Week Eleven: 3/11-3/16

A much nicer brighter week! The boys and I had a great time Tuesday night going on a picnic at the airport while Daddy went on a bike ride. Everyone was super happy and tired at the end of the night! 

Wednesday night I had a haircut appointment and when it was over, about 7pm, the craziest thunderstorm came through. There was a distinct rain line and it POURED! I was so happy to get home. 

Friday night, Tim and Eli went on a Scout "Go See". This one was a Scout hike and marshmallow roast. We weren't sure if siblings could go so Cole and I made plans to go out to dinner with his friend Wyatt and his Mom (my friend Jenny). We had a great dinner out at Red Robin and the boys had a great time. Cole and I ran over to BJ's after and got home after Tim and Eli! 

Saturday morning was super early soccer day. Cole's team had pictures at 8am and practice / game at 8:30am. Tim took Cole for pictures while Eli and I got the rest of our stuff together. I was "Snack Mom" today so I had a ton of stuff to take. Plus, Eli (and Daddy) made Cole's team a sign for the games. Picture day would happen to be on the day I have snack! When we got to the field, Tim said Cole was running around, playing, having a good time with his team. He even started stretching and practicing with his team. One of their drills was to dribble the soccer ball and then kick it into the goal. Cole had been having a super awesome time but when he didn't get the ball into the goal, he fell apart. Like seriously fell apart. And after that, he refused to do anything. It was super epic meltdown. So bad that Tim took him home. Eli and I stayed to cheer on the Watermelons (they were playing the Limes - a ringer of a team I tell you!!). Eli did great during the game and held up his sign cheering on the team. Too bad Cole wasn't there to see it! Mommy, as you can imagine, was not happy how the soccer game went down. It put me in a bad mood all day. And I was so annoyed at myself. It was a gorgeous day and I was annoyed that I was annoyed. Since the boys didn't want to go to the library with me, I went by myself. And that was fabulous! I got new books for the boys and even had time to look for and check out a book for myself!! Then, I went on a solo trip to Target. Those two together took me out of my funk and helped my attitude. =) 

Once I got back Saturday, we decided it was too nice to stay inside so we had dinner out on the picnic table. The boys were all over the place and surprised us with their engineering minds. I took a video but had trouble getting it to post. Cole stood on top of the Cozy Coupe then sat on his blue swing and took off. They took turns doing that and trying to crash into the tree. Boys! 

Today I taught Cole's class at church - but minus Cole. I teach his class the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. This morning, Tim and the boys hung out at home and took an easy morning. They came to the 2nd service so we could all go to church together. It was weird not having Cole in my class but he had fun the 2nd service. This afternoon I went to a 2:15 spin class with my friend Kara and then met up with Tim and the boys for family swim time. Eli and Cole love our swim time on Sunday afternoons and we love it because it means tired boys and easy early bedtimes! 

Chick-fil-a picnic at the airport

I didn't tell the boys about it ahead of time

but they were super excited at my plan!

Cole was so sweet. He saw this and he said "Mommy, look at the beautiful sunset!". 

Wednesday night the storm line on my way home. I had to take a picture at the stop light. Just after this the bottom fell out!

My Wolfpack boys Friday morning ready for the ACC tournament

Hold those Wolfies high!

GO PACK!!

Super cute dinner dates for Friday night - Cole and Wyatt. They did so awesome. Cole even ordered his own dinner!!

Our little soccer cutie

Go Watermelons! Isn't this sign awesome?!! I did the block lettering and it was all Eli's idea to make it look like real watermelons. I love it!

We started off really great kicking the ball before the game 

 Stretching before practice

Dribbling and running toward the goal 

and here's where it fell apart. When he missed the goal in practice. =( 

Eli held up the Team sign and we cheered

He sat on the end that the Watermelons were supposed to run to so they'd know which goal was theirs. 

After the game, Tim worked in our garden.  

