Glimpses Of Spring

The weather has been beautiful here this week! The sunshine is making me ready for spring. My maple tree is blooming and all my flowers are blooming. I love this time of year with all the new life. My house plants have even perked up with the sunshine coming through the windows. Spring also brings baseball! 


Andrew has a game Monday and a tournament on Thursday. He actually has off from baseball today but will practice Saturday and Sunday. Christopher has been practicing with his travel baseball team. He has a tournament in Texas in two weeks. This is the time of year basketball and baseball overlap so it is a little crazy with sports. Christopher has a basketball tournament tomorrow and maybe next week if they win tomorrow. Then it's just baseball and golf for Christopher. Kevin does have a few more weeks of basketball but he hasn't started baseball yet so it's not too bad for him to still be playing.

It was 87 degrees and very sunny here yesterday. 

Today was a little bit cooler but still sunny. 

Here are some Glimpses of Spring pictures of my yard!




My maple tree is blooming!

We are about to head out to the high school to see a drama production. Daniel is working so I am taking the boys. Hopefully Andrew won't fall asleep. Last night for practice the team had to run and do conditioning the whole practice. Apparently there have been players getting in trouble at school and the whole team was being punished. Andrew was glad to be a cross country runner last night. They had to first run around the LSUS campus and then conditioning and then all kinds of running drills on the field. As Daniel told Andrew "Welcome to high school sports." Andrew did ok but there were many throwing up and some hurting. Hopefully lesson learned! Behave at school if you don't want your team to have to run! I took Christopher and Kevin to watch. It was an eye opener for Christopher. It's not just about your ability, it's about your character too! It is also about your grades. Here is a link to an article about Andrew's baseball team and how the coach looks at their grades every Monday.  Byrd Baseball Places 37 Student-Athletes on Honor Roll  I am so thankful for the encouragement and discipline the coach gives for the player to be all they can be in ALL areas of their life. We have been preaching this to the boys for years so it is nice to have backup!!!

Tomorrow night, I will be taking the boys to watch Daniel referee (head referee "white hat") a Semi-Pro football game. Praying that an adult football player doesn't run over him. :) Seriously, Daniel has had a cold and not feeling real perky but is looking forward to refereeing on Saturday. He loves it!!!! I will try to get some pictures to post. 

Happy Friday! We are off to watch the production of And Then There Were None. 

Wednesday Happenings

This morning was a busy morning! I took the kids to school and then came home to get dressed for work. Daniel headed out to get the brakes fixed on his truck. The front and back had to be changed. They were in bad shape! Then at work we had a packed house. We have a private school here on Winter Break so a lot of the children came to play today and a preschool playgroup came today. Wednesday is also beginning of getting ready for the weekend. I cleaned the party rooms and stocked them with paper goods. I cleaned the bathrooms and straightened up the kitchen. Doesn't it sound like I am at my house??? Tomorrow, I will clean all the inflatables. Daniel will run a few errands tomorrow to get some other supplies. Our teenagers will call the parties for the weekend on Thurs and Friday evenings during Open Play to confirm a head count and their pizza order. We feel so blessed that God has led us through opening our own business. It has definitely been a process and continues to be as each new season rolls around. Prayer, prayer, prayer!!!!!

Now I am at home washing clothes and getting the house ready for the boys to come home and get on their homework before church. Daniel is still rocking along with his position at the church. We are seeming to have a routine down now. Andrew is enjoying Daniel picking him up from school and getting some quiet study time in at the church before baseball practice. He also enjoys getting to spend some time with his dad with none of us around :) 

