Basketball

Right before the boys finished football, we enrolled them in basketball.  Unfortunately, the two sports overlapped by a couple of weeks so the boys had to miss one game of each. We decided to put them in basketball because they had previously had no experience with basketball, and it is one of those sports that you should know how to play in case your friends ever play a quick pick-up game of basketball. 

 At first the boys were very unhappy about playing.  They did learn quickly.  The thing about basketball is that confidence and aggressiveness are the keys to being good at basketball, neither of which my boys had.  Oh, height helps a lot too.  We put Michael on the same team as Adam, so he was playing with boys that were a couple of years older than him.  Next time we do it, we will put him on a team with kids his own age, and I bet he will be a lot better.

 Adam did really well at passing and getting the ball.  He even scored!

 The boys with their coach, Brother Hayes.  Brother Hayes used to play for the NBA.

I'm so proud of my boys for trying something they had never done before and doing so well!

Downtown Aquarium 2013

We went on our annual preschool field trip to the Downtown Aquarium on MLK day.  As you can see from looking at his eyes, Adam was still getting over the flu. 

 

They have this awesome up and down ride.  I stood in the long line to ride it with Adam and Nate.  As we were ready to load, there were 3 spaces left and Ellie decided she wanted to ride.  I let her take my place and loaded Nate on and Adam-two to the left on.  Then Ellie started crying that she wanted off.  By that point, there was another girl who was expecting to ride so she took Ellie's spot, and the ride started.  As it started, Nate realized I was not on it with him and he got really upset.  Look at his face as they started to go up:

It's a pretty high tower and the ride is pretty long, letting you bounce several times, and then bringing you back up to do it again 2 or three times.

By the end, he would give me a smile, but only just barely.  At the very end we went again and everyone, including Ellie and Michael went.  Part way through that ride Nate kicked his shoes off so they shortened the ride.

We also rode the train. They have a spot where a very fake looking shark bursts out of the water at the train.  Nate didn't like that part.

Joe came and met us during his lunch hour.  He wasn't as impressed as we hoped he would be.

Michael likes to make crazy faces.

Pinewood Derby

This last weekend was the pinewood derby.  It was Adam's last pinewood derby, so Joe and he spent extra time making sure that his car was the best so he could win.  Joe was in charge of the "pit" making sure that all the weights were correct.

 Since our pinewood derby fell in the middle of the day, we had a hotdog lunch to go with the pinewood derby.  Adam felt really bad that day- he took several naps, and this is how he felt when he got to the derby.

 Then the races began.  Our ward is so much smaller than it has been in a long time so there were only 9 cars racing.  Each car had a chance to race in each of the lanes- one of the lanes was decidedly slower than the others.  Michael's car is in the far lane in this picture.

 Michael came in 4th place.  His car looked like Steve from the game Minecraft, that the kids can't stop playing.

 Adam came in 1st place.  His car was pretty basic, but it was fast. 

 All of the boys with their cars:

Ahh, only one more for Michael, and then in a few years we get to start all over with Nate!

Nate's Carrots

Last fall, after I cleared all the dead plants out of the garden, I planted a fall garden.  Nate was pretty interested in helping me plant, so I left him a couple of rows that he could plant carrots in.  In the past I have planted carrots, but no one was interested in eating them, so they got left in the garden until they were no good and then thrown away.  Last year, Nate's teacher had carrots in the garden and the kids had a great time picking them and eating them, so I let Nate plant some.  After we planted them, they grew pretty slowly, and we would check them regularly, but they weren't growing.  At the same time, we had radishes grow, and those grew quickly and we harvested and ate all those.  After November, it got cold(er) outside so I didn't hang out there much and we pretty much ignored the garden.  Nate asked me today if we could pick the carrots, so we checked, and sure enough, they were ready to go.  We only picked a few, but here are some of them:

 The best part: Nate wants to eat them.  He keeps asking if he can have another carrot. This monstrosity of a carrot that he had he ate over the period of 15 minutes!

Girls Weekend in Utah

In December, Kim was in the states so she organized a girls weekend.  Unfortunately/fortunately, she was in Utah, so I got to get away from the kids for 3 whole days.  Our friend, Kristi also came.  It was a GREAT weekend.  Kim's husband, Brian, took care of the kids the whole weekend (her kids, not mine- Joe was stuck at home with them...and a couple of them were pretty sick), so we could relax, go shopping, go out to eat, and even go see the new Les Miserables movie. 

It was so nice to be around friends that I was completely comfortable with, and to be able to not have to worry about the minutiae of everyday motherhood.  Kristi did have her 2 month old with her, so she was a little more busy, but we tried to help her out.

Now we have to think of an excuse to have another girls trip, too bad Kim only comes to the states once every year or two.

Ice skating

This morning I took the kids ice skating at the mall where they have a temporary rink set up.  Usually I make Joe go with me, but he hates it so much that I thought it might be easier to go without him so I didn't have to hear about how much he dislikes it.  I did have another friend with me, so that helped entertain the kids.  I took turns going around one by one with each kid.  They really enjoyed that until they practiced enough to skate by themselves.

 Nate had a special walker that helped him to skate by himself.  At the beginning he was  falling over all the time, but he was laughing the whole time, so at least he enjoyed himself.  By the end, he could skate without falling, but only for a short while.  Adam pushed him around a few times on the walker.

 The friend that I went with has a son that is Michael's age.  They spent a lot of time playing.

:

 All the bigger boys: Adam, Benjamin, Alexander and Michael

 Ellie was the bravest of the skaters. After a couple of times around holding onto the edge and few times around holding onto me, she would skate by herself in the middle, it was pretty amazing.

Wow, that went pretty well, we will definitely have to do it again next year.