Rivercats!

Oh Say Can You See?

Ryan joined the school choir this year.  

It was extra exciting because every year they perform the National Anthem at a RiverCats Game..our local Minor Leage Baseball Team!

It was such a fun evening!  We got there extra early so the choir could practice and go through the underground part of the stadium...

 So the other boys got to do a bounce house.

 Then Sean and Kyle tried to get the Bees players to sign their stuff...which never worked out...the players kept saying they would come over in just a minute...after stretching.

 Ryan after they performed and before we ran back to our seats for the game!  He did not want to take this picture...he wanted to go watch the game!

 And the kids got extra spoiled...cotton candy, Dippin Dots....hot dogs...lemonade...Red Vines...yes they had fun!

 And fireworks!  Such fun.  I loved seeing Ryan out on the field.  So cool that my kids are old enough to do awesome stuff like this...but what made it even more fun for me was that when I was young, the singing group we were in, Kids Are Music sang at the Angels Game 2 or 3 times.  I loved to do it and I wasn't even a young boy who LOVED baseball!  What a great night!

Kyle's 5th Birthday!

Kyle turned 5!

That is just crazy yet totally about time too!

He is such a fun boy and was so thrilled it was his birthday!  It even landed on a preschool day...so fun for him to get to bring cupcakes to school!  He was in heaven!

Kyle's birthday came on one of the nights of our school dance performances.

So after the performance Grandma and Grandpa came back to our house for cupcakes and presents.

He was super excited!

Dad got Sean's old bike fixed {It had been out of commission for 2 years!}  

He was super excited this cool bike was now ALL HIS!

So we headed out front to test it out!

Grandpa gave the boys "Rocket booster" rides!

This two year old is a scooter maniac...and scares us all...even up and down the slope curbs...
somehow he manages to stay upright!

Racing Ryan...in socks no less. argh.

Racing...bike, scooter and running.

They had a blast riding out front in the dark and no one got hurt!  Success again!  Though Grandma had a hard time watching Cade ride around so fast and crazy!  Can you see the joy in his face!?!

And of course, Kyle needed his own party since Sean got one and he's now a big boy!  

Kyle's first official party!

Astronaut style.

Here I had the kids assembling nuts and bolts with big gloves on...like astronauts working on a shuttle in space with their space suits on!

TRANQUILIZE THE ALIENS!

Very successful game:)

Earth Bowling

Also successful...doesn't that ball sorta look like Earth?

ROCKET LAUNCHING!

Amazingly successful!  Mint mentos in Diet Rootbeers.

2 mentos in 20 oz gave about a two feet squirt.

BUT put 3 mentos into a 2 Liter Diet Soda - we used Diet A&W Rootbeer I think...launches crazy high!

And Sean's white shirt has never been the same.

Everyone had fun watching this event!

Kyle has been loving Astronauts...talking about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren all the time.

We lucked out and our friend Jen had this cake pan!

What an adorable cake for an adorable boy!

Fun to celebrate this 5 year old boy of ours!  He is so passionate about whatever he is doing.  He loves to do school work and loves to show us what he has learned. Loves to please and do "cool" things like his brothers.  At school he often plays with the girls...just because he seems to like them...not because they are girls, just because they are fun to play with.  Most of the time he truly is the kindest boy and is so sad when others do something mean spirited - though he has been known to lash out when he is frustrated too..See #9
He loves a good mom or dad cuddle and is the son who gets the most sad when mom and dad leave.  When either of us leave - even on a daily basis as dad leaves for work...he says goodbye about 50 times...which includes multiple hugs or kisses and multiple opening the door to say goodbye again...sometimes there are tears and he'll say, "But I really like you!"  He has loved to color...closely associated with loving school work.  Just recently he hasn't colored as much but most of his 3rd and 4th years he colored so cute.  He used a variety of colors and colored hard so that the color came out vibrant on the paper.  We love his coloring!  LOVE YOU KYLE!

