Maddie & Evelyn: March - St. Patrick's Day, Bridge Building and Spring Break in Bend

Here is one big March entry!

Evelyn is learning the power of the written word. :) She asked her teacher how to spell some of the words but not all in one sentence so her teacher had no idea what she was writing. :)

Maddy and I had a fun night out just the two of us. We went to see Matilda The Musical. We had a great time together!

Getting ready for picture day!

Legos are a major thing in our house right now.

It's Ariel!

Maddy and her friends sold the last of our girl scout cookies! Woo hoo!!

Maddy has a bridge project for this month. They have to build one of the many Portland bridges. Maddy chose Tillikum Crossing so we went and walked it. Maddy is giving herself bunny ears in this photo (bridge making photos to come).

Our little leprechaun

For St. Patrick's Day, Maddy and I made Aunty Janny's famous Guinness Cake. YUM! It was also Arna and Patty's birthday (we got them at the Auckland Zoo with Aunty Janny last year on St. Patrick's Day)

So silly ... love this series

Sometimes it has just been that kind of a day.

Maxie is still working on her social smile. She looks terrified in this photo.

Maddy's basketball team did really well in the city tournament!! They lost their first game and were on their way to losing the second but then Maddy scored a basket! It excited the whole team and they just took off from there! They won that game and then the next and the next! They made it to the playoffs and played a VERY tough game. It came down to just a couple points and they were just shy of going to the finals. In the end they took 3rd overall which is AMAZING. We are so proud of their team. We can't wait to see what they do next year!

Maddy and Nico sprayed their bridge projects (yes - next to my car - I wasn't thinking but it turned out ok!)

Nick was super excited about the bridge project so I happily stepped aside. He and Maddy (not pictured I know) worked very hard on the bridge.

This is the real bridge ...

And here is their model!

For Spring Break we decided we couldn't miss out on all the snow we have been getting so we headed out to Bend, OR. This year we go over 400 inches of snow on Mt. Bachelor (and that was 10th place! Mt. Hood got over 500 inches!!). We packed up the car and drove East! It is amazing how different the state looks just on the other side of the Cascades. You leave this lush, green forest and arrive in the desert. It is amazing!

We were so excited because Summer, Andrew, Caroline and Campbell were going to meet us in Bend! We waited at the park for them (daddy embarrassed Maddy while we waited).

Hooray! Cousin time!

The ski report for our first day was snowy. Over night they got about 7 inches of snow and were supposed to get another 9 during the day! So we put on our face masks and got ready for an amazing day!

I am not sure how she is going to get up if she falls wearing all these clothes ... but better to be warm I guess! :)

Maddy and Evelyn did ski school and got really good. At one point we (the adults) were all on a lift and saw Maddy going down the slopes! Amazing!! We decided to only have her do ski school for a half day on our last day so she could come ski with us instead!

By the end of the second day, the weather had cleared and it was beautiful skiing weather! Fresh powder and clear skies! On our last day we all loaded up together and went skiing with Maddy! My heart struggled a little with that but she was actually really really good! At one point she followed Uncle Andrew on another pass (I did not have the guts to follow them) and she just came back through the trees happy as can be! Very proud of her! Way to go Maddy!!

Here is a video of Evelyn in ski school and Maddy coming down the slopes. On our last day we saw Evelyn on the bunny slope which was amazing (and hard on my heart) but we didn't get a video because we were on the lift. Both girls did so well and can't wait for next ski season! (and FYI - all the videos I am posting are youtube videos so you can make them bigger so you can see better)