School's Out for Summer!

We have two very happy kids and one not so happy kid now that Drew and Kayley are out of school for the summer.  Drew and Kayley are loving staying up late and being at home with their babysitter every day.  Ryan is not quite understanding why he is still going to school.  :-)  And that makes getting him up and out the door on time a tougher task.  I spend way too long getting him going in the morning and answering a hundred questions about why Kayley and Drew are still sleeping or why they are playing in the basement or why they are in their PJs or why Ms. Jessica is here with them or why they aren't getting on the bus.  I don't feel too bad for Ryan though - he loves his school.  Once he gets there!

Last day of 2nd and 3rd grade!

We have been busy with swimming, soccer, softball and baseball.  And a birthday thrown in there.  And Drew got his first round of stitches so that was fun.

The day we were all finally feeling better from the stomach flu, Drew was riding bikes with his friend when he fell and cut his leg on the bike pedal.  Andy and I debated for about 30 minutes on whether he needed to be seen for stitches.  I eventually took him and he ended up getting 3 stitches.

Patiently waiting for the numbing
agent to take effect.

Luckily, stitches didn't slow Drew down from baseball.  He pitched the next night and had his best game of the year.  He had a tournament this past weekend and they took 4th place.  Drew pitches and plays short stop, third base and center field.  He still likes pitching the most and I am a nervous wreck when he pitches.  He does well, but I am so nervous for him!

Drew has had baseball games every Saturday during swimming lessons so Kayley and Ryan have been going without him.  Ryan LOVES swimming.  That kid jumps out of bed really early and gets his swim trunks on and just waits to go to swimming lessons every Saturday morning.  I wish he would be even half that energetic on a school day!

Kayley had her final soccer games last week.  They got beat pretty soundly in the last game, but Kayley didn't care - she was SO excited to get her participation medal!  She is definitely a millennial!  :-)

After one of Drew's games last week, we celebrated Andy's birthday.  Nobody was more excited than Ryan.  That kid loves cake!

Kayley had her first softball game this week.  I was a little worried when got to the game and she was sound asleep.

Her team lost, but they had fun.  Kayley is very proud that she is batting 1000 so far this season.  Well, maybe one of her "hits" was actually a fielding error, but she doesn't understand that at this age!

When we do find some down time at home, this is where you might find Ryan:

Mother's Day to Remember

Mother's Day 2016 will be one I won't soon forget.  The day started off well with the kids giving me homemade cards, gifts they made at school and a new purse.  They treated me to a fabulous lunch at the Pour House (ok, Andy's dad was visiting for two weeks and wanted to do a little gambling).  Drew and I played baseball for a couple of hours while Andy put together Ryan's new sandbox.  Kayley joined us for some hitting practice as well.  When Ryan woke up from his nap, he went straight to the sandbox where he stayed until dinner.  

Sometime in the afternoon, Kayley complained that her stomach hurt.  And so it began.  The week from hell and I am not exaggerating.  Our house became the house of horrors as the stomach flu made its way through the house.  Kayley on Sunday, Ryan and me on Tuesday, Drew on Wednesday and Andy on Thursday night.  And, for the most part, it wasn't a quick 24 hour bug either.  There was a lot of overlap of sick people in this house.  My kids have never had the stomach flu that bad.  I'll spare you the fun details.  One interesting thing is that Ryan might be the happiest sick kid I have ever met.  He would throw up and then smile and continue on playing when it was over.  

Andy ended up taking his dad home a day early to try to avoid it.  Luckily, it appears he did.  I spent a good portion of today cleaning and our laundry hasn't stopped since last Sunday!  Looking forward to a less eventful Father's Day!

March for Babies

We had our annual March for Babies yesterday.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and it was moved indoors so there was no walk this year.  The kids still had fun - they played in the bounce houses, made masks and Kayley got her face painted.  

We are so thankful to have such great support for Team Kayley from our friends and family!  Every year, they come out and support us by donating to her team.  Kayley loves writing all the thank-you notes to people who donate to her team (she may have been confused at one point and thought people were giving HER money rather than the March of Dimes!).  As she is getting older, she is starting to understand a little more about her premature birth and what she went through.  Every night when I put her to bed, I read her a blog entry from when she was in the hospital.  She is asking a lot of questions about the things she sees in the pictures.  

Every year when we do the March for Babies, I reflect on what we went through with Kayley and how lucky we are that she is doing so well today.  And I look at Ryan and think of the outcomes he could have had and how lucky we were to make it to 37 weeks with him.   Thank you March of Dimes!

Spring Sports

It has been a chilly start to Drew and Kayley's spring sports season.  Drew has had two games where the temperature was 40 and the "feels like" temperature on my weather app was 35 and 38.  NOT my idea of a fun baseball game!  But, I could put on layers and wrap up in a blanket.  The poor boys were freezing out there.  We are starting to turn a corner with the weather, but I'd like to turn it a little quicker than we are.

Drew is playing travel baseball again this year.  They have already had 8 games and 2 games cancelled due to rain.  It is his first year of kid pitch and it is definitely an adjustment for the boys, but they are doing well.  Drew is pitching and playing short stop and center field so far this year.  He loves pitching.  I didn't realize how stressful it is as the parent of a pitcher!

Kayley is in the middle of her soccer season and loving it.  She is a totally different player this year.  She acts like she wants to be out there and is trying really hard.  It is nice to see some competitiveness from her!  She always wanted to be on the team, but it was pretty clear all she was interested in was the participation trophy or medal at the end of the season.  This season she clearly wants to play and it makes going to her games much more enjoyable.

Kayley also started softball last week.  This is her first year of coach pitch.  She was pretty shy when she showed up for her first day of practice, but got into the swing of things quickly.  I'm excited to see how her season goes.