My 4th Child

Look closely at the banner Emmalee made for me at school, and you will see that I have an extra child. Yes, we have been hiding Uma away for several years now, but she decided to make an appearance on Mother's Day this year.
Actually, Uma is one of Emmalee's friends at school, and since she helped Emmalee make the banner, Em thought it was only fitting that her name be on it as well. Cute.
Mother's Day was very nice - although extremely hectic! Steve and the kids made me french toast and bacon, which was delicious! They gave me the Wii Fit game, which we have all been enjoying! Micah made me a tissue-paper-stained-glass pen holder at school, and Emmalee made me a very nice card at school. It mentioned how I am extremely good at cooking, and I had to wonder who she was thinking about when she wrote that... :-) Emmalee had a softball game in the afternoon, and she played very well! I had to work at night, but that was fine. It was busy, and the customers were generous! We missed going over to Grandma and Grandpa's house, though.

Sports Star!

Emmalee had her first softball game this past Sunday afternoon. She was fourth in line at bat. The coaches pitch and, if after 5 pitches the girl does not hit the ball, they pull out the tee for her to hit off of. Which I think is stupid - what happened to 3 strikes and you're out - but oh well. So the first girl gets up at bat. 5 pitches pass, then she hits it off the tee. The second girl gets up at bat. Again, 5 pitches, and she hits it off the tee. Third girl - same thing. Then Emmalee gets up to bat. I'm standing there praying "please don't make her need the tee", and I know Steve, aka Mr. Baseball, was praying the same.

One pitch passes, then another. She's swinging, and missing. The third pitch she swung, hit it straight down, it hit her on the leg and sat there at her feet. They called it a foul ball. Fourth pitch - CONTACT! The ball goes flying through the air! HOORAY! She got a base hit, and came home! She was up at bat 3 times, hit the ball each time (no tee!), and made it home twice. She's really enjoying softball!

Where have we been?

It's been a long time since I have posted anything! Where have we been, you may be asking? Well, Emmalee started softball at the beginning of the month, and practices 2x a week. She also still has dance lessons once a week, and it is crunch time, since the big recital is at the beginning of June! This is her 5th year of lessons, and Emmalee will be getting a 5-yr trophy!

Easter was fun - we spent it at my grandparent's house at the lake with the whole Goodwin clan! All 6 great-grandchildren were there, and we tried to get a picture of them all, but didn't succeed in getting them all to look at the same camera! Oh well!

Last week was Emmalee's spring break, and we decided to go on a short vacation! Early Saturday morning we drove down to Baltimore and spent the gorgeous sunny afternoon at the Inner Harbor. We then flew to Orlando that evening, and spent 4 beautiful warm days in Florida! We went to Downtown Disney, shopped at a huge outlet mall, played miniature golf, drove to Clearwater Beach, and spent a day at Universal Studios. The kids had a great time, and so did Steve and I! We then flew back to Baltimore and drove an hour to Steve's brother Jeff's house. We spent a night and a day there before driving back home. It was a nice vacation.

And then this week, Micah started Soccer! He had a lot of fun at his first practice and game, but then told me "I don't think I'm too good at this" because he didn't score! Oh well - he's got 6 more weeks! And Emmalee has her first softball games this weekend, and every weekend until the middle of June (there go any weekend things we wanted to do...).

At the end of the month, we will do our annual trip up to NY for Memorial Day Weekend! We'll drive to Syracuse and drop off Emmalee and Lily at my sister's for "their own vacation" with the cousins, and Steve and I and Micah will then go on to Rochester to visit with our friends. We bring one of our kids with us to Rick and Courtney's house - this year is Micah's year because:
-Emmalee likes to stay at Andrea's and play (and boss around) with Rafe
-Lily is a pain in the neck and gets into everything and will be too crazy to come to our friends' house, and she is old enough now to stay without us, and will have fun with Maggie and Sam
-Micah's buddies Oliver and Charlotte (they are all born within weeks of each other) will be joining their parents at Rick and Courtney's this year too, and it will be fun to have them all together


So - that is what we have been up to - and also enjoying the early summer weather! Hope you are all doing well!