Elf on the Shelf 2019

Our elf seemed came with a little attitude this year!  There were many times it felt like he said, "If you can't beat them, join them!".  You'll see what I mean ...

December 1st

Mr. Elf arrived and brought the boys an advent calendar.  This year was a Playmobil hockey one.

December 2nd

This is what I meant ...

December 3rd

December 4th

The battle between Mr. Elf and Batman begins ...

December 5th

December 6th

December 7th

I threaten the boys with having to share a shirt if they keep fighting.  It looks like it works!

December 8th

December 9th

Sometimes Mr. Elf is just mean!

December 10th

We got a little snow this day, but Mr. Elf was hoping for way more!

December 11th

The boys finally got tree skirts for the Christmas trees in their rooms!

December 12th

Rylan had a great indoor soccer game the night before and Mr. Elf must have heard us talking about!

December 13th

Mr. Elf decorated the boys' bathroom mirror.

December 14th

There was a Star Wars event on Fortnite this day.  Mr. Elf must have heard Rylan talking about it the day before and asked to participate!

December 15th

December 16th

We had gone to the Vanderbilt basketball game the night before and someone behind us caught a parachuting polar bear and gave it to Gray.  Mr. Elf must have wanted to try out the parachute and crashed into our Christmas tree!

December 17th

December 18th

December 19th

December 20th

December 21st

Again, if you can't beat them, join them!

December 22nd

We had given the boys a bunch of Fortnite characters I'd found on sale the day before and they must have started fighting Mr. Elf overnight.

December 23rd

December 24th

See you next year, Mr. Elf!

Winter Break Pictures

We have been really lazy this winter break but have been trying to get out to do something each day.  There has been a lot of disc golf and geocaching but that's not it.

We've been to the Adventure Science Center ...

And did our annual visit to Opryland on Christmas Eve ...

Today we went to Topgolf and then walked around 12 South to find some geocaches and see some murals.

1st Day of School 2019

I never posted this one ...

August 9, 2019

Carter - 5th Grade

Rylan - 3rd Grade

Gray - Pre-K

Geocaching

We had a stretch of really warm and dry days this winter break.  We tried to get outside as much as possible and enjoy it before it got cold again so we did a few rounds of disc golf and some geocaching.  On Friday we tried out a new course at Two Rivers Park in Nashville and then did a few caches near the bridge over the Cumberland afterwards.

Some murals on the tunnel under the highway ...

The sunset was beautiful that evening!

We also found one of our favorite caches hidden in the bridge.  We've hidden a few but none have been creative so far.

Gray - Soccer

Gray is playing his first season of soccer with the Y.  He is on a U6 boys team and Brian is coaching.  The kids play 4v4 but somehow we only ended up with 5 kids on our roster (most have at least 8).  We have 2 kids that have played one season before and 3 (including Gray) that have never played before.  Because of how early they start the kids now, this is the 5th season for some of the other kids in the league.  And since the teams are formed based on parent requests, the teams are very lopsided.  At this point we are lucky to even have 4 show up for a game on Saturday.  We've had some games we've been blown out, one that was even, and one we blew out the other team.

This past Saturday we only had 3 players.  The other team was good enough to give us 2 of their players so that we good have an enjoyable game.  The other team provided us with some aggressive players and I think that motivated Gray to get more involved (as well as the promise of a new Paw Patrol toy).  Gray tends to watch a little more during games.  He's got some good skills when alone with the ball but doesn't love getting in the middle of the bunch when several people are just kicking at anything they can.

I got a few videos of Gray on Saturday, including one where he almost scored and one in which he was one of three that fell and pushed the ball into the goal :)

They're Famous!

Look whose photo was used on Nashville Soccer Club's twitter page today ...

Nashville Sounds

Last night Brian's company had their annual summer picnic at a Sounds game.  Before the game started, there was a buffet dinner that we all got to enjoy.  While getting food, an employee found the boys and gave them all baseballs (we didn't ask but they must have been either used for batting practice before the game or were used the night before at that game).

After eating, we got out of the sun and found some seats in the shade.  While there, Booster snuck up on Carter.

