L2L 2014

This year Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes was very different for us.  It was the first time, in 11 or12 years, that we have not had a child participate.  L2L, and LTC (which the kids participated thru Michael's senior year) is for grades 3rd thru 12th.  We still have a few years before Avery is able to compete.  So the weekend was bittersweet.  I wish that our kids would have been their with us, but at the same time I was not a nervous wreck trying to make sure that they were dressed, prepared and on time for each of their events.

This year L2L fell after the April 15th deadline.  So that meant I was able to take off the entire day and we were not so rushed.  We left Friday morning and arrived around 11 am.

 The Gaylord Texas has an awesome atmosphere.  The kids loved watching the trains and looking at the fish.  The big kids were so good with the little kids.

This girl finally got a Snap Chat account.  Which of course, required a selfie.

And now she is one of my best snappers.  Just look at her aweseome first snap :)

Friday afternoon the younger kids did scripture reading.  Avery and I went to watch Aubree and Autumn read their scriptures.  They did GREAT!

 Avery and Jack had a blast listening to the scripture readers...

I took the sleepy heads to the room with me to get their nap out.  Jack woke up before Avery.  So we tried to play quietly until she woke up.  He requested a picture.

Friday evening most of our gang ( around 35) went to the Cheesecake Factory in Southlake to eat dinner.

 I hope I'm not in trouble for posting these snaps, but I LOVE these people!

Friday night was the awards for the year round events.  The Blossom kids racked up just like always! :)

 And this banner won 1st place!!!

 Cade made a good horse.

Saturday morning was the speech competition. We headed over to support our kids.  It was really weird not having one competing.

.

Here are some sharp dressed boys!

We ate lunch at the Mexican restaurant in the hotel

Saturday night was the awards for the events that took place on Friday and Saturday.  The girls won 3rd place for scrapbook.

I am SO PROUD of ALL these kids!

 We have sort of made it a tradition to stop and get ice cream on the way back to the room.

The Easter bunny visited our room sometime during the night

We got dressed and went to worship with the L2L group.  Several of the young men who had competed in speech brought the message and several young men led the song service.

 I couldn't get this little girl to cooperate for pictures.  This is the best I got...

 We stopped at Victor's Italian restaurant in Bonham on our way home Sunday.  The food was great!

 I will end with several snaps I got on my way home on Sunday :)

A visit from the Easter Bunny

Kiddie Kollege had a very special visitor for their egg hunt....the Easter bunny!  Most of the kids (including Avery) were excited about this.  There were a couple who were not so thrilled.

Easter Egg hunt 2014

Our friends, the Franks, were gracious enough to hold the annual Easter egg hunt at their home again this year.  The hunt was suppose to be on the Sunday that we were traveling back from Tennessee, but the weather did not cooperate.  So it was re-scheduled for Wednesday and the weather was perfect!

These two are a MESS!  And when they are together, they are usually up to no good!

The crew...on your mark, get set, GO!

 A cowboy and a princess

The bubbles were a hit!

Thank you Denis and Joyce for another great egg hunt!

Makin Music 2014

My mom, Courtney and I went to Tennessee to see Makin Music.  Rod was really bummed that he was unable to take off of work to go with us.  This is Michael's third and final year to be in the show.  It is a pretty big deal at Freed and the students work very hard to produce the show.  His club picked Alice and Wonderland as their theme this year.  They did a super job and came in 3rd place overall.  The only bad thing about this weekend, is that Michael is so busy with the three shows that they do, that we don't really get to spend much time with him.  

I didn't get away from work until after 2pm on Friday, so we were pretty late arriving to our hotel in Jackson.

 We did manage to get to see Michael for about an hour Saturday morning and take him to breakfast before he had to get ready for his afternoon show.  We always go to the night show, where they find out what awards they won.

Not cool son...not cool.  I really don't think he was a fan of the nail polish either.

We left Henderson and went back to Jackson and spent the afternoon shopping.  We stopped at Red Lobster for a late lunch before we went back to the hotel to get changed for the show.

Everyone else was taking selfies while waiting for the clubs to march thru, so we joined in.

 Phi Kappa Alpha coming thru...

Michael was a mad hatter.  The one smiling. 

 There was a short 15 minute intermission and Michael came by to say hi.

Micheal is on the front row, the 2nd mad hatter from the left

Sunday morning we went and worshiped with Michael in Henderson.  They have a new church building that is only a couple of months old.  I am not sure how many it seats, but it was packed to the max which made for some awesome singing!

After service, we had Chili's for lunch before heading back to Texas.

Granny with her babies

It was a great weekend.  I can't believe that when we go back in a couple of weeks he will be GRADUATING!!!