Did I Actually Sign Up For This?

OK.  So part of me wants to make up a lavish story about how smooth our previous week has been.  I want to talk about trips to the park, healthy meals, happy kids and excellent weekends.  But if I did....I'd be lying.  And sticking true to form, I will be honest about the pretty eventful but not wonderful past week we have had!

Saturday Austin had a T-ball game in the mid-morning.  It was really sunny and quite warm, which he is not used to right now.  He was not into the game at all and it showed!  I felt bad for him as he stood there and watched the other kids scramble after the ball, completely uninterested!  He loves baseball.  I think he was just tired, a bit hungry and hot!

After the game we went to Sienna's birthday party.  The kids had a great time playing and swimming, eating junk and filling up on cake! Instead of going into detail about the latter part of the weekend, a list seems much more fitting.

The List:

-We take extremely tired and wired kids to my moms for a planned family "camp out" for the night
-We set up a bazillion tents in her backyard,  somehow...very few people know how to assemble a tent
-My children stick true to their roots, remove every article of clothing...leaving only their shorts on and ride their bikes like circus clowns
-We start coals to BBQ and a nice bonfire
-We cook and eat
-Children continue to ride their bikes like circus clowns way past the time it got dark and they should have been made to stop
-Ryland falls of bike in the dark. 
-Its hard to find crying kids in the dark.
-Ryland complains that his ankle hurts...I put him to bed (Sleep cures everything!)
-Everyone is too exhausted to enjoy bonfire, it burns out
-Everyone sleeps
-Ryland wakes up at 6am...he can't walk
-whatever happened to "sleep cures everything?"
-I try to repeatedly make him walk...he retreats to crawling around everywhere for the next 4 hours
-ER trip
-Suspected fracture, half cast goes on...repeat X-rays in 4 days

-Return to moms house.  No one seems to know how to dissemble a tent either.
-Dissemble a bazillion tents and go home
-Fun times had.....but not by all
-(Monday and Tuesday happen)
-Wednesday...repeat X-rays are done and he is CLEARED!  No fracture.  Splint comes off and the kid is like a monkey released from his cage! Must have been a sprain!
-Thursday happens....
             And here is where it gets even more fun!

Thursday evening as I'm getting ready for school, Austin burst into the bathroom screaming bloody murder, holding his head with a hand full of blood.  I jump soaking wet out of the shower to assess the damage. 

Courtesy of Ryland, Austin has a nice size, fairly deep cut on his forehead.

I guess a little tiff happened upstairs and Ryland found it appropriate to chuck a large piece of wooden train track directly at his brothers head. 

Off to the ER yet again.  Thank goodness it was a different one than 4 days ago.  I'm sure Kaiser just loves us!

 I have lots of bloody open wound pics...but I figured not everyone wants to see those.  So here he is all stitched up!  He has 12 stitches in all.  1-2 inside and the rest outside.



It's Friday and we are headed into another weekend.  Austin has another game tomorrow.  Then tomorrow night we are headed to "Little League Night" at our local minor league baseball stadium to watch a game and see fireworks!

I guess turning the garage into a fully padded play area and building the boys their bubble wrap suits will have to wait until Sunday.  I think I'll make them wear their helmets all day tomorrow though..for safety sake!

The Boys and Their Bikes!

I had to get a post in today, to write about our last weekend before we set off for another one!  It's funny how much I love the weekends now!  When I was working at the lake, I never had those fun-filled weekends like everyone else.  I watched them all do it, but never got to partake!  So it's my turn I guess!

Last weekend was great!  Saturday morning Austin and Matt headed off to a fishing pond here in town to participate in a kid's fishing derby!  Austin caught a few trout and was very happy.  He was supposed to have a T-ball game Saturday afternoon, but it was rained out.  My mom came up and we went to see The Lorax.  That was a very cute movie!

On Sunday morning we all got up early and headed back out to that little pond to fish together.  (I didn't fish, I watched!)  The kids had a blast.  There were a few friends of Matt's out there with their families, so the kids got to play.  I enjoyed meeting them and their wives!  I think we will all definitely hang out again soon.

After fishing we came home to clean up and hang out.  We decided to take Ryland's training wheels off of his bike and give it a go.  Holy cow that kid is a natural!  Matt removed the training wheels and he took off like a pro!  We were waiting for the falling/crying/hysterics....and they never came!  He never wobbled or fell.  He panicked a little when trying to stop the first few times...but after coaching him through it, he did wonderfully!

5 days later he now stands up and peddles, rides with one hand, jumps off the curbs and rides down the neighbors steep driveway!  He has only crashed into a parked car twice and a fence once!  That's pretty good.  The fence caused a major melt-down...and some bruises and scratches.  But the parked cars didn't seem to bother him too much!

