T-ball recap

I've got some good basketball pictures to post now that the boys are playing basketball, but I felt like I couldn't move into basketball season on the blog until I wrapped up t-ball season! So here goes.

This year was the first year that the boys played t-ball, and they had a great time. It was actually much better than I thought for all the kids, because since they all bat, there is something for everyone--even the less athletically inclined or interested ones--to do (although they do have to wait their turn). It was a little more difficult than anticipated on the coaches--which included Assistant Coach Cort/Dad--because it turns out that you really need a lot of coaches. On offense, you need one at home plate to help with batting, one at each base to direct the running, and one one the bench to keep everyone in line there! But Coach John and Assistant Coach Cort got a lot of help from all the other dads, and everyone had a great time. It was, however, a LOT more difficult than anticipated on bystander/fan Yours Truly. I spent most of t-ball season trying to keep Will, then Helen, then Will again, then Helen again, then Will again (you get the idea) off the field and out of harm's way. Hopefully next year that part will be a little better.

Charlie, our lefty, batting (he is right-handed - he only bats left)


Joseph making contact


Joe getting a high five from the assistant first base coach, Will


Safe at home!!

Weekend gear

Four swim tops
Four swim bottoms
Two swim diapers
Four pairs of crocs
Four beach towels
(Friday morning swimming lessons)
Four more swim tops
Four more swim bottoms
Two regular diapers
Four pairs of water shoes
Four more beach towels
(Splash day at school)
Three pairs of shorts
Three t-shirts
One dress with bloomers
Two pairs of underwear
Four pairs of sandals
(Clothes for school once splash time is over)
Four pajama tops
Four pajama bottoms
Two overnight diapers
One pink blanket
One binky
One orange frog blanket
Two stuffed dogs
Two small pillows
One small taggie blanket
One cloth book
Two peapod travel beds
(Dinner with friends after the kids are in bed at their house)
Two basketball jerseys
Two pairs of basketball shorts
Two pairs of socks
Two pairs of tennis shoes
(boys' basketball game Saturday morning)
Two swim tops
Two swim bottoms
Four swim diapers
Two towels
(Will and Helen's Saturday morning playdate at park with teachers from school)
Two pairs of shorts
Two shirts
Two diapers
(Change of clothes from park playdate)
Six swim tops
Five swim bottoms
Two swim diapers
Four pairs of crocs
Two pairs of flip flops
Six towels
Two life jackets
Two swim rings
One bag of pool toys
Cooler with dinner and margaritas
(Saturday afternoon at the pool)
Six swim tops
Six swim bottoms
Four swim diapers
Four pairs of crocs
Two pairs of flip flops
Six towels
Three life jackets
Two swim rings
Four plastic cups
Four plastic shovels
Two baseball bats
First, second, and third bases and home plate
Several balls
One cooler of lunch and drinks
One beach umbrella
One sheet for picnic lunch
(Sunday morning trip to beach at Galveston)
Four pairs of shorts
Four t-shirts
Two pairs of underwear
Two diapers
(Change of clothes for ride back)
Two pairs of shorts
Two t-shirts
Two pairs of underwear
(Change of clothes for C&J after a shower to wash of sand)
Two pairs of crocs
Two pairs of socks
(Cort took C&J bowling)
Two t-shirts
Two pairs of shorts
Two sandals
Two diapers
(Clothes following bath for W&H before joining everyone else at the bowling alley)

We obviously had a great, but BUSY, weekend. Pictures upcoming, but for now I'm too busy with laundry.

Afternoon with the Astros

Cort and I took off work and took Charlie and Joseph to the Astros game this afternoon. Every time we go I'm more amazed at how much fun and how little trouble they are at the games. It's really no different than going to a game with our adult friends, except Charlie and Joe consume less beer and more popcorn. They also ask more questions, but they are good questions. Like when the catcher almost caught the runner off of first base: "Daddy, how would you score that if he had gotten him out?" Or when Wesley Wright came in to pitch: "Mommy, but he won't bat, right? They'll probably use a pinch hitter." They sit in their seats for 9 innings without so much as a potty break, and they are much more likely than I am to be able to tell you how each batter did and how each out occurred. In fact, as we were walking back to the car, Charlie corrected Cort as to a couple of plays.

We don't know how to leave well enough alone and enjoy it, though. We are starting to think about taking Will and Helen to a game soon. That should put a whole new twist on things.

Celebrating an Astros win

Separation anxiety

The boys were in separate VBS classes last week. I meant to ask for them to be separated, as a little advance preparation for elementary school, but I never got around to it. As it turns out they were separated anyway, except I didn't prepare them for it.

Nevertheless, they did pretty well. The first night the classes were divided by pews at dropoff, and Joseph knew two kids in his class and Charlie didn't know any. Charlie seemed apprehensive. But after we left another little girl they know showed up, and she was put in Charlie's class. So all was well. They both reported meeting new kids, and Joseph even (at my suggestion) asked one evening where the kids in his class would be going to school - and found out that two of his new friends will be classmates at Travis! We are proud of how they are gaining their independence.

