Soccer Pictures

We got our soccer pictures back this weekend.  Rylan looks a little better than last season when he was a couple of weeks past needing a haircut!

Including Rylan, I have 6 returning players from the fall.  With me standing behind the kids instead of kneeling next to them this time, I feel like the picture is really zoomed out and it's hard to really see the kids' faces.  Oh well.

Top Row (L to R): Max, Kenner, Maddox, Owen D., Alex, Webb

Front Row (L to R): Isaac, Rocco, Rylan, Branson, Rylee

Missing: Owen M.

Carter had his baseball pictures at the same time as soccer pictures so we let him do those this season.  I went ahead and scanned the team photo though from another players' order.  Brian has 5 players that returned from the fall.

Top Row (L to R): Ian, Aurian, Kyle, Beckett, Brett

Bottom Row (L to R): Cade, Austin, Wilson, Campbell, Luke

Missing: Carter & Calum

Brian and I also got plaques for coaching this season.  I'm up to 4 of these now and Brian has 2!

Art Work

I wanted to share some of the boys' art that they've recently done.

Carter loves to draw.  I was considering signing him up for a camp this summer and the only one I seriously considered was art camp.  But I decided I like still having fewer commitments in the summer and decided he might get more out of it in a few years.

Rylan is starting to color a little more.  He still hasn't figured out if he's right or left handed!  He really switches all the time.  Occasionally Rylan has enough patience to try to stay (almost) in the lines.  But when he does try that, he will get so upset when he makes a mistake and gets far out of the lines.  Again, he's a perfectionist that doesn't know how to deal with mistakes!

Carter got some stickers at the end of his hockey session.  He put them on a piece of paper and then drew a picture of himself in his hockey gear and pictures of hockey sticks.  His attention to detail is awesome.  He got all the colors of his hockey stick correct, including where black tape was added.  He really likes to draw whatever is on someone's shirt too.

Sulley from Monster's Inc (by Carter) ...

Grave Digger (the monster truck - this one is from memory - again, by Carter) ...

Carter brought this little book home from school a couple of weeks ago ...

I was super impressed by this that Carter also did at school.  It had to take some patience to match all the numbers to the correct colors and stay in the lines.  Carter still bragged that he was the first one done  in his class!

He then copied the bunny ...

Carter's handwriting is improving.  We are still working on keeping lower case letter in the bottom half of the lines.  But he does know his lower case letters and how to (generally) write them which will help a lot those first few weeks of kindergarten!

Carter got really into Easter at school this year.  He is constantly drawing three crosses on everything and making them out of Legos.  He did this drawing at school during free time.

He did this one with my mom while she was visiting.  Can you find all the hidden Easter eggs? :)

Carter brought this drawing home on Thursday from school.  I LOVE IT!  Again, notice the detail on Quinn's shirt.  She did have a camera on her shirt that day!

Rylan just doesn't draw and color as much yet but here are a couple of his "masterpieces".

I was really impressed with this one because it may have been his first scene (not just coloring in something or one object).  In case you can't tell, it's grass, a tree, the sky, and sun.

Rylan colored in this rainbow at speech.  Look at how well he stayed in the lines (and didn't give up)!

Another Game Ball!

Carter had a baseball game on Thursday that I finally got to go to!  (He also had his third game of the week yesterday but we had to skip it since it was the exact same time as both the boys' soccer games.)

Laura and I ended up being the dugout moms and Brian coached first base.  Luckily Rylan is good about hanging out in the area and playing with all the other younger siblings.

Laura and I had our dugout in line for once :)  Usually the boys are playing in the dirt, taking bats in the dugout and pretending to hit each other, etc.  Laura got them lined up in batting order and we tried to keep them sitting and watching the game.  I helped each boy pick out his bat and get on deck.  We also had them cheering for their teammate that was batting.

We had a rough game but the other team wasn't really any better.  I think we only had one out (when the pitcher got someone out at home).  Carter tried hard at first base but he could never field a ball quickly enough and get to first before the runner.  He did an awesome job though fielding and even knocked a bouncing hit down with his face!  He was fine and I'm super proud of him not being scared of the ball.