Christopher brought home his school newspaper yesterday and it had a picture of him in it. There are 12 students going to the Regional Science Fair next week. He will get out of school next Friday for the Science Fair. He is the only 6th grader going to regional so he looks so young compared the other students around him who are in 7th and 8th grade. These are the years that the growth spurts really begin happening. And Christopher hasn't hit that growth spurt yet. In fact, he looks short on his basketball team but come to find out some of his teammates are about to be 13 where he is only going to be 12 in May. I am not rushing the growing up because I know with Andrew once the growing begins it doesn't seem to stop for awhile. In fact, Andrew has gone through blue jeans so fast this year I have a supply of all kinds of sizes in great shape for Christopher :) I am treasuring every kiss and hug from Kevin right now. This morning I was loving on Kevin and I told him he was going to have to give me enough hugs for his brothers too. Andrew overheard me and said no kisses but I'll hug you :) I am about to head out and pick up Christopher and Kevin from school to get some hugs and kisses - at least from Kevin! 

Here is the picture of  Christopher in his school newspaper. 

Andrew Pitching Videos

Last night, Andrew's high school freshman baseball team scrimmaged the JV baseball team. Andrew got to pitch! There are 28 freshman players so when you touch the field, it is a big deal :) Daniel was with Christopher at golf practice so I filmed Andrew pitching for Daniel to see. Andrew has a different delivery than the other pitchers on his team. He throws with a side arm motion. This motion puts a different spin on the ball and makes it move. Andrew has always thrown (just throwing not neccesarily pitching) side arm and Daniel never changed him. It is now paying off. No one scored on Andrew!   But we have also learned that a pitcher is only as good as the defense behind him. Our defense did a great job. 


The last batter you see Andrew pitching to is a junior and a great hitter. Andrew looks a little wild pitching to him but that was on purpose. Andrew didn't want to put it down the middle for him to hit. I questioned his pitching with this batter and asked why he was a little off with him. He replied, "You don't want to put it down the middle for him to slam." Daniel wasn't a pitcher and I am learning the ins and outs of pitching :) I obviously need a few more lessons on this concept. Hope you enjoy the videos.

Boys, Boys and Boys!

This week has been all about my boys! We have had lots of boy activities from sports to school events on top of Valentine's activities. And Christopher had lots of studying to do. He had a science final on the periodic table, elements and balancing equations plus a project on elements due. He also had an English final on the book, The Door In The Wall. This book goes along with the Renaissance period that he is studying in Social Studies.

I am the PTSA Teacher Treat chairman for Christopher's school. Monday, I  had our Valentine's treat for the teachers so I was at the middle school morning and afternoon making sure the food was set out and cleaned up. Then that evening Kevin and I finished up his Valentine's for his classmates and went to Christopher basketball game.

On Tuesday, I was at Kevin's school for his Valentine Lunch.

On Wednesday, I was at Andrew's high school helping serve 150 faculty and staff a breakfast. I took three sausage egg casseroles. I was at the school by 7am and left at 9am. I then went across the street to a bakery to meet some high school baseball moms for a meeting about a baseball pep rally.

Then Thursday, I woke up sick! I am fighting some kind of cold. I am so ready to feel better and get on a treadmill to do some sweating!!! Thursday Daniel and my dad worked at The Zone and left me in bed sleeping. I love doing for my boys and volunteering to help at their schools but everything fell into one week and zapped me. I really did enjoy the week and seeing my boys smile.

On Friday, Andrew had a baseball game. Daniel had an event to work at the church so he didn't make it to the game. However, I did send great texts keeping him up on the status of the game.

Today, we ALL got to sleep in!!!! I feel a little better and the boys are all a little more rested too. We have been taking it easy on this rainy day. Christopher had an afternoon basketball game that got a little heated.

Here is our week in some pictures. The necklace is my Valentine's present from Daniel. It is a James Avery faith bead and a frog charm. I love the symbol of a frog. My classroom use to be Robinson's Rainforest with frogs as my mascot. F.R.O.G means Fully Rely On God. Which we are really trying to do in every area of our life. The flower is from Christopher. He surprised me when he got off the bus on Tuesday. He bought the flower at school. He melted my heart with the thought of him buying a flower for me at school and keeping up with it. Love that boy!

