Let the Fun Begin

We spent a fun three days in Atwood with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and COUSINS!  The kids had a great time playing in dirt, swimming, riding the zip line, shooting guns, eating ice cream, watching movies, tie-dying shirts, and playing Wii.

Mike and Rosie recently removed their decorative fish pond.  Graham and his cousin Brody spent a great deal of time digging and transferring dirt from one cup to another.  Dude!

When he wasn't in the dirt, he was "rinsing off" in the water buckets.  Back and forth between two buckets.  Yes, he spent a good deal of time naked.

The big kids got to go to the shooting range.  Grandpa even had some guns that were sized down for them.  Miles wanted to know the combination to the gun safe--not this time, buddy!  Here are the snipers-in-training.  (Mom, the guns are NOT loaded).  Even some of the big-big kids (Adam, Cole and Alex) enjoyed the shooting range.  

I usually pass up gun duty for pool duty.  The day was hot, but the water was cold.  But not cold enough that they passed up ice cream afterwards.  

Moving On...

Wow, I can't believe we have finished another school year!  Before I know it, they'll be riding to the high school with me!  We are all looking forward to days that don't require being up, dressed, fed, teeth brushed, bag checked, and everyone out the door at 7:15 (don't worry, I'm sure they will still be up at 6:00 AM).  

Miles had an awesome year in kindergarten.  He completed all of the objectives with flying colors, but definitely has a "social" side that sometimes needs checked.  I will miss all of the stories he comes home with everyday.  His favorite subject is P.E. and he digs school lunch (and breakfast) just like Owen.  Adam even wondered if the school could serve them dinner before we pick them up...

Do you become cool in 3rd grade?  It seems like Owen really matured this year.  He had another fabulous year--continued to read a ton of books (sometimes the easy ones just for points) for "Reading Counts", scored high on his first set of state assessments, still likes math best, and is an awesome speller.  His teacher gave out challenge lists with words like raconteur, impugn, and quagmire... vocabulary lessons for mom and dad.  

Now it's onto summer; I'm sure they are switching into "drive mom crazy" mode as I type this.

Three Legs

The three-legged race portion of field day deserves it own post, as it was always my favorite event.  Miles and his buddy fell down at least four times, but laughed the entire time.

Owen and Ty dove across the finish line to try and beat the competition.  Not sure where the robot moves come from.

Field Day 2012

I was lucky to have a flexible enough schedule today that I could attend the boys' field day.  They were happy to have Grandma Jean on hand as well.  Add great weather and lunch with friends, and it was a pretty perfect day.  

Owen moved up to the big kids group this year which meant that they substituted hurdles and relays for the sack and tractor races.  He's a pretty fast dude and enjoyed all of the events.

Miles had a great time at his first field day.  His best events were the dashes, but he had fun participating in all of them.  We made a little tent with a towel and lawn chairs so he could get out of the sun.  It didn't take long for about ten kids to crowd under and the talk turned to boogers and poop pretty quickly.

Half-Birthdays

The big boys both celebrated their summer birthdays at school today.  Grandma Jean (thank you, thank you) offered to make them KSU cookies to share with their classes--you don't have to ask me twice to take you up on your offer! I sound like a loser, but I've actually taken a ton of food to school(s) lately with teacher appreciation, student teacher going away parties, etc.  Plus I did not inherit my mom's ability to make the perfect sugar cookie.  Miles' buddy Aiden is a KU fan (boo!) so we dug out the Jayhawk cookie cutter as well.  Miles did notice that the Powercats were much bigger :)

Happy Mother's Day

I'm so lucky to be these three dudes' mom.  They are a constant source of laughter, pride, fun, questions, dirt, noise, rising grocery bills, etc.  I wish I could magically keep them these ages for a long time.  Happy Mother's Day to my mom, mother-in-law, and all the other moms out there!

Pinterest #14

Desperately need to catch up on my Pinterest posts.  Still trying out a lot of recipes, a few projects--and wishing I had more time to sort through all of my "school" and "photo" pins.

Potato "Chips"

These potatoes were wonderful and so, so easy.  I might even cook them longer next time as I like things border-line charred :)  I didn't use the garlic, but I'm sure it would be good too.

Life With Boys

No dance recitals here...just baseball and bugs at this house right now!  This was Miles' catch after one of his roly poly hunts.  Too bad there isn't a market for these; he could make some money.  He and Graham have converted the sand table into a roly poly house.  On Sunday he found one outside of the church and actually brought it home with him.  

Nashville

We are back from a fabulous girls/running weekend in Nashville.   Lots of laughs, great food, shopping.... and of course, the run itself.  It wasn't my best half marathon, but still another one for the history books.  I didn't realize Nashville was so hilly.  Or hot.  Oh well, better than lightening and rain.  I stole these pictures from Crystal's Facebook since I didn't take any.  I haven't tracked down a photo of our shirt backs; they say, "Know when to walk away, know when to RUN."  Clever :)  When is the next race girls??

