NASCAR race

Last Saturday we went to Dover International Speedway to watch the "5-hour ENERGY 200 Nationwide Series" race. Paul got the tickets from work so him and I along with Zach and Lauren (we only had 4 tickets) all sat in the Aflac suite.

The race was supposed to start at 2:00 but it was a dreary, rainy day so there was a delay while the track was being dried. While we were waiting we ate lunch and played with our scanners.
This is how dreary the day looked. The drivers had already been introduced and their cars sat covered waiting for the start. Here's Paul and Zach modelling their scanners. The scanners let you hear the drivers and pit crew talking to each other. That was really cool...once the race started.

Finally... at 3:15 the race begins.

I guess something sounded funny...

Here's Lauren enjoying the race...

And Paul really enjoying it!

There were several caution flags and a rain delay that lasted about 30 minutes. The ending of the race was pretty exciting. Carl Edwards (#60) and Joey Logano (#20) were neck-and-neck coming around the last turn. Carl Edwards got ahead as Joey Logano lost control of his car and hit another car. That car went airborn and took out several more cars. Of course all of this ended up being right in front of us.

Everybody was okay and Carl Edwards ended up winning. Everyone in the suite was excited that he won since he also drives the Aflac car (#99) and we were sitting in the Aflac suite. That was pretty cool.

The race didn't end until after 6:00 so we left the suite and headed out. We stopped to buy Zach a new race car, he got the Lowe's (#48) car this time. Last year we bought him 3 cars. This year the price of the cars doubled so we only bought him one! We also got a picture of him with the "Monster."Of course we had to get a picture of him with the winner, Carl Edwards...

well a picture of him!

So that was it. I don't think Zach had as much fun as he did last year due to all the waiting because of the rain and because his M&M's car wasn't in it. He did like eating the nachos and cookies and having his own soda though!

Senior Night

It was senior night this past Friday for Lauren's soccer team. About a week ago the team (minus the seniors) got together and made posters and gifts for the seniors. The posters were then hung on the fence the night of the game and the gifts were given to the seniors during a pre-game ceremony. They were scheduled to play another not-so-good team that night which was good for the seniors since they were pretty much guaranteed a win for their night.

So, like I said, easy game. Of course on senior night all the seniors start, even the ones that don't normally. There were only 6 seniors so at least Lauren didn't have to sit on the bench and she started like normal. Six minutes into the game and she gets an assist for the first goal of the game. Here's a picture of her that I copied off the website.
Not sure when that was taken but since I didn't take many pictures I had to put something on here!

At the 7th minute of the game Lauren scores a beautiful header goal to score the second goal of the game. I couldn't believe that my concussion girl did a header goal but there was no one around her and the pass was in the perfect position to head it so that's what she did. I do not have any pictures of it, only of her very happily running back to the center afterwards.

Of course all her teammates asked her if she was alright and joked about it with her. They all know she shouldn't be doing headers! She was fine though.

At the 11th minute Lauren assists with the 3rd goal. After that she was taken out of the game! The one thing the coach doesn't want to do is run the score up against a much weaker team. After 2 more goals to make the score 5-0 a lot of the other starters came out too. She only got 2 more minutes of playing time and that was at the very end of the second half. She probably wouldn't have gone in then but someone had to go in for the seniors that were being taken out. Her team ended the game winning with a score of 8-0. Only two more games to go for the regular season. The next two games should be a lot more challenging though.

Other pictures:

I love being able to copy pictures off the sports website. The guy that takes them has a much better camera than me and he's allowed on the field (sidelines that is) to take pictures. So I'll end this with a few pics of her from past games.

Soccer Update

Only a few more games left for the season. Today's game was a home game and it was against a not-so-good team. Surprisingly it was tied 1-1 early in the game but it wasn't long before the half ended with a score of 3-1. During the second half Lauren scored the 5th goal. It's hard to see her but here she is just seconds before kicking the ball in the net. Then trotting back to the center with a little grin on her face.It must have been the new shoes that helped her score :) She also got an assist in the first half.

Since they played a not-s0-good team Lauren wasn't in for very long. Her coach likes to take out the starters once they have a decent lead and let some of the other girls play. Then he started not subbing for the girls when he took them out and letting the team play short. By the end of the game I think we were playing with 8 players, you're supposed to have 11, which is what the opposing team had. Even with less players we still scored goals and ended the game with a score of 10-1.

Mother's Day Tea

It was my special day today at preschool, Zach's class (and mine) had their Mother's Day Tea. A substitute came in for me at 11:00 so I could go upstairs and join the other mommies. At 11:30 the kids came in to sing. Here's a picture of what the table looked like, his class had a Hollywood theme.I took that picture earlier in the day when I had to go upstairs and put things on my class tables. Here's another picture of just his creations. He has the picture frame where he looks like a gangster, the film strip picture placemat, a star trophy that says, "my mom is the "reel" star," and a heart, flower and bead necklace. All for me! I sure felt special.