Rylan really wanted to try to catch a foul ball (we were behind the safety net in our shaded seats) so he and Brian sat out in left field.  Rylan didn't get a foul ball but the left fielder for the other team threw him a ball he was using to warm up.  The other boys wanted to join him when they found that out!

Unfortunately the rain came in before the boys got a chance to get another ball.  We found some great seats behind home plate and watched as the game continued in the rain.

Eventually they covered the field and there was a 30-minute or so rain delay.

The game eventually got restarted.  Rylan caught a t-shirt during the seventh-inning stretch!  It's an adult XL but he still was super excited!

At some point we noticed Booster in the concourse above us signing autographs.  So the boys had him sign their balls.

Booster has a pretty cool autograph!

After the game there were fireworks.  As always, the show was pretty impressive!

All-Star Game

Carter made the 9/10 year old All-Star team this past spring season.  Because his team finished second in the division, they were able to choose three All-Stars.  Rylan was very disappointed because Brian did not choose him to all be an All-Star, but Rylan is playing an age group up and is the second youngest player in the league.  While he was on the short list to be picked, there were other worthy players that also deserved the honor.

Carter had an awesome All-Star game.  Jeff got to coach since his team finished second during the regular season.  Carter was still nursing the wrist he injured during field day at school so Jeff decided to not let him play catcher or pitcher (the only two positions he’d played all season).  But he did great at second base, third base, and center field.  He fielded a hard, choppy hit at second to make an out at first, tagged a runner that slightly stepped off the bag late on third, and caught an awesome over the shoulder fly ball in center.  He also had a perfect sacrifice hit to first to hit in the winning run.

We are so proud that he had such a good game and had fun!!!

The All-Star's from Carter's team - Gavin, Carter, & Braden

The All-Stars from Rylan's team - Bode & Riggins

The All-Stars that played on Jeff's team

Golfing

We have been playing a ton of golf this summer at Lightning Bug (the free par 3 course we discovered last year).  Carter and Rylan are improving and would probably benefit from a lesson or two now that they have some basics down.  However, I don't want to mess with anyone's baseball swing so we are just going to keep playing for fun and not worry about doing things exactly right.

Gray started really playing this summer.  He has a wedge and putter and has gotten as low as 4 strokes on a hole.  Though he's usually more like 10-12 strokes.

I tried to get a couple of videos of him the last time we played.  These aren't the best and he's had better hits but they give you an idea of how he's doing.

A new sport we recently picked up is disc golf.  We've only been twice so far but the boys really like it.  There is a course at Crockett Park that we've been doing.  It's been fun and even Gray does it!  I'm pretty horrible and the big boys like beating me! :)

We even have our own basket now thanks to Papa Mike!  The boys have been playing in the yard most evenings.

Summer Baseball

This summer all 3 boys played baseball with Brentwood Ball Club.  This was Gray's first official team!!!  Carter and Rylan played together on a 9/10 year old team and Gray played on a 4/5 year old team.  Brian coached both teams.

Bode and Levi played with the big boys and Hadlee played with Gray.  I love this picture of our two families :)

I think Brian and I were a little unsure of coaching little kids again after getting used to coaching big kids.  But I think we both enjoyed the little ones more than the big ones!

The little kids played 2 innings each game.  There are no outs and the whole team bats each inning.  The kids get 5 pitches and then get to hit off of the tee.  Gray got a few hits this season!

Gray did a good job paying attention.  We had a good team as there were no behavior issues ever and at least half the kids were usually paying attention (baseball is slow for 4 and 5 year olds).

Carter and Rylan were our assistant coaches (as well as Bode and Levi on occasion). 

The big kids would take the outfielders deep into the outfield and play catch with them when we were on defense (very few hits get out of the infield).  They also warmed the kids up before the game, were base coaches, and helped with anything else we asked.  They made the experience awesome for the little kids that looked up to them.  The two times Carter and Rylan couldn't come, the little ones were so disappointed.  A few parents told us about the kids having dreams about Carter and Rylan.

We were missing a few players at the last game, but we attempted to get a team photo!

Carter and Rylan's team included some of the kids from Rylan's spring team and then some of our other friends (like Mac and Reed).  I took absolutely no pictures of those games as I was doing GameChanger on my phone.  But the boys had fun and did well after a rough first couple of games.