Last Day of School

This month has been a doozy! With the kick off of All Star practices and super late bedtimes because of it, the end of school year parties and picnics and the last week of school it's been nuts. But somehow today is the last day of school!

A few pics from the boys end of year picnics.....

 I had to take Tripp with me to Owens party and he was quite the attraction and had an impressive following. These boys literally followed him around the entire time!

Somehow today is the last day of school. As an afterthought, I had them take a "last day of school" picture on the porch as we were running out the door. Eli was in a foul mood-which is crazy considering summer starts in a mere 8 hours!! He squeezed out a smile for the first pic, but the second was his real sentiments.

Every morning, I would walk the boys to their place in the cafeteria for the assembly, stay by Cash's class for the pledge, and then give him one last hug and kiss before I left. He also made a special deal with this teacher to let him stand next to her every morning. At some point during the year, Eli started walking up to me during the pledge to give me one last good-bye and would always ask me to wave to him....multiple times, as he walked back to his class. He would walk a few steps, turn and wave to me. Walk a few steps, turn and wave.....on the last day of school there was not an assembly so he went straight to his classroom, but I could not leave him without one (or two) final wave goodbye! I love how sentimental he is even with some pre-teen punk starting to shine through.

Do I Have Something on my Face?

8U CHAMPS!

Spring ball has officially wrapped!

Lots of rain out games meant the season dragged on for awhile. But we ended the season undefeated and won the upper division 8U championship game! It was quite the nail bitter against the Reds. We won 8-7!

Jake was the biggest (and best) kid on our team and really took a liking to Cash (the smallest on the team), it was really the sweetest thing. I always saw them hanging out and talking together in the dugout. Cash was dubbed Jake Jr. :)

 Owen really blossomed into this great ball player this season. It has been amazing to watch him grow and focus so much into this sport that he started this last fall. I just could not be more proud of him.

 Although Blaine hates his current schedule at work, it has so many perks. The main one being that he was able to help coach their team this spring. Really in truly its been amazing for all three of them. I love watching Blaine out on the field with the team and to see the kids looking up to him and talking to him about baseball. He is SO good with kids and he has this natural ability to talk to them and encourage them. Just yesterday at an All-Star practice, Jake (who is not on our All Star team) ran up to Blaine and said "Coach Blaine!!! Did you see that hit?!? I hit it over the fence!" He was so excited to find Blaine to tell him.

But what a special time for Owen and Cash to be able to play together and have their dad with them every step of the way. 

 This guy toughed it out this season and loved being able to run the field after the championship game!

48 Years

April 4th, my parents celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary. We started going out to dinner with them, just adults, no kids a few years back. And these dinners have been so much fun. This year we went to Suerte. 

My dad never misses an opportunity to tell us how much he loves us, how lucky he and my mom are to have us, and how he thinks we are all just the best. 

I guess after 48 years, this is what you do at your anniversary dinner:)

 It was a really fun and delicious night celebrating the best parents in the world!

Happenings

With the baseball season wrapping up, comes All-Star tryouts. Owen and Cash both had their tryout a couple of weeks ago. They both did great, and made the team. They had 92 kids try out and only 60 made teams. Proud mom for sure! 

 Kiker hosted their annual fundraiser. Last year we decided at the last minute not to go because I felt like I was going to pop and we had the Bose commercial coming up and did not want to chance going into labor early, so we laid low. It was a fun night! But I only got these two pictures!

Another broken bone. This time the boys were playing basketball and somehow Eli fell on his hand funny and Owen stepped on it. It was a really small fracture but since it was in the middle of his hand, it needed to be protected with a cast.

 He just could not wait another day to get his cast off so Blaine decided it was a great idea to cut it off himself.....?!?!?

Owen has taken up chess.

We are ready for SUMMER!!!!!

Cash's class did the pledge in front of the entire school. It was finally his turn! My brain can only hold so much information these days. And the fact that Cash was doing the pledge on a Monday morning and had to wear his class shirt just did not fit in my brain. I had ZERO energy to fight him on his shirt choice on said day. When we pulled up to school he remembered that it was pledge day and he was supposed to wear his shirt--TEARS. TEARS. I assured him that  I would talk to his teacher and that maybe he could do it the next day with another group of kids from his class, or he could go up there in his tank top....tank top it was....

 That hair. 

 Eli and Owen were both invited by different friends to spend the night one night so we asked Cash's best buddy, Ronin to spend the night with him! It was really sweet to see these boys together and for Cash to have this time without big brothers around!

 This kid.

 We spent Mother's Day afternoon at the ball field. It was a beautiful day! At the end of their game, their coach handed out roses to each of the boys to give to their moms. It was pretty darn sweet, and I just adore these pictures with my boys!

Maggie.

I find random pictures like this on my phone all the time:)

Sunday night dinner celebrating Tripp.

Our attempt for a family picture.