our life in pictures

Marcus and Cale are 2 days away from being finished with their YMCA baseball time. I think they like playing, but they act like they're dying when we try to get them to practice at home. Marcus is doing well with fielding and throwing and Cale is a great hitter. Hopefully this was a good introduction to baseball for them and they'll want to play again.



VBS was this week. Three days of fun! The boys all had a good time. I taught the 2-3 year olds again and only had 11 at the most. It was so nice. The kids were mostly ones that I had had last year as 2 year olds, so as 3's they were much better behaved. Ewan was in my class again this year. In fact, every year that I have taught, I have had one of my boys in my class. Next year it's Liam's turn. Andy worked in the kitchen and made it look so easy that a few of the teachers said they wanted his job next year. :-) What a nice highlight to the summer!

Proof that the 4th child does not get shorted on nice things. After trying some Payless shoes that never fit right, Andy went out and got some StrideRites for Liam. He loves these shoes! He will get them when I tell the other boys to get their shoes on. I say "sit, sit" and he will sit right down to let me put them on.

We "forced" the boys to play outside the other day. It was so nice and we gave them the choice of practicing baseball or bike riding. Oh man, Marcus and Cale had a huge crying fit! Probably because going outside was not in their plans. After a 15 minute period of tears, the boys finally came outside. Cale practiced hitting balls and Marcus worked on riding his bike. Once everyone calmed down, I think they had fun! (although they won't admit it!)

Andy and the RAIN ride

When we went to Terre Haute last week, it was so that Andy could participate in the RAIN ride. RAIN stands for "Ride Across INdiana" and it means what it says. The bike ride is a 1 day, 160 mile ride from Terre Haute (on the western border of Indiana) to Richmond (on the eastern border). Andy had been eying this ride for a while and was excited for the chance to participate. I made him pose when we picked up his info packet and new RAIN ride bike jersey.

I took this picture in the hotel hallway before he left for the start of the ride @ 7am.

After Andy left, I had to get the kids up and the room packed I took a kind of back-roads way back toward home since we had to pick up Carina from the kennel. I knew we would intersect with the riders. Imagine my surprise when I pull up to the stoplight and see Andy with a pack of bikers waiting to cross the intersection! This was their first rest stop on the ride. The boys thought it was fun to see Daddy, too.

I took the kids home and that afternoon, our sitter came over to watch them so I could go pick up Andy in Richmond, mayber 2 hours from our house. I figured we would get to the finish line about the same time since Andy had texted my from the final rest stop before the finish to let me know where he was. I was able to get there with time to find a spot by the finish to snap this photo of Andy completing the ride.

He did it! And, I think he was very glad to be done! It took him a little over 11 hours total-counting the scheduled rest stops. Andy said the hardest parts for him were the "gentle, rolling hills" as described on the ride's website. Apparently, Indiana south of Indianapolis is a little more hilly than the Indiana just north of Indy. He said the hills were tough to go up, but he made it up on the downward side. I was proud that he was able to accomplish his goal of completing this ride.

our toothless wonder!

Marcus lost another tooth last night (assisted by Andy). It was his front upper left. That makes a total of 6 teeth gone so far. I only remember this because I have saved all his baby teeth-for what reason-I don't know. Anyway, the tooth fairy came through last night and left a note and money for Marcus. Thank goodness she remembered and we didn't have a lapse in memory like last time. :-)

a bulleted review

It was a busy week for us here....
*Marcus and Cale had a mini-football camp every night from 5-630. They loved it! It was so hot! But, they actually never complained about going. We went ahead and signed them up for youth football this fall. Cale will be in the flag football league and Marcus will play tackle football. Andy was debating whether or not to put Marcus in tackle or flag and the ladies registering kids said-"we saw him practice, he should do tackle." Funny that they remember him.

*Marcus and Cale also still have baseball on Tues/Thurs @ 7pm. (Yes, there were 2 days when we picked the boys up from football and sped off to baseball-dinner in the car) They are doing okay for kids who have never played organized baseball before. It's coach-pitch and they've both been able to get some hits. I think Cale might like baseball a litte more than Marcus only because Marcus wants to be good at it immediately and doesn't like having to work to improve.

*I have worked 4 days this week! That's a lot. And, this is the last week that will happen because I am going back down to working 2 days a week next week. I'm so excited. I know I will be less sleepy and have more time to spend with the kids and activities and the house (like cleaning and laundry :-) )

*VBS is coming up tomorrow. It's 3 days of fun for some, and 3 days of crying 2-3 year olds for me. I can't believe this is the 4th year that I've taught this age group. I guess once you're in, you're in. Andy will not be teaching this year, but working in the kitchen preparing snacks.
The boys will all be in class, including Liam, who will be in the nursery getting loved on by "Grandma" Kathy.

