She recently devoured her very first Young Adult book...

It was quickly followed up by book 2 which she loved and now she's waiting for book 3 to finish up her first YA series.

I love when the lighting is just right... yea to sunshine days!

Lately the blog has been all about Ainsley and her jam packed schedule!  But in all fairness the other child is either playing minecraft... sleeping... at school... playing minecraft... there's a wee bit of scouts and an even smaller bit of piano thrown in but for the most part his schedule is the same... eat... sleep... minecraft... repeat.  Not real exciting on the picture moments.

He has visions of being able to play minecraft all day long every day in a just over a month's time when Summer Break begins... ha he will be sorely disappointed when that doesn't happen.

I do have his latest school creation... his deranged looking Easter bunny... HA!!

She's beginning to enjoy long jump... she had her first away meet across town... she reluctantly took advice from us parents who had to help her figure out her starting point since the FMS coach was no where to be found. They measure differently at their own school and since this was their first away meet she had no idea.  She relaxed a bit when I told her no one here knows I am your Mama unless you want me to shout it!!

She's getting the hang of it... need to work on some form with her but she had her best jump of 8 feet 8 inches.

This was the view yesterday as we waited to watch Ainsley compete in the 100m... brr cold.

Today we go back to watch her do the long jump and the medley relay... thinking there will be the addition of an umbrella today... ugh 55% chance of rain.

Happy Easter!! Thought it was time for a new family picture!

We dyed eggs yesterday and I love that at ages 12 and almost 10 they still love to do this!

The past month she's been putting in long hours everyday after school for track! She had a list of all the things she wanted to try.  Sadly the school wasn't into "teaching" these events so it hasn't started off the greatest.  But she continued to head to track every day.

Wednesday marked the first track meet...

and she was excited and nervous and so very much happy.  Her only event for the day was the 100m dash.  She had gone to check in and was told she couldn't run because she never got timed during the track practices?!? It was just one more thing added to the already unpositive experience of this whole endeavor.  She was upset to say the least... begging us through tears to just take her home... us parents were beyond annoyed.

So once again after weeks of having been emailing my frustrations to one of the coaches I had to get my "Mama Bear" mode on.  Seriously how are the kiddos suppose to "already know" how to run track?

Long story short she was told she had to "qualify" to run... which she was never told even though she signed up for the event... stupidest thing ever.  Anyway we took our devastated girl home... and tried to explain that things have been handled poorly and by no means was it her fault... coaches should have announced that if they wanted to compete in the track meet they had to be timed and hopefully get a good enough time.  So maybe next week she'll be able to compete in that.

Day 2 she headed back out to the track meet.  This time is was for long jump and a medley relay race... and miraculously they had her down in these!  She did well in long jump... with her best jump of 8 feet 2 1/2 inches.  Their medley race finished 2nd and she ran her part of the medley (which just happened to be a 100)  great.  This was a much better day...

Ainsley had a big project a little while back.  The students were paired up and they each had a project to do.  One had to write a report on Mesopotamia and the other had to do an art exhibit on the same subject.  Ainsley of course jumped at the chance to do art.

Whichever student did the best paper and the best art exhibit would have theirs displayed in the hall.  Guess who had the best art exhibit??...

It's hard to be the big sister... I remember when Walker was about due and we needed the crib, so sorry Big Girl... you are evicted and into the "big girl bed" you go.

Same thing with Willow... the puppy outgrew her kennel and so we decided that Willow was the Big Girl who could stay out on her blanket at night while the puppy moved into the kennel.  She was not too thrilled about giving up "her spot" and went into her kennel any time the gate was open.

We decided to keep her in the family room... next to Luna and the kennel at night with her blanket on the floor as her bed.  Instead of her wandering around we put up a gate.

First night:  She figured out how to jump over the couch, finish off the cat food and greet us for an early wake up call... epic fail.  Night Two:  We thought we'd trick her by putting chairs along the back of the couch so she couldn't jump over it... another epic fail.  She figured out a way to get on the other side and finish off the cat food, but this time we had the gate up in the hallway so no early wake up call!

Night three we decided to feed the cat before we headed for bed, leave her blankie out on the floor and close the gate in the hallway.  In the morning she was right where she was supposed to be!  A week of this and we thought... we've totally got her trained... then one morning we find her like this... in her "new favorite comfy spot".

It never gets old... this is my most favorite time of year... for a short week the apricot tree blooms and each year (even at year 7) I'm still in awe at how beautiful it is...