Not so much for Will and Helen though. All last week we heard, over and over, "Where Joe Joe Charlie?" I mean over, and over, and over, and over, each and every night. They are really attached to their big brothers.

My men

Wordless Wednesday

The Class Lineup

Have we mentioned how everything the boys do relates to sports? The other day Joseph came home with a homemade baseball lineup comprised of all the kids in his class, complete with made up jersey numbers and positions:

Ryan	99	P
Ella	11	C
Scott	17	1B
Luke	98	Mg
Aidan	41	P
Emaa [Emma]	18	2B
Mitt	1	LF
William	22	CF
Camille	10	SS
Oliva [Olivia]	13	3B
Natlie [Natalie]	3	SS
Liam	45	LF
Alex	51	P
Laney [Lainey]	6	RF
Catherine	9	RF

Father's Day fun

Well, we might have had a little bit of whining on occasion, but all in all we had a great Father's Day.

In the morning we went to church, where Joseph read before the entire church as part of the VBS presentation. Go Joe! Pretty good for a 5-year-old.

In the afternoon, we headed out to Discovery Green and played in the water. The kids had a blast, and we had a blast watching them.

Helen enjoying herself


Will and Charlie playing together


Joseph hamming it up

Then after dinner at a local pizza place with only a moderate amount of chaos, we headed home, and Daddy read bedtime stories.

First the little kids - a book about a kitten who lost her purr


Then the big kids - Oh, the Places You'll Go

Hope everyone else had a fun-filled Father's Day too!

Happy No Whine* Day

That's what Cort requested for Father's Day: no whining. So far, it's going remarkably well. Of course, it's only 9am.

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy in the whole wide world! You are loved very much by Charlie, Joseph, Will, Helen, and of course yours truly. Have a wonderful day.

*Absolutely, positively NOT to be confused in any way with No Wine Day. We don't do those here.

Carrying their own load

Will and Helen got their very own backpacks for their birthday. They love them. So much that not only do they now carry their own stuff when we walk into school, but they also insist on holding the backpacks all the way - even during the car ride. But aren't they cute doing it?


Holding the backpacks in the car

Headed to class

VBS

Cort doesn't do the blog thing, so I just wait for him to say something on Facebook and repeat it here. Yesterday he posted: "VBS. Some call it Vacation Bible School. I call it Vacation Baby Sitting. Is that blasphemy?"

Seriously, though, it has been sooo relaxing having only two kids at a time. We take all the kids to the VBS family dinner at 5:30pm. By 6pm, the boys are in the sanctuary with their VBS class, and we head home with Will and Helen. We play with them for over an hour, then put them to bed. That gives us half an hour to eat before the boys are picked up, and then we put them to bed. Only two kids awake at home at any one time, and we don't even have to feed them. (Of course, we rarely bathe them either - see this previous post.)

It just occurred to me -- this must be what life is like for people with a nanny, and only two kids.

Watch out for next year, when Will and Helen are old enough for VBS. Four nights in a row to ourselves. Woo hoo!!

Our new toy

We have a new toy. It's called a Flip Video, and it's a tiny little HD camcorder that is really cool. We tried it out the other night, and I finally got it to upload, so now you can enjoy a little glimpse into a few minutes of our evening.

Way Back When-esday

This "Way Back When-esday" photo is over two decades old! This is from prom my junior year. I'm in the back on the left, with a metallic pink dress, although that's hard to see. I was so proud of that dress - bought it in the fashion mecca of Lubbock Texas. (I had a boyfriend at Texas Tech at the time. Said boyfriend, by the way, wore a white tux with a pink metallic tie and cumberbun that matched my dress. Awesome.)

Occasion for the post is that last weekend, I attended my 20th (!!) high school reunion. I had an absolutely fabulous time. It had been nearly 20 years since I had seen many of my classmates. It was great catching up and seeing how everyone was doing (for the most part, everyone seemed be doing really, really well.) We had events Friday and Saturday night, and a family picnic Saturday during the day. (The only down side was that I was too busy running after kids during the picnic to chat as much as I would have liked, but that is just my lot in life right now, so that's okay.) I won an award for being the person whose life turned out exactly as my classmates expected. Ironically, I was told by someone that I also won the balloting for the person whose life turned out nothing like expected, but that I couldn't win twice so I didn't get that award. Interesting.

Here are a few more recent pictures of our class, just for old time's sake. I really hope to keep in touch with all these people a little better, and not wait 20 years to see them again!

The prom picture, recreated

The whole class who attended Saturday night

HHS cheerleaders (yes, I was a cheerleader)

Me with two of my best friends (from high school, and still)

The same group with our "trophy" husbands as "arm candy" for the reunion (as Cort put it )

Observation of the Day

The boys are in Vacation Bible School every evening this week, so after we drop them off we have only Will and Helen at home with us. Do you know what the difference is between having 2 kids and having 4 kids? With only 2 kids, you can, on occasion, actually sit down during the evening.

