Nolensville 5K

I ran my first 5K in a LONG time this morning.  It's been over 4 years (I've done other longer races but not a 5K).  I have not run in at least 3 or 4 months but I just completed the 9 week Insanity program so I figured I would do okay.  I had hoped to do better, but I finished in 24:57.  I was second place in my age group and received this fun cookie medal.

Rylan keeps saying he wants to fun a 5K.  He wants to do it by himself so I just need to find a good one for him!

Go Preds!

Our mini-fan ...

Let's Go Predators!!!

Pool Lounging

We stayed at the pool for awhile after swim team practice today.  However, it wasn't very warm today (maybe 80F) and the water was cold.  Rylan decided he preferred lounging instead.  This kid is all about his look right now :)

Carter and Rylan practice at different times this year.  Carter LOVES that Lofton will sit with him during Rylan's practice and cuddle with him.  He really wants a baby sister because he thinks she would do the same thing (he's been informed that's not happening!).  These two make a cute pair of redheads!

Swim Meet #1

The boys had their first swim meet of the season yesterday.  The boys are swimming with the same team this year - the Nolensville Hurricanes. The team only had seven practices before the first meet (with some of those being super short because of the low water temperature).  Carter and Rylan had a week of swim lessons last week in addition to swim team practice with the people they've taking lessons with for the last few years.

This year Williamson County shortened the summer swim season.  There are only four meets plus the county meet.  And the first meet isn't scored.  Which is unfortunate because our boys had their best meet ever (and may never have one as good).  They placed first overall in every single event they were in!  They may have even gotten high points winner for their age groups if the meet was scored (which would be insane).  The boys are extremely disappointed that they won't be getting place ribbons for this meet but they did win plenty of heat ribbons at the meet.  I promised to make them several blue ribbons for their scrapbooks.

Carter's events and times:

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Freestyle - 22.45 seconds
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - time not recorded
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Butterfly - 42.21 seconds
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 2:03.98

Rylan's events and times:

Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Freestyle - 29.47 seconds
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Backstroke - 34.84 second
Boys 6 & Under - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 2:41.03

Carter was not excited about having to do butterfly because he DQ'd in it (I think) every time he swam it last summer.  But he went slow and concentrated on doing everything right and it paid off because he was the only one not to DQ and thus got first place!

We are super proud of our kiddos for giving it their all at the swim meet.  But that they also won every event is pretty cool too :)

Here are a few videos I took ...

Rylan - 25 Yard Freestyle

Carter - 25 Yard Freestyle

Rylan - 25 Yard Backstroke

Carter - 25 Yard Butterfly

Happy Anniversary!

Brian and I had a great anniversary (12 years!) camping and hiking with our boys at Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia this weekend.  The last time we went there was February 14, 2004 - a couple of months before we got engaged.  We apparently think it's a romantic place :)

I'll post more soon but here is a picture of one of the sweet baby ponies we saw there!

Soccer Season

Soccer ended for the boys a couple of weeks ago.  The last Saturday of games was a little crazy as Rylan's baseball tournament started that same day (and that game overlapped with Carter's soccer game), Carter had his only overlap of baseball and soccer, and Rylan's team had two soccer games that day.  Between Brian and I, we were able to get the kids to all five of their games (with Carter only missing 15 minutes of his baseball game) and one of us coached every game that Brian is the head coach for.

Rylan's soccer team ended up only losing one of their nine games this season.  Carter's team had 4 wins, 1 loss, and 3 ties.  Both teams are great but Rylan's is definitely a stronger overall team.  They are very consistent and each player has become a major contributor to the team.  They have become a really fun team to watch.  The players on Carter's team are less consistent (most have good games and bad games) and we have a couple that are still beginner players.  They are still a great group of kids and could have potentially won every game they played this season.  We really love both of our boys' soccer teams.

Because we had such a crazy day for our last games, we decided to have a celebration on Sunday evening at Crockett.  We invited both teams, ate pizza and cupcakes, gave out trophies, and let the kids play on the playground and surrounding fields.  I try to do something a little different every season for the cupcakes and this is what I did this season ...

All the players from both teams showed up (AMAZING!!!).  Brian said something about each player as he handed out the trophies (this is the eighth season of the exact same participation trophies - we really need to request that the Y change things up!).

Hopefully all these boys will be back next season!

