Future Soccer Star

Ben has tried soccer before.  Last summer, he did an indoor class to learn a few of the basics.  He had a good time, but he wasn't very keen on continuing soccer in the fall.  I was a little surprised, but I think he was willing to quit because his brother didn't want to do it anymore.  So, Ben did a year of gymnastics and had a great time.  However, as the year went on, he started getting more and more enthusiastic about running.  I knew it was time to try soccer again.

Fortunately for us, there was a little program at a nearby park run by Durham Parks and Rec.  It was only for a month, but it was a great chance to see whether Benny would enjoy soccer again.  A couple of his little buddies were also in the class, so I knew he would have fun.

The first couple lessons were definitely chaotic-partially because of the organization and partially because anything is chaotic when you get 60 3-5 year olds running around.  Regardless of the organization, Ben had fun and learned a lot about soccer.  He always paid attention to what the teachers were talking about and was willing to give anything a try.  He practiced passing the ball back and forth, taking shots on goal, and his personal favorite-trapping the ball with his foot.

Then, in the last couple classes he was able to scrimmage with some other kids from his class.  Turns out, neither of my boys are particularly aggressive soccer players.  While Ben still doesn't really want to get right in to the middle of the action and take the ball, he was great at following the ball and running around next to it.  If he started taking the ball down the field, he would always give it up before he got into the thick of the kids.  Today was his last class, and he really made a nice move where he stopped the ball and turned it around to head the other way.

He had a great time in his soccer class!  He was constantly in motion running around the field.  He even got a certificate at the end of the series of classes and a free dinner at a local restaurant.  He was so proud of his certificate.  Needless to say, I'm looking into another soccer program for my little runner/kicker later this summer!

(a little warm up)

(the soccer star poses)

(lining up for a kick)

(discussing his next move with the coach)

(GOAL!)

(Soccer is hard work!)

(Game time)

(Sometimes, soccer can be a rough sport.)

(But in the end, it's all good!)

Gardening

One of the few negatives we found when we bought this house was the fact that the entire backyard was wooded and shady.  This meant that that there was no place for a nice garden.  Over the past few years we've tried shade gardens in the backyards, a pot garden on the front porch, and even randomly sticking vegetables in our front flowerbeds, but we never really had any luck.  There was either not enough sunlight, too small of a pot, too many bugs, hungry bunnies and deer, or some other problem.  While we have gotten a few herbs out of our garden and maybe a pepper or two, we still wanted to see if we could do more.

Now, our neighborhood also has a frustrating rule that you can't have a vegetable garden in the front yard.  That means our very sunny front yard wasn't really an option.  Well, in the fall we put in a request with the HOA committee for a "flower bed" in the front yard and got immediately approved.  It just so happens that it may have a few vegetables in it as well...oops.

So, once the weather started getting warmer, Ian started building the flowerbed.  I was very impressed by the finished product and how Ian was able the get everything straight and level-I don't have those construction skills.  He also had two very hardworking helpers who loved to help him arrange the bricks (sometimes how Ian wanted them, sometimes not).  They also loved helping him with dumping the soil.  They always love being outside regardless of what they were doing.  Plus, as they helped him they also got to find a ton of worms and one poor, unlucky black snake that got imprisoned and poked at for the next several hours.

Once Ian had done all of the brutal manual labor and gotten the flower bed in place, I had to figure out what was going to go in it.  Now, the boys and I had planted lots of little seeds inside that had been growing for a few weeks already, so we were definitely going to add them, plus some flowers to make it look like that flower bed we were supposed to be building and a few more vegetables and herbs.  The boys loved planting their seeds and watching them grow, so they were anxious to get them in the ground.

Ian and I carefully arranged and planted all of the plants and started to wait for them to grow.  However, between rain and some hungry little critters we have lost a few of them.  I have also learned that sprinkling a few red pepper flakes on the soil can keep out some of the hungry buggers!

Just a few days ago I started seeing my first tomato blossoms, so the garden is going strong.  The boys enjoy monitoring it every day as they come to or from school, and they have gotten very good at pulling out any grass or weeds that sneak in.  Right now, the garden has zucchini, tomato, fennel, parsley, peppers of all sorts, and okra, and the pots on the porch add in basil, strawberries, thyme, sage, and mint.  (Oh, and I'm adding carrots tomorrow.)  I'll have to let you know how much delicious produce we get this year!

