Finally, the rain has let up enought for us to get some games in!

Last Saturday, the 27th of April, was beautiful.  The sun was out, the breeze felt great and Marcus and Cale were able to get in 2 soccer games a piece.  Thank goodness.  I think in the 2 weeks previous, they have gotten in 2 practices and 1 game total.  There has been a ton of rain here that has left the ground pretty saturated.  But, Saturday was clear and even though the ground was a little squishy in some spots, it was time to play.

Marcus played first.  I really think soccer is good for him.  He gets to run and run and run, and it also is helping him learn to jostle his way through a group of players (perfect for basketball).

 

He loves it.  The coach does a great job of trying to teach the kids skills and strategy.  Marcus is becoming more confident every week.

 
Cale played his double header second.  He plays on a U-8 team.  Cale is my competitive athelete.  He loves to play and be the best on his team.  Honestly, for not having played organized soccer except for preschool YMCA soccer, he's pretty good.  And, he knows it.  I think it was in the second game on this day that the coach on the other team told Cale, "Hey, that was a really good kick at the other end of the field."  Cale's response, "I know." (sigh) The only problem I forsee on Cale's team is that the kids don't want to share the ball and pass it around.  Cale tries to share, but it's hard when the other players don't want to share and pass the ball around.  Something to work on.

 

Ah, yes, one of their fans.

 

And, then there is Ewan, who chose to play tee-ball.  This is his first attempt at the sport.  He has had 2 games so far-Monday and then this past Saturday the 4th.  The thing I like about tee-ball is that the field are right behind our subdivision, so we can just walk over if we don't have another practice or game to go to (a rare occasion).

Here he is playing first base.  The coach is rotating the kids through each position.

Up to bat.  The kids get a chance to hit off a pitch and if they can't, they can hit off the tee.  In this game, Ewan hit off the pitch both times up to bat.  The teams play through their line-up.  They did 2 full innings for this game.  I can't remember if they tried to get players out or just tried to stop the ball when it was hit.

Andy also got to see Ewan play on Saturday, which was a nice treat since many of Ewan's games are during the week.

Marcus and Cale also each got in their soccer games this week.

Here's to another dry week for more sports!

Happy Birthday to Liam! 4 years old!

Liam turned four years old on April 24th.  He'd been waiting a while for his birthday and could tell you exactly what he wanted ("a DS and a Harry Potter game").  The day finally came and we had a little party for Liam after our last Cub Scout meeting for the year (where Liam got to see rockets launched and light off some bottle rockets himself).  Liam likes Doctor Who, along with the rest of his brothers, so we decided to decorate his cake to look like the TARDIS, Doctor Who's time traveling machine.  Grammy Pammy did a great job decorating it to look like the police call box that it is.  Liam was excited to come home from scouts to see balloons hung up just for him.

Liam with his cake.

 

 

Blue frosting-always fun to eat.

 

Time for presents.  Kella was excited, too.

 

He got some army men (much to delight of Ewan and Cale).

He got a new Power Ranger costume.

He got a DS and an Umizoomi game. (We're big Umizoomi fans in this house right now.)

 

with Mommy

with Daddy

Liam is so sweet, and smart!
He is teaching himself sign language off a poster in the preschool bathroom-no joke
He knows all his letters and the sounds they make.
He loves watching Sesame Street right now for the letter and number of the day.  Then he asked you to draw them over and over.
He loves going to preschool to play with his friends.
He tells knock-knock jokes.
He can be a picky eater, but loves to eat veggies and fruits and drink smoothies that Andy makes.
He still loves his blankie!
Is a leftie! Is a thumbsucker.
Is wearing underwear except at naps and nighttime (and wakes up dry from naps so we could probably give those up)
Loves a good bubble bath.
Favorite color: blue
Favorite number: 4
Favorite letter: E
Favorite song: "about the letters"
Favortie TV show: "is about letters and numbers"

Grammy came to visit

Grammy Pammy came out to visit for a whole week.  To say that the little ones were spoiled is an understatement.  Grammy also got to help babysit the kids while Andy and I worked and helped shuffle them around to whatever sports practices weren't cancelled by rain that week.  She was also here to help celebrate Liam's birthday and decorated his cake for us.

There were many fights over Grammy's lap.  Poor Liam usually got shoved out by his bossy sister.

We played some games.  Liam really liked playing "jenga-boom".

Cale convinced Grammy to play a round of Monopoly.

Got a few pictures with the grandkids.  Liam didn't want to be in this one.

I think it's because he wanted his chance to be alone with Grammy.

 

Of course, not to be left out, Kella wanted her own own photo op, too.

Perfect timing for a visit.  The kids loved having her there for a whole week and were sad to see her go. We don't expect to see Grammy again until Baby Kinley makes her apperance.

science fair-"Hey! It's Lunch Time!"

The fourth graders at our school are required to participate in a science fair.  It's very teacher-directed.  There is a list of experiements to pick from, a schedule of due dates and a rubric for grading.  Marcus picked an experiment to see what kind of insulator kept a soda coolest the longest.  He was the only 4th grader that picked this experiment.
First, he put together a typical sack lunch.

And, then packed it in the bag.  This let Marcus see how much room he had to work with.

Time to insulate some sodas.  The drinks had been in the fridge before taking them out to wrap them.

 

Marcus used foil, newspaper and bubble wrap.  He also had an unwrapped group.

 

His teacher really liked his report.  Then, Marcus got to make the poster display.  Andy helped, but for the most part, we really tried to let Marcus guide this activity.  We got to go to the school and see all the displays.  It was cool to see the different takes on the same experiment.  Each of the students got interviewed by a "judge" as part of the experience.  The students' answered were included in the grading rubric.  Marcus did great, scoring all 4's out of 5's.  He got a blue ribbon for his efforts!  He was pretty proud of his experiment.

Happy Birthday to Andy!

Another catch-up post.  Andy's birthday was on the 17th of April.  I took the kids to the cubscout meeting and then we came home, earlier than usual, so we could have some pie, open some presents and celebrate Andy.

Andy picked out his pie-strawberry rubarb.  The grocery store in town has a pie maker that brings in an assortment every week. 

Pie is good!

The boys made Andy birthday cards and he got a couple presents, too-a new water bottle for his bike, sunglasses, biking cream, a Doctor Who keychain and Doctor Who coffee mug.

 

Have to have out picture together!

35 years old
married for (almost) 14 years
have 5 (soon to be 6) children
finishing up his first year of MBA school
awesome father, husband, friend

ponytails

Kella's hair has finally gotten long enough for a new style-ponytail! It makes her look so much older. She does okay with us trying to style her hair, but a lot of times, her days are too busy to stop and let mom or dad brush her hair out.  Luckily, we haven't reached the length with tangles, yet.

spinning, she's so happy

two-fisting the snack

Dr. Kella-these are jammie scrubs that I bought for her for Halloween last year.  She loves wearing them.  The boys like to call her the "angry doctor" when she starts hollering when she's wearing these.