I'm starting the second half of March with our out of town volleyball trip to Albuquerque. It was the weekend at the end of our Spring Break. The rest of our Spring Break we had spent at home. The girls each had a day where they got to invite a friend over so they still enjoyed the break from school. On Friday of that week, we left for Albuquerque and got there in the afternoon. Some of Abby's team was already there and we met up with them at dinner. It was her teammate, Andrea's, birthday, so the girls were all invited to a dinner at Bravo! Italian restaurant. The food was yummy and Tyler and I sat with some of the other parents while Abby sat with her team, and our other girls sat with the other siblings. Here are the team girls after dinner. And I took a picture of my other girls with Riley as we walked back to our car to head back to our hotel. They all have so much fun with their friends.
Saturday was the day of the tournament, but we didn't play until the afternoon, so we met at Cracker Barrel for an early lunch. The team got to sit together at their own table where they ate, talked, and did hair.
At the Albuquerque convention center, there was a huge volleyball in the lobby, so the girls got pictures before the day was done. Here's Abby holding up the ball, and then one with her posing with Emily.
My dad took this picture as Abby served. It's one of my all-time favorites. I'll probably print this one out to frame and put up in the house. I love it that much!
Here are some more game pictures. They had three other teams in their pool play. We were ranked first in our pool and beat two of the teams easily.
As parents, we even debated why we were playing in the division that we were playing in because the competition seemed too easy. At our tournaments at home, we play up a division so that the teams we play are older and more advanced and we still match up to them pretty evenly. But at the bigger out of town tournaments, we play at our regular division playing against other 13 year old teams. And we were way better than most of the competition this weekend. I personally thought this was the tournament for us to win all together because we started out playing so well.
The third team in our pool was from Amarillo and they were the only competition we had that day. We still beat them in two sets, but they really had to work for those wins. That team had some really good hitters, but we luckily held them off and ended up winning all our games.
Our family left that night to drive home since we don't play on Sundays, but the other parents kept us updated on how the Sunday bracket games went. We won the first two games easily and I felt even more confident that this was the tournament that we would win. However, in the semi-finals match, our team played the same Amarillo team that we beat on Saturday and ended up losing to them in 3 sets. We had won the first set easily, but then barely lost the 2nd and 3rd sets. It was so sad. I was so sure that we could win the whole thing. That team ended up losing in the championship game, so it was too bad that we couldn't pull out another win against them. We really love watching Abby play and she really loves her team and loves playing. It's so fun to see how much the girls have improved even though that championship game has still just barely been out of reach.
Sunday night, after getting home from Albuquerque, we were watching a movie together when Aubrey said she wiggled her tooth enough that she pulled it out. At age 9, in the middle of 3rd grade, she finally lost one of her top front teeth. She was so excited and she sounded so cute with her lisp after trying to get used to talking with a missing tooth.
Abby's band played their actual contest numbers for Contest on March 22nd. They played in the evening, so we were all able to be there to support her. The buses were so late getting them there from their school that's only about 10 miles away that they had to walk right up onto the stage and warm up in front of the audience. But they still performed really well and got straight ones from the judges.
Tessa birthday was on the 24th of March which was a Saturday this year. The Friday before I took donuts to her class. She ends her days with Mr. Martinez in her GT class which is her biggest class. We had to bring 30 donuts to make sure everyone got one. They each came up to pick a donut and say a personal Happy Birthday to Tessa. It was pretty cute.
On Tessa's actual birthday, Abby had another volleyball tournament in town. Here are a couple pictures from that game. They played well, ended up first place in their pool, and made it to the gold bracket again like usual even after playing some difficult teams.
Unfortunately, they lost their first game in the bracket against a hard team that we have yet to beat, so we were done with the tournament earlier than usual. However, that worked out pretty well for us since we had made plans with the Kasallis's to celebrate Tessa's and Tony's birthdays that night.
While I was at Abby's tournament, my parents were nice enough to come pick up the other girls, and Riley, and take them to our ward's Easter Egg Hunt at a park. My mom sent me these pictures as the girls searched for eggs and had fun with their friends. My mom said Tessa never slowed down enough for her to get a picture of Tessa, which sounds just about right.
After Abby's tournament, I found the siblings dressing up in front of the photo spot in the gym. So I grabbed some quick pictures. Here's Taryn with her favorite mask while wearing Abby's volleyball jacket. Taryn did not stand still long enough to be in the group picture. The kids meticulously picked out hats to represent different holidays of the year for their group picture, so they had New Years, Easter, 4th of July, Christmas, and Valentines Day. The siblings of the team players get along really well and have fun playing and messing around together while their older sisters play volleyball all day.
Here's Tessa's birthday picture. She chose the sparkler headband to wear for her picture. This is the one I used on Facebook to honor Tessa on her birthday. She is still our happy, bouncy, active girl who likes to be friends with everyone. She's super smart and loves to answer people correctly whether you want the answer or not. She's also still the tomboy who wears pants with holes in the knees and scuffed up shoes, who would rather be outside playing in the dirt or using her Nintendo DS than doing anything too girly. She loves music and writing her own songs and she's very good at drawing. Happy 11th Birthday Tessa!
After getting home from the tournament, Tessa got to open her presents before dinner and that's when we heard a knock on the door. Two boys from her school and church class, Reve and Ethan, were there with a plate of cookies and they started singing Happy Birthday to Tessa. It was so cute! Tessa even got really red when we teased her about it afterwards. She has such great friends and they all get along really well. I'm excited that they will all be heading to middle school next year together. The church group their age is a really big, really good group of kids.