(our little seed starters)

(the builders busily at work)

(poking a black snake)

(packing down the soil)

(our little garden today)

The Butterfly Has Landed

This spring, Ben had his first school field trip.  Just like Evan did in the 3's, Benny's class traveled to the NC Museum of Life and Science to see the butterflies in the butterfly pavilion.  In school they had been learning about butterflies, making lots of butterfly crafts, and even raising some in a butterfly house.  So, they were prepared for the trip.

The parents all accompanied the kids because we had to transport them to and from the museum.  So, we were there to witness all the cuteness.  While he had been to the museum many times, Ben was really excited to be going with his teachers and friends from school.  Once we arrived, we walked (or ran) to the butterfly exhibit.  We all went in and started searching for butterflies.  The kids had a great time spotting as many as they could, but they were really focused with trying to get one to land on their finger.

Fortunately, we were there at exactly 11 o'clock, which is when they release all of the butterflies that have just come our of their cocoons.  There are always a few seconds when they come out of the carrier's box when they're not quite ready to fly, so the kiddos have a little chance to let one land on their finger.  Benny and I just happened to be right next to the box when one particular slow poke started to fly out.  He chose to land on my arm and didn't really feel like moving.  Ben and all the other kids loved watching the butterfly and were very envious that he didn't land on their arms.  However, he was in no mood to fly just yet, so we were able to gently coax him onto a few different little fingers including Benny's.

The day was rounded out with a little visit to the bug room where everyone had a great time looking at all the creepy crawlies.  Ben had a great first field trips and he's looking forward to many more.

(Ben poses as the star of his class.)

(The whole class stops for the snack-that's a lot of 3 year olds!)

(Waiting for the butterfly release)

(My cutie! Love this picture!)

Cookie, Cookie, Cookie, It's Good Enough for Me...

So our little family really loves to cook...and eat.  Ian loves to and can make just about anything he wants to from homemade wine to homemade bread to beautiful birthday cakes for the boys.  I have gotten to enjoy cooking more as I have had to do it a little more.  The boys both love helping us in the kitchen, especially Ben.  He loves to come in to the kitchen and ask if he can help with whatever we're doing.  Then, we all love to eat whatever we have made.

Therefore, when I saw on Facebook that Ninth Street Bakery was having an amateur cookie baking context, we were in!  They had an "anything goes" category and one specifically devoted to chocolate chip cookies.  I immediately thought of my Grandma Dot's absolutely delicious chocolate chip pudding cookies.  They are famous in our family and beyond.  My friends growing up still remember those cookies and have even visited my parents when my sister and I weren't around in the hopes that they would somehow have those chocolate chip cookies hanging around.  So, I entered the competition with those fabulous, famous cookies!

Ian on the other hand, decided to enter the "anything goes" category.  It was going to be hard for him to narrow down what he wanted to do.  Finally, he decided to try to recreate a childhood memory of these crispy cookies filled with a chocolate fudge.  Now, I love when he tries to perfect one of his own recipes because it leads to lots of trials and tests which leads to lots and lots of cookie tasting.  In the end, his were absolutely delicious.

The day of the competition rolled around, and I had even bought some nice baskets to put the cookies in and made little signs to stand in front of them.  I put the cookies, baskets, and kiddos in the car and drove to pick up Ian in a torrential downpour.  We made it, the rain lightened up, and the contest was ready to begin.

We set our cookies down on the judging tables and sat down to wait for the contest to begin.  There were probably 10-20 entries in each category.  The great thing was that for a small fee we could try all the cookies that we wanted (with unlimited milk).  So, when the contest started, we all piled up two plates with each type of cookies and we started sampling.

We were surprised that the boys actually filled up before we did and went back to their I-Phone playing.  They ate the ones they enjoyed but weren't actually that discerning in their voting.  Ian and I on the other hand took very careful nibbles of each one and judged very carefully.  On our ballots, of course we picked ourselves as first place and then selected our other favorites for second place.  (I'm sure all the other contestants did the same.)

Our little family waited nervously as the results were announced.  Unfortunately, we didn't win.  I was beaten out by the guy that made cookies as big as our heads, and Ian was beaten by the girl that made vegan cookies and appealed to all the vegan voters.  So, don't worry, next year we'll be back make really big, vegan cookies, HA!  Regardless, our little foodie family had a lot of fun and our sweet teeth were definitely satisfied at the end of that night!

