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!

Reading to Cats

Today was the first day of summer vacation.  And it was rainy and cool (only about 60F).  The big boys were supposed to start swim team practice today but it was cancelled because of the weather.  We have also been INSANELY busy the last week with the end of school, end of soccer, baseball tournaments, end-of-season sports parties, etc, etc, etc.  I was actually hoping the boys were with me on taking a lazy day at home with the weather not being so nice but they were begging to do something about an hour after getting up.  We decided to take Gray to storytime at the library and get new books.  I think all of Brentwood had the same idea - I've never seen the library so packed.  Jen ended up meeting us there with her kids too.  Her kids wanted to go to the Williamson County Animal Shelter and read to the cats.  My boys were all like, "um ... no" but I forced them to go anyway (because they were also not into going home).  And they ended up thinking it was pretty cool.

How cute is this!?!

Gray was even trying to show the cats the pictures in his book :)

Afterwards we went to Sonic for Wacky Pack Wednesday ($1.99 kid meals).  Our crews were a loud bunch but we survived lunch before going our own ways.  Gray took a nap and the big boys remembered they had toys they haven't played with in a long time.  It was a good afternoon.  

It's supposed to stay cool tomorrow (swim team practice has already been cancelled) and we are headed to the zoo with Jen.  We have lots of activities scheduled for the summer but they don't start until June.

Last Day of School

Carter & Rylan's last day of school was yesterday.  They love school so while they aren't disappointed that school is over, they weren't really excited either.

Love Gray's excited smile :)

Yesterday was a half day.  But the end-of-year parties are from 9:30 to 10:30 and we are encouraged to check our kids out when the parties are over.

I'm the lead room mom for Rylan's class so I ran his party and only got to run upstairs to Carter's for about 3 minutes.  Rylan had a luau theme and Carter's was a carnival theme.  I'm also a room mom for Carter's class so I got to make all the photo booth props and made the cupcakes.  I had some help for Rylan's party so luckily I didn't have to make and buy everything for it (unlike the winter party when I only had one helper and ended up just doing it all myself).  Rylan's party went well and the kids all seemed to have fun!

Though I didn't love Rylan's teacher (for so many reasons - next year can only be better), he still liked her and generally enjoyed school.

In the afternoon, one of the moms in Carter's class hosted the entire class for a end-of-year party at her house.  Carter was in a class that looped (had the same teacher for two years) though he and Whit were new to the class.  The teacher also went through a divorce last year so she put everything into this class and they were tight.

Carter and I both loved his teacher this year.  She is just awesome and we are going to miss having her!

And now summer begins!!!

NCS

After the boys played five games on Saturday (Carter had one soccer and one baseball game / Rylan had two soccer and one baseball game), we took the boys to the Nashville SC game.  Unfortunately it started raining about 30 minutes before the 5pm game time.  And because there was lightning, the game got delayed.  We hung out in our car for a long time (even took a quick drive over to McDonalds for ice cream) and then finally decided to venture out into the rain about 15 minutes before the new game time of 6:45pm.  Forecasters were saying the rain would be over shortly after the game started.  And they were completely wrong.  It rained the ENTIRE game.  We were drenched (and chilled) but it was a great game.  There were tons of cards (including a red card on the other team near the end).  There were even two penalty kicks.  And Nashville SC pulled out the win 4-3.  The boys (including Gray) are so into the games.  They are picking up all the cheers too!

And we listened to the Predators game on the way home and they won to go ahead 3-2 in the series against the Ducks.  It was a good day for sports for us (the boys won all but one of their games too!).

Last Days of Kindergarten

The kindergartners got to have special days the last full week of school.  Rylan was half into it - he really wanted to dress up some days and was embarrassed that people would see him dressed up on others.  He is my fashion conscience one and very particular about his unique style :)

Sunglasses & Jump Rope Day

Pirate Day

Superhero / Princess Day

Totally not into superhero day.

Cowboy / Cowgirl Day

Bubbles & Flip Flops Day

Here are pictures of Carter dressing up for his last week of kindergarten: LINK.

Nashville SC U23

Nashville is getting a professional soccer team next year that will be part of the United Soccer League.  But before that starts, they have a U23 team this summer.  There are 8 home games that are either at the Vanderbilt football stadium or soccer fields and we decided to buy season tickets.  Saturday night was the first game.

The boys will watch a little soccer on TV but it doesn't hold their attention for long.  Seeing these guys play in person though was really exciting to them.  They all loved it.

Plus the fan club area was loud and crazy and helped to keep things fun.

Nashville SC beat Peachtree City MOAB 6-1.  It was a fun game to watch!

Buddies

I watched Lofton on Friday so Jen could go on Evie's field trip.  These two were both exhausted from a long week and got each other's nerves so much but also had some sweet moments.  Gray loves Lofton though and gets so excited when we are going to do something with her!

Gray is going through a phase where he makes a silly face for almost all pictures.  Rylan did the same thing at this age.

We went for a walk in the afternoon and I asked the kids to hold hands thinking there was no chance they would.  But they did!