Here we are at Kevin's Valentine Lunch. We closed The Zone early on this day. We were not going to miss a lunch with our only child that we can still go eat with. Middle school and high school are not an option for eating lunch anymore :( Middle school has one lunch a year for parents to come to.

I have to brag on Daniel here. He has been working hard on watching what he eats. He has lost 10 pounds over the past two weeks. Yay Daniel!

Here is my continuously growing high schooler. I am constantly buying this child blue jeans. He came to me the other day and asked if he had a red rash on his legs. It was stretch marks. He is growing so much he is stretching his skin!!!! Andrew did great pitching! And he is loving high school baseball. Check out his hair coming out the back of his hat. He has let his hair grow out some. Over the past year his hair has gotten curlier and curlier :)

The next pictures are Christopher playing some hoops. This game just about did my momma nerves in. The game was a close game and with some unclassy yelling from fans. Christopher was guarding this one kid the whole game. The kid started getting an attitude with Christopher. Then the kid called Christopher a name that was not so nice. A word that I don't even like to spell or say. Christopher stopped and asked the referee if he heard what he just called him. The referee then threw Christopher and the other player out of the game. That's when all the fun (really not so fun) events began to happen! I was so proud of how Daniel calmly walked over and demanded an explanation. Then other directors were called to come over to this gym. Nothing was resolved except they said they were being too aggressive. Not feeling like justice was served in this game and the referees took the easiest way out and threw both children out of the game. But the momentum changed and our team got mad. We won the game!!!! Christopher went home with a teammate and is going to see a Star Wars movie tonight. Glad he had something fun planned after the game and didn't have to dwell on that ugly game. Here are some pictures of Christopher's game. Sorry there are so many but they tell the story :)

The kid holding Christopher's arm is the one that called Christopher a name and was aggressive with him the whole game.

 This kid is really trying to get at Christopher.

 Here is where Christoher is trying to tell the referee about this kid and what he jsut said to him. Christopher had already put up with alot from him.

 Now Christopher is thrown out of the game and Daniel is calmly trying to find out why.

 The referee told the director he would explain later :(

 Daniel keeping Christopher company on the bench while waiting for an explanation

Christopher at the end of the game cheering on his team after they won the game!

Good night to a long but exciting week of boys, boys and boys! :)

Nothing Really Eventful . . .

Today was not really eventful but it was a blessed day of getting caught up on studying and successfully getting everyone to their activities and The Zone was successfully busy today with parties and rentals.

Daniel started his morning off by delivering inflatables to houses on the Mardi Gras parade route. It was really cold here today. He then dropped off Andrew for his 3 hour baseball practice.


I started my day out by getting Christopher and Kevin dressed and out the door for Christopher's early basketball game. Daniel met up with us at the game. It was an exciting basketball game! Both teams were undefeated. We lost with 30 seconds to go 30-31. The boys took it in stride and walked away with their heads high. They played a very competitive game. I actually like those kind of games better than the games that we beat teams really badly. This was a stand up at the end to see what the result was going to be kind of game.

Daniel and I took Christopher and Kevin to eat at a BAR-B-Q place that has been around since I was a little girl. It is so good! Then we divided and conquered again. Daniel took Christopher home to begin studying for all his tests he has this week. I took Kevin and hung out at the baseball field while Andrew finished practicing.

Not too much to report on for the afternoon and evening except that I took over studying with Christopher while Daniel and Andrew went to work some of the parties at The Zone. Kevin played with all his neighborhood friends going in and out of each other's houses.

We ended the evening with Kevin making teacher appreciation bags for his Sunday School teachers. We cooked chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Then Kevin decorated small brown paper bags to put them in.



