Easter 2011

Easter weekend is always a busy weekend for us since we spend Friday night and most of Saturday in Dallas at LTC. It seems like we have had a lot going on lately. With Courtney's golf tournament in Stephenville this past week, I only slept 4 out of 7 nights in my own bed. Needless to say, I haven't been grocery shopping and didn't really have anything decent to cook for Sunday. So we had lunch at China Star. And supper at Tamolly's. I did cook for my family tonight, and they were glad that I remembered how to cook - even if it was just spaghetti.

Sunday afternoon there was an Easter egg hunt for the kids at church. We have a very sweet lady, Joyce Frank, who hosted the hunt for the second year in a row. Joyce has a BEAUTIFUL yard. It looks like a picture out of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The older kids get there a little early to hide the eggs. I really think they have as much fun as the little ones.

Courtney

Michael - he refused to pose for the camera. He says my blog is lame. Whatever!
Hailey

Courtney hid a few in harder places for the bigger kids

I really think these two may have stashed a few for themself

Guilty!

Autumn and Aubree brought there cute little cousin Ashlyn. She had the most beautiful blonde curls!

Baby Jack was snoozing when I got him out of his car seat. He slept while the big kids finished hiding the eggs.

But then he woke up and got a head start to finding the eggs.

Ready, Set, GO!

Little Evan was so cute and fun to watch!

Autumn inspecting her eggs

Ethan, Ryan and Hannah

Ethan with his stash! He was all smiles :)

Courtney and Hailey taking a break

John Henry came to watch the fun

My camera battery died, so this was the last picture I got. Tiffany made cupcakes that everyone enjoyed after the hunt was over. It was so fun to watch the kids and how excited they were finding the eggs. I don't what it is lately, whether it is Michael wanting to go to Freed Hardeman in the fall, or Courtney driving all over town - but I really miss my kids being babies. Seems like they grew up overnight!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!

LTC

Every year, the youth of our church participate in LTC - Leadership Training for Christ. LTC aides in the spiritual growth and development of our youth. It encourages service leadership as well as public communications skills for the boys. LTC is held on Easter weekend each year, and we attended the convention at the Downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel. Each year there is a different theme. This year's theme was "Coming Soon" Revelations 22:20. The kids have been studying the book of Revelations for several months now, and Friday night they participated in the Bible Quiz, which took a little over 2 hours. We will find out in a couple of weeks how they did. They will be awarded a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Participant medal.

The older kids: Colton, Courtney, Hailey and Erin

The younger kids: Cameron, Cade, Carsyn and Hannah
It was odd that Michael was a spectator rather than a participant. It still amazes me that baby is in college now.
Earl, Caleb, Lanny, Michael and Cody

Caleb is so cute! He provided the entertainment while we were waiting for the kids to finish their quiz.

Me and Mandy patiently waiting

They broke the quiz down into 5 parts, and gave a break half way through. Courtney was still in deep thought in this picture...lol

Rod and Evan - must have been a serious discussion

After the Bible quiz, we headed to the West End to eat.

We tried the Spaghetti Warehouse, but it had and hour to hour and half wait, so we settled for TGIF Friday's.

No need for us to pay for tickets to the Ranger game - Michael and Lenita kept us updated on the play by play action. Lenita and her family had a 'suite' for Saturday nights game. Lucky!

Saturday morning, we all gathered to hear Colton give his speech. I wonder if Lezlie was as nervous as I always got when Michael did his speech's.

Colton did an excellent job!

Lenita playing with the babies...wait a minute, that's my job!

We had a break after Colton's speech, so we left the hotel in search of a place to have lunch. Everyone decided on Saltgrass.

Erin, Hailey and Courtney

Butler had fun playing Ryan's Nintendo DS.

We went back to the hotel, and the kids put on their puppet skit. Amy and Lanny did an awesome job writing the skit and with the backdrop. I am positive the kids will get GOLD for their skit.