Dirtball

Graham is loving all the time he gets to spend in the dirt at the baseball games.  We spent a good part of the past weekend at Twin Oaks where he and Miles wore themselves out on the play equipment.  Owen's team was back in action tonight, and he was the cleanest of the three!  Don't believe me?  Check out our bathtub post-Miles/Graham.

Lights, Camera, Action

This was the theme for Owen's 3rd grade program.  The kids sang 10 songs from popular movies.  There were also a few small speaking parts.  Owen (Kevin Bacon) got to say, "Let's Dance" to lead into the "Footloose" finale.  He had told us about this, but failed to mention that he had to DANCE with one of the girls.  It was a cute program, and despite having to wear "church clothes" and take a shower before the program, I think he enjoyed it.

 I think he's trying to make a point that he doesn't like his clothes.

 Okay, maybe it's not so bad.

 "Let's Dance!"

A future in the arts?  Doubtful.

Needs Work...

...my photography skills, not Owen's baseball team!  We headed to Salina on Saturday for Owen's first U9 baseball tournament.  He is playing with some of the same boys from last year, as well as a few new ones.  It will be kid pitch this year, but the coach wanted to get the boys warmed up with a machine pitch tournament this weekend of play.  They all played well and ended the day 2-0.  A short rain delay and a mad dash to Old Navy to buy warmer clothes, but no nasty weather while we were there.  Unfortunately too much rain Saturday night canceled the Sunday portion of the tournament.  Needless to say, we had one bummed out dude at our house.  I felt even worse breaking the news to him when he came into our room dressed in his uniform at 6:30.  Oh well, I guess they can enjoy their "undefeated" status for at least another week.  

 I specialize in cutting off heads.  We'll try for something better next week.

I snapped this with my phone because I thought it was cute--little brothers cheering for big brother.  I'm
going to see if a ring pop can function as a sitter for Graham this season.

You'd think he was on the field with the team given these dirty shoes.  Now to have them clean for Monday since he won't wear any other shoes...

Happy Easter

What a perfect day to celebrate Easter!  We hit 7:30 church, came home to find eggs and check out the Easter baskets, and then headed to Council Grove to FEAST and rake in more candy.  

Miles has been very concerned about when/how the Easter bunny was going to make it to our house.

 Owen found about 50 eggs in maybe 2 minutes...

Graham was very interested in egg hunting this year.  He REALLY wanted the candy inside.  Today he had jelly beans, Kit-Kat, Reese's, Smartie's, jello and ice cream.  Good parenting, huh?

The boys with their cousin, McKinley and the huge rabbit.  Notice their "Easter outfits."  They did wear nice clothes to church but were practically undressing in the car to get out of them and into comfortable clothes.

You know it's been a good day when you have this much candy and socks this dirty!

Pinterest #13

A "really good" recipe and a "good enough" recipe...

Chipotle Chicken Salad

The chicken salad was really good (minus the tomatoes, of course).  It definitely had the Chipotle (restaurant) flavor and was still tasty a day later--no soggy lettuce.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Pretty typical casserole--easy to throw together, makes a lot, not the most appealing to look at.  I'd make it again, but nothing special about it.  

10-10

One of my New Year's goals was to run five races this year.  Saturday was my first.  Mathis was one of the sponsors, so several employees (or spouses) signed up for the run.  The name 10-10 comes from your choice of a 10K or a 10 mile run.  I chose the 10 mile since I'm training for a longer race in April.  Did I mention this was a trail run?  Completely different from running on sidewalks and roads!  I quickly realized my pace for this race would be nothing like my normal pace--lots of steep up and downs, loose rocks, tree stumps and roots, etc.  Sounds bad, but it was actually kind of fun to run something different.  The course was along Milford Lake--really pretty and well thought out.  I didn't see any snakes or trip over anything, but did end up running almost an extra half mile after following someone who was actually working the race (and taking a shortcut) and not paying attention to the ribbon markers.  Fortunately he noticed me in a reasonable amount of time and told me to turn around.  Here's the crew after everyone finished.  Adam didn't do a very good job getting me a "team shirt" so I look like the random who crashed someone else's photo.  

Pinterest #12

More recipes this week...  Let's start with the bad.  Of course, this picture is gross looking, but the recipe sounded good (and easy).  We thought it could use more flavor and even though I followed the cooking directions the peppers and onions were way too mushy for our taste.  We did make the kids eat it two nights in a row though--it wasn't that bad!

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Now onto the good stuff... This guacamole was fantastic!  I think it tasted like Chipotle's, but would need to try them in the same setting to compare.  And the leftovers didn't get brown and nasty due to the lemon juice.  Now I just need someone to teach me how to peel an avocado without using my fingernails!

Chipotle Guacamole

I've made some cake batter cookies in the past, but all of my boys (the adult-boy included) thought these were better.  Adam even said this is his ideal cookie.  I made a double batch because it was so easy (and cake mixes are cheap).  She called for A FULL CUP of sprinkles per batch; I used just one of the regular sized sprinkle jars for two batches and felt it was plenty.  Miles took some to school to share--maybe it made the transition from Spring Break back to school a little easier :)

Cake Batter Cookies