On each chair was a class made book titled, "Now Showing: My Mom, a Documentary." Each child had to answer questions about their moms and all the kids answers were put into this book. Zach's page went like this (I bolded his responses): "My mom's name is Amy. My mom is 21 years old and 5 feet tall. My mom weighs 60 pounds. My mom's favorite color is purple, orange and pink. My mom likes to eat spaghetti and meatballs. My mom knows all about gardening. For fun my mom likes to play choo-choo trains with me. My mom looks prettiest when she goes to a meeting. If my mom were a movie star, she would be Rapunzel. My mom is special to me because she cooks dinner." I love the first part where my age is 21 and my weight is 60! No wonder I like that boy so much. I'm not sure why he thinks I know about gardening, I can't keep a plant alive for anything! I love that I'm special to him because I cook his dinner. Last year he said I was special because I washed his dishes. I'm stepping up in the world!

The food that the class made was chicken salad on a croissant and a fruit cup. A bag of popcorn (the kids decorated white lunch bags to resemble popcorn containers) sat behind the pictures. I obviously took the above pictures before his teachers brought the food up.

I had a nice 30 minutes of eating and talking to the other mommies from his class and then the kids came in to do their program. They each walked in holding a sun...

and sang, "Mr. Sun."

The next song was, "You Are My Sunshine." I tried uploading it but I guess it's too long. Maybe I'll try to find a program that can shorten it but for now I'll skip it and go on to the next video. It was cute though.

This one is the kids singing "All Night, All Day."

This one is "I Love My Mommy." You can really hear Zach singing in this one.

Did you notice the kids doing sign language? All the songs except the first one had sign language that the kids did. The kids all did a great job and I really enjoyed my hour that I got to spend just being a "mommy" and not a teacher!

#1...

...in our state that is. Lauren's travel team played in the state cup today and won!!! Sounds great doesn't it? Two things to know: 1) our state is small, very small and 2) only two teams competed! It was still exciting that they won though.

Here's a couple pictures I took of her as she was playing.

She played really well and Paul and I both thought that she was going to score. She kept being at the right place, she just needed someone to pass her the ball.

Then she goes and gets herself hurt. A ball was kicked into her face and down she went. She briefly got up but then went back down.

The trainer came over to check her out and her coach afterwards said he was worried about her because Lauren was screaming and crying. After about 4 minutes she was finally led off the field. Paul and I made our way over to the other side of the field to check on her.

All was well.We were worried about another concussion but the ball hit her in the jaw and just caused a lot of pain. No broken jaw, no broken teeth, no blood and thankfully no concussion. Good thing it was near the end of the game since she wouldn't have been allowed to go back in. Not because she was injured, they had strict substitution rules, once someone comes out they're not allowed back in.

So a few minutes later her team wins with a score of 3-2. The other team was leading in the first half 0-2 and Lauren's team came back to score 3 goals in the second half. They did there little awards ceremony where the girls all got their medals. Here's Lauren icing her jaw while she's waiting:Here are the 2011 state champs: (Lauren's in the back row to the left of the girl in yellow.)One last picture of Lauren with her medal when we got home.The shirt she's wearing is one of the State Cup shirts that were being sold at the game. I hardly ever buy her shirts after games/tournaments. I thought this one was special though since they won.

Easter

To start off the day the Easter bunny always hides clues that the kids have to follow in order to find their baskets. When they find a new clue there's also a little treat waiting for them. Here they are reading a clue they found in the silverware drawer:And here's the little treat that was with their clue:

The Easter bunny likes to give them a little exercise too and make them go from one floor of the house to another, none of the clues are ever in adjourning rooms. This years clues sent them to the garage, the kitchen, the office, back to the kitchen, the pool table, the dining room and finally the upstairs bathroom where their baskets were hiding in the bathtub.

Then they get to finally see what the Easter bunny gave them:

Afterwards it was time to dress up for church:

Lauren wanted to do a pink theme but as hard as I tried I couldn't find any pink for Zachary to wear. A pink dress shirt would have looked cute and I did actually find one in Nordstrom at the mall but there was no way I was paying $37.50 for it! I ended up getting everything he's wearing for less than that at Target. I had to settle for a white shirt and black and white tie though.

Before we changed after church I got a few pictures of the whole family using the timer on my camera. I have to take advantage of the photo op whenever we're all dressed up.

Of course after 2 or 3 pictures things got a little silly.

I thought that this one was supposed to be a serious one. I guess Lauren and Kristin had other ideas.

One last silly pose to end our photo session.

For dinner we went to Paul's parents. It was such a beautiful day that we had to spend some of it outside.Kristin got to spend a little time with her cousin Lehlan. I can't believe that he's 3 now.What a nice ending to our day.

Deocorating Eggs

We had dinner at my parents house Friday evening and afterwards Kristin helped everyone make chocolate eggs.

You had to put the chocolate on one side of the mold, close it and then shake it. Zach liked that part.

We made several with everyone making at least one, even Paul.

On Saturday we dyed our Easter eggs. With our family of six we need tons of hard boiled eggs, this year I bought 5 dozen eggs at BJs so with 60 eggs we were good to go.

Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with 60 hard boiled eggs but at least everyone got tons to decorate this year. I guess we'll be eating egg salad sandwiches for the next 2 weeks!

No braces!

Lauren got her braces off this past Wednesday. Paul took her to her orthodontist appointment since I was in DC with Megan. He sent me this picture of her from his cell phone:

I'm sure she won't be happy to see that picture on here but I think you can tell from looking at her that she's thrilled they're off. It figures that Paul was the first one to see her without braces after I've been the one to take her every month for the last two years.

She looks so different doesn't she? Wow!