Recent Pictures

A few weeks ago I went over to Missy's house and watched her boys for the morning.  All four boys did so great playing together - they were all nicely sharing one toy in this picture!

Carter and Luke had so much fun playing doctor and patient.

For show-and-tell on "R" week, Carter brought his Red Panda.  This guy always has to buried in Carter's stuffed animal bin because he thinks it's always staring at him!  It does have some intimidating eyes :)

We missed "S" week because we were in Disney and then Carter's class skipped show-and-tell on "T" week because school was closed one day for ice and Ms. Denise had other things they kids had to do.

For "U" week (last week), Carter brought his hockey uniform for show-and-tell.

I love how Rylan was sitting with his arm around Carter and driving with the other arm in the cart at Publix!

We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner last week on Kids Night.  Rylan was so excited when a ball and glove were on the list of possible balloons he could get, but then he was extremely disappointed when he found out he couldn't actually put the glove on his hand.

It was so warm last Tuesday that I took the boys for a walk after dinner.

I'm looking forward to the longer, warm evenings so we can start doing this regularly again!

When we got back, we played in the backyard and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

The boys also asked for a fire in the firepit so we obliged.

The first fire of the season.

The boys found these costumes in the playroom closet on Sunday.  I had gotten them super cheap after Halloween last year but this was the first time they'd tried them on.  Look at those muscles!

We met some friends at the bowling alley yesterday.  Carter and Rylan played on a lane with Will and Luke.  They all did great but Rylan actually won (by two) and he was so proud.  I let him gloat for a few seconds because he doesn't win stuff like that too often with being the younger brother.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The boys got a visit from a leprechaun yesterday.  On Sunday night, they (along with Brian) built a trip for a leprechaun.  They put a trail of gold for the leprechaun to follow and then fall through a hole in a box.

Carter and his crazy good memory remembered every detail from the trap we did last year.  He reminded me that we used a clear cup to hold up the box and cut out gold coins from paper.

When the boys got up yesterday morning, Carter was very brave and went right to the trap and looked in (Rylan was a bit scared and kept his distance).

No leprechaun.  But there were a couple of ring pops and a note.

Here's the note:

Next to the box there was another note that said:

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Rylan & Carter!  I know you enjoyed your scavenger hunt last year so I've done another one for the two of you.  Follow the clues on the shamrocks to find a bit of my treasure that I have left behind for you!  - Mr. Leprechaun

Here are the clues:

Go to the place where we put a colorful holiday tree.

Go to the place where our guests get clean.

Go to the place where we keep the liquid that makes your bones strong.

Go to the place where you can be a cowboy, superhero, or pirate.

Go to the place where you can build planes, buildings, or anything you wish with colorful blocks.

Go to the place where Mommy & Daddy could take a bath.

At the end of the scavenger hunt the boys found the St. Patrick's Day things the leprechaun brought last year (a huge hat, a headband hat, a necktie, and a shamrock necklace).  They remembered the stuff but since they hadn't seen it in a year, they seemed to think he had taken it back until now.  Also in the hats were some new puzzles and a few more ring pops.

The leprechaun left us with a (upside-down) rainbow.

And did some silly mischievous things.

He used Legos to spell out the boys' names ...

Made this interesting structure from granola bar boxes and bowls ...

And set the counter with some silverware.  Weird leprechaun!

He turned the dining room chairs around ...

And flipped the bowl on the table.

The leprechaun also turned the images on Brian's computer screen upside-down!

The boys had so much fun discovering everything yesterday that Mr. Leprechaun's visit was definitely worth it!

Spring Soccer

Soccer started back up for us two weeks ago.  We could have begun practices one week earlier, but we were in Disney World.

Carter's team (with Brian coaching) is practicing on Wednesday afternoons.  It was so cold that first practice but all except one of the kids showed up.

The second practice this past week may have been even colder.  Rylan ended up sitting in the car for the second half of it.

Carter's team has 5 returning players (including Carter).  They lost their really strong player and most of the new kids haven't played before so I don't foresee them winning most games like they did last season (not that anyone keeps score).  But I think they will do fine and still have fun!

Rylan's team (with me coaching) is practicing on Monday afternoons.  We had to cancel our first practice because we had an ice storm that day but squeezed in a make-up on Friday (the day before our first game).

We also had good weather for our second practice last week.

I have 6 returning players and 6 new players.  I feel like my timid returning kids are doing better this year and that my new kids are okay.  We definitely still have a young team and don't have any ringers, but I think we are in a little better shape this season.

