And we got our summer back. ..

Just like Timberlake says, (ok not just like. . .) it's nice to get your summer back. For the past eight weeks, we have been attending baseball games up to five or six nights a week. As of Tuesday, we got our summer back.

Our final baseball game of the year ended with Evan playing a game of Tee Ball. Watching Evan play has given me a clue about what kind of kid he will be when we grows up.

He is a talker. He talks to coaches and kids alike at each base while he runs and while he plays.

He is not intimidated. He has no idea that he is the shortest kid on the field because he knows in his mind that he is the biggest.

He is unique. As we walked into the park that night, he told us that he needed his shades despite the fact that the sky was completely gray and clouded over. He said they just made him look cool. (True story. His words.)

He is athletic. The boy can hit. And run. And catch. Even his coach came up to me at the end of the game and commented on how athletic Evan is. I attribute that partly to having older brothers and partly to him just being Evan.

He will always do his own thing. Despite the fact that there are not outs in the game, Evan always slides into home plate. He gets points for style!

Now that we are done with baseball, I feel like summer has just started. Although, in retrospect, I am not sure what is more like summer than sitting in a bleacher watching my awesome boys play a little ball. What am I going to do with all my time?

Top Ten

My favorite part of watching David Letterman-- when I had more time and energy-- was watching his Top Ten list. I loved his zany one liners that built to a climactic number one. Our family had a special Top ten occurrence last Friday, too. I am not sure that it was zany, but it was definitely fun.

Andrew has been golfing since he could hold a club. He received his first real golf club from my dad at the age of two. His love of golf has only progressed since then. This summer he asked us if he could compete in more tournaments because he likes the competition side of it. We consented, and he had his first tournament a few weeks ago. We quickly realized that getting a high score was not going to be easy. He was grouped in the 11 and under group, so he was competing against kids two years older than him. In that tournament he came in tied for 26th. Bummer.

Last Friday, he competed in his second tournament. Admittedly, this tournament had somewhat fewer kids, but Andrew also played better golf.

Andrew had two pars during play that day. Here he is coming off of number four after doing an almost imperceptible fist pump-- he didn't want to boast-- following his first par of the day.

Things fell apart for a couple of holes. He let a bad shot get in his head, but he finished up strong. His overall score was a 47 for 9 holes. This was a regulation course, so he did well. And, he finished in the top ten. He was thrilled, and I was so proud.

This is one Top Ten that will keep entertaining us. Well done, Andrew!

Isn't it lovely?

Today was a big day. We went and picked up our brand new minivan. We are now the proud owner of TWO Dodge minivans, this one being a Grand Caravan.

Because of our hectic traveling to visit families, we splurged a little and got a few fun bells and whistles. The van has stow and go seating so all seats can be folded into the storage of the car; this also gives us a ton of extra storage. The car radio is simply amazing. It has 30G of storage available, so I can literally download my entire Ipod to the car to have it stored there! Included also was the necessary dual screen DVD player that can have anything hooked up to it such as a gaming system, dvd, digital camera, and almost anything else that plugs in. We got the automatic doors and lift gate. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Like a Christmas Tree

One of my favorite parts of Christmas involves decorating my Christmas tree and enjoying the beauty of the lights all season. Yet being rewarded with Christmas tree-like lights in the middle of July on the dashboard of your car is not nearly as entertaining.

Nine years ago we bought our Ford Taurus to tote our brand new baby Andrew around in. The car had 70,000 miles on it and we squeaked out a miniscule car payment. For the last nine years, we have gotten our money's worth and then some. The Taurus now has almost 200,000 miles! Wow! But it is really starting to show.

Over three years ago, the orange ABS light on the Taurus came on to indicate that a component of the automatic brake system wasn't working. We shrugged our shoulders and just accepted that as part of the aging car.

A couple of months ago, the red parking brake light came on even though there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the brake. At least not that we can tell. We shrugged our shoulders and just accepted that as a part of the aging car.

Last week Chris' orange check engine light came on. Uh-oh. That usually isn't good. This light was the light that set off final proclamations to us that we needed a new car. So, we shrugged our shoulders and accepted that our car had aged. We were done.

When I started the car today, I added the additional orange low gas light and laughed at the four bright lights shining in my eyes. The Taurus has been a great gift that will soon be replaced. Stay tuned. . .

