First Day of School - 2011

So it is the start of my blogging fiscal year and I think I can officially declare my efforts from the past year a failure since I didn’t even complete my blog posts of Christmas.  So I think I will have to combine 2 years into one book.  It will still be horribly out of order because I will go back and catch up, but maybe I can change at print time.  Anyhow, I want to get this year off to a better start and low and behold I am actually posting on the first day of school, pictures and all.  We can start with Kyle since school is really not so new to him as a third grader.  He got the cool teacher and has several friends in his class, but that wasn’t really enough to get him excited about the new year.  I am still amazed I got him to wear those plaid shorts instead of his preferred athletic gear.  He of course had a terrible time getting to sleep.  He always has a terrible time getting to sleep.  So frustrating and so like his mother.  I think I am going to try to wake him up at school time even through the weekend for awhile to see if that helps.  I don’t think it will, but it is about the only thing I haven’t tried.  We (well me) have been a little stressed about finding him a competitive baseball team to play with next spring.  This is the age where they seem to be dividing up, and while I think everyone could just wait a few more years, since they are splitting I feel like I need to find a team that is going to be as passionate as he is about baseball.  I kept my eye out for tryouts and even emailed people I knew in the baseball community and nothing seemed to work out.  There was a tryout we had planned to attend on his birthday, but we had just got back from vacation, he was running a fever and had a headache and I had put his glove in a bag I left at the lake.  It was obviously not meant to be and we all but gave up, only to get an email a few days later from a coach wanting Kyle to be a part of his team.  It only meant giving up spring soccer which he was more the ready to do. 

 

As you can see from the pictures, Grant was to the moon excited.  I did the crazy put him on the bus then drive like crazy to school, try to find a parking spot and be there to meet him drill and it actually worked this time (when Kyle was in Kindergarten, I didn’t make it in time, but was able to see him safely in his classroom).  He walked straight to his classroom, made the rounds saying hi to his few friends, then found his seat and asked if he could look at the books in the middle of the table.  I really didn’t think it would bother me to leave him, but once I saw him setting at that desk, I almost lost it, I mean, really lost it.  I gave him a quick hug and smiled like a lunatic as I darted out of that room.  He apparently had a great day.  He said his favorite thing was going outside to play.  There is one pic of him riding his bike without training wheels, a skill he mastered just last night.  Again, he was so ready, I barely had to run two steps behind him before letting go to see him successfully ride away.  Kind of crazy when you think about it.    Here’s to a great new school year.

Kyle's Birthday - #9

Kyle's birthday came on the heels of an amazing vacation, but like any vacation we were exhausted when we got home. I had thankfully shopped prior to vacation and planned the party for Sunday, the day after his birthday. He choose Subway for lunch as opposed to the typical McDonald's birthday venue. Since I couldn't decide on a lego set, I got him a gift card for Target to pick out his own. Unsurprisingly, he opted for additional baseball cards in lieu of a lego set. And so the next obssession has begun. Pics of his party will be hopefully in a future post

Grant's List, Santa Breakfast and the Gingerbread House

More pre-Christmas merriement. Mom always takes the kids to Macy’s to put letters to Santa into the special mailbox. As you can see, Grant opted for the graphic letter, drawing pictures of a monkey, helicopter, monster truck, robot and some other things that I wish I could remember. It was hard to remember anything in the midst of planning the Santa breakfast for what will be my last time. It went off well, but it is just time for a new generation to take over. We will see. Since it may be the last year ever, I wanted a picture of all of my kids in the nativity scene. Grant was less then thrilled to oblige, but I still love the picture. Also pictured is Gingerbread House 3.0. I bought a mold this year and I think it was less successful then my hand drawn and cut out version (with the massive chimney) from last year and the gingerbread tasted terrible. We have added candy procurement during our annual trip to Crown Center to the tradition, which is fun because of the selection at the big candy store. Kyle is getting more and more into it and Grant and Ryan still enjoy eating the candy involved. At some point, we trecked to Ashlie’s house for Christmas with the cousins. It will be our turn to host next year and I was excited to score some cool plates at Pottery Barn after the holiday on clearance. More to come soon, my time is running out.

