"Whether you like it or not" haircut

I have nothing against boys with long hair. In fact I really like long hair on lots of boys and men. I cried when Peter cut his hair. But I had had it with Nicolas'. He looked like a ragamuffin more often than not because he doesn't have the curly hair yet and he just wouldn't comb it. I have been telling him for months now that we are going to cut his hair, but he would have a huge sulking fit. All the talking about it paid off, though, because he finally agreed on Sunday. None too happy about it, but finally willing to succumb. He saw a boy at church with a little "faux hawk" and said if he could have that he would let me cut his hair. Here are the pictures.

End of an era

Yes, I have to admit, I cried. After the semi-final game against Timpanogos, I shed some tears. Not because we lost, although that was sad too, but because I saw the end. The end of Peter's lacrosse career, the end of that camaraderie that has grown among these boys and their parents. I have enjoyed almost every minute of Peter's lacrosse career, probably more than he did! (I have to admit some of those games in subfreezing temperatures with wind, rain and snow weren't my favorite.) I loved the relationships that I developed with the other parents and that I developed with the boys as I sat at the table by them. I will truly miss this.

I know that I still have Erik playing and that I will continue to actively be involved in the lacrosse community with him, but it will be with different people and probably different coaches. I'm sure I will enjoy every minute (well, most of them), but this is still an ending of this era.

Fortunately it ended on a very high note. First of all, Lehi has never had great record in lacrosse. We are a fairly new program and have been working so hard on improving. This year, we not only made it past the playoffs, but made it all the way to the semi-finals - only losing to the team that ended up being the champion. Fantastic! And then, Coach Freeman chose Peter as one of the all-stars and last Friday night was the All-Star game - North v South. Coach Freeman was chosen as the coach for the South team and they had, by far, a much "funner" time than the North team. It was a game for fun and they did all kinds of silly things. I am attaching a video of Peter playing - he didn't do anything exciting, but this is for those of you that may have never seen lacrosse played or haven't had the opportunity to see him play. He wore the penny with #24 because one of the other boys had already taken his #3. The North team was taking the game seriously, but just couldn't get past us, so instead of having the game turn ugly, Coach just made it fun. The North team finally put their entire team on the field and still couldn't get past the South so some extra "cheating" had to go on since they were the hosts and "had" to win. It was all just fun to watch and to play, so Peter says.

Thank you, Peter for finding this exciting sport and letting Dad and I be a part of it. It was a great time!

Spring sports

Yes, for years now spring and lacrosse were synonyms. Peter has been playing since 8th grade and Erik started in 5th. Peter has also been running cross country in the fall the last few years - once in addition to fall lacrosse, but only once :-) . This year, since it is Peter's senior year and he is trying to cram in as many activities as he can, he decided to do track this spring in addition to lacrosse. Well, Erik thought, "If he can do it, so can I," and he joined his junior high track team. Well, not to be outdone - and quite honestly because she thought the school athletic warmups were so cute - Markee decided she would like to give track a try as well. Yes, this is my Markee who asked her PE teacher, "Do we have to do anything physical today?" (add whiny teenage girl voice)

Markee discovered that she loves track because she can do short sprints and they aren't going to make her run 3 miles like her mom does. And she found that she likes the high jump because an Olympic athlete (skeleton competitor Noelle Pikus Pace - what skeleton has to do with high jump we have no idea) is the coach. Yay! If they continue to offer cute warmups, I may get an athlete out of her yet!

Erik seems to be enjoying track as well, although he is more the cross country type and gets tired of going around and around the track in the 1600 event. Doing track and lacrosse, he is finding, is a bit much and he actually got behind in school which is TOTALLY unlike him, but he is sticking with it. Two more meets to go and jr lacrosse games started last week. He will pull it off. The picture is fantastic, in my own humble opinion, because he is flying - both feet are off the ground. Perfect timing!

Garden time!

Every year Jared and I say that THIS year we are going to get our garden in early, especially the peas and lettuce and other cool weather vegetables. Then every year we are waiting for this or that or just plain don't have the time and it is around end of May, beginning of June before we get anything in. This year our wonderful, fabulous, amazing home teacher brought us a load of mink manure at the beginning of April and we spent an entire Saturday shoveling . . ., well, you know. We had the entire garden covered and tilled in by evening and ready to be laid out. All the kids even helped, which made it so we could get it done in one day. Then the weather went back to winter.

But this week spring/summer came back and we were able to get back out to the garden. We had started cabbage and broccoli inside and then we planted all the cool weather seeds too. And so it begins - peas, lettuce (2 types), spinach, cabbage and broccoli and 2 kinds of potatoes planted. Jared, Marin and I spent all afternoon just getting these two rows done. We are ready to go!

Behind

Welcome to March, April, May of Leslie's life. Lacrosse, track, school field trips, lacrosse, book fair, lacrosse, etc on top of work and various and assorted other activities. Due to this, I am rarely at the computer - just looked at facebook for the first time in about a month - and am way behind in blogging. I finally took our camera back from Peter (digital photography class so he is the keeper of the camera) and uploaded the few pictures that I have taken this spring. I will try to catch up the blog in the next few days . . . Here is some Easter to start with, though . . .

Easter eggs eggstravaganza

The dyeing of the Easter eggs. Just like the running of the bulls it comes once a year and makes a mess. Fortunately there are far fewer injuries. We do seems to lose a child or two every year though - this year we were missing Josh and so, of course, Peter stayed away. I just enjoy the fact that the kids can drop their own eggs in the color cups and retrieve them themselves so I just have the set up and clean up to do. And I love seeing the new and inventive ways they use the colors. Budding artists!

Mark is trying to pretend that he is helping Calista, but I think he is just secretly letting the little child in him play . . .

. . . but as your kids get older, you become spectators.

Yes, the Randall family tradition continues. Mom almost didn't come and it wouldn't have been complete - but fortunately she joined us and helped dye the dozens and dozens of eggs.

FINALLY!!!

After 2+ years in the process, Markee finally has her own room again! This past weekend we finally got her moved into her new room in the basement. Yes, it has no windows and doesn't really meet code, but she is so excited to be able to have a place to herself! New (to her) canopy bed, cool lamp, antique dressers and table - she is stylin' now. Now, to get Marin's room cleaned up and then the family room in the basement cleaned out and usable as a family room, and the garage cleaned out (now that all the furniture is out of it!), and . . . Yeah, like we are ever really DONE with projects!