Thursday, May 26, 2011


Some professional pictures taken recently. Excuse the blurriness factor of my pathetic camera.

Hughes' 5K Transitional Class (Conley is absent)
Teachers: Mrs. Lisa Ritter and Miss Kate Davis

The boys' school pictures. I opted to take them together. Too bad the background is hideous, the flowers are awful & Banks is missing his neck.


Collins' 6 1/2 month picture.


Bike-a-thon


Yesterday at school, they had a bike-a-thon. All the kids brought their bikes, scooters, or three-wheelers and their helmets. The 5K Transitional class went first out front.


The majority of the class ready to go. There were some with training wheels, some without, some intense twin three-wheelers, and some altogether crazy driving!

Everybody is ready! The class goal was for everyone to do 25 laps. I'm proud to say Hughes made it around twice before complaining of being tired. He took a little break and then gave it another two laps. He wasn't the only one but he was definitely the first. I think we need to work on stamina. He chose to take his scooter but he still is a little unsure of himself when it comes to riding his bike especially on pavement.

Hughes & Kieran.
Kieran loves dinosaurs as much as Hughes does and he often talks of her. He even took her a gift on Valentine's Day!

Hughes in action.

Banks' class did the bike path on the playground. As you can imagine, lots of pile-ups, very slow, & lots of frustration from Banks. He kept telling his classmates to "go, go, go". Banks is very good and fast at riding his "batman" bike as he calls it and he wasn't liking the slower pace his classmates were taking.

Banks looking bored.

Pile-up at the turn. Miss Devyn trying to clear the pathway.

Banks and this little boy in the yellow totally dominated the bike path. They were by far the most comfortable on their bikes.



The Boys


I seriously need a professional photographer following me around. Do you know how hard it is to get all three boys looking at the camera and smiling? Most days I would just settle for all three looking in a similar direction but occasionally I try to get some decent pictures of the three of them. The other day just didn't work out.


Seriously Collins - open your eyes.
BANKS! put your tongue back in your mouth!
Hughes - look at the camera.

Trying to get the sillies out.

This is the best one.
1/3 of the group smiling
1/3 of the group looking at the camera

But we do love our brother!
Collins, this started as a little quick photo shoot of you but you were in a serious mood and refused to smile no matter what crazy antics I tried.

Collins being tackled by all of Banks' love for him!

I promise he is a very happy baby and often smiles just not at this moment.

Photo taken by Hughes

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Hughes - Baseball


We have one more game of coach-pitch baseball this season. Hughes has made tremendous strides since the beginning of the season. He's pretty good about getting a hit every time he's at bat and when he doesn't get a hit he's pretty good about not letting it bother him. It was a scorcher out there today but he stayed tough and played his best.

Drinking lots of water

Hughes, Wyatt & Conley

Hughes up at bat. You can see the ball coming in to the shot. Hughes hit it and made it to first. Mr. James is always our catcher and always has lots of encouragement for Hughes.

Sliding into home plate.
He does this a lot; however, he always comes up about a foot short and forgets to touch home plate. Oh well, sure does look like he's having fun.

Banks - Soccer


Banks had his last soccer clinic of the season. He has loved every thing about soccer and has really done a good job participating and listening to Coach Paul & Coach Tyler.

Getting in the stretches before he does the drills

Oh yeah, right in the goal. He's a leftie with his kicking.

Listening to Coach Paul

This was Banks' first opportunity to play an organized sport. Although, there were no games just learning the basics and practicing drills, Banks did a great job. He showed a lot of potential as long as you were using his red "spiderman" ball. By the 3rd clinic, the coaches figured out which ball they used really does matter and it wasn't just Banks. A lot of the other players had the same emotional ties to their soccer balls as Banks does with his. So, once this was figured out everyone was happy and ready to the drills.

I'm not sure what we will do in the Fall. He's also really interested in baseball.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Kentucky Derby Party With a Royal Twist


*I love a costume party. When I'm told to dress-up or don something fancy, then I will try my best not to disappoint.

Suzie hosted a small Kentucky Derby Party this year and threw a royal twist with it. Instead of just sun hats, we were to wear fascinators in honor of Prince William & Duchess Katharine's recent nuptials. I loved the idea from the minute we talked about it. Now, I'm not one to go and buy some expensive hat. I am one to break out my trust old glue gun and get creative.