INTERVIEW 2013 ~ Age 5
1.  Who is your best friend? Tanner Penney
2. What is your favorite thing to do?  Play with my brothers....on the trampoline.
3. Fav. Color? Orange
4. Fav Food?  Broccoli
5. Fav thing to do with family? Play - when mom and dad get on the trampoline.
6. Fav. toys? Millenial Falcon, Ninja Turtle, Rocket
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? Astronaut
8. What makes you happy? Other people telling funny jokes to me.
9.  What makes you sad?  Whenever I do ba stuff...like when I smashed Cade's head into the wall when Grandma Becky and Grandpa Scott were here.
10. What is your favorite TV show to watch?  Tom and Jerry
11. What is your favorite book to read?  Green Eggs and Ham - because I read the whole thing!
12.  What is your fav thing to learn?  Science - going to the dump when I am in Kindergarten {hope he's not disappointed}
13. What was the best part of your birthday?  Presents - RC Jeep
14.  Where do you like to go? Hotels or Virginia or Camping
15. Who was your teacher?  Miss Judy and Miss Shannon.
16.What is your favorite treat?  Banana Boats  Cade: Candy!  Chocolate!
17.What do you think about before you fall asleep? going to Kindergarten  Cade:  CAPRI SUN!
18. If you could meet someone famous, who would it be?  Neil Armstrong
19. Something new you want to try? California Screamin
20. What are you scared of? Nightmares - saw a snake and got a snake bite
21. Fav. sport? Baseball
22. What do you like best about our family?  We say prayers.  Cade: My rocket ships
23. Where do you want to go? Disneyland right this second.
24. What do you not like to eat? Salad - but I love fruit salad.
25. Love about dad: he goes towork gets us money.
26.  Love about mom: prints out pictures to color

Sean's Golden Birthday! 8 on the 8th!

We had a great time celebrating Sean's Golden Birthday! He turned 8 on the 8th! 

Though I feel bad - sorta forgot that cool fact until weeks later!

As if turning 8 isn't special enough!

But he got so so spoiled this year...it's like we actually remembered it was extra extra special!!!

I made him a special dinner...a few days before...

he requested Asparagus, Brussell Sprouts, Shrimp, Noodles...

Then his real birthday came and we told him we could go out for dinner...and he requested Cheesecake Factory!  Which is a rare treat...AND he got his very own Mango Key Lime Cheesecake which is our most favorite and is amazing...so he did get extra spoiled for his Golden Birthday!

4+4=8

Pretty awesome! Sean got Buster Posey's baseball card!  Oh yea!

I stalled in planning a birthday party with our busy lives...and Scott was going to be in NYC that week...

but I caved and planned a last minute party...feeling like it's fun to get together with friends and we hardly ever have play dates.  So I planned without Scott and ended up inviting 9 - 8 or 9 year old boys!

Plus Ryan, Sean, Kyle and Cade... so I had 13 boys and just me!

Somewhat insane.

All turned out fun ... though I thought the kids would be more interested in watching each other compete in all the Minute to Win It games...however apparently not that much.  A lot of the time if a kid wasn't still participating in a game, they would wander upstairs and find a NERF gun...I had to confiscate a few!

Head Bowling

Face Cookie - this was the event that the kids left probably the most and I couldn't figure it out!  How fun is it to watch the faces people make when they are trying to get the cookie into their mouth?  Hilarious!

This is a classic Noah sports face.  His faces are my favorite!

Evan here won and got the cookie in his mouth!

Give them food and they will sit.

They loved this game...dominoes on a Popsicle stick...I think Sean won this one!

Shake It!

Shake the ping pong balls out of the Kleenex box tied to your rear end!

Marble roll...knock down the markers...turned out to be much easier than I thought...and I couldn't seem to get them to scoot back...too much game crowding going on here!

It was fun and everyone was safe...despite Ryan and Noah falling out of the trampoline...which really scared me!  I hadn't been worried it would be that crazy...but I ended the night with a bowl of ice cream on my bed.  I won't be doing another party for that many kids alone again:)  Lesson learned. ;)

Sean is such a great kid.  He is full of life!  He is competitive and energetic.  He loves to help me cook and do things on his own.  He likes to help mom or dad or Cade...and lately has been happy/proud to help two people through crying to stop crying (a brother and a friend at church). At Santa Cruz he helped Scott with Tacos..and pancakes...and insists he will only eat until everyone else has already eaten.  Great helper! Spritually sensitive too...has borne his testimony in Sacrament Meeting all on his own...we can tell he can feel the spirit.  Sean bought Ryan a Yankees Team Pack of Baseball cards with his own money for Ryan's birthday..Sean was so excited.  As the two of us went out to buy the present...Sean kept saying, "I just feel so old  buying a present for Ryan all by myself!"  He also wants to buy a baseball for Scott and have us all sign it for Scott's birthday...Sean is a fantastic kid with the most gorgeous eyelashes and adorable freckles.  WE LOVE OUR SEAN!