a spring to remember

As anticipated, life has been busy since spring break. After our trip, we launched right back into practices, tryouts, needing new equipment, etc. Got a little date night with Emma after a softball practice and cleat shopping.

Sara spent the week after break at the high school for cheer clinics and tryouts. She ended the week with a welcome to the team! I'm so excited for her to start high school with an awesome cheer coach and fun group of girls. She's excited about the new uniforms and the coach's plans to compete next year. In June, her team will go to UCA camp at TCU for several days, and they've already started after school practices!

Emma took a field trip to a historical site where they enjoyed a day the old fashioned way! We also had Emma's rescheduled open house after bad storms rolled through on the original day. We couldn't stay long and I didn't take pictures, but it was my first open house to get to attend with Emma (one benefit of my move back to middle school). It was fun to see her at school, and to hear her teachers say great things about her.

And of course it's been weekend after weekend of sports ... the soccer team celebrated St. Paddy's Day with a tournament win. It was a five-game weekend that ended beautifully, but started with winter coats and hats. These girls really wanted that hardware and played every minute for it.

The girls convinced me that a chilly Monday evening after the soccer tournament necessitated cookies!

The following weekend, the Diamond Darlings played in a softball tournament on what turned out to be our first truly beautiful spring weekend. We had sunshine and 70's ... and sunburns! The girls had a rough start to the tournament, but recharged and made a comeback.

Emma kept lots of girls from base running with her great catches and quick reactions.

Just when we thought Sunday might be a short day, they played their hearts out and ended up in the finals against a team they've faced many times over the years ... and came out on top after several close innings! Emma had some great hits and even went in as a pinch runner when the game was on the line and the team needed someone speedy to steal some bases!

After a long weekend of catching, Emma had a swollen hand, but she was sure happy to have that championship ring to take home!

The past weekend, it was finally time for the event Sara had been waiting for ... the Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert! We went with Sara's BFF and her mom, and we had the best day. After hearing that the crowds would be crazy, and knowing that a Rangers game was also happening in the same vicinity, we headed over to Arlington early afternoon and made a day of it.

Everything worked out perfectly! We were let into our pre-paid lot early, caught a shuttle to the stadium, and enjoyed the beautiful day at the stadium's plaza before being allowed inside.

Snacks, drinks, merch shopping, and people watching ... Sara was in her own heaven surrounded by so many Swifties! Her head-to-toe look was weeks in the making and she rocked it!

Our seats were lower bowl, side stage, so we had a great view of the whole set-up, including the band and back-up singers ...

... and we had a perfect view of the comings and goings from backstage. We captured this moment between the openers, Gracie Abrams and beabadoobee. They were both so good and we were lucky to have them at our show.

We also saw the "utility cart" rolled in, which was in fact carrying Taylor herself. Sara had seen talk of this on the Taylor threads, and it's true. They rolled it in, dropped her off, and rolled it back out. After it was all over, we hung around and watched Taylor leave through the same place she'd rolled in on the cart ... but this time she just walked out and waved up to us. 

The show was incredible! It was theatrical at parts, the dancers were amazing, there were lights and pyrotechnics and costume changes and you-name-it ... and then she would shut it all down and stand alone on that huge stage and sing while she played acoustic guitar or piano. 

So, so good. If we could have scored tickets to the next night's show, we definitely would have been back! 

I will cherish this night with Sara. She sang along every word to every song and she was just so, so happy. She didn't miss a moment of the hours-long show ... just took it all in, cheered, danced, and truly had the best time. I loved watching her watch it.

Meanwhile, Steve and Emma had their own fun. They went to Scheel's for a new catcher's glove (see swollen hand above), and then spent the evening at the FC Dallas game.

Everyone was in their happy place!

I'm in Fayetteville for the night at a teacher job fair at University of Arkansas, and this weekend we have another soccer tournament. Thankfully we also get a long weekend for Easter, so maybe we'll get a little rest from all the good-busy. As I scroll through these pics, I realize they also tell the story of our cooking/eating habits, too. Among the memorable events so far this spring, getting to the grocery store has not been a priority - ha!

Spring Break '23

We are back from our last-minute, need-a-change-of-scenery, Texas road-trip spring break! We left first thing Monday morning and headed south toward Galveston. On the way, we had to stop and see Sam Houston. This was the first of many stops that Emma LOVED - she spent lots of time this trip sharing everything she has learned in TX History this year!

We arrived to beautiful weather in Galveston, and after checking in, headed straight out for patio dining and seawall walking.

We enjoyed a couple of beach days. Since our spring break was a week earlier than most this year, we didn't deal with crowds anywhere - we had tons of beach space to ourselves!

The girls were set on recreating an attempted jumping photo from a few years ago in Florida.

We enjoyed a long beachwalk to this rooftop spot that had a real name, but that we just called "coffee and cocktails." Great views!

More beach fun ...

One afternoon we headed to The Strand to eat and shop. We enjoyed walking out to see the big ships, and spent LOTS of time in LaKing's!