Should he stay, or should he go? Help!

Five years ago this August 25th, I was sore and tired. Five years ago this August 25th, I stayed up late watching the Olympics. Five years ago this August 25th, I was in the hospital with my brand new baby boy. Five years ago this August 25th, I knew that this day would come when I would need to make a tough decision.

Should I send Evan to kindergarten this year or not?

I remember being in my hospital bed and thinking that Evan's birthday would mean that I would need to make a decision. Yes, as a teacher, we think about those things, and I did. As I looked at his perfect little face, I worried about making the wrong choice. He would be on the cusp, and he could go either way.

Until these past four months or so, I felt that I had my mind all made up. Of course Evan was going to kindergarten. He is the youngest of three boys and tough as nails. He is smart as a whip and beginning to read. I sent Brendan to kindergarten when he was a young five, and he did beautifully! Evan is social and fun, athletic and coordinated, intelligent and witty. So, it was a no-brainer. Evan was going to kindergarten.

But lately, I have started to worry. What if I send Evan to kindergarten and he isn't ready emotionally? I mean, he still cries for mom, but I suppose so do my older boys when they are really hurt. Maybe Evan won't listen to his teacher. He has been prone to "man disease" where he will not acknowledge me when I am speaking about something he doesn't want to hear. He is also really petite, vertically-challenged, whatever you want to call it. He is a little dude. However, that won't change even if I do hold him a year. My other thought is that if I would have had Evan on his due date, this wouldn't even be an issue. I wouldn't be able to send him if he were one week younger.

So, I come to this. I have to commit to kindergarten by August 4th or back out at that time. It is school registration, and the school needs to balance their classes. Therefore, I have to decide. Should he stay? Should he go? Will holding him back a year hurt him at all? He may set a record for the most mature-- wiser beyond his years-- kindergartner to ever live. Will not sending him set him up to be bored?

This decision has been brewing for five years, and it is time for me to commit now- one way or the other. Any thoughts? Help a desperate mommy. . .

Shuck-a-pea

As a little girl, I used to love to go the the garden and eat peas. I would shuck them and eat them straight from the pod, but as an adult, I tend to get my veggies from the grocery store, so I rarely get my peas in a pod.

This week, I received peas from my Farm's share--I'll explain that a later day-- so I had peas in the pod. When mom was here, we decided to eat some yummy fresh peas. Mom proceeded to ask Evan if he wanted to help her shuck the peas.

When mom asked this, Evan stared at her blankly, then quizzically. He responded, "What are you saying? Grandma, I don't know what you are saying." She of course explained that we needed to shuck the peas. I don't think he had ever heard the word shuck before, so he was confused yet entertained by this.

Hence a lesson was launched on pea shucking and the yumminess of peas straight from the pod.
When Evan described his day's activities, he made our actions sound like a singular word: shuckapea. And he was so very proud of this. Today we shuckapead. I like eating my peas that are shuckapead.

A few days later, I got my next week of vegetables and had both "shuckapeas" and "eatapeas." The latter being the kind you can eat right in the pod. However, Evan insisted that even an "eatapea" could be a "shuckapea," and he continued to eat his peas that way.

How do you like your baseball?

I like my baseball supersized with a side of fries and maybe even a chocolate shake with extra whipped cream.

I know baseball is America's favorite past time-- yada, yada, yada-- but this year, we have taken baseball to the extreme. On a regular week, we watch four baseball games and one baseball practice, taking up 5 of our available seven evenings. Beginning last Friday, we made that schedule look like nothing. We supersized our baseball!

Last weekend, Brendan started us off with playing in a coach pitch tournament in Waterloo. He played one game on Friday night and won. (Andrew was also playing a regular season game the same evening.)
So, Brendan had to play again on Saturday morning at 8:30. They won again! (Something like 18-14) His next game was at 8:30 on Saturday night. Seriously. My boys usually go to bed at 9, so I was worried, but they were fine. And, Brendan had the honor of being the first of the boys to play under the lights! They did lose, however, so the tournament was over for him.
On Sunday, Mom came to town so that she could watch the boys play ball. She was rewarded with watching Andrew play a double header on Sunday afternoon and evening. He had two games with a pizza break in the middle.
He pitched at one of the games and did a great job!