He tilled up the ground between our two beds. Planning to make our garden bigger this year. Wish us luck!

This cracked me up in Target. A 2-pound chocolate bunny. He was $20!! I posted it on Facebook and Uncle Billy said it was perfect for him to get the boys. I threatened him and reminded him that Aunt Evia has PLENTY of time to spoil Connor (and payback to Uncle Billy!!). 

Saturday night outdoor dinner (notice Cozy Coupe that was used as a jump base for the tree swing).

Week Ten: 3/3-3/9

Wet. And Cold. And Wet. And Icy. That pretty much sums up the icky week. UGH!!

Monday Eli's school dismissed 3 hours early so I picked him up at 12:45 and then we made a quick stop by the library to get new books. Tuesday school was cancelled again! With all the makeup days, the school year may never end.....but we made the best of it. It was kinda nice to be bummy at home. I managed to get a little work done and Eli managed to watch way too much tv! Our new rule is that the boys can only watch tv on the weekends. That's mainly for Cole because he's too attached to tv but it has to be for both boys when Cole's home. 

Eli had to go to school all day Friday instead of the Early Release day - starting to make up a little time. I really don't remember a winter this bad for missing school. But as Eli's principal calls it, these are "credit card" days. The kids get to enjoy them now but will pay for them later! 

With all the rain and bad weather, Cole's 2nd soccer game was cancelled. We kinda thought it might. The fields were too wet to handle five continuous hours of kiddo soccer games. The afternoon warmed up a bit so Tim and I took turns going on bike rides. He went first and then I went later in the afternoon. We both had bike computer troubles so neither of us know how far or how fast we went (and we did the same route!). I'm fairly certain he was faster at it than me but let's just pretend I was faster this once. =) 

The time change happened last night and we're really looking forward to more daylight after work. Hopefully that will mean more activity and family walks or rides. Of course, we need some warm weather to go with the daylight!! 

Walking and reading his new book - Eli's all into the 'I Survived' books now. He really wanted to find one after seeing a buddy at school with one. As he was naming off different books, one of them was 'I Survived 9/11'. I asked him in the truck if he knew what happened on 9/11. Of course he didn't and he asked me. So I tried to explain the evil of that day to my 6-1/2 year old. As terrible as that day was, I've never really cried about it. But trying to explain to Eli that some evil men flew an airplane into buildings to hurt people was really hard and got me quite emotional. I told him that it was a terrible terrible day and some really mean men did bad things. As he gets older, I know there will be more conversations about it and he will find it hard to believe that his Mom and Dad very vividly remember that day. Let's hope we don't have to witness anything like that again in our lifetime.

One of their top favorite pastimes....... studying the Lego catalog. Oh my Lego loving boys!

My bike computer went haywire and I was able to catch a picture of me going 85.3 miles an hour. I actually saw 90mph but couldn't get a picture in time. So with this new speed record, I probably WAS faster than Tim today!! (For the record, my computer was all crazy so the fastest I probably really went was 20mph. The fastest I've ever been was almost 50mph coming off Mount Mitchell. Not sure anyone has ever really gone 90mph on a bicycle.)

Week Nine: 2/24-3/2

We had a pretty busy week around here! Tim had to pull Super Daddy duty since I had Board meetings on Monday and Thursday nights. Thankfully I got home in time to help put the boys to bed and get some snuggle time. =) 

Friday night, we went to LES' Silent Auction. Last year they did it as a Sock Hop and the kids played and danced in the Multipurpose Room. It was crazy! This year it was more calm and super awesome for the parents as the kids watched 'Despicable Me 2' while we perused the Silent Auction items. Not as much caught my eye this year and I only bid on a few things - 1) Panthers signed football, 2) Bread for a year from Panera (sounded yummy!), 3) an NC State class basket and 4) an ECU dress (no one was bidding on it and I know a little girl whose Mom is a huge ECU fan. We didn't try for the fire truck ride to school this year....but next year, when Cole's a Kindergartner....oh yeah! We'll make that happen for sure! I got outbid on everything except the ECU dress. I was the only bidder so I "won" it....not sure what that says about ECU. It's a cute dress and will be cute on Little E when she gets older.....even if it is ECU. 