Christmas in May

I’ve given up any semblance to a real time blog and am now just planning to frantically throw together posts from this fiscal year and vow to be better next year.  You may wonder why I bother.  I bother because there are just so many precious (and not so precious) memories floating around in my head and I am desperate to capture them before they fade away.  Each post, no matter how untimely, is like a small victory in what feels like the losing battle of trying to hold on to what I know will not last, this time that the kids are young and still need and want me.  At some point this year, I am thinking early spring, we made the transition from Ryan in the nursery and Kyle and Grant sharing a room, to Ryan and Grant sharing a room and Kyle in a room of his own.  At first, I would still tuck him in and sing his favorite lullaby, Away in the Manager (yes, you read that right, his favorite lullaby for years has been Away in the Manger, not just a Christmas time, all year long).  But as things got hectic, trying to get Ryan to sleep in the big bed, without his binky and the other six million things that go on when the lights are supposed to be out, we just somehow stopped the tuck in/lullaby.  And just like that, he needs me a little less.  So that is why I bother, because at some point, they will not need me at all and I will at least have these thoughts, these memories that I should have cherished more as they happened.  So, I think I left off with Christmas, pics included in this post (there will be a follow up, just not sure when) are of the annual Crown Center Trip, picking out the tree and one of my favorites, Santa coming to preschool reading.  Crown Center went as usual, though had a slightly bumpy start.  Since I live to avoid crowds, we always go early in the month and during the week.  Really wanting to get the jump, I even pulled Kyle out of school 30 minutes early, so we could pick up Grant from preschool at 3, then head straight for Crown Center.  It was all going well until the van wouldn’t start in the driveway of preschool.  We finally got it jumped, but didn’t trust it, so we went home, piled into the CRV and headed that way.  It made us appreciate for sure how much room we have in the van.  It was a fun visit and as you can see, Ryan was thrilled with the choo choo that brought our food at Fritz’s.  There is also a picture of venturing to the Christmas Tree farm.  In the past, we have ventured as far as Lowe’s, but this year, revisited the actual patch to cut down a live tree.  It was nice to enjoy the time outside.  The other two pictures are of one of my favorite Christmas memories.  Santa paid a surprise visit to preschool reading club.  Grant was excited to remind Santa of his request for a stuffed monkey (more on that next post) that he was first to go up.  On his way back, his friend Bren grabbed his hand and asked him to go back up with him.  Our friend and neighbor Ava thought having Grant was a great idea, so she grabbed his hand as well.  Grant was just so sweet about it, wanting to make things easier for his friends who were still a little nervous around the big guy.  Ok, more to follow, hopefully before July.

Basketball

I don’t really have much to say about Kyle’s second season of basketball, I had just posted these pics on facebook, so they were easy to grab.  He of course really loved every minute of it.  His coach told me once he couldn’t believe how calm he could stay while handling the ball under pressure.  He made some incredible passes this year, even at time giving up a shot he could have taken to get the ball to a team mate.  I was very proud of that.  He also mastered the lay up, which I know I was still struggling with in 6^th grade.  Andy and of course my mom were great basketball players, so maybe that talent skips a generation?  It was a hard season for me because practice was twice a week and it was hard to keep the little guys entertained in the gym without bothering anyone.  I did have a carpool, so we ended up only going once a week, but it was the longest hour of the week it seemed.  I am so glad to be back in soccer season where we can play on the playground while Kyle (or Grant) is at practice.

a better birthday for Grant...

I just ordered and received my blog books for the first two years I kept the blog, so of course getting back on track is on my mind.  The first book started when Ryan was born and continued through the next summer.  It was 88 pages, the second was, wait for it, 32.  At the rate I am going, volume 3 will actually be 3 pages.  One of the things I missed this year was Grant’s birthday.  Skimming through last year’s book, I saw the sad post about the waterslide party we attempted to throw in sub-60 degree weather.  Well as you can see, things worked out much better this year and we had a great time.  When I asked who he wanted to invite, he said, “my preschool friends, Sklylar and Chloe and Shannon”.  When I asked if he wanted anyone else, hoping he would name the boys, he said “oh, yeah, Maddie and Ava”.  Quite the ladies man.  Kyle has never in his life had a girl other then Lilly at his party.  We ended up inviting most of his class and a few boys did make it over and it was a great time.  He was such a gracious little host, wanting to make sure his friends had pizza and drinks.  As obvious by the pictures, he picked Sponge Bob for a theme and I had fun making the cupcakes and decorating.  By the third birthday of the year, it is pretty hard to muster up excitement, but I think everything turned out for the best.  I may be in trouble this year, since Jason just celebrated his 40^th birthday and we had a somewhat big party.  We ordered Mexican food from his favorite place in downtown LS and invited several friends from the neighborhood and college as well as our families.  Although we requested no gifts, almost everyone brought him beer of some sort.  I had mom make his favorite “earthquake” cake and we all had a really good time, even if we were done celebrating by 10.

Why was the chicken afraid of guys?

