Pirahna's Soccer

I love taking pictures of Mason playing soccer.  He always give 110% and I love to see the faces he makes and all of his muscles.  Smile.  He is on the Pirahna's again this year.  They were the team that he played with the first season after we moved here.  Because of the other kids ages, he will only be able to play with this team every other year.  We love the kids AND the parents and are enjoying every minute of it.  Great coaches.  The are positive and really make it a fun experience for the boys.  It doesn't hurt that they are doing really well this season.  Mason mostly plays forward but every now and then, they'll put him in as a mid-fielder.  Game are so-much-fun to watch.

Just look at those thigh muscles.

Nice pass!

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

Ok, lets face it ... it's getting more and more difficult to find things to do that 1.  Both kids will enjoy and 2.  Won't absolutely break the bank. (ME)  A fun day together used to be as simple as going to the park but let me tell you, that won't keep them occupied for long anymore unless they have friends there.  They'd rather just play outside with the neighbors but here's the thing ... I miss them. Sometimes it feels like with school, sports, their friends, the neighborhood kids, there isn't much time left for US.

Anyhow, I'll get off my rant.  I found something that we all enjoyed very much (not Brian, he was at work).  We went to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch in Wheatland.  This place is AMAZING.  I can't believe we hadn't been before, it's just about 40 minutes away from home.  This isn't just an ordinary pumpkin patch, it's a full day event.  We would have stayed longer but it was HOT so after about 4 hours we were wiped out.  So much for the kids to do.  This will be an annual thing for sure.

Where did my babies go?  I love this picture.

Mason ... being Mason.  Pretend singing while on the train.  Silly.

Where have pig races been all my life?  Wish I could have bet money on these guys.  I picked the winner for the 2 races we saw.

Petting zoo.  This was just so-so.  We really like the ones we can go into.  Goats were still cute none the less.

Mason took a good up-close photo.

Getting ready for the zip-line.

Mason (my safety kid), I'm sure double checking all the latches.  ;-)

Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!

Kyla (my daredevil).  Of course she went no hands.  I'm gonna have to watch out for this fearless one when she grows up.  Her little neck about snapped at the end, she'll be holding on next time.

All done.

Having a bite to eat.  By the way, the best Corn Dogs ever.

Just a cute pic.

Growing up too fast.

She's not far behind.

Riding the Carousel. 

Did she love it, I have about 20 pictures of her looking like this ... she was having SO much fun.  He had fun too.

All tuckered out.  One last photo before we headed home.  Hot, thirsty and tired.

I'm back!!

My poor sad blog, so sorry I've been away.  I love my blog so much but sometimes it starts to feel like a chore, know what I mean?  I just needed a little break.  I'm going to be skipping around a bit so the best way to keep up would be to enter your email address so you are notified with new posts.

Mason has been asking for a way to earn money.  For months, I've told him that he needs to start doing chores without griping if he wants to get any money.  Well, he said that he really wanted a chart or graph and wanted be able to see the money.  Wants a real payday.  So we came home, got on Pinterest and worked on a Chore Sheet.  Plan in motion.  I can just say, this is day 3 and he wakes up on chore days and makes his bed before he even leaves his room.  :-)  So far, so good.  They have chores 4 days a week (on other days, they just do what I say) and I pay them $2 per day.  

Funny story.  He said he wants to spend $10 a month on his Clash of Clans video game.  I told him that would be over 25% of his entire monthly allowance but whatever, it's his money.  Well, he said he was dying to spend $10 now and could he use some of the money that he already has in his wallet.  I said fine, it's your money.  He downloaded whatever it was, brought me the phone so I could enter a password and then a pop-up came up and said they he wouldn't need a password for purchases for 15 minutes. He gave me a look, I told him that I trusted him to not buy anything else, he gave me his $10 and was on his merry way.  About 30 minutes later he came up to me with tears in his eyes and said that he owes me $5 ... that he'd bought something else.  He began to sob and say that he felt so guilty and would never have been able to sleep that night.  (He's just like me).  I asked him if it was an accident or was he trying to get away with something.  He said, "Mom, I was sorta trying to get away with something."  I told him that I was glad that he told me, that I would've found out anyway and been mad and that we have to be able to trust each other.  Such a good kid.

On the list ... kitchen duty, bathroom clean up, pet care, vacuuming, make bed, math on the ipad, garbage/recycle and a few other.  Bonus money for picking up dog poop.  Yuck.

Kyla loved kitchen duty (for now).  We'll see how long that lasts.  She even went as far as vacuuming the floors.

By the way ... I'm sitting at Starbuck's while typing this and am next to a group of a 6 high school (I'm guessing) girls studying.  Wow, I'd rather sit next to a group of 8 years olds than spend another minute listening to these girls.  And dumb too .... wait, wait ... "What does profit mean?"  "OMG, how many calories is that." "Like how to you know what the percentage is?  I hope my computer can figure that out!"  And it goes on and on.  Time to go now.

Go Cardinal's!

I could watch his play baseball all day, every day.  Here are a few pictures.

Kyla pitching

Kyla got the opportunity to pitch during her last game.  For being a first timer, she did a great job ... as well as any of the other girls as far as I'm concerned (but I'm biased).  Way to go, Kyla.

Easter Day

The kids woke up bright and early to see if the Easter Bunny had arrived.  I threaten them within an inch (is that saying right) of their life, if they don't wake us up first.  

Mason loves hunting the eggs.  He's so good at it too.

Yes I know, parent of the year.  I couldn't for the life of me find their Easter baskets.  This will have to do.  The bunny gave them new swimsuits, water guns, and an assortment of candy (including my personal fave - Cadbury Mini Eggs).  Looks like the Easter Bunny ate a few of the carrots they left too.

Jelly Belly's and Mini Eggs - Woot, woot!

She was more worried about how many Mason found instead of looking for some for herself.  

Keep looking.

Later in the day, Jenny and I hid the eggs for all of the kids in our front yards.  It was something like 80 eggs.  Such fun these kiddos had looking for them.

Mason was good about leaving the easy ones for the littles.

Blake and Ryder sure love Kyla.

Callie, our neighborhood mascot.

Happy Easter!

The gang - wish Kyla would have looked at the camera but it's still cute.

Sprinkler fun at Jenny and Tim's.

Best friends.  I LOVE this picture.

Soccer!!!