A little rain never hurt

However, a torrential downpour. That can sting. It’s been raining a lot here. I don’t know the last time we saw the sun, but it’s been awhile. And it’s been cold. Not a great way to start the summer. Tonight was one of the worst rains. The weatherman called for flash floods and for once he was right.

This is the end of our street. It’s now a small lake.

Like any good parents we put our kids to bed at a normal time (they did have to get up the next morning). But then Mike got worried about his truck either floating away or impeding the flow of water so he decided to go move it. This is just up the street from us. And yes, those are waves. The curbs were completely covered by this point in time.

The river that regularly runs between our house and our neighbors’ was in full flow mode.

And there’s the truck.

Mike braved the water (he went awfully slow because he was worried about losing one of his shoes in the current)

Eventually he made it. Thankfully the truck started (it has a tendency not to when the weather gets too wet and I think this would definitely qualify).

By this time the boys had heard the commotion outside and wanted to see what kind of fun was being had while they were supposed to be sleeping. I was tempted to tell them to go back inside, but the rain had slowed just enough that I guessed it wouldn’t actually injure them if they got pelted. So out they came. Mike grabbed the umbrella even though he was already thoroughly wet and took the boys to the end of the street to let them play in the current. My only rule was they had to hold on to someone. Nothing like forcing them to get along.

 

Now I’m trying to decide if this makes me the best mom in the world or the worst. I  guess it just depends on who you asked. The boys repeatedly told me how much fun they had and how nice I was for letting them come out to play. I take what I can get because those words seem to be few and far between around these parts lately.

Bustin’ boards and takin’ names

Nick wrapped up his first session of taekwondo with a promotion (white belt with one stripe – even though he doesn’t have a belt yet) and the chance to finally get to break some boards. A friend told me that most dojos (we are just at the Y) don’t let students break boards until they are black belts, but not this one. And Nick was stoked.

The class started off the night practicing on these pre-broken boards. Nick had two and handled it with no trouble.

Then they moved on to the real thing. Kids could choose from different sizes. Nick took the second smallest (there were two larger ones) and assumed the position.

With one swift ke-hop the board was busted in two and the grin on my boy’s face was irreplaceable.

Unfortunately they were only able to break one board because they had to save some for the older kids who were coming in later. Nick was kind of sad as he really wanted to try his hand as something a little more difficult. And he got the chance. The instructor let all the kids attempt to break a board using a front punch (a very difficult task for little people).

Nick and the rest of the kiddos gave it their best shot but were unable to complete the task. Instead, they all sat around rubbing their knuckles and comparing their red spots.

Then the kids were recognized for their hard work this session. Nick earned his black stripe.

And a badge for his hard work. The instructor told him his kicks were much improved from the first day of class and that he was impressed with the work Nick put in to make them better.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t give Nick the patch because we never bought a uniform. However, if I do buy one (I wanted to make sure he was actually going to do it more than one time before I spent the $45) Nick will get the patch right away and not have to earn it again. Of course Nick came to me right after class to tell me he wanted to do the summer session even though just last week he said he wanted to be able to play and didn’t want to do taekwondo until the fall. We are still on the fence about what we will actually do.

Rain, rain go away

We are tired of being stuck indoors. It's Memorial Day weekend and we can't even play outside. The kids are wearing pants and I've got on a sweatshirt. Where is summer? Since it was too wet and yucky to play outside we headed to the library instead. They've got lots of great new toys (and some of the old favorites).




I love this picture. That smile is so Ben. And he loves to be wherever his older brothers are even if they don't want him.




Nick is outgrowing the play part of the library. He grabbed his books (Poppleton) and sat down to read, even though he had just complained about reading to me 20 minutes earlier. I did force him to read to me a little later and he fought me at every word. I'm really considering calling the tutor we had last year. He's reading at grade level, but this summer could be really detrimental to his progress if we don't keep pushing him. It's hard to push when we are so busy and he fights it every time we sit down to read. I don't want him to hate reading but that appears to be the path we are headed down.




When we couldn't find anything more to do at the library we headed to Scheels. It's been open for a few months now but I had yet to be out there. I really don't like shopping with the whole family (the boys touch everything they see and won't listen at all) but like I said, we were bored. So we walked around Scheels for awhile, got Nick a new baseball bat, glove and pants. We looked for cleats but decided against them for the cost.



When we had everything we needed and the boys had managed to completely drive me crazy we left. And as we were leaving Zander jumped up on the stump in front of the moose and asked me to take his picture. Of all the boys he is most intuitive as to when I am about to blow. He doesn't always, but quite often, he will do something or say something extra sweet in an attempt to bring me back down. This was that attempt. It worked. Thankfully, when I asked all the boys to pile up there with him he didn't mind and, miracle of miracles, they all looked at me and smiled. Twice. I had to get a picture in front of the bear, too.
 




After all of this we headed out to grab a quick lunch and then back home to hunker down in the house for the rest of the afternoon. We could all use a little sunshine, or even just a break in the rain, right about now.