*We got Ewan an actual mattress for his bed finally. No more sleeping on an air mattress for him! We finally had time to go looking for one. I think he likes it, although last night he ended up in our bed.

*In water news, we went to a new splash park this week. We met some friends of mine from work and their kids. It was nice to see each other not in scrubs. And, we DID NOT talk about work. That was nice too. Saturday, we went to the Y's splash park. I enjoyed that trip because the water was a comfortably warm temp having been warmed by the sun all day. The boys ran around for over an hour. It was great.

*Andy has one more week off before football starts. I get so spoiled in the summer having him home. It's tough to have him go back to work and harder because the first few weeks back, he's gone for over 12 hours each day. We always managed...

That's all I can think of for now. Just trying to get the kids outside as much as possible, especially in the evenings once the weather cools off. Their hair is all a little lighter and their pale skin a little redder :-).

Have a great day!

Marcus's 7 year check-up

Before we went to Terre Haute, Marcus had his 7 year old check up with our favorite pediatrician. She loves our kids! Marcus is doing well. His height is 51 1/4 inches and weight is 71 pounds. He is in the 97th percentile for his weight and 90th for his height. As Marcus was sitting on the exam table, the doctor said "let is be known that I am standing on my tip-toes to see into Marcus's eyes and ears for this check-up" (okay, she's on the tiny side!). I looked in my and Andy's baby books to see if we had anything recorded for that age. No luck. I have a feeling that Marcus was bigger than either of us at this age.

to Terre Haute and back

On Friday, we packed up the car, again, and drove to Terre Haute, Indiana. I had never been there before. Guess what, it's like practically driving to the Illinois border. We were going there because Andy was participating in a bicycle ride on Saturday called the RAIN ride. It's a 160 mile, 1 day bike ride across the state of Indiana. That's a separate post. So we head to Terre Haute and go to our hotel which, for the price, is not near as nice as the one we stayed in near Chicago. It's our fault, by the time we booked, most of the nicer places were taken. (We will not make the same mistake next time!) We were disappointed to learn there was no pool at this hotel (and I was slightly ticked that I had packed the swimsuits and accessories for nothing). Luckily, the local attractions guide had a picture of a park that looked cool, so we decided to try that after dinner. Our dinner plans consisted of going to the mall and looking for a restaurant. We lucked out. Beside the food court, there was an actual sit-down place to eat called Garfield's. I thought it would be fun to actually have a not-fast-food meal on the road and Andy could have something filling to eat before his ride. The food was great! The kids were pretty good and 2 other people having dinner there complemented the kids on their behavior. That felt pretty good. At the mall, they had a play area with large breakfast foods to climb on-a little wierd, I know. The boys loved it and we had to tear them away so we could eat.



After dinner, we went to Deming Park. They had the coolest playground there! It is handicap accessable and there was play area for the little kids and bigger ones. This park also has a miniature train that kids can ride. That was closed by the time we got there.
Where were all the kids? Man, if we lived there, we would be at that park a lot! I guess it was a little hot out for some people. Our kids didn't seem to mind until we had to get back into the car. Then, it was all about the whining.

Ewan said that this park was his favorite park! He even made up a song (to the tune of Jesus Loves Me): Jesus loves me, I love this park, I love this park, I love this park (pretty creative, I know)

After the park, we went back to hotel. It was tougher getting Liam to go to sleep since everyone else was still up in the room when we tried to lay Liam down in his little tent. Andy ended up taking Liam with him to Walmart to get a pair of sunglasses while I settled the rest of the boys in bed. The tactic worked, when Andy got back, Liam laid down with only a little bit of fussing. The boys watched a little more of Toy Story and everyone-adults included-were asleep by 9:30!

(I guess in the middle of the night, Cale yelled out in his sleep "What did you say?". Andy thought that was pretty funny. He said that all the boys were talking in their sleep last night. Marcus and Ewan were mumbling and Liam was giggling. Poor Andy got crowded out of bed and ended up sleeping across the foot of the bed that Marcus and Ewan were sharing. Not a very comfortable sleeping arrangement, but he made do!)

Va-cay day 3: all good things must come to an end

It was time to leave for home on Monday morning. Thanks to our eastern standard time zone, everyone was up by 6:30am. There was no way we were going to drive through Chicago on a Monday morning before 9:00am, so we did the next best thing-we were in the pool by 730!

The boys floated around in their life jackets and had fun. Even Liam enjoyed himself. We played and then packed the car to go home.

The trip went fast, only slowed down by road construction we hit in Indiana. We dropped Andy off at his car and he went and returned our flat tire and picked the dog up from the kennel. The rest of the day was spent laying around and going to bed early for the boys. They were ready to be home with their familiar things and some sort of schedule.

End of our vacation.