T-ball

Again, way late in posting (are ya seeing a trend here??), but we enrolled Reid in t-ball this past Spring, despite my trepidation.  It was probably a blessing that I had to be at home for Carter to go to bed many of the games/practices...I think I'd have been griping a ton ("Reid!  Pay attention!  Quit playing!  Listen to Coach Sean!") given my teacher background.  And bless Jason's heart...he got talked in to being an assistant coach.  Long story short, we had the ragtag team (no shows, no volunteers, too many rain outs) but met a wonderful couple (Coach Sean and his teacher wife, Nicole) and their sweet son, Chase.  Jason agreed to be Coach Sean's assistant again this Fall, but we are now in the Frisco League (not McKinney) and there's a second assistant coach plus dugout coach.  Yay! 

One of the rescheduled (possibly a rescheduled, rescheduled?) games was actually at a time Carter and I could come watch the Angels!  All the boys looked adorable in their uniforms. 

Amidst the packing, I did manage to find Carter a suitable outfit, too.  He wasn't too interested in the game, so I spent most of the time chasing him around and keeping him out of the dugout.  He was pretty determined to play like the big boys and wanted to run onto the field, too.

Reid was so cute hitting the ball.  Not cute?  When he'd get home and whine that he didn't hit the most or catch the most. 

Since this was beginning t-ball, the majority of the time was actually spent doing other stuff...  

Kicking dirt...

Making faces at each other (or yourself)...

Coach Sean and Jason were great with the kids and kept things positive, focusing on what they did better at as the season went on, yet also what they needed to work on the next time.

My favorite baseball guys!

I'm so proud of Jason for stepping out of his comfort zone and agreeing to help coach!  I loved seeing him interact with the kids and I know Reid loved having him there at all the games and practices.  It's something fun that is "just for the boys" and we made great Christian friends in the process.  We are looking forward to an even better season with a new Angels team in Frisco this Fall. 

Spring and Saying Goodbye

Spring was a whirlwind.  But we made time for fun and making a few last memories at the old house.  Here's Reid's "decorating" he did in the kitchen.

It was much easier to check on the munchkins since the master bedroom was upstairs there.  I've gotten back into the habit here, now, too.  There's just something so sweet about sleeping!

Mr. Bubble Beard

Mr. Happy (before the mullet he's now sporting)

Daddy has some pretty big shoes to fill, but this one is attempting...

We bought and planted this Japanese maple just before Reid was born and it has been very happy.  It's a beautiful, brilliant red in the Spring and then fades to a pretty green.

 

So we had to do the same...  Got a purpley, smaller Japanese maple once Carter was born.  It was quite happy in the back corner of the yard and was growing as quickly as he was!

Carter wasn't a big fan of being barefoot in the grass at first, but then he thought it was hilarious and would run all over the yard, giggling.

Spring was also full of fun things at Sunshine Kids...and many of them actually coincided with my lunch or planning time, so I could go!  They put on a cute Mother's Day Tea and had made a little program and a few special projects to share with us.

Reid's best friend at school, Gabrielle.  I didn't know too much about her, but I liked her immediately because she's the one who finally got Reid to color.

And then there was Pre-K graduation night.  Bittersweet...I can't believe he's going to be with me in kindergarten this year!! 

It was a cute program and the kids even got to walk across the stage individually.  I was quite proud of myself for not tearing up :)

Too cool for school! 

Reid's sweet teachers, Ms. Lori and Ms. Cherie

I also made it for a few moments of his last day party.  We sent in money and one of the teachers picked up McDonald's (the kids had voted).  Lucky Reid somehow ended up with two containers of fries.  It was fun to see the kids he'd been talking about and we are so fortunate Reid got to be a part of Sunshine Kids.  It's an amazing preschool and Reid got a fantastic educational start there.  I'm sad we won't have any kids there next year, but maybe by the time Carter's old enough...  It was kind of fitting because this was also our last day in the house.  They'd made adorable little bags with the kids' handprints, a book from each child, and a sweet little memory book.  In the craziness of the move, I stashed it somewhere safe and didn't think to look at it until we were in the house and unpacking.  It was fun to look at and will be a wonderful memory for years to come.