We met the Kasallis's for dinner at Koze which is the same place that Tessa had picked for dinner last year on her birthday. It was also the last time we had eaten there. It's the hibachi grill where they cook in front of you. We even had the same cook as last time. He was just as hilarious and fun and we had a great time. We squeezed all 12 of us around the table. Here are the two groups of kids.
During the cook's presentation, they take some scrambled egg and toss it up and you try to catch it in your mouth. Usually they just pick one or two people to give it a try, but he let us each take a turn. Taryn was the first person to catch the egg on her first try but it went straight down her throat so she made a funny scared face before she started laughing like the rest of us. She was fine once she took a little drink. AJ almost caught a line drive toss from across the whole table. Even the cook looked impressed. We really had a great time. Tony's birthday was only a couple days before Tessa's, so they made huge ice cream sundae's for both him and Tessa that they brought out with a candle while we sang Happy Birthday to both of them. It was a great night!
On Sunday we had Tessa's actual birthday cake and we sang one more time. One of Tessa's presents was a ukulele. She was so excited to get it and within the first week she had learned some chords, how to tune it, and even learned a couple songs like Row Row Row your Boat, and You are My Sunshine. We were very impressed with how quickly she picked up on it. I think having already learned the violin helped, but she was very good about following the online lessons and memorizing the song chords quickly. I'm so impressed by her ability to learn new things so fast. We love this girl so much!
A little about Aubrey. She decided that she wanted to play volleyball too, so this past league season, Abby's coach, Coach Dawson, asked if we wanted to coach one of their beginning teams. He told us if we coached, any of our kids could play on the team as well. Aubrey really wanted to play, but Tessa didn't, so we started coaching again. I really like when Tyler and I coach because we both love volleyball and it's something that we get to do together. My parents came to one of Aubrey's games and took these pictures for me since I was standing on the side coaching. They are mostly 3rd-5th graders who have never played volleyball before, but they're picking it up quickly and having fun learning. Most are getting their serves in and they aren't afraid of the ball when it come to them. Those are always the first big steps in volleyball.
At the end of March, the elementary school had their big spring fundraiser. Each student was supposed to get sponsors to donate money based on how many laps they would run during a fun run. I went to the school the day of the fun run, but was only able to go to Tessa's run in the morning. The kids each got a shirt that we, as parents, would mark as they ran each lap. Each class made a banner and they spent two weeks talking about positive character traits to build up to the fun run. They had a lot of fun and everyone that I saw ran the total 35 laps.
It was a super sunny day and it got hot fast, but the kids were troopers and kept running. They had a lot of water available and even had icee pops when they were done. Here's Tessa as she finished her final lap. I also took a picture of her with some classmates, Ethan, Reve, Tessa, and Taryn, with their class banner.
I was not able to make it to Aubrey's or Taryn's PE time, but a friend posted this picture of her daughter on Facebook, so I saved it for myself because Aubrey was in the picture too. I was so excited to see her, and she ran the full 35 laps as well!
I had already scheduled a hair appointment on the same day as the fun run not knowing that was when they were going to be doing it. I decided to go with highlights and a new haircut. Here's a picture I took to try and show the highlights. I also have been trying to be better about curling my hair learning how to use a curling wand, which is pretty fun. I've only burned myself once. :) That same weekend, Aubrey and Taryn decided to try swimming. It's been in the 80s so it's nice and warm outside, although the water is still pretty chilly. But the girls toughed it out and even jumped in and out of the pool a couple times one Friday evening.
That Friday evening that the girls swam, I had planned a group date for me and Tyler. We went out with two other couples, the Deca's and the Anderson's, and we went to an Escape Room. We decided to do that because Abby was going with her volleyball team the next night and we wanted to give it a try first and see how it went. It was so much fun! We were locked in a room and had to find out clues to try and get out of the room before 60 minutes were up. Our group was able to get out with 10 minutes to spare. It was hard, but a lot of fun. There was another couple that was in the room with us, and we all worked really well together.
After the Escape Room, we met up with another couple, the Andersen's, and we ate dinner. We wanted to eat at Track One which is a bunch of old train cars that have been turned into a restaurant but the wait was too long, so we ended up going to State Line BBQ instead. Tyler and I had not eaten there before, so I was happy with that choice too and the food was delicious. We don't get to go out very often, so it was fun to go on a date and to hang out with good friends too. We had a great time!
The next day, Abby and her volleyball team had a fundraiser at Sam's club. They sold food, drinks, and treats for four hours. The weather was perfect and they made a lot of money. The siblings even helped by holding up signs. It was a fun day. The team met up that night to do the Escape Room. The parents and siblings that were there just hung out in the waiting room waiting to see if the girls would make it out in time. They had dress-ups for one of their Escape rooms, so the siblings had fun dressing up, taking pictures, and putting on their own scavenger hunt with their own made up clues. It was pretty funny.
We could hear the girls' screams as they found new clues or were scared by certain things in their room. They did not make it out of the room before their 60 minutes were up, but they figured out the majority of the hard clues and had fun together as a team, which was the whole point of getting together. These were some pictures we took before they went into the room, and then one after they got out in front of the business sign. The funniest part of the night was when they were walking back to the room to get started, they passed through a door and one of the girls' dads was standing behind the door to let them in. He yelled "Boo" really loud and the girls all screamed before they even made it back into the room to get locked in. We were all laughing so hard because they were already so nervous not knowing how it was going to go. It was funny. These girls are having so much fun together, on and off the volleyball court.
