

Intrasquad Swim Meet

Our swimmers had their USA sanctioned intrasquad swim meet yesterday afternoon. We just love this one because nobody has to get up early or travel out of town, but the times are still official USA times. We had 5 swimmers, so I was a busy momma keeping track of everyone's events so I didn't miss anything!
This was Anastasia's first official meet, and she was swimming 50 back stroke (her best stroke) which required her to do a back stroke flip turn (probably the hardest turn they have). So her sweet Mariana sister, who was finished with her own events, went to the warm up pool and coached her beforehand to make sure she didn't get disqualified. She did very well! They all did!

 

 

 

 

Allia dropped time in 2 of her 3 events, Mariana dropped in all 4 of her events and came very close to a goal time, Gloria swam the 500 free for the first time and got a goal time in that as well as dropping time in her other 3 events. Stephen dropped in 3 of his 4 events and got a goal time in one of his. (poor guy...in his best event there was a false start, and when the ref...Austin!...asked them to stand he and another kid fell into the pool. He banged his leg on the way down and was just so stunned that he didn't swim his best. :/) Anastasia dropped in all of her 25's and got a goal time in her 50 back. SO proud of our swimmers...and our Daddy official.