Alex had his first soccer game at the YMCA this afternoon. He was still 4 when we signed him up, so he was in the lower division, and I think he’s the oldest on the team. Which is ok, since he’s not an aggressive kid and he’s new to organized soccer. Anyway, he loved it. He likes to play goalie a lot as well as run around. His only problem is lack of focus, but that’s common. Sometimes he just runs around regardless of where the ball is. He also had an eye appointment last week and got a new prescription. The eye doctor said he’s doing just great. On the home front, I’ve been working quite a lot lately on the guest room downstairs (mom and dad are coming soon) and have finally finished the drywalling (except in the smaller closet). Basically only the trim and finishing work is left.

I had Good Friday off so I took the kids to the Easter breakfast at their preschool. Missy performed with her class (such as she always does, not singing, not doing the motions, not wearing the headgear she had made in class...Beth had given her some bunny ears to wear, and she wore those, refusing to put on her class-made hat after the teacher called it a "bonnet" because, she said, she is not a baby) with Alex and me in the audience, then we had some breakfast casserole, which both kids actually ate some of. Later on, Beth and I took the kids to American Countryside Farmers Market near Mishawaka and met the Rowes there. I guess the place is pretty new; they’ve got plans for an indoor water park and everything there too. But right now they’ve got a bunch of stalls for people to sell crafty things and flavored popcorn and cookware, inside a gi-normous barn with 3 cupolas. We got buffalo chili dogs for lunch. Saturday was a Katie day, but there was nothing Beth and I wanted to see at the movies so instead we went to Churchill’s and watched NCAA basketball and ‘The Passion of the Christ" with them. Speaking of which, I filled out a bracket at work and bet a guy $1 that mine was better than his (he picked his alma mater Clemson for final 4, and he challenged me when I mocked him). After church on Sunday, Ronnie and DeeAnn invited us and the kids to lunch at Boathouse, their treat (very nice of them) and over to their house afterwards for more NCAA basketball (watching Tennessee vs. Butler).

Thursday Beth and I took Alex to the dentist in Fort Wayne once again; he had another filling put in. I went along because he was really scared, despite the fact that he had done it before and he came through like a trooper then. It was over in maybe 15 minutes. I missed half a day of work for it. Bible study was at our house on Friday; Mike and Cindy came and seemed to enjoy it and said they’re going to keep coming. Saturday, we took the kids to McD’s for lunch and looked around the new furniture store in town in the afternoon. Beth really felt like taking a break so we hired Jenny to babysit (she brought her little sister Annie, who is great friends with Alex and Missy) in the evening while we went to Goshen to eat at Wild Wings and play trivia. I dominated the whole place in both rounds I played. Sunday we kept the kids home from church due to the colds, but decided they were well enough to go to the Easter egg hunt, which was very nice. The day was sunny, maybe the first time for that in weeks, and the ground not too soggy. The kids loved it. It was even warm enough in the afternoon for me to go out and rake some leaves that have been lying on the ground since fall, and the kids played outside for most of the time I was working as well. We skipped movie night due again to the colds. We should have kept them inside all day but they have been so desperate to get out lately we let them go.

Today was Alex’s 5th birthday. We had a little party at home; about half a dozen friends from church and school came to the house just after supper for a couple hours. The kids played and we did cake and ice cream and presents. Alex did pretty well; most notably he got a scooter, a plug-n-play video (Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc) game for the TV, and a couple more Thomas trains, Beth and I also got him a new bedding set and new border for his room. He got a tractor cake, for some reason that was the one he picked out.

Since we didn’t go to FW yesterday, Beth and I took the kids today. We took the kids to Once Upon a Child and to Penney’s (since Alex had no jeans left without holes in the knee) and to ride the merry-go-round at the mall, and did some birthday present shopping at Toys R Us. We got Alex a big box of sorta-Legos and some new (better) training wheels for his bike.

The lady who paid us for the sectional sofa last weekend finally came along with a truck and trailer and 3 guys. Late. She was supposed to come by right after she got off work at 1:00, so Beth and I were going to go to Fort Wayne afterwards to do some shopping and meet Sheri and Virgil for dinner afterwards (they were going to FW too, seperately). However, she called a couple times saying she had to work later, and her help was late, blah blah...so we waited all afternoon. She did come by and they got the thing out of our house in a single load, but we didn’t go anywhere because it was too late. However, as it turns out Sheri and Virgil hadn’t gone to FW after all so we met up at Ruby Tuesday’s in Warsaw for dinner instead. With the kids. After we got home and got the kids to bed we stayed up playing Spades for a while.