Rylan's 7th Birthday Party

For Rylan's birthday party this year, he decided he wanted to go to a Nashville Sounds game.  We told him he could invite 3 or 4 friends but he only wanted his bestie from his class this year, Hudson.  He also wanted Carter to come and for Carter to bring his best friend, Whit.  Rylan didn't want Gray to come since he often takes over and can sometimes be a pain.  So I stayed home with Gray and Brian took the four boys to the game.

We originally had tickets for the game on Rylan's birthday, June 28th.  Unfortunately Hudson came down with Hand, Foot, & Mouth a couple of days before the game so we had to reschedule.  Luckily the Sounds were nice enough to let us switch the tickets to another night.  So the boys went to the game last night, Sunday, July 9th.

Rylan said that Gray and I could join them for dinner so I picked Hudson and Whit up at their houses and we met Brian with Gray at Burger King.  We told Rylan he could go anywhere for dinner and BK was his choice.  I wasn't going to complain since it's cheap!

Brian sent me updates throughout the evening.  This weekend was Star Wars Trilogy weekend and Sunday's games was Character Night.

Brian and the boys had tickets in Section 209, Row A.  It was right behind home plate on the first row of the upper level.

We are cheap and limit the boys to one item of food for the whole family at a game (which is usually bottomless popcorn) so it was a real treat that the kids got both popcorn and Dippin Dots :)

When Brian went to get popcorn, he missed the boys having fun with Chewbacca.  Apparently Chewbacca was a few sections down in the suite area announcing the players for that inning (which would have been pretty bad, I'm guessing).  Anyway, between announcing duties, the boys were making faces at Chewy and he was making faces back at them, including blowing them kisses.  According to the boys, it was pretty funny.

The kids made the Jumbotron twice (once from the front and once from behind)!

The Sounds ended up losing 2-1 in 10 innings - the Redbirds hit a homerun in the top of the 10th.  After the game, the kids got to run the bases before heading home.  Brian dropped the other boys at their houses and finally made it home about 10:45 pm.  It took the boys about two minutes to pass out.  They all had a blast and I'm sure it was a memorable "party" for Rylan!

In Search of ... Amphibians!

I took the boys to a program at Edwin Warner Park on Thursday.  They have a ton of great looking programs but they are usually either when the boys are in school or on Saturdays when they have games.  And because the park is in Nashville and a bit of drive, it's not the first place I think to look when trying to find something to do.

We went to a program called "In Search of ... Amphibians".  With the help of a zoologist, the boys got to find salamanders (and crayfish) in a creek behind the nature center.  Carter or Rylan both found a few salamanders.  The ones they were able to catch were smaller but they did find some large ones that slipped away from them and into the water before they could grab them.  Gray had fallen asleep on the way to the park and was not in the mood to have anything to do with the water.  He pretty much made me hold him the two hours we were at the creek.

Teamwork ... One lifting up a rock and the other scooping whatever was under the rock into a net.

When we were done, we picnicked in the air conditioned car (away from all the mosquitos and sweat bees that would not leave me alone despite a ton of bug spray - they didn't both the kids at all).  Afterwards, we drove to the other side of the park and found a couple of letterboxes.

Then we played in the Little Harpeth River for a bit.  We had gotten a lot of rain the previous few days so it was really flowing.  I had to make sure that Gray didn't get very deep because I think he could have been knocked down and carried down the river some by the current.

We had a fun day being outside and exploring!

Gold Cup

We took the boys to their first international soccer games yesterday!  Their was a double header Gold Cup match at Nissan Stadium - USA vs. Panama and Martinique vs. Nicaragua.  We got tickets through Nashville Soccer Club and sat behind one of the goals in the 100 level.  Unfortunately we were in one of about three sections that stood the entire first game.  And it was probably the hottest day of the summer so far.  But we made the most of it and the boys got to see enough of the game.

The boys dressed to support their team!

The big boys were able to stand in their seats so they were able to kind of see.  I held Gray most of the game but he was only somewhat into watching (he was more into the beachballs bouncing around the crowd and airplane that was flying over the stadium).

I'm holding my phone above everyone but this was our view (sort of).  And this was one of the about three times a cloud crossed the sun during the game and gave us about 30 seconds of relief from the heat!

The US scored first and the boys celebrated!!!

Unfortunately Panama scored a goal too and the game ended up in a 1-1 tie.  The US didn't play that well and Panama looked like the better team.  But we still had fun cheering on our team!

Between the games we took a break in the shade by the concessions and had some dinner.  When the second game started, we moved over a few sections to sit in the shade.  The majority of the fans left after the US game and we were finally able to sit and actually watch a game.  And it was definitely the better game.  There were a ton of shots and fun to watch.

One of our cute soccer fans!

I attempted to get a group shot of the boys but they would only make silly faces.

Martinique won 2-0.  The US plays them on Wednesday in Tampa.  Hopefully they can pull out a win!

Doughnuts & Blueberries

This morning we took the boys to get doughnuts at Krispy Kreme.  Carter had two indoor soccer games last night.  A few weeks ago there was a deal made between the boys and Brian that if Carter scored four goals, the boys would get a treat.  Apparently that deal was still good because when Carter scored four goals, both Carter and Rylan told us they earned a treat :)  Last night we decided on doughnuts.

We love watching them make doughnuts!!!

After doughnuts we went to Golden Bell Farms to pick blueberries.  Since Carter is the only one that eats them, we didn't pick too many (it ended up being 2 1/4 lbs).  We found out this afternoon though that Gray likes blueberries too :)

Gray was a good picker too when we found low enough berries!

This year we brought a step stool to help with the higher berries.

 

Summer Basketball

Carter played basketball through WNSL (West Nashville Sports League) this summer.  Last year we put together a team (Brian coached) and they played through Flight at BA.  The league was way too competitive for the team we put together and they got crushed most games (there were a couple that weren't blowouts but they never won a game).

This summer we signed Carter up as a free agent with WNSL and he would either be on a team of all free agents or added to a team that needed more players.  We had a friend from soccer (Ian) who also signed up as a free agent and the boys were together on an all free agent team.  Unfortunately the dad that got picked to coach didn't want to do it and didn't put any effort into it.  He finally organized a practice a couple of days before the first game and then only had a couple more the rest of the season.  Brian really hates coaching basketball but would have done it if we knew it was going to be that bad!  There were some reasonably talented kids on the team but they didn't know how to work together and struggled since most other teams have been playing together for awhile.

The boys played double headers for 4 weeks in June.  They only won one game (and it was against a girls team with the same aged players).  Carter isn't a strong basketball player but he really enjoys it.  He did good but it was a frustrating season.  He finally scored a basket his last game - yay!  He tried really hard though and I think he had fun.

Basketball has been a tough sport for us to find a good league that fits our boys.  We even had the boys in two different leagues last year in an effort to find one we liked.  We need something a little more recreational or a league with coaches that want to teach the kids the sport instead of finding their couple of good players and letting them do everything so they get the win.  We are thinking Brian may coach this winter and we'll have the boys play on the same team since they are in the same age group this year.  We liked the league Rylan was in last winter best so far so we'll probably do that one.  We'll see.  We have to get through fall soccer and baseball first!

I took a few pictures of Carter on the last night he played.  They aren't great, but here they are!