Memorial Weekend 2011

Had a great long weekend this Memorial weekend. Lots of outside time. The kids love to play outside and Dennis and I are firm believers of kids being outside to run and use their own brain to find things to entertain themselves (with a little help from blow up pools, bikes and swing sets).

Friday night Daddy took the kids for a "ride" on the tractor.



Saturday we went to Chloe's 10th birthday party at the RollerZone in Farmington. Kyrah tried roller skating for the first time. She didn't like it very much, even with Daddy doing all the work. Raya on the other hand loved having someone push her around on skates.

Sunday was family day at the cabin. The kids were in the sand and "pool" all day. Raya liked the sand and puddles the most while Broden and Kyrah liked the pool. The water was so cold though, but they didn't seem to mind until the minute they got out.

Broden did well floating around by himself. The water in this pool is only 3 feet deep so they were able to stand whenever they wanted.

Such a good look'n boy!

Hmmm does someone look a little cold??

Birds eye view.

The weekend ended with a little back yard pool time. Broden who last summer and even recently at the Community Center pool was never much of a water kids sure changed his tune this weekend. He was in the blow up pool more then anyone. He would take a running dive towards it and slide into it. This is vey different from previous pool time where he would sort of sit back and hated to get his head wet.

Raya of course is the water baby and loves all pool time except at the cabin where she likes to sit in the sand and play in "puddles" rather then get in the pond water.

Enjoying the slide.

Another example of a very different Broden. I have never seen him lay in the water like this. Not sure what changed in him this weekend.

The morning of Memorial Day, we took a trip to the zoo. To say it was crowded and had to have had every stroller within a 50 mile radius there is an understatement. Overall the zoo was a success, except we stayed about one hour too long. The last hour involved a lot of whining and crying, but they got to pet the goats and see some great animals.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Raya and Daddy looking soo cute. This is pretty much where Raya spent her time while in the goat pen. She is just not an animal person.

Broden would brush a goat then run away screaming. He is such a squeler, always so loud and screaming and talking all the time. We will have a lot of notes sent home from school if he keeps this up.

Kyrah showing Broden how to hold the brush.

Kyrah was dissapointed that we did not get to see the snakes. This is a picture of them in front of a bird display. She really liked the zebras and monkeys - the elephants too but that was the last thing when heat and tiredness had set in.

Huge Catch Up

Oh blog why have I foresaken you... Tax season hit me pretty hard this year so that has delayed my blog posting. I will try to get all the updates for the past two months in now.

On a mildly warm day in April, I was able to join Dennis and Kyrah at one of Broc's high school baseball games. The ended up losing this game, but got to see some good hits from Broc. Here he is out on 2nd base.

Kyrah is getting into pretend playing and as the game progressed and she got bored with it. I saw her talking to her blanket and rolling herself up in it. She will now talk to her dolls and pretend they are talking back. The other day she was holding Dora near her dollhouse and asked Dora if she wanted to go in the front door. Then proceeded to push Dora through the door.

Ky wrapping herself up.

In later April after tax season I was able to pick the kids up from daycare and bring them to another of Broc's games. This one being in Ste. Gen at Yank's field. Raya was all about her sunglasses at this game. The did pretty good- sat for a bit, ate some hotdog and chips. Then were running around and rolling down the hill - typical kid stuff.

Raya rock'n the shades - very "Bono" of her I think.

Broden being cool like Dad. So intent on that Yahoo box rather then the game.

We try to bring some toys for them to play with but that lasts only so long. Eventually they found sticks and playing in the rocks more fun. Which is what kids are supposed to do. Of course supervision was required after a few bad pokes with the sticks, but overall they were pretty good at the game.

Rollign down the hill.

Easter was late this year (and rainy). The Saturday before Easter we let the kids try to die some eggs for the bunny to put out. They love craft and do it yourself type activities and as long as you accept the fact that there will be a mess involved all will be good.

