More Potty!!!

Rylan hadn't gone pee in the potty since last Thursday.  He's tried a few times but nothing came out.

Today though was different.  He asked to go a little bit after waking up this morning ... and success!  Rylan ended up going 5 times today!  Including once at preschool when we were dropping off Carter.  Two of those times he didn't even tell me he needed to go and I found him in the potty going.

Rylan even wanted to wear the new underwear he picked out a couple of months ago (Ninja Turtles, of course).  I let him wear them this afternoon for a couple of hours.  I encouraged him though to leave his shorts off to help him remember that he wasn't wearing a diaper.  He wanted to take his shirt off too (but not his socks).

There were no accidents either.  However as soon as Rylan heard the garage door opening (signaling that Brian was home), he wanted to wear a diaper and the rest of his clothes again.  No idea why!  Silly boy!

Birds, Bees, & Butterflies

At the boys' gardening class yesterday, they learned a little about pollination and why some birds, bees, and butterflies are important.  And then they got to do a little planting.

First the kids filled more poop pots with dirt and one pumpkin seed each.  There were a variety of seeds to produce small, large, and white pumpkins.  The boys each planted their pots near a stake so we could figure out what type of seed they got later in the year.

First they had to dig a hole by hand ...

Then they placed their pots in the holes ...

Rylan with his pumpkin planting ...

And Carter with his ...

Next the kids got to plant a row of sunflower seeds at the edge of the garden.  We grew some at home last year from seeds - hopefully the rabbits don't eat these like they ate ours!!!

And last the kids spread some cosmo wildflower seeds in the pumpkin patch.  These are the same seeds we took home last week in our poop pots.  I need to plant the pots in the yard this weekend but the seeds have started to grow indoors already.  They are about 2 inches tall already!

The cosmo seeds were just spread around and then we just walked around in the garden to try to get them pressed into the ground.

Of course the kids had to water everything they planted!

This is the favorite part for most of the kids and we somehow managed to keep it mostly organized this week.  Even though the kids all have parents at these classes, it's amazing the lack of an supervision by the parents this year.  The boys have had so much dirt thrown in their eyes at each class by other kids just going nuts when digging holes.  Kids just walk all through the garden not paying attention and step on so many of the plants we just put in the ground.  And Ms. Lisa is constantly having to ask the same kids to stop being disruptive during the classroom time (even when their parents are sitting right behind them).  Hopefully it gets a little better soon!

Baseball Pictures

Carter only has one baseball game left.  Last night we finally got back his baseball pictures.  Pictures were the same time as soccer pictures so we had Suzy take Carter to baseball that day for us.  Looks like he did fine getting a good picture!

The Grassland Braves:

Top Row (L to R): Coach Brian, 2 guys that have helped maybe twice, Coach Owen (the head coach)

Middle Row: Macallyn, Riley, Charlie, Chase

Front Row: McCabe, Carter, Bryant, Drew, Anderson

First Swim

We went swimming for the first time this season yesterday.  The water was a little cold but the kids didn't seem to notice.  Laura invited us (and Missy, Suzy, and Ashley) over to her neighborhood pool so we had a ton of friends to play with!  Laura and I were the only ones to get in (and only did about 15 minutes two times each).

Carter put his swim vest on for about 2 minutes and then swam without it the rest of the time.  He can doggy paddle about 10 feet right now so I think swim lessons (which we have Memorial Day week) are going to help him so much.

I have a feeling Rylan is going to flip out during his intense swim lessons but we'll see in a few weeks.

He eventually put on his puddle jumper and was super confident (after a little convincing) going anywhere in the pool on his own.

Some of the boys warming up (Carter, McCabe, Chase, Cole, and Will) ...

We were at the pool from 10:30 am until a little after 1 pm.  Somehow I forgot to put sunscreen on the boys a second time (no one else did either so it never crossed my mind).  Poor Carter is pretty pink and Rylan has a few bad spots too.  At least I won't forget next time now!

Friendship Festival - Rylan

The day after Carter performed in "The Friendship Festival", Rylan got to perform the same songs for us in the music classroom.  His class spends part of the spring semester learning these songs but because they are a 2-day-a-week class, they don't get the opportunity to perform them in the performance hall for us.

So on Thursday, Rylan's class performed.  These videos are much, much better than the ones I took of Carter's performance.  You really get to see all the cute movements the kids learned and cute facial expressions :)

Rylan is standing next to his best buddy, Luke.  There is only one other boy in the class (Jude) so I'm really glad Rylan found a friend.  Luke's mom texted me the other night that Luke asked to go to Disney (he's never been there before) and asked if he could take his best friend, Rylan.

The Friendship Festival:

The Friendly Beat:

Hey Buddy, Buddy:

I'll Be a Friend Like Jesus:

My Best Friend Is You:

God Made Colors and Shapes:

Praisin' Our Amazin' God:

Friendship Festival - Carter

Carter's preschool class had their spring program on Wednesday.  The program this season was called "The Friendship Festival".

Again, Carter's class was in the back row and were super difficult to see.  I thought I'd picked good seats on the front row on the left side but I couldn't see Carter at all (he's directly behind the kid in green).  I recorded the first song in these seats and then went to back in the middle to try to see.  However I was super far away so the video is terrible and out of focus (Carter is the upper left of the risers section).  No one probably wants to watch these videos but I'm going to post them anyway!

The Friendship Festival:

The Friendly Beat:

Hey Buddy, Buddy!:

I'll Be a Friend Like Jesus:

My Best Friend Is You:

God Made Colors and Shapes:

Praisin' Our Amazin' God:

Peeing in the Potty

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY!!!  Rylan peed in the potty tonight.  Thank goodness because he is almost 4!!!