Saturday was Cole's 1st soccer game and earned its' own blog post. Hopefully the season will get better! After soccer, we went and picked up some of the boys' friends for an afternoon playdate. Three of the four "T" brothers came over to play for a while. They're moving soon and Mom definitely needed some time without the boys to do some packing. We really enjoyed having a house full of boys. They played really well together and we had a blast doing a science experiment with super bubbles. These bubbles got "tougher" as they hit the air and you could catch them. Pretty cool! They also picked out some other science experiments they want to do "next time". 

Sunday we went to church and then, since the weather was fantastic, headed to Umstead for family hike. Always great to spend active time outside! We did a shorter trail today and the boys kept going so we ended up doing two trails not too much shorter than the long one we normally do. Today Cole was the hike leader and he was hilarious!! He was hiking super strong and chatting away. It was almost like he was talk-powered. Once we got home, the boys were playing outside when Tim came inside and told me to get my camera - the boys had their first yard job. Mr. Jeff, our neighbor, paid them $1 per bucket to pick up sticker balls from his yard. They worked hard and fast to earn their dollar, all while Daddy was supervising from his camp chair!! Get used to it boys.....lots more yard work and chores in your future!

Cole ate both of these HUGE pieces of pizza at the Silent Auction night. 

Eli, the last time wearing this jacket.....we either lost them or someone picked them up - both his and Cole's! 

ECU dress for Little E - my only Silent Auction win

Soccer Mom

Not-so-soccer-playing Cole

All the crazy boys Saturday afternoon - five boys eating cookies, very happy!

Super bubbles

Cute Cole before church

Instructions before our hike

Oak-Rock and Pott's Branch

Brothers that hike together...

love the outdoors!

Daddy and his hiking crew

A little rock scrambling

Cole kept pushing the pace and keeping us on our toes.

 1st paying gig of yard work

 A dollar a bucket

 Brothers for hire....

 they do good work

Supervised by Daddy!

Cole's 1st soccer game!

Today was Cole's 1st soccer game!! Since Eli did basketball, Cole has been talking about playing soccer. He does KinderKixx at school so we signed him up for Y Spring Soccer. They play on Saturdays - 1 hour slot with the first 30 minutes being practice and the other 30 minutes being a game. There are no goalies and the kids are just learning how to kick and run with the ball and which end of the field they are supposed to shoot into. Cole's team is the Watermelons and today they played the Mangos. But let's start with the practice.....

It, um, didn't go too well. Cole basically refused to participate. To say Mommy was a little peeved is an understatement. Tim and Eli were running a few errands (I thought it was only a practice not a game) so I texted Tim that they needed to come to the Y. A little while later, they got there and Cole was still sitting on the sidelines. To make me feel better, there was another little boy just as hard headed as Cole refusing to participate. So Cole sat out all of the practice but he finally wanted to play during the game. It was great! He ran in there like a little bruiser going after the ball. He was running and dribbling it and then......Mommy made the mistake of yelling to him to go the other way (he was running to the opponent's goal) and that bent him all out of shape. He ran off the field and started crying. After that, he wouldn't play any more. But that minute and a half....he did awesome! Hopefully he'll play more and practice with the team next time. 

Soccer Mom

Meeting Coach Matt and the rest of the team

Team circle and meeting....

and one team member was missing.

Daddy arrived and tried to talk Cole into participating. 

When he did, he rocked it!

He looks so big!

Throwing the ball in after it went out of bounds. 

And here was the fateful run where he was going the wrong way and that led to.....

tears and refusal to play any more. =(

Some of his teammates came over to check on him and try to get him to play. Hopefully it'll go better next time!