Picnic, popsicles, and the park

This past Sunday evening we attended an end-of-year picnic at a park with the families of all of the kids in the boys' class. We had a great time.

However, as I mentioned, I've been out of town quite a bit lately, which throws all my organizational skills off kilter. I am not organized by nature, and although I've figured out that organization is key with two sets of twins ages 5 and 2, it is work for me to actually be organized. Work that gets ignored when I'm gone and out of my element for too long. This is a very long way of me saying that although apparently everyone else understood that the term "picnic" meant that you should bring food to eat, I didn't. A quick trip to Central Market by Cort fixed that, but I don't think he was very thrilled with me. (Although I'm not sure why - he got a quick trip to a fancy air-conditioned grocery store and I got to try to keep track of four kids by myself while he was away. I think he got the better end of the deal.)

The big kids ran and played and played and ran, while the little kids enjoyed the park, and especially the swings. There were water balloons, and popsicles - it must be officially summer. The kids were dirty and exhausted by the end of the evening, and Cort and I both expected meltdowns as soon as we left. But miraculously everyone was great, capping off a good time quite nicely, actually.

We've got some good pictures to share from the event. Many of these are taken by one of the boys' classmate's mom (a friend and former coworker). She has been our unofficial photographer at Cathedral House events for a few years now. These pictures aren't even taken with her good camera, but somehow even her point-and-shoot is better than ours. Sadly, she will not have a child at Cathedral House next year, so we are on our own from this point forward. Better enjoy it now:

Helen enjoying some hummus and pita chips during the picnic

And Will enjoying his milk, as usual

The boys were introduced to stomp rockets - very cool

Helen and Will had fun on the teeter-totter

But what they really loved were the swings

They swang, and swang, and swang

As soon as the water balloons came out, the kids converged on them

Well, most of them - Joe hates water balloons, and here he is (in orange shirt) staying a safe distance away

Charlie, on the other hand, was happy to take aim

Joe did, however, love the popsicles

As did Helen

And Will really got into the popsicles - with his whole body, I think

Heading home - Helen refuses to hold our hands anymore, but she will hold Charlie and Joseph's

Makes my Monday

I have been out of town for a least part of eight out of the last ten days. So being home with my family again is what makes my Monday! That, and the fact that I always knew that everything was under control while I was gone. See?


Cort bought us a new tempurpedic bed while I was gone, and the kids broke it in


These blurs appear to be my two older sons with underwear on their heads and socks in their mouths


Ah, yes. Definitely underwear and socks. I didn't ask whether they were clean ones - didn't want to know the answer.

It's important to look cool when you are going crazy

Potty training, times two

We haven't actually started potty training yet. But it appears that it's going to be interesting when we do.

If you don't see it, it didn't happen

Cort had the following conversation with Joseph at bedtime tonight:

Cort: Joe, why is your bed wet?

Joe: I don't know.

Cort: Did you wet the bed?

Joe: No

Cort: Then why is it wet?

Joe: I don't know!

Cort: Where are your PJ bottoms from last night?

Joe: In the laundry room.

Cort: Why?

Joe: Because they were wet.

A swimmingly good idea

The kids -- all four of them -- started swimming lessons on Monday. Will and Helen take lessons MWF at 8am, and Charlie and Joseph follow at 8:30am.

This post is not about how swimming lessons went (although the kids varied from no crying, about 25% crying, about 40% crying, and a full 100% crying -- any guesses who was who?). It's about a little revelation I had.

We tend to bathe the kids every other day. So since last night none of them had a bath, normally today would be a bath day. But they have swimming lessons first thing in the morning. It doesn't make any sense to bathe them tonight if they are just going to get in the pool, does it? I didn't think so. So no bath tonight, swimming lessons tomorrow instead. Which should obviate the need for a bath tomorrow night, right? Then Thursday would be a bath night. But Friday morning is swimming lessons, so again, it doesn't make sense to bathe. So I start thinking, wow, we may be able to go all week without a bath. Then I remembered that we discussed joining a pool so we can swim on weekends and they can practice, which would, of course, eliminate the need for a weekend bath. So the question is, could we go all summer without bathing them?

OK, probably not. Never fear, those of you who actually see us on a regular basis. We will occasionally bathe them, I'm sure. But I bet it will be only occasionally.

Makes My Monday

On Joseph's last "special day" Cort was in Dallas on business. During lunch, he wanted to use my blackberry to send an email to Cort. This exchange followed:

Joe: I hope you have a great time in dallas

Cort: Thanks Joe!!! Hope you are having a great special day with mommy. I love you very very much.

It's a simple email exchange, but I love it. He's five, and he can communicate by email - a medium I did not use until I had graduated from law school. And he can initiate a grammatically correct, adult-quality email "conversation" -- without even a spelling error (OK, so he didn't capitalize Dallas, but still). In fact, comparing the two, Cort's response seems more "child-speak" than Joe's statement. He's just growing up, and although I'm going to miss it when he's not little anymore, seeing him grow up still makes my Monday.