Austin has stepped his game up now that he has a little competition...he now rides while simultaneously putting both hands up and peddling with his eyes closed.  This causes me major panic, but Matt simple states..."just prepare yourself for another ER run and calm down!"

Along with mastering bike tricks, Austin is working on riding his skateboard too...and doing quite well!

Both boys want to spend every waking moment outside on their bikes or boards practicing their tricks!  Ryland also loves telling everyone in ear shot that he now rides a 2-wheeler...no training wheels!  Literally, he has told every person we come across.

When he went to school Tuesday he walked into his classroom full of teachers and kids, stood at the door and loudly announced, " Teacher Carrie,  I am HERE and I ride a TWO WHEELER!"  He was greeted with many laughs and lots of excitement...just what he was going for!

Today he yelled out the window to a couple of cyclist on the road, "Good job boys, you can do it!".
Channeling Mommy much?  Here's the video of his first ride~!

This weekend we are off to more adventures!  We have a T-ball game, a birthday party and a family camp out!  In addition to our recent wonderful weekends...everything else is good too!  Hope you all are out there enjoying your weekends too!

Easter Weekend

We had such a busy Easter Weekend, it got it's own post!

Friday night Sienna came to stay the night with us.  We had a great time coloring eggs, we did a little over 3 dozen.  

Saturday my sweet little brother, who isn't so little anymore turned 16!  My Dad and Michelle had a party for him at their house.  It was great to see my family and hang out!  The weather was great, so we spent most of the time in the backyard talking and visiting.

My step mom is an amazing cook and created the most adorable M&M/Kit Kat cake.  This cake was so colorful and awesome!  I didn't get a picture of it, but her cooking blog is here: www.michellestastycreations.blogspot.com and that cake will be up there shortly, I'm sure!

She also made these ridiculously good little hot dogs wrapped in bacon and drizzled with brown sugar...those things were gone within minutes!  My Grandma described them to Ryland as "little wieners" and quickly had to change her wording to hot dogs after his initial reaction of shock and disgust that we cooked wieners!

Sunday was Easter! We woke up and opened Easter baskets, did an egg hunt in our front yard and then got ready for Church. The service at Church was wonderful, I really love our Church!

We left directly from there and headed to Lodi, where my Grandma was hosting Easter Dinner. The kids got to do another egg hunt when we arrived! They have such a wonderful yard, the kids had an amazing time hunting all over her gardens!

Dinner and visiting followed! We had a wonderful time with yet another day of amazing weather! I couldn't have asked for more!

We hope you all had a great Easter Weekend too!

One of the gifts the boys' received for Easter were these awesome crazy straws!  It comes with 80 pieces that your build from.  They have been building little pipe straw masterpieces all morning!

Spring Break!

Spring Break was great! This is the first Spring Break that we have had where both boys are in school, so therefor...they both got a break! I didn't really know how awesome this was going to be for me. The boys getting a break meant, I got a break too!

I'm used to working and going to school at the same time, I have been doing that since Ryland was 8 months old. Being at home with the kids now has been such an amazing blessing! I'm not working and I am taking one class at school in the evening and I am starting a class online next week. So I have been able to be at home with the kids, which I absolutely love!

However, until this recent break, I didn't realize how much I needed one!

It was great to not have to get up to the alarm everyday. It was so great to not have to fight with grumpy kids in the morning about getting up, eating breakfast or wearing something in addition to underwear.

We didn't do any traveling or out-of-this-world trips, but we did spend a lot of time together outside making lots of memories! This past week we had really great spring weather, so we were outside every day!

The boys and I went to the Zoo! There is this cute little steam engine train there, so of course, we rode it!

This Zoo is a wild life rescue facility. They have four black bears there that are oh so cute! They also have two tigers, lots of birds, wolves, coyotes, monkeys and more! The Zoo is small, but very well done and they have areas to sit and watch the animals in front of each enclosure. We spent a good deal of time sitting and watching them.

Matt spent a day with us hiking and playing at the park. The park we went to had great hiking trails that led to the river. We had a nice little hike and found this waterfall!

We did crafts and lots of them!

Matt brought dry ice home for Austin to play with! He had never done that before, so he had a great time pretending to be a wizard! We added food coloring and dish soap, that was quite the adventure, I'm glad we did that one outside!

In addition to these fun things; we went to two other parks in our town, made something for breakfast other than cereal each day, made friends with the neighbors and decorated our driveway with chalk daily!

I'm looking so forward to summer!