Opening Season

Finally the sun was shining and it was hot...well at least hot enough...and we hit the open water. The boys were so excited they couldn't stand it. Logan nearly brought tears to his eyes as we listed the required actions to complete before hitting the lake. Drama... With a box of goldfish, 6 beers and some towels we headed out the door (note to self need to shop prior to next outing). The rhythm needed to orchestrate the lowering, loading and launching of the boat was just as we had left it just 7 months ago. Everyone knew their place and their job. However in sync we were, only Logan's face got sunscreen. So he has so hot, pink arms. He has now learned the ever important lesson of speaking up when he misses the sun screen assembly line. We sped away to our favorite cove and dropped anchor and then 30 minutes later re-dropped the anchor as we had moved just a smidgen. The water was only about 73 degrees which is pretty freakin' chilly. Julie (one of our boating buddies) was only brave enough to go about mid calf into the water. What a risk taker. Steve on the other hand dove in head first. How the shock of the cold didn't stop his heart, I have no idea. The boys and I took the conservative approach and over the course of 5 minutes slowly lowered ourselves into the lake. Once in it was glorious. I won't even mention the name Kasey called me when I texted her from the lake! What we thought would be just a couple of hours out, turned in the 8:30. We ate dinner at the boat dock cafe and mosied home. This is what summer is all about and the B family is so glad to be back on the lake!

What we've been up to

Baseball is the story of our life right now. And actually I think it's my favorite sport that they play. Soccer's a very close second but I love watching them play baseball. Maybe it's because I'm not coaching. As you can imagine with Lucas and the Yankees it's always very interesting. One game after several monsoons here, some genius thought it would be a good idea to put sand in low spots all over the field which included home base and in the outfield. The tractor they used to do it left tracks all over the outfield which totally threw the kids off. So the runner from 1st to 2nd took a short trip through the outfield every time. Reminded me of a Family Circus adventure. Lucas was catcher that game and basically just played in the sand. In between batters he would put sand in the tee. This did not amuse the other teams coach (or his momma) very much. The next game Steve was coaching first base and Lucas hit and they got him out. Well he wasn't having it. Steve finally convinced him to head to the dugout and seconds later a batters helmet comes flying at first base and then all the bats in the dug out get knocked down. This kid could make it in the majors as a manager! At least he has some spirit! Logan is in a hitting slump. He has it in his head that he can't hit so of course he doesn't. If you pitch to him or do soft toss he hits like an expert. Put him up the plate against the machine and it all falls apart. I bribed convinced him to wear his glasses while hitting in last nights game and he got close to getting a hit. No one on our team really hit well.
















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Pre-K Lake Atalanta Field Trip

Lucas and his class had their big family field trip to Lake Atalanta. It was actually beautiful weather and tons of fun. Lucas was not in my group so most of my pictures are of Kale. Kale got to be like one of the big kids so he was livin' large. There was hiking to a spring and over a bridge (glad they can't read as the messages on the bridge were rated X). They fed the ducks and geese. They saw fish, tadpoles, a snake, a crawdad, and other creek life. They hunted for bugs. There was painting, face painting, parachute & bubble play. Kale gladly stayed at the bubble station and left our group. He was in hog heaven there. Steve was able to come about lunch time and participate in the boat regatta. Each parent kid built a boat out of recycled materials. Ours was made out of a 5qt Castrol jug with lots of Army men & missiles hot glued on and floated on water bottle pontoons. The water bottles made it through about half of the trips down the creek. No kid was to get in the creek. Kale called skipbo on that rule and waded in several times. We love this field trip and is a tradition for the Pre-K. Our favorite teacher won't be teaching Pre-K at SVdP anymore so things are up in the air on whether the K-Man will be doing this same thing in 2 years. Lucas could have stayed there forever and floated his boat. All of the kids were exhausted by the end.
















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Quote of the day

"Mom, You are not a child of God."

A mad Logan

Visit from the Grandparents

The boys were greeted by Grandma and Grandpa when they arrived home from school on Friday. They came to see the mighty Logan and Lucas play some baseball. Thanks to the rain they only got to see Logan play. Logan's team wasn't hitting very well so they only got to see him up to bat one time. Such is life. Since we weren't on the ball field on Saturday we went to Target so the boys could pick out a toy (Grandma's doing not mine!),walked around the mall and then went to see Disney Earth. It was a pretty cool movie that we all liked. Steve had already seen it from a class field trip so he had the pleasure of taking Kale to the bathroom 6 million times. Just not quite ready for the movie theatre I guess. The grandparents always get to see the real version of our kids when they're here. From sillies to mean mouth, the B boys don't hold back. When I told Kale to watch his mouth, he told me to watch mine. So respectful at the age of 3. Kale also let out this big belch right by Grandma while Logan and I were building his new Lego set. When I asked who let out that record holding disgusting belch, Kale quickly threw Grandma under the bus and shouted her name. Nice!

The "family" photo

Kale finally included in the baseball gig with his own bat & ball.

Still Obsessed

M: You're going to love the jammies I picked out for you!
K: Are they pink?
M: No, you don't have pink jammies.
K: Can I have some?
M: Guess what jammies I have...
K: My shark jammies?
M: Nope. Your paint shirt!
K: Yeah, I love my paint shirt! Can I wear it right now?

Whew...avoided having to sell Kale on why I wasn't going to buy him pink jammies.

Happy Mother's Day

I would like to wish all you Mutha's out there a HaPpY MoThEr'S DaY!

I hope that your day was as good as mine and that you didn't have to lift a finger cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, tending to your precious children's every need. Oh wait, if your day was like that then it was way better than mine! That's the funny thing about this day. It's fun to be spoiled rotten and treated like a royal princess, but there really is no escaping the motherly duties. Sure you can do them all head of time or put them off but you can never escape them. The mother thing is a pretty sweet gig anyhow especially when your kids and husband are sweet to you and bequeath you with awesome gifts like this...

Transformers

The 2 bigger B boys quickly transformed from soccer superstars...

to baseball bad boys.

Lucas is thrilled to have his first trophy, since Logan has a million, which is apparently not fair. We did have to suffer through CiCi's pizza (I just threw up in my mouth just typing it) to received the trophy. His last game was rained out but nobody was sad about it.

Logan went from an awesome soccer team and coach, to an awesome baseball team. This year the baseball game is the real deal. Score is kept, 3 strikes your out, 3 outs and back to the dugout. I really get sucked into his games (well he's only had one but I'm sure it will hold true future games.) Now I need to find a suitable substitute for the sunflower seed for a 3 year old. I love the kid but I can only shell so many for him. Thinking about going with peanuts in the shell. Speaking of the K-Man, he is so sad that he is not on a baseball team....he's big enough so I'm told. Couple more years, little buddy.

Finger Lickin' Good

Wings are a staple boating food for the B family. However, mother nature will not cooperate with us and give us sunshine and warm weather so we can hit the open water. Ughh the rain....So instead we are forced to enjoy our wings around the kitchen table like common people. Thank goodness we have beer good friends to share them with! The McAllisters joined us for some finger lickin' good wings. Preston love them some much he asked for our recipe! As you can tell from Logan's plate, he too enjoys wings. I was nearly successful into gaining my 4th son, but somehow Reed made it into the car seat and back home with his parents. I'm sure I will have several more opportunities to permanently borrow him and he pretty much loved me so there really shouldn't be any issues with it.