Evan entertained himself with some of the other younger brothers at the game by playing with cars and other toys us moms fished from the car.

Monday came, and we trooped off to Ev's game. (I didn't take any pictures, but mom has this hilarious picture with Evan running to home plate waving a double-V at us, akin to "Tricky Dick's" farewell wave. All of this preceded his unnecessary slide into home plate. Hysterical.)

Tuesday we headed back to watch Andrew play again. This time his team met success with a great victory.

Wednesday night was Brendan's turn for his regular season game. I didn't have my camera there either as I had to escape to a football meeting for incoming players' parents. Rumor has it, he had an awesome line drive that almost exacted revenge on the pitcher-- Chris.

However, our supersized baseball week did not end last night. We still have a baseball practice/ party tonight for Andrew, and we have one more baseball game tomorrow evening for Andrew.

It has been a baseball dominated summer, but it is coming to a close in the next week or so. While it has been insanely busy, I have completely enjoyed watching the boys grow and learn how to play the game. I love being able to cheer them on, and I am figuring out how to console them when it is needed. I am grateful that this supersized week is almost over, but a little nostalgic about baseball ending for the summer.

Final days of vacation: Family

For the past five July 4th holidays, my family has gathered together to spend a few days just hanging out with each other. It is the one time of year that no one is rushing off to another place, and we have a few days to just be with each other. This year, we headed to Maumee Bay.

The first day we arrived early to camp, and Tif, David, and Noah also came early to start their vacation. We all hung out together around the campfire waiting for mom and dad to also arrive for S'mores.
David and Noah both practiced their lumberjacking skills to help with the piddly four dollar wood pile I thought would last the night.


Thanks to David -- and Noah-- my wood pile grew!

A big focus of these trips is eating. Yes, eating, and lots of it! Noah enjoyed some awesome corn straight from the grill.
Andrew loved his S'mores.

We were also creeped out that a weird phenomenon that we noticed in Kentucky followed us to Ohio. When we camped, tons of daddy long legs would gather on the outside top portion of our tent. You would open your eyes and see them all there on the top of the tent. Freaky!
Some of our other favorite activities from the rest of the weekend included:

Kite flying (even though they look too exhausted to stand)

Playing with sparklers


Swimming

Taking Nature walks -- and just plain hanging out with their cousins
My favorite part? Truly? Just being able to talk to my family. We talk and laugh and tell the same stories every year, but it is what I look forward to every year. I love it. Being with my family "fills me up." I didn't always know it, but I do now. I have a wonderful family. Thanks mom and dad for the awesome trip.

More vacation updates: Good friends

After numerous tours in Indiana and Kentucky, the boys were exhausted.

So, we sought a brief respite with my friend Tyna and her family. Tyna and I met when our oldest boys were only a month or so old. We were playgroup friends for five years while we lived in Cleveland. Tyna and I were the sole members of the playgroup the last two years, and we liked it that way. However, I haven't seen Tyna in over three years, so I couldn't pass up the chance to stop by and say hello since she recently moved to Cincinnati and that was our way to visit my family.

When we got there, I was stunned to see how much her kids had grown. Yes, naturally we have kept in touch with Christmas cards, emails, and updates, but to physically see the little girl who was merely two and a half when I left now completing whole sentences and doing kartwheels on the back lawn was quite the adjustment for me.

We took about a day and just relaxed with Tyna and her family.

The boys swam with Tyna, her son Matthew, and her daughter Sammy.

They boys played video games, Star Wars, wrestled, and did I mention video games? They were in heaven.
What did we do? Tyna and I picked up where we left off. Talking. Chatting. More talking. Eating. Chatting. Laughing. I loved it.

Here is the mandatory kid picture update.

Here is the even more fun silly picture that they all love to take.

Tyna is one of those friends that I know will always be in my life in some way, and I am so grateful that we were able to have that time together. One day is a short time, and I was sad to have to leave so soon, but I know that we will get to reconnect in the future.

You know you've been to Kentucky when. ..

The middle portion of our vacation was spent touring various places in Kentucky. I found that there were some quirky aspects to the state of Kentucky.

You know you are in Kentucky when. . .

* You are tempted to stop at one of the many World's Biggest or State's Biggest Rock shops to purchase a rock that you could dig up from the ground if you could muster the energy.

