Kade's Reading Celebration & Pool Party Fun

The First Graders invited their parents for a courtyard reading celebration to show off how much they've progressed this year! Kade brought his "birthday book" to read to us - Chris VanDusen's "If I built a House". 

It was a warm afternoon, so the kids were treated to popsicles too!

On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we were invited to a very fun pool party! Yay for high school friends! We all went to Enloe together, many years ago!

These are all our kiddos!!

From Left to Right ~ Ryan (10), Brock (9), Kade (6 1/2), Lucas (6 1/2), Asa (7 1/2), Nora (9 1/2),
Kailyn (9), Nathan (7 1/2), Alexandra (10) (There's a lot of summer birthdays!!)

Big huge thank you to Garry & Michelle for letting us hang out at their pool - gorgeous and so much fun watching the kids all play together! We did have a grill competition too - guess no pictures from that, we were all too hungry!

The ladies! 

See! We haven't changed at all! 

Garry & Michelle's wedding 2011

Yay for good friends!

Blaine's Visit and more baseball

Blaine visited us for a few days, and of course the first thing Brock wants to show off is his new pitching!

Next activity - gaming it up on their computers. Brock was kind enough to let Blaine use his school computer. The current "it" game is dynast.io. Brock is obsessed - he watches YouTube videos of other people playing all the time. 

Don't worry Blaine - he's working on catching up with you! (Blaine is 6' 3 3/4")

Oh my goodness - Blaine came at the perfect week too - Brent's birthday and our anniversary week. We were thrilled he agreed to babysit for a few hours so we could sneak in a date night at our favorite steak restaurant! 

Unfortunately Kade's game was rained out while Blaine was here, but Brock had a game scheduled on Blaine's last night with us. 

Blaine had a good vantage point with his height!

Finally Brock was pitching! He did really well once he found his groove! Sooo proud! The Mets ended up winning this game!! 

A little video of Brock pitching... until Kade comes back from playing with his friend. He's too funny. 

Cousins!!! 

Oh, and it was Brent's birthday that day too! Happy Birthday hunny! We spent your 49th at your son's baseball game. :) 

Baseball/Teeball - 2022 Season - Part 1

Last year of teeball for Kade! He was way more confident this year - and it helped having a better coach. Another year as a Dodger!

Brent opted to Assistant Coach for Brock's team this year - the Mets (with an occasional assistantship for Kade's).

Several times this season the boys' games overlapped. This particular day, Kade's game was at Penny Road Elementary and Brock's game was happening at Ritter Park. I helped out as first base coach and took the opportunity to get a picture of Kade up at bat!

My #9 (Kade) loved playing first base - he needs to be in the action!

Brock's team played several times at Lions Park near Cary High School. I wasn't a fan of that field - too close to the road and bad views for the visiting team's spectators. But I was finally able to see this new pitcher in action. The game before was almost a rainout, so not many kids showed up - Brock stepped in to pitch two innings, gave up one hit, walked one (hit him with the pitch) and struck out six. 

This is a video of Brock's game on May 5, 2022. He did okay - some throws were not going exactly where he wanted. I was so proud of him for getting up there in front of so many people to pitch! 

If memory serves me, I believe he was upset because he didn't do as well as he did the first time he pitched. Brent had a good talk with Brock on the way home how some days are going to be like that - but you have to do your best and keep a good attitude for your team. 

Papa came to watch too!

A few days later, another game for Kade at Penny Road Elementary. It was a night game and a bit cooler. 

We had some time after Kade's game and the three boys went out on the field for Brock to practice his pitches. 

Even Kade had a turn pitching - his throw got all the way to Brent at home plate! 

Durham Taekwondo Tournament

On April 30th, Kade attended his first national tournament, held locally at the Durham Marriott City Center. He was excited, but I don't think either I or Kade prepared very well for it. (We had just returned from Spring Break and were out of town for many of the workshops at our school).

The mainly yellow belts (6-7 year olds) were divided into a few rings. Kade's ring had 12 children - all competing in forms and sparring. 

As we watched other children get called up to compete, I could see he was getting more and more nervous. 

Kade is sitting down in this picture, still waiting his turn

Finally, it was Kade's turn.

Here's a video of Kade doing his form. He was very nervous - not his confident self. He's performed so much better in class than this. I was still so proud of him for finishing and not giving up!

After forms, he sparred. He has never done this in class before. He caught on quick, but didn't know what the judges were looking for or how he had to implement the moves.  I also had a very bad camera angle. 

They would spar back and forth and then the three judges would choose the winner. The girl won first, but Kade won the second round. They sparred for a third time to determine the winner, but ultimately the girl won and was able to move on to the next round (to spar with someone else). 

He was bummed no medal this tournament (only for 1st and 2nd place finishers), but he did get a shiny pin to add to his taekwondo gear bag! We will be more prepared next time!! 

Easter 2022

We returned home from our big Spring Break trip the day before Good Friday. Plenty of time to prepare for Easter and dye our 2 dozen eggs. 

This year we opted for a tie dye egg kit. It involved a special egg dying contraption with water dropper. 

Easter morning baskets from the Easter Bunny!

    

With our special tie dye Easter eggs!

Brent took the boys to check on the boat, which gave Moose and me enough time to hide the 125 eggs!

The boys were ready to start hunting!

After a few minutes of hunting the eggs, they were done with the regular eggs.... they were both pretty much only searching for the golden egg. Next year I'm going to hide 5 "special" eggs in the back yard and call it good - that's what they cared about - not getting as many eggs as possible!

So so close Kade! Look up at the bird feeder!

Brent popped up after a few minutes to start searching too - we didn't want to run over any stragglers with the lawnmower!!

Soooo close to the golden egg!

Uh oh..... I think someone spotted it!

For how happy and excited this face was.... there was another little face that was the exact opposite. :( It's all friendly competition right? I ended up hiding the egg again for Kade to have a turn. There ya go - they both found the egg this year!

Anyway. Happy Easter to all! Bring on warmer weather and flowers and greenery!