Annee Swims at State Meet

Annee swam at the Kentucky State 12 and under Swim Meet last weekend in Louisville. With about 70 swimmers in every event it was pretty chaotic. She set a personal best en route to a 59th place (out of 75) finish in the 50 Fly. She just missed a personal best in the 100 Back and finished 66th (out of 73). She also swam in the 200 Free and 200 Medley Relays. She did pretty well in both events and swam better splits than she had before. Overall, the weekend was a success. Hayden, Heather, and I went up on Saturday. Annee was already in Louisville for a birthday party on Friday night. Her friend Anna moved up at Christmas and invited several girls from Bowling Green for a weekend slumber party. Annee went to sleep at about 3 am to make sure she was well rested for the swim meet. Hayden was pretty patient (at least some of the time). He did get some good food out of the trip and got a new Duke shirt. Unfortunately, we didn't get many good pictures from the weekend, but here are a few.

Coach Jay encouraging Annee as she brings it home in the 50 Fly.

Hayden pulling out his bed!!

Kevin and Jen came to watch Annee swim on Saturday night. We then joined them for dinner at El Torazo!

Heather's Birthday

Today we are celebrating Heather's birthday. Had to wrap up the cake (or in this case the Rice Krispie bars) eating and present opening right after school. We are getting ready to ship off Annee to Louisville for a birthday party. The rest of us will be heading to The Hunger Games tonight. Below are a couple of quick pictures of the birthday festivities.

Someone had to spend hours and hours in the kitchen whipping these treats up.

Grand Ole Opry, Art Show, Report Cards

We made a return trip to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday. Like last year, it was very entertaining. Kellie Pickler and Vince Gill were among the performers. Of course, Little Jimmy Dickens was Annee and Hayden's favorite. Sunday's highlight was a trip down to the Capitol Theatre where they were displaying art from area students. For the second time, Hayden had a piece of work selected to be displayed. We also got A&H's third quarter report cards. They seem to be doing pretty well this year. Volleyball lost a tough three game match last night. We will get a rematch with them later in the season.

At Outback before heading down to the Grand Ole Opry.

Little Jimmy Dickens

Annee's report card

Hayden's report card

10!

Today is the 10th anniversary of my dinner at Popeye's Chicken near the ANOVA hospital in Alexandria, Virgina. I love Popeye's so it stands out in my memory. It also coincided with Annee and Hayden being born so they also turned 10 today. We had a fairly low key birthday celebration. They each had a friend over to sleepover. We went to a movie last night and then made a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's and Mr. B's today. With the birthday money they received today and the money they have saved, A&H will each be buying an I-Touch later today. Below are some pictures of the festivities (with a couple of leftovers from earlier). Volleyball games have started for Annee. Her team won all three of their games on Tuesday. They play two games this week.

Annee & Savannah taking a break from ball girl duties at the girls state tournament. I think that it is the free ice cream that was the best part of their job.

Annee did her last cookie booth of the season with some of her fellow Girl Scouts.

Ready for bed. Of course, getting ready for bed is a long way from actually falling asleep.

Present time!

Nerf gun fight!

Pancakes!

Guess who's presents these are.

Otterboxes from G'ma Ann and G'pa Jim. I think that Grandpa Jim picked them out himself!!

Duct tape!!!!

We spent a lot of time picking the perfect present for A&H.

Fun at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Cookie cake!!!

March

March got off to a bit of a scary start with a couple of days of bad weather. We had tornado warnings on Wednesday and then again on Friday. Friday was the bad day where Northern and Eastern Kentucky got hit so hard. We had funnel clouds here but I don't believe that there were any official touchdowns in Warren County. Heather, Annee, and Hayden got to spend some quality time in our closet under the stairs. I missed out on most of the chaos attending the Symposium on Southern Politics in Charleston. It was held at the Citadel which was a neat place for a conference. While I was gone, Heather played in the Briarwood-Natcher teachers basketball game. Briarwood won by two. By all accounts, she played well and scored 2 points. Volleyball practice has started for Annee. Heather is coaching and I am assisting. Hayden is taking it a bit easier this Spring. He is going to do some running however. He went 1.24 miles the other day. We might try to do a 5k together.

A&H hunkered down in the closet.

Saw several dolphins swimming off the pier in Charleston.

Enjoyed an outstanding meal at Magnolia's - Charleston Style Shrimp and Grits

The corner of the parade grounds at the Citadel.

The Parade of Cadets takes place on most Fridays when school is in session. Pretty impressive.