(Grandma's famous cookies)

(Ian's sandwich cookies)

 (my little taste testers)

(what we started with)

(This was the best we could do-notice all the empty milk cups.)

Easter

This year Easter just so happened to fall on spring break.  We were delighted when we figured out that not only would we get to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting over Easter Weekend, but we would get to go down to Charlotte for the annual Easter Egg Hunt at Gram and Gramps' house.  It is always so much fun to have both sets of grandparents together with the kiddos.

So, on Friday afternoon we loaded up the car (stopped one more time at the specialty beer store), and were on our way to Charlotte.  We stopped in scenic Lexington, NC about halfway down.  It is apparently home of some of the best NC BBQ around, so we had to take my parents to see what they thought.  We ate at a restaurant officially called "Lexington BBQ", and while it is a little short on atmosphere, they do have good food.  However, my parents still agree that they like Kansas City and TX BBQ better, but I have to say that I'm a fan of all of them, each in their own different way.

Now, remember how I said earlier that they weather had been beautiful for the past few days in Durham. Well, just in time for the Easter party, the weather decided to get colder and rainier than it has any right to in late April.  That meant that, unfortunately, Gram had to cancel part of the festivities.  Fortunately for everyone, the family still was able to come and that meant that the kiddos still got to do some Easter egg hunting and everyone got to see each other and eat some delicious food.  Evan and Ben had fun hunting Easter eggs quickly on the chilly screened porch with their cousins Chandler, McKenzie, and Walker.  Cousins Charlotte and Wesleigh were still a bit too small to join in on the fun, but the big kids found plenty of eggs for them.

(Evan's gets ready for the festivities.)

(Ben is ready to party.)

(Brothers)

(All that delicious food!)

(hunting for eggs)

(Found some!)

Another highlight was definitely the little wind up bunny and chicky races.  All the kids lined up with their bunny or chicky and let them go when the race started.  I think Chandler and McKenzie won the day.  Evan unfortunately didn't realize that kicking your bunny across the finish line effectively disqualified him!

(The bunnies and chickies are ready to race!)

(Wesleigh...)

(...and Charlotte can't wait until they're big enough to play!)

(Ben and Evan have a great time with fun Uncle Don)

(Ian and I)

(Two beautiful mothers)

(more brothers)

(My daddy and I)

(Grammy and her boys)

(All the grandparents and their boys-can you tell who they look like?)

After the big party was over we had the rest of the day to just relax and hang out.  We broke out the wine and had a great afternoon.  Mom and I even got the rest of the family to join in on a few games of Boggle.  We got Candice, Gramps, Ian, and Reid to all join in on at least one round.  Mom and I each won one round, and I'm glad that we didn't play a third because I kind of like the tie outcome!  Too bad she's currently creaming me in Words with Friends!

(Ben and Aunt Candice causing mischief)

(Benny and I share a private joke.)

Sunday morning we woke up to the house filled with eggs because the Easter Bunny had arrived during the night.  As soon as the boys were allowed downstairs they began a mad search for the eggs.  I have to say that Evan was a cutthroat egg finder and his basket happened to be a little more full than Benny's at the end of the hunt.  That's ok because Ben's not at the point yet where he feels slighted by these things.  They loved hunting through their Easter baskets and finding what the Easter bunny had left them.  We finished off the morning with a delicious Easter brunch.  Our tummies were full, and we were all happy.

(What did the Easter Bunny bring me?)

(Just what I wanted!)

(We pose with our delicious brunch.)

(Daddy and Ben pose on a little walk.)

(Getting some exercise)

(Just hanging out)

It was a great weekend, and we're so lucky to have such wonderful family to spend the holidays with!

Oh, one more quick Easter tradition before we go.  Grandma brought up a great San Antonio Easter treat when she came.  They are called Cascarones.  While I knew that they were a bit too messy for Gram's house, we had great fun with them when we got back.  The tradition is to break open the colored egg shells over each other's head.  They shells are filled with confetti.  We had a great time, but realized after having our heads cracked with some rather hard egg shells that apparently you're supposed to squish them in your hand then drop them on someone's head.  Oh well, that's a good tip for next year, but we had a great time with them anyway!!

(You really want me to break these eggs, Grandma?)

(Watch out, Mom!)

(Happy Easter!!)