Both of Carter's hits ended up being off the tee and he got on base both times.  Almost our entire team had to hit of the tee every time - they usually don't have to get it out much.  He was close on this one but are his eyes closed???

Coach Owen made a comment midway through the game to Laura and I that the game ball was going to the best cheerer (since no one was hitting well or getting outs).  Carter totally overhead that because even though he was cheering before, he picked it up after that!

After the game, Owen seriously asked Laura and I who the best cheerers were.  I told him Charlie and Laura told him Carter.  So they both got game balls!

I think Carter is starting to think he's going to get a game ball every game!  He is so proud of the ones he's gotten!

11 Weeks, 6 Days Appointment

I am officially 12 weeks along today and I have popped!

I had an appointment yesterday with my OB.  I've gained 3 lbs in the last 4 weeks (which she was happy with - she recommended 3-5 lbs in that timeframe).  I had put on a few pounds early on when I relaxed on watching what I was eating and got a little lazy with exercising because the fatigue set in before the nausea.  So I'm up to about 128 lbs right now.

My blood pressure at the appointment was 92/68.  Since it was a little low, my doctor recommended I be careful with getting dehydrated, especially when I workout.  She recommended I increase my salt intake, especially by drinking sports drinks.  I do get really dizzy every time I stand up so I guess that would be why!

My doctor did a quick ultrasound in the room.  The baby looked great and was moving all over the place.  It measured 57.6 mm or 2.27 inches long.  That equates to a gestational age of 12 weeks and 3 days.

We also listened to the heart beat.  It was just shy of 170 bpm.  Heart rates above 140 are supposed to mean that the baby is a girl but I looked up Rylan's heart rate early on it was around 160.  So I'm not going to believe the old wives' tale.

I'm still generally feeling horrible.  There are days now that I have a little more energy and don't feel sick for a few hours so maybe things will actually get a little better next trimester - hopefully!

Kindergarten Sneak-a-Peek

Yesterday morning the elementary school where Carter is going next year had their Kindergarten Sneak-a-Peek.  All the elementary schools around here have them.  It's an opportunity for the kids to see the school and for the parents to find out a little information about the school and kindergarten.

Carter told me he was a little scared to go but I told him I wasn't leaving and he felt a little more confident.

We started off by all meeting in the cafeteria.  After introductions, the kids split up into 4 groups and went to 4 of the kindergarten class rooms.  For the next hour, two of the kindergarten teachers told us parents about what to expect next year.  They went over a sample daily schedule, how we will do the staggered start at the beginning of the year, what school supplies we'll need to buy, information on volunteering, and more.  During that time, the kids got to listen to a book and make two crafts alongside the current kindergarteners.

I think Carter did a great job coloring, cutting out, and gluing the wheels on this school bus.

Carter said he ran out of time to finish the drawing of himself.  He's doing a good job though of writing with lower case letters.

The highlight for Carter was getting to ride a school bus!  The kids loaded up on the bus at the back of the school and it drove around to the front to drop them off.  It was a short ride but very memorable!!!

Carter was super excited to see me when he got back to the cafeteria and show me the goody bag he got.

I'm sure Carter is going to be nervous when school starts but I think this hour did help him feel a little more confident and excited about starting at his new, big school!

The Mystery Seed Experiment

Today the boys started their gardening class (Growing Kids Educational Garden).  The boys did the class last year and Ms. Lisa is still running the class.

Harlinsdale Farm finally finished their white fencing and paved the road - otherwise, looks the same as last year.

I got a picture of the boys before class started in front of the garden.  The boys picked out new gardening gloves yesterday morning at Target.  I took them there because I knew they had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle gloves and knew Rylan would LOVE them.  Which he did.  Those were the only youth gloves though that Target had.  I told Carter we'd run by another store later but after about 10 minutes, he decided on the green version of the Ninja Turtles gloves.  And luckily, the boys rain boots from last year still fit (so far at least).

