Weekend

The weekend didn't go the way we planned. We were suppose to go strawberry picking after school on Friday, but all the rain on Thursday we decided to wait. Also JT started running a fever and not feeling well Thursday. On a good note though all 5 butterflies have come out. Now we just need to wait until it warms up enough to release them:

Saturday morning was a cold morning and it was opening day for the boys baseball teams. JT still wasn't 100% so he stayed home from the opening ceremonies but Dylan went. Also they had the banner contest for each division. The banner had to be homemade and so Todd did most of JT's team and Christina and I helped and Todd's mom sewed the edging on. We won first place for the minor league:

A lady from Dylan's team made their banner and it also won first place for the Pee Wee division:

So that was exciting. We didn't win any raffle prizes though. With JT not feeling well and it being so cool we didn't really do many activities this year. Both boys had a game Dylan's team won. Here he is at one of his bats, he got on base every time:

Here is Dylan playing 1st base:



Dylan catching a ball on first base for another out:

After Dylan's game we had about an hour to rest before returning for JT's game. JT said he felt well enough to play so we let him. Here is Emily and one of her friends playing underneath the bleachers at JT's game:

JT playing 2nd base:

JT at bat with a base hit, he got on base at every at bat too:

JT running to 3rd base:

JT's team ended up losing. Oh well, we will get them next time!

On Sunday we went out to eat with family for Todd's birthday. Todd wanted to go to Samurai's. It is a Japanese Steak and Sushi restaurant where they cook on the hibachi in front of you. I am not a big fan of oriental food, but will eat the chicken fried rice, but it was Todd's birthday so we went where he wanted. The kids love to go watch them cook too. There were so many of us they had to seat us at 2 tables/hibachi grills, but they were right across from each other. Here are JT and Emily and some cousins watching their food being cooked:

Here was the onion volcano:

Dylan sat at the other table next to Uncle Tyson and Uncle Mike here he is watching his food:

JT and Emily loved trying to use the chopsticks:

Dylan using his chopsticks:

Some of the restaurant staff came out singing happy birthday and put this hat on Todd's head and let him hold the samurai sword:

The cake:

After dinner I TRIED to get a family picture of us, but as you can see some of the kids didn't want to:

Overall it was a good weekend even though it didn't go the way I planned. We have 4 baseball games this week and a couple of practices in there too so it is back to the craziness around here.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Wanted to wish my wonderful husband a happy 38th birthday. The kids and I are truly blessed to have you in our lives and I hope you have a great day! ( I need to take more pictures of him and us, this is one of the recent ones I had, it was from this past Christmas)

Also happy late 5th birthday to Lila, hers was March 21 and happy early 8th birthday to Ryan on March 29.

We have a butterfly!

When JT came home from school today, he went to his room to check on his cocoons. Well to his surprise one had come out as a butterfly. He was so excited. Now lets see how many more of the other 4 make it. They guarantee at least 3 will.

So we mixed up some sugar water and soaked a napkin in it (seeing as we didn't have any flowers to drop the sugar water on) and I set it in a little plastic saucer and went to stick it in the housing and after I put it in I asked JT what happened to the butterfly, we couldn't find it, well I started looking and then I see it underneath the little saucer I had placed in there, oops! JT was so mad saying I killed it, but once I moved the saucer it flew away. It is still flying around now, good thing, JT would have been so mad at me!

Post

I finally got caught up with what has been going around here. Spring is always a busy time for us. You will have to scroll all the way down and even click on older post to see what all I posted. I will be back soon with more as we have a busy weekend with opening day baseball games on Saturday and we are suppose to go strawberry picking on Friday at the local farm. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy living it. Have a blessed day!!

End of spring break

The last weekend of spring break my niece Cassie and nephew Joey came out here to my sister Susan (who lives next door) and our place to hang out. The 8 kids (my 3, Susan's 3 and Christy's 2) has fun playing in the freezing pool and jumping on the trampoline (which we had to get a new one because the old one broke during spring break. Thanks Mimi and Popsy, the kids had a blast on it and will continue to have one for a long time). They played some sort of trampoline dodge ball. I didn't understand the rules as they changed every 5 minutes, but they did and they had a blast playing it:

My sister and brother in law were painting the outside of their house so Hanks nephew Albert came out to help him and he brought his son lil Albert ( I can't believe he is old enough to have kids as I use to babysit Albert). Emily and lil Albert had fun playing on the playset and having a popsicle:

The kids playing again between swimming, they would have to get out to warm up:

Here are our two puppies, they are growing so fast. Batboy is on the left and Apple is on the right:

Even with Todd not being able to get off work due to the clean out and having to stay in town, I would say the kids still had a blast during spring break. Now only 10 weeks left of school!