Hotel Madness

So I'm still waaaay behind in blogging.  My goal is to catch up before school starts (eek!).  We'll see!  Rewind to May and you can catch a glimpse of our week and a half of hotel madness.  We obviously weren't too excited that we'd have to pack up all our stuff into storage and us into a hotel for the lapse between old house and new house.  BUT we tried to look at the bright side and be excited that we'd sold the Rancho house and were that much closer to the new house.  It was also a tremendous blessing that this lapse would not overlap with our Hawaii trip (just the last two weeks of school) because I really don't think I could have packed for a month long hotel stay, kids with grandparents, and Hawaii.  Our hotel choices were already limited due to location, but even moreso because we had the cat.  I psyched myself up to look at it as an adventure.  Boy, was it ever that!!!

Here's a view of our first night...after Jason oversaw the movers all day (mainly in the rain) and made several trips from the Rancho house to the hotel (we nearly forgot the rest of the fridge contents!), I gathered both kids (and this was Reid's last day of pre-k) from two different locations, the cat from the Rancho house, and lost my mind somewhere in there.  A thoughtful parent had brought me a delicious dinner from Zoe's Kitchen.  If it weren't for that, I'm pretty sure we might not have eaten that evening.  The kids were up waaaay too late.  Dixie yowled all.night.long.  Work the next day was not exactly fun. 

Childproofing isn't easy.  Childproofing in a hotel REALLY isn't easy!!  Carter was into everything, even though I thought it wouldn't be so bad.  He could reach most of the counters/cabinets/tables.  It was really hard to keep him out of the bathroom, and we couldn't keep both doors closed because Dixie had to have access to the litter box.  He decided the toilet paper was even more fun than the litter box handle.

We geared up for the three day Memorial Day weekend, but this was the rainiest May I can ever remember.  Dallas had lots of flooding and it rained pretty much every single day we were in the hotel.  It was extremely challenging to find things to keep the midgets from getting too crazy.  Thankfully, the nearby Chick-fil-A had an indoor playground.  Someone loved his Chick-fil-A!

Another day, we went to Sears to buy our fridge.  We'd been waiting for a good sale, but it wasn't any better than the previous one we'd visited.  Reid loved the tractors!

At Stonebriar Mall that weekend, there was a huge Lego display.  Reid really didn't want me to take his picture, but how can you pass this huge thing up??

They had a big kids' area where they could build, too.  Carter had fun at the kiddie table and Reid enjoyed building cars to race down the track.

The mall was packed (holiday weekend? more rain?  both??) but we did make it to the carousel.  Carter wasn't quite old enough yet, but he enjoyed watching Reid and Jason go 'round and 'round.

It was soooo not fun for us adults (especially the mornings, when I had to figure out how to juggle a baby, a four year old, my purse and school computer/bag while simultaneously attempting to gather breakfast in a lobby full of construction workers) and we had many hiccups along the way, but I'm pretty sure the boys will remember this adventure for quite some time.  They loved their brother time!  Baths were full of giggles and splashing.  Carter must've had enough of the hotel by the end--he decided to poop in the tub the last two nights we were there.  Thankfully, germophobic me had packed plenty of Clorox wipes and Lysol spray.

They both loved sharing a room, but it was virtually impossible for us to get them to sleep anywhere near their normal bedtime.  The mini fridge and microwave were in their room, too, so that interfered with Jason's and my eating dinner.  By the end, we gave up and mainly had take out, but the hotel door was in their room, too! 

Reid made up a game called "Pop Pop Squishy" that they played each night.  This video isn't the best, but you can at least get the idea.  

Thankfully, Dixie settled down after that first night and didn't yowl constantly.  She discovered that pretty much the only place that was kid-free in the hotel room was on the bed, which was too tall for Carter to reach.  She wasn't too excited when Reid decided to invade it.  It was also pretty comical because she could only jump up that high about 25% of the time.  We ended up putting a chair at the end of the bed for her to use as a stool.

All in all, we can look back and laugh now.  I'm not quite sure how we made it through that insanity during an already insane part of the school year, but it made moving into the new house all that much better!