Sports & School

Toward the end of the schoolyear, our personal calendar looks like this 😱:

It's lacrosse games on the weekends, lacrosse, baseball, and softball practice during the week, piano lessons, recitals, oh my!  It's funny - when weather cancels our plans, or we don't have anything extracurricular scheduled, we don't really know what to do with ourselves!

I don't have a picture of the boys' banner, but here's our photographer, Lisa Siders, with the boys after they had their pictures taken.

Lisa posted a picture of the girls' banner on her facebook page - don't they look like fierce models?

I've become facebook friends with the mom of one of Colin's buddies - she posted this picture of Colin and his friends on field day. 😀

This year, parents were invited to "clap out" the 6th graders since they'll be leaving the intermediate school.  Cadence told me not to embarrass her - this picture is the best I could do - this was AFTER Danny gave her a hug. 😂

 I told her I could drive her home since I was there, but she said she wanted to ride the bus - she wanted to say "have a nice summer" to her bus driver. 💗

Colin's 9 Years Old!

After the AJR concert, we dropped off Mason (he had just broken his arm and they weren't sure how he'd do spending the night), but Colin's buddy, Adrian, stayed the night.  The next morning, it was hot outside, so the boys took the first dip in the chilly pool!

Colin celebrated his birthday at Fieldhouse this year with 8 of his buddies.  He invited friends from school, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse.  The kids were non-stop for 2 hours.  I think they had a blast.

Darren & Mason both had broken bones!  

Cadence had some fun and helped keep the boys in casts entertained.

I was proud of Cadence - she made it all the way to the top!

Whoopie pies and macarons were Colin's dessert of choice this year.  I found a local baker to make the whoopie pies and the Costco macarons were delicious!  Colin got the idea from the show, Kids Baking Championship.

He was spent!

We celebrated Colin's birthday with his friends a couple of weeks before his actual birthday because of sports.  The night before his actual birthday, I had a little helper prepare the decorations. 💓

The birthday boy!  Colin got to actually spend his birthday at school this year.  He even wore his birthday ribbon to school. 😊  He's so special to us and is becoming such a big boy.  He still loves food - his new favorite is Grandma's spinach roll.  He loves to listen to music when he takes a shower.  He'd play Minecraft and Lego Marvel Super Heroes on his PlayStation all day if we'd let him, but he also likes to shoot hoops and ride around on the electric scooter by himself.  He has his best buddies at school, but also has good relationships with a few boys from lacrosse, basketball, and baseball.  He still has some maturing to do, but he's come a long way from his temper-tantrum days.  I love that he will still give me random hugs.  He loves getting his back rubbed before bed.  I'm pretty sure Scarlet is his favorite living creature.  He always wants his sister to play with him (sometimes she goes along with it).  He's super smart and creative and is always trying to make us laugh.  We're so lucky he's ours!

Danny snapped a picture while waiting for the bus!

That night, the boys had baseball practice so Cadence and I surprised Colin and the rest of his team with cupcakes.  They were yummy and we added bald eagle rings to half of them for the team!

Singing Happy Birthday

It was a great day!

 

AJR

AJR put on such a good show last year at the WonderBus Music Fest, that when we saw that they were coming back to Columbus, we had to have tickets!  Danny and I thought it would be fun for the kids to take a friend along, so that's exactly what we did!  Adrian and Mason joined us for the concert.

After grabbing dinner at Adriatico's we spent some time walking around campus.  We knew Gayle was opening for AJR, and we only knew one of her songs, so we weren't in any rush to get to the concert.

Our view was a little obstructed (we couldn't see what was behind the band - those sitting directly in front of them could see), but we were pretty close to the action!

We all had a great time!

What's Cadence Been Up To?

Can you even believe this is the same girl?!  These pictures were taken practically a year apart.  Cadence still loves to take a stroll around the Sunbury Square (weather permitting) after her piano lesson each week.  It's a cute, little tradition we have.  We noticed the tree had bloomed again, so we tried to recreate the photo we took last year in April.  Cadence has definitely matured - in her looks and attitude.  Everyone always comments on how much taller she's gotten.  As far as her attitude goes, she's definitely a big help around the house.  Now, some of that might be because she's wanted a phone; maybe some of that is just because she's sweet.  She's still as stubborn as can be, and loves to be right, but she also still has her soft side.  

I'm also thankful to have her as my sidekick at the boys' baseball games.  It's nice not sitting alone.  She keeps me entertained.  She even makes money sometimes, playing with the little kids!

Cadence has remained busy - when she's not at basketball or softball practice or taking piano lessons, she's been singing in the choir and playing the clarinet in band at school!  She loves to sing (and has a really nice voice).  She picked up the clarinet rather quickly and can even create short songs by figuring out the notes herself.  We enjoyed going to her school's recital.

I mentioned the little girls flock to her at the boys' baseball games.  Tinlee (Hunter's little sister) had fun "doing" Cadence's hair.

Here's Cora - also a little sister we know from Colin's basketball and baseball teammate, Darren.  She loves Cadence, too (I mean, who doesn't?).  She makes Cadence "play house" with her.  It's so cute.  At the Lex Center's recital rehearsal, Cora told her mom she wanted to get there early to see Cadence perform on the piano 💗 After Cora's first dance performance, I told her we were going to leave (we needed to eat dinner); Cora's eyes welled-up with tears.  We definitely had to stick around for performance #2 after that!

Cadence rocked her song at the recital - she played "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson.  The recital had a theme of "The Menu," so all songs and performances were food/drink-based.

Oh, Colin...

Cadence's first softball game of the season was a HOT one! 

Storms rolled through after the game and we even had hail!  The boys were in a tournament out of town, so the girls went shopping that night!