It's so close to summer that I've just been waiting to push Rylan until he's done with school.  But he does stand at the potty (and sit on a potty seat) most nights before or after bath and tries to go.  He'll give up after a minute and say it isn't working.

Tonight after bath Rylan said he needed to go pee-pee.  I was in a hurry to get him dressed and off to bed but Brian said okay.  About 30 seconds later we hear, "I"m doing it!"

Rylan was so excited (as were we)!  Rylan thinks he can wear underwear now tomorrow.  I think we'll be waiting a few more weeks until school ends for that!

The Poop Pot Project

The boys had their gardening class again today.  The class got rained out last week so the kids had lots of planting to do today.

Ms. Lisa had the kids split up into three groups to plant watermelons, tomatoes, and onions.  We went to the onion group since there were only a couple of kids planting those.

Ms. Lisa showed the kids how to plant the onions.  What they planted looked just like dried up onions.  They had to plant the them with the point facing up (some of the points had already sprouted some green new growth).

Next the kids all planted a few potatoes each.  For these, the kids planted old cut up potatoes where roots had already grown out from the eyes.

We headed over to the "classroom" area and learned a little about poop pots (which are made out of cow poop).  Then the kids each filled a poop pot with dirt and added some wildflower seeds.

We had to leave before class was over because Carter had a baseball game right after class.  But I think the kids got to do everything.  Hopefully these wildflowers will grow because our mystery seeds from the first class (which we found out today were lettuce seeds), have not grown at all!

First Pitch

We went to our first Nashville Sounds game of the year yesterday.  The game started at 2:05 pm and it was HOT.  I think it got up to 88 F with very little breeze.  We are not used to that kind of heat yet!

When we arrived at the ballpark we picked up the boys' Kids Club packets.  With the Kids Club, each child gets tickets to 5 Sunday games, a t-shirt, water bottle, and string backpack for $15.

Brian and I then get a 10 pack of tickets for us to share for $100.  So it ends up only being $26 a game for all of us to go (plus parking and food, of course).

Just inside the gate there was a table set up for autographs.  Since we just got the boys shirts, we decided to get them signed by Ozzie and two pitchers (Alfredo Figaro and Kyle Heckathorn).

Our main reason for going to the game on Sunday was I got a call earlier in the week saying Carter had been picked to do the first pitch of the game!!!  Every Sunday, a member of the Kids Club and a member of the military both get to throw the first pitch (there are only 10 home Sunday games a season and a lot of kids in the Kids Club so Carter was pretty lucky to get picked).

In addition to getting picked, we got free parking and four free tickets to the game.

Carter was a little nervous about throwing the first pitch.  We practiced in the morning and that helped some.  But we had to stand on the field for about 15 minutes before the game and Carter would barely talk.

Ozzie came over to say hi to us.

Eventually one of the promo team girls walked Carter out to the mound.

Getting ready to throw ...

 I got a video of the pitch ...

It was an AWESOME throw!  Carter usually throws the ball pretty short but that works perfect for his age because it's hard for kids to catch a ball in the air still - they are much better with one that comes bouncing to them.  This pitch though made it really far!  And it was straight!  Go, Carter!

Ozzie and the catcher returned the balls to Carter and his fellow first pitcher.

Finally a real smile!!!

During the game Ozzie finally made it back by us.

So we got him to sign the ball Carter pitched.

Carter is super proud of his ball and can't wait to show it to his friends.  We are so proud of him too for being so brave and pitching the ball in front of so many people.  I would have been really nervous!

We stayed until the end of the 6th inning because I could no longer stand the heat.  We got to the game almost an hour before game time and even though we had moved to shady seats, I was feeling pretty horrible (silly baby!).  Maybe next time we will get there closer to game time and stay to the end when the kids get to run the bases!

All-Star Game

Yesterday Carter played in the 6U All-Star Game for the Grassland Athletic Association.  He was one of 4 kids picked from his team to play on the National League team.

Along with Carter, Drew (the assistant coach's son), Riley, and Chase were chosen.

Unfortunately Will and Luke were having their birthday party at the same time as the game.  We had all already RSVP'd for the party so I still sent Rylan and Suzy still sent Chase.  I took Rylan and Chase to the party but Brian stayed and took lots of pictures and videos for me!

The kids had their names announced before the game.  The National League team:

Carter's first time at bat (his team was the visitors and he was the first to hit) ...

Carter's been needing the tee to hit lately but I think the coach pitching was a little bit better than our coach and Carter hit a pitched ball all three times at bat.

He got on base all three times too.

In the first (of three innings) Carter played third base (he played in the outfield the other two innings).

Look how much smaller Carter is than the giant kid on third base!

Carter's second time at bat ...

Scoring in the second inning ...

Carter's third time at bat ...

Scoring in the third inning ...

Carter's team (the Braves) did an awesome job and all hit pitches from the coach each inning.

Carter was a little sad to miss the birthday party but when I told him I thought he'd get a trophy, he was convinced that playing baseball was the right choice.

Carter, Drew, & Riley ...

As soon as I grabbed a close up photo of Carter's trophy, he had to add it to his collection in his room.  I really need to factor all these trophies into my design for his new room!!!

I'm so proud of how well Carter has done with baseball this season.  He does a great job always trying his best and paying attention during the game (something half our team doesn't do at all).  I'm not sure what we are going to do in the fall - I'm not sure if we can do soccer and baseball again at the same time.  Especially with a baby being due near the end of he season.  We only have a couple of months to decide though because sign-ups aren't too far away!