The first game of the season was last weekend (March 8th).  Rylan had a game at 10 am and Carter's was at 11 am.  Rylan has much earlier games this season (no more 1 pm and 2 pm games during nap) so I think the season will be much better for that reason alone.

My group of kids definitely got beat by the other team.  The other team had one super good player who scored probably 20 times (the others didn't do much).  I think the 2 teams on the other field were much more evenly matched and both scored about 4.  However, Rylan did score the only goal for our team on our field!  Yay!!!

This often happens ... kids on the ground and the others still trying to kick the ball (and the kids on the ground).  There isn't much to coaching games but I'm still having trouble getting parents to volunteer to coach our second field.

I like these two pictures of Rylan.  I think he got tired of having to walk back to mid-field again after the one good player on the other team scored again :)

But Rylan stayed happy for the game and never game up.  I'm so proud of him for that!  Last year he would get upset when he got knocked down or the ball was taken from him and (at least for this game) he got right back up and kept playing this time.

Rylan, Rocco, Owen D., Kenner, and Owen M.:

Rylan's team had a bye this weekend and then there are no games next weekend because of Spring Break.  Hopefully a couple of weeks of practice will help us be ready for our next game!

Carter did okay his first game.  He didn't score but he took the ball down the field several times before having it taken away.  He did take a few shots but they were wide (it always seems like a kid will stand in the goal like a goalie making it difficult to get the ball in).  Carter just wasn't very aggressive and so he didn't contribute as much as he could have.

However, Carter was a completely different player in his game yesterday!  He played about the same for the first quarter.  But then he scored one goal.  And he couldn't be stopped!

I love the look on Campbell's face behind Carter!

 Goal!

Goal!

Goal, again!

Carter scored 6 or 7 goals, we lost count.  He just started getting in there instead of standing back and watching.  He seemed to figure out that if he kicked the ball out of the crowd of kids and then went to it, he could take it down and score.  We know Carter is good and that he's a fast dribbler, but he just doesn't get aggressive.  Unless he scores once and gets addicted to it :)  So proud of you, bud!

Disney - Day 3 (Magic Kingdom)

The second park we went to at Disney World was Magic Kingdom.  We left our hotel room around 8 am, drove to the parking lot, and then took the boat over to the park.

We only had to wait about 10 minutes before they opened up the park gates and then we headed straight to Fantasyland.  When we went to Disney two years ago, they were still working on the new parts of Fantasyland so there were a lot of new things for us.

But first we had to do The Barnstormer, or "Goofy's Rollercoaster" according to the boys.  Carter rode this ride last time we were at Disney but it was Rylan's first time.

Carter and I got in the front row with Brian and Rylan behind us.

Our first time on the ride, Rylan put his hands up, but he then held on tightly to one of us when we did it again (several times).

After completing our first ride, there was no line to get so the operators let us stay in our seats and ride it again.  Both boys were all for it!

I tried to take a video of Carter and me during the ride.  Carter was yelling, "Go faster rollercoaster!" the whole time.

Our next ride was Dumbo the Flying Elephant.  They have a cool new playground you can use when the line is long for this ride but we skipped it this time since there wasn't really a line yet.

Rylan got to ride with me this time.

Next we headed over to something completely new to us ... Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid.  Because it's new, the line for this ride was about an hour every time we checked throughout the day but we luckily walked right on.

I'm glad we didn't have to wait in it, but the queue area was pretty cool looking.

The ride was a lot like the Nemo ride at Epcot.  It was good though and cool since we were staying in a Little Mermaid hotel room.

Then I took the boys on the Mad Tea Party.  Brian skipped it since it gives him motion sickness.

We got our tea cup spinning pretty fast and I think I succeeded in making us all a little dizzy.

Next we did The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  We'd been on this ride before but only with a fast pass.  We were in the regular line this time and there are some fun interactive things for the kids to play with that were added as part of the Fantasyland expansion.  This makes it so much easier to deal with a longer wait time - the kids had so much fun they would have just stood in line without even riding the ride.

There were several panels like this where you "wipe away" the honey to reveal characters like Tigger and Rabbit.

Getting ready to ride ...

We headed down to "it's a small world" next.  We've been home 2 weeks and the kids are still singing this song every single day!!!

We did one more ride in the area (Haunted Mansion - the boys were more scared on it this time than ever before!) and then used a Fast Pass for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  We never buy the photos after the ride but they are fun to look at!

The boys got their picture taken with Zurg in the gift shop.

We fit a ton of rides into our morning and we were ready for lunch.  We walked over to the Golden Oak Outpost in Frontierland for an easy lunch.

Then we did something new ... A Pirate's Adventure - Treasures of the 7 Seas.  To start you get a special map and link your Magic Band to your "hunt".  There are several different maps that take you to different places in Adventureland.

