Biking, and Soccer, and All things GREEN

I'm feeling Spring in the air! Oddly, the high's here this week dipped to the low 50's - and for Arizona, that's BRRRR cold!! So, I guess it's feeling more like a Utah spring, than the typical Arizona spring - but I know the warming up is coming (sadly) - we've had hints of it here and there over the past few weeks - some days we've been outside in our flip flops, and then the past few days I've been back to my sweaters. But either way, we've been spending lots of time outside...

Becca, Jake, Claire, and I went to the park (again) last week and Becca got more practice on her bike (sans training wheels). I cannot believe how awesome she is doing. She doesn't need any help starting and she's quickly mastered using her breaks. Since taking off her training wheels, she only needed maybe 20 minutes before having it all figured out. This little Becca surprises me all the time- she really is multi-talented and oh so cute. I've noticed that I seem to keep having her dressed in skirts on bike-riding days - that wasn't on purpose - haha...





My cute friend Amber started up a soccer league in our old ward - how awesome is FREE organized soccer for all the kids?! The kids are split into 3 different age groups with 2 teams per age - moms and dads have volunteered to be coaches and each week they get 30 minutes of practice and then 30 minutes for a game. Emma and Becca LOVED it! Jake was a little all over the place - he wanted to participate, but he also wanted to run off to the playground, or to take off across the field kicking random soccer balls into the older kids games, so I was running all over with little Claire in one arm, trying keep Jake from running away. :)










On St. Patrick's Day we headed to Fountain Hills. We met up with Ben's parents, siblings, and their families, to picnic and play and see the green fountain...












I brought our own face paint this year...






Hill rolling...










When we got home Emma and Becca made their own leprechaun trap - I didn't help at all, other than suggest some sort of ramp or ladder so they could climb in. Emma cut out some shamrocks and put them inside the trap to lure the leprechauns in. Well, later that evening the girls went to check on their trap, and they found it tipped over with a shamrock trail leading to a green bowl of coins...

The kids were SOOO excited! Emma said "we're RICH!" Pennies and nickels are big money to these kids

We were up late making sugar cookies... but it's never too late for shamrock cookies with cream cheese frosting!