Tomorrow Daniel opens the church up early. I will be getting myself and 3 boys ready for church by myself. Last week we made it out the door but I didn't feel real prepared. Tonight everyone's clothes have been ironed and all clothes and bibles are ready to go. Daniel is out picking up inflatables and will be home soon. We are both going to crash tonight. We are still trying to catch up on sleep from our new schedule. Daniel has been working at the church for 3 weeks now and each week has gotten a little easier. So hopefully soon we will be caught up on sleep and all the school work will slow down for a bit. However, baseball season is starting to pick up while basketball season has a few more weeks left. We are looking forward to our long weekend off for President's Day!

Good night from the quiet Robinson house. All three boys are asleep!!!

Our Boys :)

It was a blessed day to be able to be at Kevin's 1st Grade Manners Tea Party. They have been studying manners at school and celebrated their unit of study with a grand celebration. The theme was a Mardi Gras theme since it is Mardi Gras time in Louisiana. The celebration was called Krewe of Manners. Andrew and Christopher also ended their study of manners in first grade with a tea party. So this is my last 1st grade manners tea party to attend :(

A cute side note before we get to the pictures. I took Kevin shopping the other day to buy his first blazer for the big event. And he had to have a pink shirt with a pink tie. Now Christopher wants a pink shirt and tie so they can match for Easter. We will see if we can talk Andrew and Daniel into a pink Easter around here. That will be a first in this Robinson house.

Krewe of Manners

1st Grade Manners Tea Party

 Check out the mustaches. Then check out Kevin's mustache when the actual tea party begins. His original one fell off. I am not sure who gave him the new one right before the tea party but it changes colors :)

 Kevin's sweet teacher, Ms. Hooper. She has a daughter Andrew's age and they have been to elementary, middle school and now high school together. And Ms. Hooper and I went to high school together. Sweet sweet teacher that loves on my child when I am not there to myself.

 Here are two sweet redheads, Kevin and Olivia. They go to school and church together. I am walking in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk with her mom.

As much fun as this event was, I had just as much fun at Andrew's first high school baseball game. He played a team that he knew the majority of the players. Andrew pitched and did a great job! Each time one of his old teammates got up to bat Andrew would have the biggest smile on his face. I was so nervous wanting him to do well. It doesn't get any easier the older they get. My stomach was in knots!!!! Here are some pictures I took with my phone so they are not real clear.

This is warm ups before the game. Andrew is on the top row far left.

 Warm up in the bullpen. This is when my stomach started getting nervous!!

 And now he is on the mound in his first high school baseball game. This momma was struggling containing the nerves and trying not to freeze in the cold night air.

I couldn't tell if I was shivering from nerves or the cold.

And the good news with Christopher is that he came home from school today so excited! He made the middle school golf team!!! He was so happy and not sure what the outcome was going to be. My heart is happy for him tonight.

So our boys have all made me smile the last couple of days. But also made me a little nervous. Daniel and I have said over and over the last few days, "God loves them more than we do and He has a plan for their lives. He is in control and we will let God's Will prevail in their lives." We have been doing a lot of praying for these boys!!!

Tonight Andrew went home with a friend and then Daniel took them to another friends house on the lake for a birthday gathering (high school talk for a birthday party). This new friend is someone we do not know except from him competing against Andrew in middle school golf. Again we have trusted Andrew into God's hands with lots of prayer. Andrew is also such a good teenager and has given us no reason not to trust his decisions. Daniel is headed to pick him up now. He was going to spend the night but he has to be at baseball practice at 10am (actually 9am or 9:30am because he always likes to be there early - actually he likes to be the first one there). Andrew texted me from school today to tell me he didn't think it was a good idea to spend the night out and then try to get to an early practice. We didn't have to make that choice for him. I am loving this new level of maturity - hope it continues!!!

Oh the teenage years are bringing on a whole new level of parenting that I am not yet feeling equipped for. I am taking it as it comes. And thank goodness God always has his eye on him when I can't. So glad I have read the book, The Power of a Praying Parent. It has helped my prayer life as a parent.

The last couple of days have been In The Zone with my family!!! Praise Be To God for the blessings of this week!