Rylan worked with Brian.

Carter worked with me.

When you find the location on your map, you put your Magic Band up to the symbol.  Then the object tells you your next clue and also shows you the next symbol you need to find.

This stop was cool because after you put your Magic Band up to the lion symbol, fake cannons shoot off and smoke behind you.

Our last stop revealed treasure underneath this boat.

I got a couple of videos of the boys at two of the stations ...

This activity is cool because all the locations are disguised as normal props for the park that just seem to give it atmosphere.

When we all found our treasure, we did the Enchanted Tiki Room.  The boys weren't too sure about the show when we walked in but they both loved it and kept pointing out all sorts of things.

It started raining while we were at the show but it was light and didn't slow us down (it lasted less than 15 minutes).  We walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse until it stopped (I had never actually been through it).

We headed over to Tomorrowland next and rode Stitch's Great Escape.  This was the first ride we got to test out Rylan's new tall shoes and he easily hit the 40" mark.  He was so proud!

While in Tomorrowland, we did the TTA Peoplemover and Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor.  Rylan decided the Peoplemover was his favorite ride and kept asking the rest of the day to go on it.  Carter believed the story for Laugh Floor that we had to fill up the laugh tank to be able to leave and did lots of fake laughing!

Next we headed over to Frontierland.  Before leaving for Disney, we had showed Carter some videos of the bigger rides to prepare him and see if he wanted to ride them.  The ride he was most excited about was Splash Mountain.  Unfortunately when we were there, it was closed for renovations.  But we did get to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which was closed 2 years ago for renovations.

We had a fast pass for the ride and Rylan made the 40" requirement again.  Everyone was excited for the ride when we boarded.

Heading up the hill out of the mine ...

But Rylan ended up HATING it.  I was holding on tight to him but managed to stick my camera out and get a picture of his face.

He claims he didn't like the downhill but he didn't like any of the fast turns either.  He was screaming and crying the entire time with his eyes closed.  Unfortunately since I was trying to calm Rylan down the whole time, I didn't get to enjoy the ride at all (I don't even remember any of it).  But Carter said he loved it (though I think he likes the short and calm Barnstormer better).

We thought it was time for a nice calm ride that Rylan would love - Prince Charming Regal Carousel - he begged to go on it every time we saw it.

Next we had a fast pass for The Barnstormer and then we did Dumbo again.  This time there was a line so we played in the new circus play area for awhile.  You get a pager (like in restaurants when you are waiting on a table) and you return to a very short line when it goes off.

The play area attendants limit the number of people so it never gets too crowded.  The kids loved it because you are up high most of the time.

And when you jump down on these "life nets", they make a cool "boong" sound.

I think the kids would have stayed in the playground for hours but it was time for the ride!

We had decided to stay for the parade and fireworks that night (something we'd never done on our last two visits), so we had dinner at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe.

When we finished eating, the line for Tomorrowland Speedway was finally reasonable (20-ish minutes) so we did it.  Rylan was with me and was a horrible driver :)  I did the petals but he kept turning the wheel bouncing us back and forth off the middle rail.  It was a rough ride and it wasn't long before he wanted me to steer.

That was our last ride of the day and we went to get seats for the Main Street Electrical Parade.  The parade started at 7 pm and we sat down about 45 minutes early.  We got a seat on the curb about midway up Main Street (in front of the Emporium).

I took the boys to get there last pressed pennies of the day (we still get those as souvenirs everywhere that we go) and get a drink but otherwise we just sat and waited.  We were all a bit worn out and Rylan did not take a nap that day.

The parade was cool and the boys shouted out all the characters they knew.

The boys thought it was cool when a character looked directly at them and smiles and waved.  However, one of the donkey boys from Pinocchio came up to Rylan and freaked us out a little.  He asked Rylan if he wanted a tail too and he got his from Pleasure Island and something else.  It was just a little overwhelming and in our face!

We all enjoyed the parade and since everyone still seemed to be happy, we agreed to stay for the fireworks.  Celebrate the Magic, where the castle is lit up with different Disney animation, started at 7:45 pm.  We were standing in the middle of Main Street to see at this point and where holding the boys.  Rylan made it just a few minutes and was finally out.  I put him in his stroller and he was done for the night.  Carter did fine though and made it to the fireworks that started at 8 pm.

With just a couple of minutes left in the show, we started walking toward the exit.  It was great timing for us because we got right on the monorail to take us back to the parking lot.  Carter passed out in the car.  We got back to the hotel and got everyone in the pajamas and in to bed at 9 pm.  Rylan never even woke up.