I offered to make David a top hat but he declined. I went with yellow because it matched my shirt and that's the color the Queen wore. So, I thought it was befitting of me to wear yellow, too. After all, I am Queen of my house. The big boys were in the splash pools in the backyard.

Some wore sun hats, some wore fascinators.
Laura, Me, Elizabeth, Suzie & Kelly

My Boys

We didn't win the race with our horse but we had a great time.

My hat was made out of a paper plate using a coat hanger to keep it's "v" shape. It was covered it yellow satin fabric from Walmart and I used some feathers off of Maemae's hat that she really did wear to the Derby last year. Throw in a headband, some yellow netting, couple of glue sticks & lot of blisters on my thumbs and you have my masterpiece. It was a fascinating fascinator!



A boy and his dog


Collins is now 7 months old. He is working on sitting up but doesn't have much interest in rolling over. He can do it - he just doesn't care to do it. He's happy on his back for now. He hasn't quite gotten down the "eating food" yet. His tongue still does a major thrust forward after every bite so I'm now sure how much he's really getting in his tummy. He loves the boys, loves Charlie, and, oh, love the baby swing on the swingset outside. He could swing all day long if I let him. He is currently getting over his first cold and loves the nasal aspirator - seriously, he laughs when we do it to him. I guess it feels great and funny at the same time.

Here are some pictures I snapped the other day while Collins was lying around. Charlie is so sweet and just came up and started cuddling with him. For as ferocious as Charlie's reputation is, he really is a sweet dog.


Gettin' some lovin'

I think I'll use him as a pillow.

The beginning of a lick - you can see the tip of his tongue.

He still gets 4-5 bottles/day - 8oz. each. He's all kinds of baby food but I think he enjoys yogurt the most. He takes 2 great naps/day but can definitely be flexible if we're out and about with his brothers.


Collins,
you're growing up too fast. I need you to slow down.
Love, Mom


Thursday, May 5, 2011

Just Saying

Here are some recent comments from the boys:

(Collins sneezed)
Hughes: Collins just "bless you'd all over me"



Banks upon waking up from a bad dream came pounding into our bedroom at 4:30am. We thought he was saying he "teetee'd" in the bed but upon inspection his sheets and pajamas were bone dry. We still couldn't understand what was going on but he refused to get back in his bed. So, I did what any normal mother would do. I put a sleeping bag on his floor and let him sleep there. He wanted to get in bed with us but I know how that story ends up - mama gets no sleep because she is kicked the rest of the night.

So this morning I was talking to him about his dream. I finally figured out what he was saying after only asking him to describe what happened. His description words were hairy feathers & a beak. Oh, you mean chicken. Okay, so I got the word he has been trying to tell us. He had a nightmare about a chicken being in the bed with him. I told David about it and he said "oh no wonder. He took me into his room this morning and told me that it disappeared".

Tonight at bedtime, Banks was hesitant to get in his bed. I had to pull the covers back to show him that there was no chicken in his bed or his room.



Hughes got upset with me on the way to school this morning because I didn't bring him a drink in the car.
Hughes: Mama, I don't like you.
Me: Hughes, that hurts my feelings and you shouldn't say mean things like that. Say that you're upset with me.
Hughes: Mama, you're fired. (I swear he's never seen The Apprentice)

Let it be known that I haven't brought him a drink in the car for quite a while because I threw all the sippy cups away and now we only use regular cups - huge blessing by the way. I no longer find random sippy cups behind furniture, under the car seats, etc.


Monday, May 2, 2011


A couple of weekends ago, we traveled up to York to celebrate David's grandmother's 90th birthday. She had a very busy weekend of three birthday parties - one for her close friends, one for family and one for everybody under the sun. She's spry, she's mobile, and she'll throw a zinger at you if you let your guard down.

Back Row: Kevin, Vicki, Andrew, Scott, Rhonda, Me, Hughes, David, Neal, Jackie
Front Row: Deyna, Kate, Mrs. Pat, GiGi, Aunt Nancy, Dr. Dave
Some grandchildren had already "hit the hay" so this is GiGi with her two daughters, one son-in-law, 5 grandchildren and spouses, and 2/5 great-grandchildren

We love GiGi and we hope we have many more birthdays with her!


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