The Buchman Way

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

He Is Risen

He is risen indeed!

We kicked off our Easter festivities with an egg hunt at the park hosted by the Optimist Club. This has evolved into a tradition over the past few years. The kids always enjoy running into familiar faces and no matter how many kids attend, there's always plenty to go around!

On the way to the hunt, I told Cru he has to run really fast and grab as many eggs as possible. His response, "But Ms. Becky said we only get two eggs!" Happy to know he was following directions! I told him this egg hunt is different, so he insisted on wearing his shoes that make him run the fastest....

Hunter and Cru....and the little girl in the back must run really fast in her boots too!

They had several different age groups - 0-2. 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. Since I only had my mom helping me, she took Cru and Everlee into the 3-4 division, and I took Reese to the 5-6.

We ran into a few of our other friends after the hunt.

It was a bit chilly during the egg hunt, but the rest of the day was beautiful! So beautiful my running trio went out for a little 10 mile run!!!

Ok, so not so much of a little run, especially when we are used to running in the cold and we all ended up sunburned! But we did it! We are only a little over three weeks away from our big race!

That evening we invited friends from our old hood over to our new hood for a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt (We missed you, Coopers!). Our family started this tradition last year and loved it, and I hope it continues to be a favorite.

Do you see all those glowing eggs? Yeah, me neither! But they are there! Lots of them!

Cru, Reanna, Everlee, Carter, Asher, Reese, and Hunter...quite the group, huh?!

The next morning was Easter Sunday. The Easter bunny had delivered.

We don't really make a big deal over the Easter bunny at our house. I don't really know why, just never have. He/She always brings baskets for the kids, but Reese is fully aware who bought all the goodies in the baskets. Still a lot of fun though!

Cru couldn't figure out why he didn't get sunglasses like the girls....well, because cool boy ones are very hard to find!

We literally had to pry Everlee's new swimming suit off her to get her dressed for church! If I looked that cute, I wouldn't want to take it off either!

We had to hustle a bit to make it to church in time for the Sunday school egg hunt, but we made it! I had no idea there would be a "bunny" there! Poor Evee! I thought with his real face showing, she wouldn't be as scared....I thought wrong!

They scatter tons of empty eggs at the church hunt, let the kids go crazy picking them all up, then in exchange for the empty eggs, they get a small bag of candy. Smart thinking, in my opinion!

The kids provided beautiful music at church...

After church, we went to my parent's and spent the entire day enjoying the wonderful holiday and the beautiful weather that came with it!

Chet looks so handsome here ♥

My mom did the egg hunt for the kids a little different this year. Each grandkid got the same amount of eggs (all with their names on them), filled with coins (change that her and my dad had saved for a year), then each child got to hunt their own eggs all by themselves.

We started with the youngest, so Everlee went first.

Dads kept the kids entertained while moms hid the eggs....

Candy also served as a distraction....

Next, it was Charlee's turn.

Then, Cru.

And finally, it was Reese's turn. Papa took the reins on hiding her eggs.

As Grandpa hid the eggs and Reese waited inside, Cru couldn't resist....

Audrey to the rescue!

The wheelchair severed as a much needed distraction as well!

The girl just wouldn't stay away from the candy!!! This is her I'll-smile-as-cute-as-I-can-because-I'm-as-guilty-as-can-be look!

She's getting so big :(

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa for a fun egg hunt...that didn't just lead to cavities!

The rest of the afternoon looked like this....

Happy Easter! Hope you all had a wonderful one as well!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Disney on Ice

We have been counting down the days until Disney on Ice since the kids got the tickets in their Christmas stockings...December to March is a long time in kid time! It was worth the wait though....so entertaining! Reese sat like a statue focused on every move and hoping each act wasn't the last, and Cru danced and giggled the entire time; they loved it!

The theme was "Celebrating 100 Years of Magic" and it included pretty much any act you can think of. Reese's favorite was all the princesses and The Lion King, Cru's favorite was The Incredibles, my mom loved the whole thing, and my favorite was Mulon and The Lion King.

I snapped a lot of pictures, but because "professional" cameras weren't allowed, I was stuck with using my phone and point and shoot, which means the quality sucks. Sorry.

$30 for two snocones....

they better come with all the bells and whistles!

Cru was also a big fan of Jiminey Cricket!

I love making memories....this one was ranks right up there!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Go Purple!

Eww, yes, I said purple. The only reason I would ever cheer for a purple basketball team is because a cute little blonde wore a purple "jersey" every Saturday morning for six straight weeks.

It was a big debate whether or not to sign Reese up for Y basketball. She fell in love with the sport while attending a local camp last spring hosted by our high school boys coach, but what she seemed to love most about it were the drills and the organization, definitely not the last 10 minutes that was spent scrimmaging every session. So, the debate - Coach Kinnamon's winter camp or Y ball (Saturday morning 5-on-5). When we asked her, she immediately voted for camp...girl is not into competition AT ALL. We didn't want to force her to do anything she didn't want to do, but at the same time, we wandered if forcing her is what she needed to get over that fear (we have to do this quite often with her). As the sign up deadline approached, we still didn't know what to do. Then, I received a phone call from my friend, Melisa, about 24 hours before the deadline asking if I was interested in coaching a team with her. They were in somewhat of the same situation with their daughter about not wanting to play. Melisa said her daughter, Mallorie, agreed to play if she were her coach. And since Mallorie's daddy and Reese's daddy coached tball together, why shouldn't the mommies coach bball together? I wasn't sure how to respond to her...I'm not one of those people who thinks they can coach just because they played in high school. Melisa must have said some pretty convincing words or maybe guilt just got the best of me, whatever the reason, I agreed....

So, how do you teach 5 and 6 year old girls how to play basketball?! Thankfully, Melisa was awesome! Such a great leader and knew how to make everything so fun for the girls. I still wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into, especially after our first game when one of the little girls said she wanted to go play on the other team because we weren't very good. She was right, we weren't very good, but we definitely came a long way during those six weeks of practicing every Friday night and playing every Saturday morning. And I may or may not have suggested to Melisa about mid season that we should start rewarding the girls with money if they make a basket....at the rate we were going, we knew wouldn't be out much, if any. Some assistant coach I am. That was definitely a challenge the girls were willing to take though! And just as I thought, I think we, actually Melisa, only forked over about $4 in three games. Told you we weren't very good :)

Once our season was over, I was happy with both decisions - that I decided to coach and that we made Reese play. I love each and every one of the girls on our team! We couldn't asked for a better group or parents. And they best unexpected part was all the extra love....I thought I was the one that was supposed to make them smile and feel special. I will never forget it!

And as much as Reese would have liked to have quit after the first game, she toughed it out and learned to love a little friendly competition, even showed a little spunk, created some steels, and fouled the last game (girl's already got the skillzzz!). So proud of her progress!

They line up like this to figure out who they are guarding.

This is what happens nearly every single time a girl dribbles the ball down the court....instantly bombarded by every (almost) everyone on the court, even their own teammates :)