Art Class

Carter had his last art class of the school year on Friday at Firstlight Arts Academy.  He took the class from 4:15 to 6 pm every Friday during the school year.  I think he's grown so much and learned so many things.  He adds shadows and shading to everything he draws now.  His facial features on drawings of people are really amazing.  I'm just so impressed - especially since I can't draw AT ALL!

On Friday the kids got to paint the chairs in their classroom.  Carter had to leave after just an hour to make it to the ball park for the all-star game but he finished his blueberries just in time!  I love that he picked something that represents him - his favorite food!

Yearbook

We have some pretty cool kids.  Not only do they do well in school and sports, they are creative artists!  Both kids submitted drawings for the cover of the yearbook this year.  Carter came up with his idea one night when falling asleep.  He called Brian to his room and asked for some paper and a pencil so he could sketch out the idea that had just come to him.  He worked on his drawing over the next couple of days.  His idea was 100% his own.  I only helped him with the suggestion of using a heart cutout as a pattern to make his clovers.  And I reminded him to go slow sometimes.  Rylan randomly sketched his idea on a paper from school that had the school symbol on it.  He had changed the symbol into a person.  I told him that I liked it and he should use that idea for his yearbook submission.  And that's what he did.  Again he did the drawing on his own but I suggested using a bowl to make the circles so they were neat.

And guess what ... they each won a spot on the yearbook!  Carter got the front cover (which is amazing for a 2nd grader).  And Rylan got one of the six spots on the back cover (which is even more amazing for a kindergartener)!  All the other spots were filled by 4th and 5th graders.  We are super proud of our boys!

Soccer Game

We had a much drier night for the Nashville SC game tonight!  And the "boys in gold" won!  They are undefeated (5-0)!

Baseball Tournaments

Baseball tournaments started for the boys this weekend.

Carter's team ended up being ranked 9th (out of 11) and had to play a game Sunday against the 8th place team.  The boys had a good game and easily won that one.  The way the bracket worked out, they then had to play the number one team on Monday night.  And they WON!!!  Carter's team played really, really well.  And the other team played awful (for them).  Carter's team won 14-6.  They got ahead early and kept the lead.  It was so, so stressful to watch and so exciting when they won.  Carter then had to play Tuesday night (last night) against the fourth ranked team.  The boys played really well but had used up all their luck on Monday.  They lost 14-10 but they were in it the whole game (they were killed by that team both times they played them during the regular season).  Carter played super in all the games but rarely touched the ball (even though he played short field or second base).  Carter has been a little scared of the ball lately and not getting his glove down when fielding.  I decided to bribe him for the tournament.  I told him if he knocked down every ball hit to him in a game, I'd give him $5.  Go figure he had NOTHING hit to him the first two games.  Last night he finally did - he fielded a few and missed only one (I think the deal is $3 for only missing one).  But Carter hit great throughout the tournament.  He was the second batter in the lineup and I think he only got out once in all three games.

Rylan's team ended up being ranked 6th (out of 10).  They improved so much during the season while a lot of other teams stayed about the same.  They had some early losses against teams much less talented which caused the low ranking.  Rylan's first game was Saturday again the 3rd place team.  Unfortunately I missed it because I had to coach Carter's soccer game but Rylan's team dominated and won that game.  So they played last night (Tuesday) against the second place team.  The first and second place teams in Rylan's league have destroyed everyone this season.  Not to complain too much, but their coaches are only concerned with winning - not teaching the boys anything or making sure they have fun.  They have a few good players that they put at the key positions and never rotate them.  It leads to lots of outs but only a few kids actually getting to participate in the game.  And the coaches are horrible examples for the players - they yell at teenage umpires (they will argue calls when they are up by 10 or more for 5 minutes), call their kids "ladies", get mad at players, etc.  It's nuts and I really hope they aren't allowed to coach 6 and 7 year olds anymore (though I'm guessing they'll be back next season).  Anyway, Rylan's team was not having a great hitting night and lost 10-2 (if you can hit into the outfield against this team, you might have been able to win because that's where the "weak" players are).  Rylan's team played great in the field (and Brian rotates his players - everyone plays infield and outfield and different positions each inning).  Rylan had some amazing plays.  He tagged a runner out running to second and then threw the ball to first almost getting the double play.  He fielded a ball in center field and tagged second before the runner could get there.  He covered second when the shortstop fielded the ball, took the throw in the face, and managed to keep a toe on the bag while stretching for the ball on the ground to make the out (that's the play the other team's coach argued for five minutes).

Both Carter and Rylan earned their second game balls of the season last night.  We are super proud of our baseball players!