Because he was afraaaaaaid of them!  Get it?  Yeah, me neither, even after hearing it approximately a hundred times over the past week or so.  Yes, Ryan has discovered the fine are of joke telling, like his brothers before him.  I wish I was better with video, because Kyle swears he never did this.  Grant was into the knock knock, who’s there, poopy pants as opposed to Kyle and Ryan’s non-sensical questions.  I am trying to get back to real time blogging, although I still need to get some of our Christmas 2010 memories down before they dissolve away.  The pictures of ice cream and Kyle with his certificate are from his first reconciliation.  I wish I had better things to say other then I showed up, but that’s really about it.  Of all of my issues with the church, reconciliation is one I find most, I don’t know, weird I guess.  I was able to go through the motions for Jason and Kyle’s benefit and I am glad that we were there as a family.  Other then that, not much going on besides basketball on Saturdays and snow day after snow day.  In the past two weeks, they have attended a total of 2 days, I think.  2 were scheduled and the rest due to snow or cold.  We have been watching way to much tv and playing way to much computer and I really need to work on getting out of that rut.  The forcast this week is better, so hopefully we can all regroup and start heading in a better direction.

the big boys go to Bennett

October also brought the second annual trip to Bennett for Jason, Pipa Andy and the big boys.  I don’t have much to report since I stayed behind with Ryan and had Lilly spend the night, but at least they took the camera this year and seemed to make it back in one piece.  I had Lilly spend the night and the irish twins were lots of fun, decorating cookies and dressing up.  I was all excited to watch High School Musical without the boys to out vote me, but Lilly insisted on Star Wars.  We compromised on Madagascar and all was well until I drifted off only to wake up at 11 with her crying that she wanted her mom.  She settled on grandma, who showed up almost immediately in her pjs and all was well.  I did at least get to French braid her hair the next morning for a trip to Wonderscope.

a volcanos victory

This didn’t make my earlier post on soccer, but I had to include documentation of Kyle’s team’s third place finish in the post season tournament.  There were I think 12 teams in his division and we ended the season in 6^th, claiming an unlucky bottom seed in the top bracket of the tournament (they split the tournament into two).  Our first game was against the top speed the boys played so very tough, hanging in a scoreless game until well into the 2^nd half and then scoring to everyone’s extreme delight (the usually mild mannered coach threw his clipboard in the air).  But the elation was very short lived as the well disciplined other team marched down the field to score on the very next play and then again a few minutes later.  I was so upset, way more then I should have been over a kids game.  I really don’t know how I am going to handle things when they get older and the stakes are higher.  They lost the 2^nd game to the 2 seed later that afternoon (again 2-1 and well played), but came back the next morning to win in an 1-0 shut out, giving them enough points to claim 3^rd place.  I was obviously so proud of them.  We celebrated with chili dinner at our house with a fire and smores and showing a movie one of the dad’s had made.  Very fun time and I was proud to host.  Most of these boys have been together since they were 4 and I know they are getting to the age they will start to do other things, so I was glad we had the time with them and the special party.

have a fire tonight?

Is a question asked routinely by Ryan.  The full version is “dark outside, have a fire tonight” and lately followed by him saying “don’t think so” (insert heartbreak).  But he defiantly shares his father’s love of watching fires and thanks to a bevy of wood provided by Pipa Andy, we obliged quite a few times this fall.  The pic above is of course our pre-trick or treating cookout fire, accompanied by the obligatory pumpkin and kids in costumes shots.  Ryan was all about trick or treating this year, not to happy to be dropped off with mom after doing the block with Dad.  Kyle and Grant kicked it into high gear, collecting will north of 100 pieces each.  The Great Pumpkin really hit the motherload after they picked out their favorites.  Ryan has played costume sidekick the past few years and I am not sure how long that would continue.  I really wanted to make the Thing 1 and 2 costumes so I could at least say one time that I made my kids costumes, but could not for the life of me find red sweats.  Kyle is done with character costumes, wanting to be something scary like a teenager would be, and settling on the evil jester.

has it really been 10 years?

Well, it turns out that it has and we decided to celebrate with a trip to Vegas, sans kids of course.  It was a good trip, we left early Tuesday morning and came back Thursday afternoon (our actual anniversary), which was just enough time.  Not being big gamblers, we actually got a little bored at times, which lead us to shell out money to see the aquarium exhibit at Mandalay Bay as shown in the pic of Jason with the jelly fish.  But don’t get me wrong, it was soo nice to get away.  My wardrobe was made up almost entirely from things borrowed from Ashlie’s closet it was fun to not feel like ourselves for a few days.  We had some amazing food and saw the Viva Elvis show by Cirque, which was really, really cool.  I enjoyed gourmet cupcakes, sleeping in, watching cable and getting completely lost in a great book.  Our good friend Gail sent us the champagne, which made us feel very upscale.  As I mentioned, we were not big gamblers, I lost probably $50 (16 on Deal or No Deal) and Jason the same.  I did however end up even when on the way out to meet Jason to catch a cab to the airport, I saw a slot machine my friend had recommended.  I put in $5 and walked away with $56 after winning 50 free spins on my second or third try.  I was so excited when I went out to meet Jason, he probably thought I won $500.  The kids did great with grandma and pipa.  Mom said on their way back home the first day, Grant said “Grandma, it’s great to have no parents tonight!”.