Paiger

Jen caught a movie of Paige scoring her goal tonight. She's been having a good season and she had a GREAT game tonight. She had this goal to go along with the 7 or so that the Schrader boys scored. She also fought through the defense on 2 really good runs all the way to the goal.

Emma had a good game too, scoring her teams first and only goal. She wasn't feeling that well, but still carried her team. Boo yah!

More Family Day

A few more pictures from Family Day.

Endeavour on the launch pad. This shuttle will be used in case a rescue mission is required. Atlantis is being sent to repair the Hubble telescope and there is a larger chance of space junk hitting the shuttle in that orbit, so NASA will have Endeavour standing by in case anything happens.


A wider shot of Atlantis with the banner in the picture. Launch is scheduled for May 12th. NASA is conducting Readiness Reviews today and tomorrow.


The kids take Flat Stanley to see the VAB.


Paige throwing a peace sign in front of an ICBM.

Family Day

Today was the not-so-annual Family Day for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Sophia doesn't care much about this stuff at her age and Melissa had a big teacher certification test thing today, so I took Emma and Paige. I tried to take the Schrader boys too, but Ethan had soccer today and Noah didn't want to go, so Will totally made out. All the kids came home with 2 bags full of freebies. They got frisbees, stickers, posters, pens, pencils, spaceship models, mission patches, keychains, badge lanyards, commemorative coins, and even an autograph from an astronaut.

Here are the kids posing by the countdown clock. To the far left (Endeavour) and far right (Atlantis) you can see the shuttles on the pads. This is probably the last family day that will take place before the shuttles are retired. And this is one of only about a dozen times there have been shuttles on both pads.


We waited almost 2 hours to drive by the shuttles on the pads. It's a loop that's just a few miles long, but it moves SLOWLY on family day. But I did get some really good pictures out of it.


Here are the kids with Alan Poindexter. Yes, THE Alan Poindexter. And Flat Stanley that Will brought along for some photo ops.


The kids standing in John Glenn's parking spot at Complex 14.

The AF museum at Complex 36. Inside they have all of the old equipment that was used in this blockhouse to launch our first satellite. It looks ancient, and sadly a lot of that old technology lingers on the ranges today. There isn't always money to buy new stuff, so refurbing the old wire wrap boards ends up happening more than it should! But we're at least making a huge effort to get rid of the wire wrap at this point...

Activity Filled Weekend!!

Well, you should all thank Uncle Greg and Mike for these pics because they have been giving me such a guilt trip to post more pics! It was a little easier since I didn't have to work and had a bunch of free time! So these past few days Mike and I made THREE trips to sucky Home DePot. We did a mini make-over on the yard and bought the girls and awesome new fan for their bedroom.
The fan is not very girlie but Mike and I had to have it! The girls LOVE it so I guess we made the right choice. Now if we could just talk them into painting a space theme on the walls....

Isn't it pretty?


This was a cool shot of the blades moving.


We planted the two queen palms, one is to the far right of this pic and one is to the far left. They were on super sale. I was super sad because I had to tear up the bird of paradise that was rotten and covered in ants. The other new palm is between the front two windows. I forgot to get a close up of it. It is a triple trunk palm. That is not the official name, just what it looks like.


Close up of the queen palm.


Mike, before washing off his dirt leg warmers. Guh-ross.


LOOK NANNIE!!! The flowers we drove down THREE years ago are finally blooming!!


Several of the new tiny fishies that I bought the other day.


Paige, counting her bounty after the hunt.


We went extremely light on the candy this year. Money and prizes!


Mommy and daddy bought the girls new boots for the "rainy" spring days down here. Soph's are so big she tripped before making it into the whole shot!


Em waited for EVER for the other girls to wake up! Like it was Christmas or something!


Yes, there are some bright blue peeps there, you can't have Easter without PEEPS!


They were so excited!


Coming out first thing in the morning. They were ready for the hunt. We had it inside this year and it was much more difficult and longer.

Easter Pics

Happy Easter. I don't want to be a downer or anything but this is really my least favorite holiday. At least I got some awesome eggs out of the day. And thankfully, I didn't have to supervise at all!! (PS- these are the same pics from facebook)



I bought a tie dye kit last year and it really did a great job on the eggs!


Ems "Chikipedia"


Not sure who made this one


Put all my eggs in one basket.


Soph dancing to the end of Bolt. She renamed Finley to Bolt. Don't worry, she said that Finley said that was fine.


The girls filled their own eggs. I did hide them myself however.


They filled them with coins and M&Ms.


Timer shot.


Greg and Soph.


Finster, tuckered out after his tough day.


Me, finishing a friendship bracelet for Will.


Soph and Bolt.


Messy hands!


Paige making goofy faces for Uncle Greg.


Another timer shot


The girls had tons of fun dyeing with Uncle Greg.


Group shot.


They really love the group shots.


OMG!


And finally, some new fishies for the spring pond cleaning!

Pink Monopoly

The girls received a new version of monopoly for Christmas and we finally broke it out the other weekend when we had a few hours to kill. Paige and Em and I played for almost 2 hours, but Soph didn't make it long! It was really cute, all the real estate has a different cutsie boutique name. You build malls instead of hotels and all the game pieces are frilly as well. It made playing (for me anyway) much more enjoyable.

She'll Thank Us When She's a Teenager

I have been ordered by the king to post this pic against my better judgment. It is not that flattering but I know everyone up north is dying to see Em's braces. She is taking really great care of them, which is good since her dentist pays major rewards for no broken brackets, good hygiene and good grades as well. She has gotten use to them and enjoys showing them off now. The other night she got an entire broccoli floret stuck in them and ran to show me because it was so hilarious looking. And it was. But she accidentally swallowed the broccoli before I could get a picture! Better luck next time!

Spring Break

Melissa and the girls are all on spring break now. It would be nice to have a teachers schedule, but I could never do a teachers job. Even in the few minutes I've been in the classes while Melissa is teaching I don't know how she can do it. But now she's got the week off and Uncle Greg is coming down Tuesday so she'll get a chance to relax for a bit.

The girls had the Wednesday soccer games canceled due to thunderstorms, but they played Friday evening and they both won. Paige had a great assist and she pretty much scored toward the end of the game, but I don't know if they counted it. The game was already a blow out after the Schrader boys scored 6 goals on the other team. Wills' first goal was pretty embarassing for the other team where he dribbled through all of them and the cut past the goalie and tapped it in. It was all downhill for the other team after that... we ended up winning 8 or 9 to 0.

Emma's game wasn't such a blowout. They played a team they usually beat pretty easily in scrimmages at practice, but they only won 1-0. Emma had a good game, but I think it was a little confusing to everyone because the other team didn't have enough players so Em's team loaned them a player for the entire game.

Yesterday we did yard work all day and then Melissa and I went out to dinner while the girls stayed at Bobbie's. We weer way behind on doing anything with the yard since we usually let it go during the winter. Soon it'll be back to having to cut the grass 2 times a week.

We went to the beach this morning and hung out there for a couple of hours. It was cloudy and breezy but pretty nice. It got really crowded after a while. Hopefully that will thin out once spring break is over.

Other than Greg coming down I don't think they have anything big planned for the break. They've talked about mini golf and go-karts, so that might be something we do at some point. It'll be nice weather I think but probably too cool for the beach until next weekend.

While I'm updating the blog Melissa ran up to get a couple of things at the grocery store and rent a carpet cleaning machine. I'm cleaning carpets tonight to kick off my big spring break extravaganza!