A quiet moment

I have been waiting for this for years. Nick has to read at least 15 minutes every night for school. Sometimes, the book he brings home to read takes him 15 minutes or more. Sometimes it doesn't. When I am busy, and he has finished his book fast enough, I let him read quietly to himself to round out the minutes. Tonight, he read to Zander instead. Not all the words were right, but this mama certainly wasn't going to correct him. For starters, the boys were sitting quietly while I finished cleaning up after dinner. But, more importantly, they were getting along and anymore, that doesn't happen very much in our house. I cherish these rare moments and can only hope they continue as the boys grow older. 

Still hiding out

Zander favorite place to be is still his "hiding corner." I shudder to think what will happen when he finally outgrows this little nook. But, for now, he is content to wake up (at 5 a.m. all too often), grab the iPad and watch Netflix in the corner until the rest of the house wakes up.



When I let him he even eats breakfast or his snacks back there. Unfortunately, it's also turned into a bit of a hoarding corner (it must be the age because Nick was the same way) and we've had to put the kibosh on how much and what he gets to have back there.

T-Ball 2013

 The spring season of t-ball is underway and my little Twin is already complaining about having to rush through dinner, skip his Power Rangers TV time and cut short our outdoor play. Not that I can blame him on some of these things. It is nice for the first time in eons and he'd much rather be running around the neighborhood than listening to his coach try to teach him to catch, throw and hit a ball. And given that he can't even figure out what to do with his glove (case in point below) we may have to rethink signing him up for the summer session.


A sure sign that spring has sprung - Zander shading his eyes from the sun.



I'm not sure if he is fielding a ball or preparing for a cartwheel. My money, though, is on the cartwheel.



Swing and a miss. We are still working on his form and accuracy.



Thankfully, they get to swing until they connect.





And what would a spring or summer sport be without our good buddy Dalton. He keeps Zander entertained on the field and his mother keeps me entertained on the bleachers. It's a win/win really.



Poor little Graham. He was having a rough night. I have yet to bring Ben along to play (not that they really play together, but it's fun to pretend). Such a sweet little guy though. He's my second favorite almost 2-year-old.

UNI Spring Game

About this time every year Mike starts pining for the start of football season. It's not that he wants the cold weather (we still have that), but he does miss the game and the excuse for spending Sunday (and some of Saturday) on the couch. Since real football is still a ways off we decided to pack up the crew and head to UNI for their spring football game.

The adventure started at McDonalds with Joni, Dalton and Graham.  Dalton is a stairstep between my boys (though he is the same size as Zander) and they love hanging out and playing together. The big boys got to sit at a big table with Mike while the little people (Graham and Ben's birthdays are just days apart) were at another table with us.

That is the remnants of a black eye under Ben's left eye. Nick (accidentally) beaned him with a wiffle ball a few days ago. He's still got a slight cut and the black eye to remind us. 
At UNI the boys, following Dalton's lead, climbed the panther. Dalton's dad work for the university and he's very comfortable on campus. 
As part of the spring game festivities the university offered food (we figured pork sandwiches and chips with five little boys and a windy night wasn't very smart, though it would have been much cheaper), a bouncy house and bean bag game. There weren't very many people outside and the boys pretty much acted like they owned the joint.

Ben would not leave the bouncy house. Even when all the other boys had tired of the basketball hoop and slide he continued to play and flirt with the young girl manning the door. 

When I finally got him out he promptly ran off, dragging his coat behind him. I was trying to get a picture of him throwing it up in the air here, but he stopped just as I got the camera ready. He has so much personality I just can't help but want to squeeze him. All the time. 
Nick quickly tired of everything. He pouted half the time we were outside because he wanted to go in. I tried to explain to him that going inside wasn't going to be any more fun, but he wasn't having any of it. 
Monkey see, monkey do. 
Ben had fun playing with the bean bag game. He would stand directly over the hole and hurl the bean bag through, then look up like he was so proud of making it in. 
Dalton also had his own technique. 
Little did I know that inside the Dome would be quite fun (at least at first), too. Dalton's dad took the boys (and all of us -- that's a lot of stairs) to the press box and suites. This kind old man let the boys use his binoculars to see the players. The boys were ready to sit down and watch from here, but we forced them to keep moving. 

Off to the suite, which really, wasn't that sweet. But, the boys liked it and again begged to sit there for the game. While we probably could have we opted to head back down to the stands to watch from that vantage point instead. 
Here's what they saw. 
 Ben liked it. 
Doesn't he look like he is having a very serious conversation with someone? Love that boy. 
Apparently Dalton got tired. Or Nick got bored and asked for it. Either way, Nick giving Dalton a piggy back ride was a bit comical. Nick really looks like he's struggling here, but I don't think it was actually that bad.

And then we headed down to the stands and my camera had to be put away. Unfortunately most of the boys weren't nearly as interested in the football aspect of the evening as they were in everything else. Mike (and to some extent Nick and Dalton) watched part of the game while Joni and I wrangled anywhere from two (Ben and Graham) to five kids up on the concourse. We left before half-time. And this is why we won't pay to see a sporting event until the kids are much older. Their favorite part of the game is still the snacks (and the concession stands weren't even open for this one).