* You have no idea was a SHMURE is. (That is phonetic for S'more.) I had this hilarious conversation with some guy about me buying the products to make Shmures at the campfire.

* You have nothing to see over the earth, so you start finding small holes and exploring those. Then, BAM! You find an awesome cave. (Mammoth Cave)* When you are on a tour of these caves, a man tells the story of how the first guy to ever explore the cave was named Earl. I don't know why, but I got a big kick out of that name. It just seemed appropriate.
* . .. when you take a two mile hike to see the mouth of a cave. Not much to see there. The hike was fun, though! Ev's face says it all.
* you see a giant bat and realize you are standing near the great Louisville Slugger museum!


* You have a great time at the museum until Andrew loses his brand new digital camera. What a bummer!* you actually think you can race in the Kentucky Derby!
* you take a tour of Churchill Downs and learn that horses are only buried with their head, hearts, and hooves. Did you know that? It freaks me out a little.
Kentucky was a blast. The kids had a great time at all of our tours, but it was time to take a little relaxation break. ..

Indianapolis: Vacation Part One

Over a week ago, our family returned from another awesome vacation. We stopped at a plethora of locations and did multitudes of things. Here are the highlights from our first stop in Indianapolis.

We had thought this would be a quick stop, but the boys had such a great time that we stuck around for awhile. The first stop we made was walking to the town center where there is a canal built for people to walk by. On the way to the canal, our enthusiastic Evan exclaimed "I see a geyser!" Knowing the Indy doesn't share the same volcanic activity as Yellowstone, we looked puzzled until we saw the man hole in the road venting its steam. Ah yes-- a man made geyser.
Probably, the boys favorite stop in Indy was their tour of the Colts Stadium. During the two hour tour, we were able to see luxury boxes, locker room, press box, regular seats, and even touch the field.
We even saw a man propose to his girlfriend on the field. Too sweet!
Another anticipated stop was the Indy Children's Museum. We had heard that there was a Star Wars exhibit and the boys are fanatics. (Personally, I was a little disappointed with the exhibit, but the museum was incredible!) The boys did get to dress like Star Wars characters, however.
This picture was from the cool new Egypt exhibit that had just opened to feature King Tut. We should be riding on top of the crocodile on the Nile. The boys didn't think that was fun.

Evan did enjoy the interactive exhibit where you could create a boat and float it down this complex series of water tubs. Chris and I really liked the dino part. The boys were too excited to race off to the Star Wars part to stay here too long.
Finally, we capped off our trip to Indy with an evening at the Triple A baseball stadium watching a game. The boys truly enjoyed that. And the next morning, we had the obligatory stop to the Indy Speedway. We aren't big race car fans, but touring the track and seeing where the big cars race was fun as well.
After a day and a half in Indy, we packed up and headed to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. . .

Friday Photo Fiesta: The story of a summer told by two arms

The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" rings at least partially true for me this week. If you look at this picture, you can see at least four impending explanations.
The obvious: Yes, he is one of the cutest little men you will ever see sporting Clone War jammies and a healing black eye from a playground fall on vacation.

And yes, he has an obsession with wrist bands. These bands detail the summer experiences he has had so far much better than any picture I could take.

Starting with his left arm, the bright yellow wrist band is the scapegoat that began this odd collection. We went to Mount Olympus- a water and theme park-- in Wisconsin Dells for an afternoon a few weeks ago. The boys had an outrageously good time -- as did I~ (Besides a quick student sighting where I awkwardly had to acknowledge that we were all in our bathing suits. . . ) Evan immediately told me that day that he planned to leave his Mount Olympus wrist band on until school starts so that he can tell his friends about it. Hmm. .. Only two months to go.

The pink band above the yellow represents our tour of Churchill Downs that we took during our vacation last week. We toured the facilities and checked out the museum.

The red band on the right arm represents the band that we all had to wear in Maumee Bay where my extended family gets together to celebrate each fourth of July. (More on this coming later this week)

The final green band also was earned at Maumee Bay as part of a pirate scavenger hunt that the boys took part in.

Since the picture, Evan has downsized to only the red one and the yellow one. Those are the two most important to him. He solemnly vows to keep them on until school. We'll see. . . If so, that picture may just be worth at least a thousand words.