Courtney was the dark puppet in the purple dress

After puppets, it was time for Cade's song leading.

Cade did an excellent job! And looked so grown up standing up there and leading us.

After Cade's songleading, we had ab0ut and hour wait before the little kids did their puppets

Amy, Gay and Michael

We had some entertainment while we waited

Me and little baby Court Court

Benton had a good time

And Butler can find a wrestling match wherever he goes

I love going to LTC and watching all the kids participate in their different events. There are also some events that are done before hand - such as scrapbooks, bulletin boards, teaching challenge, service challenge and Bible reading. A big thanks to all the ones who worked with the youth to make this another successful year!

Regional Golf Tournament

The Prairiland girls golf team placed 2nd in their district golf meet a couple of weeks ago, so they advanced to the regional tournament in Stephenville. We went down on Sunday so that the girls could play a practice round. Courtney was the only one on the team who had played the course before. She advanced to regionals last year as well. And Michael was there too - so last year I was there two days longer than this year.

Teeing off The team practicing together. In tournaments, they don't play in the same group - they play with players from other schoolsKastley got tired, and needed a little lift. I felt a little overdressed on the golf course, but with it being Sunday, all I had time to change was my shoes in between church services.

Monday started with a 5:30 wake up call, and a 7:30am arrival at the golf course. We actually stayed in Granbury, and had a 30 to 40 minute drive to the course.

Early morning warm-up on the driving range

Courtney is second from the right

Team photo:

Shelby McCoin, Sidney Reagan, Coach Flynn, Courtney, Hailey and Kastley Greer

Coach Flynn going over the tournament rules and giving a pep talk before everyone separated

Courtney and Kastley

Putting practice. We maybe should have spent a little extra time here. Her score on both days would have improved tremendously if she could have made more putts. Rod was telling her "drive for show, putt for dough"...ha She has no problem with her long game, it is her short came that needs some attention. She out drove every girl in her group on almost every hole.

Courtney and Hailey were the last two to tee off from Prairiland, so they decided to sit in the cart while they could

First hole of the tournament

It makes for a LONG day walking 18 holes for these girls. It takes about 6 hours to play the whole course. I walked on Monday with them, but Tuesday I invested in a cart.

Fairway shot

Lining up a putt

It got to almost 100 degrees both days!

Courtney shot a 105 on Monday, which was the best score for Prairiland. She tied for 27th place out of 91 girls for Day 1.

Proud dad!

Day 1 score card

Rod had to be back at work on Tuesday, so he had to leave Monday night. She didn't want him to go.

We went back for Day 2 of the tournament on Tuesday. I gave her a pep talk before she teed off on the first hole. But my advice mainly consisted of "remember what all Rod told you, and do that" I don't know much about golf, other than how to keep score. And the lower the score the better.

Monday, she was the only one in her group with a pink ball, so it was easy to spot. Tuesday, there was another girl in her group that had a pink ball, but it was a lighter pink.

Another team photo: Courtney, Kastley, Sidney, Shelby, Hailey and Coach Flynn

Courtney did better on Tuesday with a score of 103 - my pep talk must have worked :). Kastley had the best score on Tuesday with a 100! Courtney had the best two day tournament score for Prairiland with a 208. Way to go Courtney!! Kastley had a 212, Sidney, 218, Shelby 219 and Hailey 220. The team finished in 5th place out of 16 teams. Way to go Lady Pats!! Only 1st and 2nd places get to advance to state, so this is the end of the high school golf season for this year. Courtney has mentioned maybe playing in some tournaments this summer for the Red River Valley Junior Golf Association.

The girls were absolutely worn out after 3 days of golf!

I really don't see how this could be comfortable.

I'm anxious to find out what Courtney's overall rank for the tournament was. We left before they had that out, but her Coach will have it when gets back (he stayed down there for the boys tournament). All the girls did a great job and I am proud of everyone of them! Courtney thinks she deserves a hamster now...yikes!