Crabtree Chronicles: Last Crazy Spring?

Spring has sprung around here. The days are getting warm, the trees have gorgeous blossoms, and everything has a layer of not-so-beautiful yellow pollen. Spring has meant something else for our family for the last 7 or 8 years...lacrosse games, and lots of them! This year, with the boys on different teams, we are sometimes watching 4 or 5 a week. Any "spare" evening when we don't have a game, we seem to have a meeting or the girls have a youth group or Allie has tennis. It is jam packed. Our days when we aren't at our normal jobs have been increasingly spent at the new house working on various projects, as it's really moving over there now. I've been on spring break for 2 weeks now, but it's been so busy I have barely noticed! The girls and I did get to run down to the beach to visit Nanny and Pa for a couple of days and that was a change of pace for sure. Is this our last crazy spring? I guess time will tell. Next spring, we will be juggling trying to see the boys’ games on the weekend, but shouldn’t have high school games to watch during the week. In spite of how hectic life is right now, I’ll be sad to see this era come to an end for sure. Next week we already have Gray’s senior night and it’s starting to feel real that he’s leaving too. 😢

In mixed up order, here’s the last month in pictures:

As Matt liked to tell people, he celebrated his birthday by nearly passing the framing inspection, which was a big deal and very happy for him. He and I also did some work at the house and went out for lunch. For dinner, we ordered pizza and watched Joshua‘s game on TV.

Mimi and GrandGene came to visit in order to see some of the grands play sports, so we snuck in a quick birthday lunch for GrandGene. He will spend his actual birthday in France! He and Mama are having a great time.

Matt, the girls, and I went to see Shrek the musical on a Sunday afternoon. We love that movie and the kids know the music for the musical too. It was nice to have a fun afternoon together. Our church recently moved to a new building so that we can meet in the morning and that has changed our Sunday rhythms a lot, which we are loving.

We try to squeeze in tennis for Allie when we can but some weeks there’s just no time. The picture above is from a photo shoot she and Julia did. It’s one of their favorite past times.

This was a fun night, getting hot pot with the Moores and the Bakers. Most of us had never had it before, and we all loved it and had a great time.

It’s been such a different season of lacrosse for Gray. Without Joshua and his friends, the team is just so different. They’re having a good season but it’s been an adjustment and it’s weird to not have the old crew together.

Gray putting on his game face. He’s had his ups and downs this season but is still enjoying the team and looking forward to Mars Hill lacrosse next year.

We try to go see all of Joshua’s home games if they are on the weekend and sometimes we get to bring some extra fans with us. About midway through the season, he finally got his first goal, and we were also excited to see it.

We celebrated Allie’s family day late this year because she wanted to do it with the Chinese new year party. We were so busy that night that I forgot to give her her gift until several days later. This one was a panda tea set that I had gotten in China.

Sweet group of girls at the Baker house celebrating Chinese new year.

These cookie cakes have become the tradition.

Joshua’s first Saturday home game

The season started off chilly, But not as bad as the high school evening games. It’s really fun to watch at Methodist, especially on a beautiful sunny day.

Joshua’s first game of the season. A teammate’s mom took this for me at this away game.

Gray turned 18! He has felt like an adult and completely done with being parented for a while now so I think it’s a relief to him to have the numbers to back it up.

We had a birthday breakfast for Gray and then he worked most of the day, but we resumed celebrating with a dinner out to Texas Roadhouse with Will and the rest of our family, minus Joshua.

He got a little sunburned at work that day. Here he is opening his punching bag, one of his requested gifts.

The girls and I had a fun couple of days with Nanny and Pa but then they had to head back to Durham. We spent the night that was just the three of us walking down to the pier for a while and Julia and I finished the night with a Gilmore Girls marathon. Julia drove us to and from the beach. I was nervous but she is getting much more comfortable.