April and May 2011

We had our Carolina Baptist Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the home of Mr. Charles and Mrs. Barbara Blackwell. Their yard is beautiful! We had about 50 children to hunt eggs the day before Easter!
Brady, Landon, Sara Beth, Mason and Conner in the Blackwell's yard

Brady and Conner

Later that same day, we went to my Grandmother's to color and hunt eggs. Brady, Ty and Conner coloring their eggs.

Allie, Amy and Emory coloring their eggs

The gang ready to hunt!

On Easter Sunday we went to Papa Pete and Mama Gin's house for dinner.

Conner and Brady sporting their new Easter shirts

On May 3, Brady and I played in a piano recital at church hosted by Mr. Gary Padgett. Brady played one song by himself, and then I joined him for a duet. I realized on the Friday before that I really should be spending more time teaching Brady. He sat down at the piano and starting playing "My Life is in You, Lord" with chords and everything, with no instruction from me....it was all completely by ear! WOW!


By the way, I did make Conner learn to play a piece just in case he decided he wanted to play in the recital, too. He did very well on the piece, but as you can see from the photos, he declined the recital invitation. Oh well, maybe next year!

Brady playing his solo

I was also very excited that my niece, Allie made her piano recital debut. She performed four pieces from her first set of lesson books. I think I was more nervous than she was. She was "cool as a cucumber!"

Allie and me after the recital
On Wednesday, May 4, Conner, Brady and I enjoyed the afternoon at the AES PTO-sponsored "Mother - Son Glow Bowl."

Brady is ready for a strike!

This was Conner's last Mother - Son event as he will soon be moving on to AMS - sniff, sniff!

We enjoyed spending our bowling time with our good friends, Ashley and Will Black. Will also will soon be an AMS student!

Brady, Mom and Conner modeling our Glow Bowl t-shirts

And now, on to Mother's Day....

We went to Enterprise on Saturday night to take Hubble's mom out to dinner. We enjoyed a nice meal with Papa Pete and Mama Gin at McLin's Restaraunt. On Sunday, my sister Sunny and I cooked lunch for my mother. Later in the afternoon, we went to visit my Grandmother, who is spending some time at the Andalusia Manor in rehab due to pneumonia and congestive heart failure. She has had a rough couple of weeks, so I felt extremely blessed to have her here for another Mother's Day.

Grandmother and Brady

Grandmother and Me!

God blessed me with a Christian mother and two Christian grandmothers. One of my grandmothers has been in heaven for over four years now, and I still think of her often. I grew up in the same church with my mother, my grandmothers and one of my great-grandmothers, who I was blessed enough to know for almost 30 years! I would venture to say that is a rare find! Now God has given me the wonderful privilege to be a mother myself to two amazing boys!

My mother and me.......Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Spring!!!

Well, now that Spring Break is almost over, I've finally decided to update our family's blog with all the happenings around the Sowards home since February.

In February, AES had its annual talent show and Conner was asked to serve as one of the emcees for the occasion. He and his friend, Steadman Glenn did a wonderful job of introducing all of the performers.

The audience was entertained with everything from singing and dancing to cheering, tumbling, and piano and guitar playing

Also in February, the boys and I met Sunny and her girls at Oak Mountain State Park in Birmingham to celebrate Katy and Lydia's birthdays.

We spent part of our day at the petting zoo, where we saw the sign below that at first caused us a little concern......

....and then we saw the pig in question....

.....and needless to say, we were no longer concerned!

Oak Mountain is a beautiful place to visit and will hopefully be a meeting spot for the Sowards and Chandlers again soon!

NOW.......on to March and baseball.

Conner and Brady are both playing baseball again this year. Conner is playing for the Diamondbacks and Brady for the Brewers. Here are a few pictures from the first few weeks of the season.

Brady's first at bat!

Shaking hands after our first win!

Brady and Austin Hall reflecting on the game

Brewers team meeting after the game

Conner pitching in his first game of the season

After the game...

D'backs team meeting.

In April, we finally had a chance to go to Auburn to see my cousin Jon Luke pitch for the Tigers. Notice that Brady and Conner have decided that family is more important than what team you usually pull for. They are still Bama fans, but when it comes to college baseball, they are AU all the way! The Tigers didn't get the win, but we were proud of Jon Luke, nonetheless. He did a terriffic job!

Jon Luke getting ready to start the game!

April 8 was annual Field Day at AES and was a great day!

Brady, Conner and Emory ready for the games to begin!

Mrs. Chavers' class is ready to roll!

Brady and his classmates at the "Plunger Relay"

Go Brady!

Run, Brady, run!

Emory's class ready for the "Plunger Relay"

Conner's class

Mrs. Tucker's girls are ready to take on the boys in "Tug-of War!"

Pull harder, boys!

Demonte, Conner and William at the "Bubble Gum Relay"

Spring Break 2011

Katy, Allie, Amy, Aubry, Conner, Brady, Ty, Lydia and Bayli...

after a day at the beach!

Brady also celebrated his 9th birthday during Spring Break. We celebrated at the Dream Park with family and friends.

Brady's UFO birthday cake

Happy Birthday, Brady! Hope your birthday was "out of this world!"

We had a hard time getting the candles lit because it was soooooo windy at the park on the day of the party!

Ty

Sweet, sweet Brynne

Cole, Colby and Brady enjoying the party

We actually decided to take a second trip to the beach during Spring Break with the Kelleys.....

BEACH BOUND!

Mason, Conner, Landon and Brady showing off their muscles!

On Friday night, we had a spa treatment at the Sowards Spa! Girls only, of course....the boys were confined to playing X-box in the living room! (We missed our Emory....she was the only Garner-girl cousin not there!)

......until next time! :)