Happy 15th Birthday Evie!

With the start of May comes the start of baseball season, and we have been at the ballpark many nights every week.  In addition to his own games and practices, Noah has been umpiring games for the Minor League, and he stays to watch any games going on after he's done with his own.  He's living off a steady diet of hamburgers and hot dogs from the snack bar, and wholeheartedly loving baseball season.  

Coach Matt keeps everyone on task!

Opening Day of Little League

Noah's District Champs team from last summer were recognized at the opening ceremonies

Noah is the umpire!!

May also brings birthday season in our house, and we kicked off the birthday celebrations with Evie's 15th birthday, which fell on Mother's Day this year!  It made for a busy weekend, but we loved having all the moms together to celebrate with us.  In the morning, Noah helped make me a special Mother's Day breakfast, and then we went to Boxcar Bakery after church with Grandma Karen for a Mother's Day lunch and treat.  The end of the day was focused on Evie and her birthday, but we ordered trays of pasta from Mimmo's so that I didn't have to spend the day cooking on Mother's Day.

Evie's birthday breakfast request - homemade cinnamon buns!

Rainbow Gummy frogs!

A nugget ice machine?!

Free Starbucks birthday beverage

The Riggen boys came through with the funniest birthday/Mother's Day rap for these two ladies!

All tucked in with her cozy new blanket

Age 15 is a big milestone birthday, because Evie was able to get her driver's permit!  She took the test online on her birthday, and she wanted me to take her out driving right away.  She has been practicing in an empty parking lot, and she is getting used to steering, accelerating and braking, and we are working on parking and going in reverse.  She isn't quite ready for the main roads yet, but so far so good with the learning process.

Evie also had a birthday gathering with her friends, and they had the idea of having "board night." It was such a creative party idea - the girls each brought a different type of food board to share.  They had fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers, chips and dip, sushi, sour candy, dessert, and drinks.  We gave the girls the upstairs of the house for the party, so Matt, Noah and I hung out in the basement for the evening, and we could hear lots of laughter all evening.  Evie said it was just how she wanted to celebrate with her friends!

Amazing fruit board by Evie!

And here are a few other highlights from the past couple weeks:

Evie did an Irish Dance demonstration at Multicultural Night at her school

I got to sneak off to an evening at the sauna with some friends!  It was a lovely treat!

We've been hanging with our little neighbors as much as possible before they move away in June.  Evie is so good with them.

The next drummer in training (our little neighbor Jack)

Spring has been chilly and slow to get started, but the daffodils are giving us hope

We got the ping-pong table back out, and some of the family games are intense!