The second part of our trip was spent in San Antonio. We returned to The Menger where Steve and I had stayed a few years back for the Alamo Bowl. While we were on the road from Galveston to San Antonio, the Cyclones were playing Baylor in round one of the Big XII tournament. I gave a few periodic updates and at the end, told Emma to guess the final score. Somehow she guessed it right on - 78-72, Cyclones. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and we all enjoyed a laugh about it. Not all of our car time together was the most enjoyable, but we found plenty of great moments!

Inside The Menger ... we left without seeing any ghosts!

We spent quite a bit of time at The Alamo.

"Come and Take It"

Emma posed with every single statue ... she was in history heaven!

We headed to the River Walk for food and shopping.

We had beautiful weather and light crowds!

The girls wanted to go through the wax museum ... again, Emma took pictures with *several* wax figures.

Meanwhile, Sara only needed one with Taylor.

Steve, Sara, and Emma went through the haunted part and I waited upstairs. I thought I had dodged it until they decided to go a second time and made me suffer through it. They thought it was hilarious!

We did another round on the River Walk and at The Alamo to enjoy evening lights and views. Then Steve and I had a nightcap at The Menger Bar ... really cool place!

We made it back to Plano on Friday in time for the Cyclone game watch. They lost - ugh - but I think they're ready for March Madness! Sara had had enough family funtivities, so she stayed home while Steve, Emma, and I watched the game and played some pool.

Now it's only Saturday but the Sunday Scaries have started as getting back to reality is SO close. It'll be a busy spring, but I am looking forward to plowing through and wrapping up this school year!

Feb-brrr-ary

I spent the last few days of January at a conference in San Antonio with some other principals from my district. We had a couple of days of cold, rainy weather, but on one beautiful day, I enjoyed a lunchtime walk to the Alamo. I sent this picture to Steve and the girls, which inspired our little "Texas Tour" road trip we have coming up for spring break!

I was back at school for one day after the conference before we ended up at home for four ice days! No snow ... just pure sheets of ice. Our driveway was once again the preferred sled run and it sure was fast this year.

There wasn't much to shovel, but Emma enjoyed hacking away at the ice.

We did lots of this ... spending the first part of February, including my birthday, cozied up with the fire, books, and true downtime was an amazing reprieve from real life that we didn't know we needed!

Once we could get back out, Steve and I had a belated birthday date night - margaritas and HEB!

Every year the 4th graders in our district go to hear the Plano Symphony Orchestra and are supposed to dress up. Emma literally wears Nike shorts and athletic tees every single day (a hoodie if it's cold), so I knew finding her a real outfit might be a struggle. She finally agreed on black jeans and a top - she looked so cute!

She said that on the say of the field trip, everyone did a double take when she walked down the hall. One teacher told her, "Ok, I'm not going to make a big deal about this, but wow, you look nice!" The next day she was back to her usual look, but I would like to think she enjoyed her day in a complete outfit. The tradition at Daffron is that the 4th graders get a pizza lunch (with table cloths, even) after the symphony. Emma was thrilled that, based on luck, her class had front row seats and she could see everything!

February has been a month of academic accomplishments for Sara. After she won her school's science fair, her project advanced to Regionals. She spent most of a Saturday downtown being interviewed by judges about her project. She didn't win any awards, which disappointed her, but we were so proud. She did every part of this project completely independently and absolutely deserved to be among all of those regional projects!

Sara's Mock Trial team continued to pour hours into practice - several hours on Saturdays, late nights after school ... it has been a lot. Friday was the first day of competition at the Collin County Court House.

Sara won an Outstanding Witness Award. She sent Steve and I think picture mid-morning on Friday. Steve had won the same award a hundred years ago, and so a few hours later, he sent us a picture of his almost identical prize that he had gone into the attic to find!

Sara's team was one of four (from fourteen) that advanced to Saturday's semi-final round. They won that round, then competed in the finals, and took 1st place. The hours these kids and their amazing teacher have poured in are countless, but the work paid off. So proud of them! Sara is about to have a lot more time on her hands after school without Mock Trial practices. She'll miss this group, but I know she's also looking forward to her after school walks to Starbucks with friends, too. All about balance!

Meanwhile, we got an email from Emma's PE Coach that they had been doing a jump rope challenge at school, and students were to work their way through nine levels. Emma was the first student at her school to accomplish the "Black Belt" level with 175 consecutive jumps! She got to sign the "Black Belt" wall and she said all the kids cheered for her!

After Sara received her 1st place trophy yesterday, Emma got one of her own at the end-of-season basketball tournament. This team has come such a long way in the past few seasons. They started this season in a bracket they were dominating, so they were moved to a higher won, where they continued to play well and mostly win. They were then moved to a tougher bracket for the tournament, and we hoped to play well but didn't expect to rack up wins ... but they did it. So fun to watch these girls! Several of them are back together this morning for softball practice as we kick off another new season.

Next week is spring break - hallelujah! Spring will be busy with soccer, softball, high school cheer tryouts, and normal life. The time is flying by, but I couldn't be more proud of my girls and all they're accomplishing along the way.