All the kids liked hunting eggs on Easter. We had to do it inside though because of the rain and Raya was an egg hunting crazy woman! She was intent on finding eggs. Broden would pick one up open it (fake eggs of course) pick out the candy and eat it while Raya would just grab grab grab all the eggs she could. Then after they were all found she would sit down and open her treasures. She is a big fan of chocolate. Kyrah was a good egg hunter too but was a mix between Broden's slow egg find and Raya's egg rampage.

Friday night lights for Ste. Gen! Conference championship game between Ste. Gen and cross town rivals Valle. Played at Farmington ball field. Tons of people from town in the crowd. This was the most cheering I have ever heard at a baseball game. The excitement for the players and the nail biting of the game made for an outstanding time. Ste. Gen was up by 2-3 runs most of the game, then Valle tied it. Finally in the top of the 8th inning Ste. Gen scored and was able to hold Valle in the bottom of the 8th to bring home the Conference championship title. Huge night for Broc and all the Ste. Gen baseball team. Also announced at this game was that Broc made all-conference. A huge accomplishment for a sophomore. A very proud Dad and Broc after the game.

In May we were able to enjoy the Perryville MayFest street festival. After seeing Broden in this picture, I finally admitted he was due for a hair cut.

Enjoying a hot dog on the bench before going to ride some carnival rides.

So a total of $50 in carnival tickets later. They got to ride the merry go round, the boats, the cars and the airplanes, plus pull from the duck pond. All for about an hour of entertaiment. I told my Dad we could have gotten 6+ hours of babysitting for that cost, but he pointed out we wouldn't have these wonderful memories then. Hmmm jury still out on that one.

One night after picking them up from daycare we went to the park. They love going to the park and have a blast all the time. Plus they are able to pretty much play by themsleves with the exception of the monkey bars.

Notice the new haircut!

Last week I decided to have a yard sale to purge the too small clothes and abundance of toys we have. Broc found his old batting helmet to sell. Once Broden saw that he has worn it since. He walks around in his batting helmet on his "glovie" all the time. He even takes it to daycare with him and the helmet, glove and wiffle ball have to sit in the seat next to him. He is actually pretty good at swinging a bat and has even found a small metal T-Ball bat that he likes to swing and more often then you would think he does hit the ball.

While Broden was playing baseball. Our little Raya was doing what she does best. Off on her own doing her own thing. She loves to read books and will sit down by herself and read. Both the twins can sing their ABC's (with a few letters missing from time to time). Their vocabulary is excellent with tons of clearly spoken words. Raya has a much softer voice the Broden. Broden is loud and in your face like Kyrah can be.

The night before the yard sale the kids made cookies to sell. Here they are eating up the left overs. Daddy told Raya to put her head in the bowl and lick it so that is exactly what Raya did.

So because they all then stuck their head in the bowl to lick it into the bath they went. The twins are getting pretty good at going potty before bath time, Broden espically. He will pretty much go potty on the pot whenever we set him on it. He just doesn't tell us when he has to go. We are hoping this early pre-training will make for the actual training to go smoothly.

Raya has slimmed down some this past few months. She is not a big eater so she has lost her little baby belly.

Finally the morning of the yard sale arrives. Kyrah was a great salesperson. She stayed by her table to sell rather then go off and play like the twins did. She even sold out of her cookies within 2 hours. She made $110.50. Of course it helped when Grandpa came by and gave her $100 bill for one bag of 25 cent cookies.

She was so excited about her money. All she wanted to do was go buy a pool with it. Finally on Sunday I took her shopping with me and she contributed to the purchase of an inflatable pool. Now she is anxious for it to get hot so she can blow it up.

Finally, we are caught up to last night. I was able to attend the Ste. Gen Sport Banquet last night where the coaches honor the athletes. Broc earned his second year varsity letter and received top awards for highest batting average and most RBIs.

Here he is with his two awards which he put in his "treasure" box when he got home which is an old UnderArmor shoe box.

Hard to see but Broc's final stats for the season. He led the team in almost all catogories including At bats, hits, average, on base percentage, RBIs, runs, doubles, tripples and tied for home runs (2). Outstanding season for sophomore Broc Kreitler. He has some big numbers to put up next year to beat this year. Also announced at the banquet is that Broc also won all district!