Ms. Lisa started off class with a little tour of the garden (there isn't much there yet except the blackberry and blueberry bushes).

After a lesson on Earth Day and recycling, the kids put newspaper around the blueberry bushes to help prevent weeds and to help the soil.

Ms. Lisa wet the papers and she is planning to cover them with compost later.

Next the kids used cardboard egg cartons for planters (again, something to reuse/recycle), filled them with soil, and then added a mystery seed.

All the seeds Ms. Lisa had are supposed to be fast growing so we should see some sprouts soon.  Hopefully we will eventually be able to figure out what our mystery seed are!

Before leaving Ms. Lisa also gave all the kids a marigold plant.  Marigolds smell bad and are supposed to keep rabbits out of the garden.  We are supposed to plant them at our houses and see if we can keep them alive.

I told some of our friends about the gardening class because we really loved it last year.  It's at 3:45 pm though which is hard for a lot of people to get to.  However, Jen signed up her oldest daughter Evie (who is in 1st grade) to do the class.  Jen's parents are taking Evie to the class while school is still in session.

Rylan did not want to hold his marigold in the wet paper towel - awesome picture :)

Carter's picture though was really good!

We are excited to be starting a new year of gardening class.  The boys were both telling anyone that would listen about going this week!

Player of the Game

Carter has had a total of 5 baseball games so far.  And he's played first base in all of them!  He's doing a great job of fielding the ball in this position and getting the batter out at first.  Catching the ball isn't always as easy (there are some crazy throws and the kids have only thrown it to first a handful of times) but he's gotten at least one out that way too.  Carter's also doing a good job hitting.  Sometimes he has to use the tee because he doesn't always hit one of the coach's 5 pitches, but he always ends up with a solid hit.

Unfortunately I've only made it to 1 1/2 of the 5 games.  Three of the games were on Mondays when I have to coach Rylan's soccer team and the half game I missed was because I had to coach one of Rylan's soccer games.  Carter has a game on Thursday though that I will get to see!!!

Last night Carter got a special souvenir.  Last night Coach Owen started giving out game balls to a few of the players that did well in the game.  Carter was one of three players to get one.  He and Riley both got one for getting 2 of the few outs in the game (an inning often ends because the other team scores 5 runs instead of getting 3 outs).  Drew was the other player, and he got a ball for getting a good hit (the ball went all the way to the fence).

Easter Egg Hunt

Our Easter morning egg hunt went much better this year than last year (rain = lots of slugs).  The weather was gorgeous yesterday.  It was warm and sunny at 7 am (the boys didn't even need a long sleeves).  The only negative is that I grabbed my camera quickly when heading outside and forget to change the settings (which were for inside with incandescent lighting).  I did my best to salvage the photos with some editing but they are pretty rough.

The Easter Bunny (Brian) did a good job of hiding 70 eggs.  To ensure there was no peeking before it was time to go outside, the (other) Easter Bunny (me) covered the front door and kept all the blinds closed.

Carter was so excited to shake the first egg and hear money inside of it.  Forty of the eggs had $0.15 each in them (I was going to do a quarter in each but getting 2 coins seems like so much more money to the boys) and 30 had Smarties.

Every single time the boys spotted an egg, they'd yell, "Easter Egg!!!"  Rylan got a little frustrated when Carter was finding eggs faster but he kept himself under control and never got truly upset (that's hard for him right now).  Carter did a good job of pointing out eggs to Rylan several times and letting him get them.  Rylan even gave Carter an egg once or twice when he found two in a row.

Carter always has trouble getting the eggs out of the maples in our front yard!

Carter also couldn't quite reach this one through the fence :)

Whenever either boy was picking up an egg, their eyes were out scanning for the next one they'd grab.

We paused for a couple of pictures when we were down to our last few eggs to find ...

Last one!!!  The last one is always hard to find :)

The egg hunt was a success!  No slugs!  No tears!  Perfect!