Rodeo

My brother in law got tickets to the Rodeo to see Taylor Swift. He didn't want to go and neither did my nephews so my sister asked if I wanted to go with her, my niece and my nieces friend. Of course I wasn't going to say no. Here is Tori (on the right)and her friend on the way:

We had a good time and the concert was good:

At the end of the show I took a picture of Tori and her friend with all the carnival lite up behind them:

Todd was working and both my parents and Todd's parents decided to go out of town at the same time so I didn't have anyone to keep my kids. My nephew along with my brother in law said the kids could stay with them. Emily got sleepy before we made it home so she asked her Uncle Hank to lay down with her, not sure who put who to sleep,but it was cute when we got home and found them asleep:

Thanks again Hank, Hank, Justin, Susan and Tori. I had a great time and I know the kids had fun too!

Garden

Spring has sprung so it was time to start our garden. We have tomatoes, peppers, bell peppers, cilantro, squash, cucumbers, okra and some corn all planted. Off to left I also planted a bunch of mixed flowers for cutting and making bouquets:

We also planted some blackberries:

Blueberries:

And strawberries which has already produced several and we have eaten:

I love this time a year!

Pool

We have had our above ground pool for 6 years now so we decided it was time to put a new liner in it. During spring break we emptied the pool, took out the old liner and put in a new one and filled it back up. The kids had so much fun playing in it even when it wasn't all the way full:

Here it is almost half full:

And then finally all the way full. They swam in it even though I know it had to be cold as we are on a well and the water comes from almost 700 feet underground and the sun wasn't real hot, but they didn't care, they just wanted to swim. Some of my nieces and nephew even came over to swim too:

Here are Cassie, Tori and Emily freezing, I mean swimming:

4 wheeling

So JT's friend had spent the night Tuesday over spring break and stayed with us Wednesday after baseball camp for a couple of hours. When his parents dropped him off Tuesday they brought his 4 wheeler with him. JT and him had been talking how they wanted to ride together and his friend couldn't wait to turn loose on all the property. JT riding his:
JT's friend (on his red one) and JT (on his green one) had fun following each other:

The boys going to ride over the dirt hills:

They had so much fun. JT says it is more fun riding at the same time with someone, but to be honest, it made me a little nervous as sometimes they would get so close to each other, but they were good and careful and knew what they were doing.

Baseball Camp

Warning: This post has lots of pictures. The first part of spring break the boys went to baseball camp with the Bay Area Toros. They are a minor league professional team that plays in Texas City. Some of the players were the ones who instructed them during the camp. It was 3 days for 4 hours a day. The boys plus one of JT's friends went had fun. Here they are at the first of day 2:

Out on the field with the Toro players warming up:

Dylan in the batting cages:

JT working with one of the Toro pitchers in the bull pen:

JT in the batting cages:

This was the start of day 3. JT's age group started off in the batting cages. This is JT with his friend that went too, yes they are the same age, and no JT is not short for his age, his friend is just tall.

His friend had spent the night and they stayed up too late, can you tell how tired they are?

Dylan hitting some balls out on the field:

Towards the end of the last day they broke them up into teams and let them play some mini games. The kids loved this. JT pitching during the game:

Dylan batting during the game:

At the end of the last day they took all the campers and broke them up into 4 teams. Then they paired two of the teams together against the other 2. They sent two out to center field and the other two on the left field baseline, and had relay races. I think the kids enjoyed this almost more than anything. JT running in from centerfield:

Dylan gettimg the tag to take off to centerfield:

After it was all over with the kids got certificates and 4 tickets to come back and watch the Toros play once their season starts in May. They also got tshirts. The players that were there stayed around and signed the kids shirts, balls or hats and took pictures with them:

Dylan waiting in line to get an autograph from the centerfielder:

JT leaning over getting an autograph from one of the players:

JT with the Toros centerfielder:

Dylan with the centerfielder:

All the boys with one of the Toro players:

The boys with the Toros catcher:

The boys with one of the Toros pitchers:

And the boys with the Toros Asst. General Manager Bob. He was awesome and so very nice and gave us his email so the boys can come to one of home games and be a bat boy for the Toros, they can't wait:

This was a lot of fun and the boys really enjoyed it. If you have a child (as there were girls out there) who loves baseball, I would recommend the Toros camp to you. They will have some more camps this summer and I plan on sending the boys again and they can't wait to go!