T-Ball in full swing!

Colton is a couple weeks into his first T-Ball season and so far he is having a good time!  He is finally starting to figure out the rules of baseball a little and he doesn't throw quite as much like a girl anymore! We have T-ball every Monday and Wednesday night through the end June.  Colton has 14 kids on his team, 11 boys and 3 girls! They have had 4 games already and the first game was quite comical as we had only had 2 practices prior.  When a ball was hit to the outfield about 6 of our players would run to the ball and pile on top of it until someone came out of the pile victorious!  We have gotten much better, the kids actually understand all the different positions for the most part and they stay in their own positions.  Colton has even made a couple outs although which we were pretty proud of.  They play 3 innings every game and the kids rotate through all the positions - Colton's Favorites are Catcher, Shortstop and Pitcher as they get all the action (not many balls get hit out to the outfield in T-ball)!!  When on offense each kid gets to bat, they do not keep track of outs or runs!  This is instructional T-ball so it is meant to teach them the fundamentals and create a love for the game and it seems to be working as the kids have a blast - even if that means they spend an entire inning in the outfield picking flowers!!  Here are a few pictures from our first couple practices and games! 

 

 

 

My favorite T-Ball moment so far was during last nights game when Colton was up to bat!  He walked up to the tee like he owned the place and thenhe looked out to the field and yelled "Fire in the Hole"!!  My sister and I both burst out laughing and then looked around and said whose kid is that!!  Seriously, where does he come up with this stuff!!

2012 No-Kill Walk for the Animals

The boys and I joined my sister at the No-Kill Walk for the Animals this morning and we had a great time.  Colton did some fundraising prior and was able to raise $435 for Coco's Heart Dog Rescue (Thank you Grandma's, Grandpa, Aunts and friends who donated)!!  My sister Marissa has been very involved with Coco's Heart for the past year... she has foster and placed 11 dogs into their forever homes.  If you are ever looking to adopt a dog or cat please consider Coco's Heart Dog Rescue, they are an awesome rescue!  Here are a few pictures from today.  The first one is a picture of Kiwi, one of my sisters current fosters.... he is such a sweetie and looking for his forever home in case you know of anyone looking.  The picture of me and the boys with dogs includes my sisters other foster, his name is Louie!!  

Thanks Adam for modeling this awesome bandanna!  My sister makes these pet bandannas and all proceeds go to Coco's Heart Rescue.  She sold 6 of them for $5 each in the short amount of time that we were hanging out at the booth!  If you need one for your canine friend just let me know and I will get it to you (Sammy has a Vikings one and she also has some patriotic ones for the upcoming Memorial Weekend)!!

Fun at the Lake

The boys and I spent last weekend at the lake with my parents.  We were excited for our first weekend up there this year... it means that summer has officially started although we won't be back at the lake until Memorial Weekend!  Colton got to bring a friend with for the first time last weekend and he loved it and so did I as he was outside playing all day and not inside telling me how bored he was with no one to play with (it was early in the season so there weren't many other kids there yet)!  We arrived at the lake Friday evening and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  It was kinda cold but we still had a blast.  The older boys played outside most of the time, come indoors every now and then for a snack and to play some board games and both nights we made smores around the fire (and we made some Sunday before lunch... hey that is okay when you are at the lake)!!  Here are just a few pictures I took in our short 48 hours there!  

A Day in My Life

Several of my friends have done posts like this so I figured why not me too!  So here is a day in my life - Friday April 27th to be exact!

5:40 - Wake up and jump in the shower still half asleep!  Get ready and think about packing a lunch but decide that it is Friday so I will treat myself to eating out for lunch instead!  I left the house at 6:20.  Usually I carpool but she is off today so I am on my own for the drive.  It is a beautiful morning which makes the being up this early just a little bit easier!

7:00 - I am at my desk, all logged in and ready to start my day - mostly by reading all the emails that I got from the night before!  Notice the giant inflatable trophy at my desk... I was the trivia champion last week!

 8:00 - Noon  I have training on a new system that rolls out mid May.  Sitting in a class room on a Friday while the sun is shining outside can be very tough!  Thankfully we got a break at 9:30 so I could refill my ice water and enjoy a snack (Chewy Chocolate Chunk Granola Bars are my new favorites)!

 12:15 - Time for lunch, now to decide what to get.  The only things close that are fast enough for my half hour lunch are Burger King, Dairy Queen, Subway and Eddington's Soup and Salad Shop.  Or of course I could order in Jimmy John's but today I was craving Wild Rice Soup so off to Eddington's I went.  Seriously I love that place... soup is amazing, club sandwich with Chipotle Mayo and a Bread stick = best lunch ever!!

 I get back to my desk around 12:40 or so and enjoy my lunch and log my food into My Fitness Pal.  I am once again on a mission to lose these last 20 pounds that are hanging around my mid section!

 3:30 - Quitting time!  I shutdown and hit the roads... it is no longer blue skies and of course there is traffic... always is on Fridays (I think everyone goes home early on Fridays).

The next 2 hours are crazy!  I pick up Mason from Daycare at 4:00.  I also pick up an extra kid from Daycare as he is going to the lake with us so Colton has a friend to play with.  4:20 we pick up Colton from Kinder Care.  He is so excited that his friend is there that he practically runs out to the car!  I decide that a quick dinner is the best way as I still need to pack for our weekend at the lake so we pick up Happy Meals on the way home.  By 4:50pm all kids are settled at the table eating dinner and I start running around like crazy packing clothes, blankets, food, bath essentials, pillows, toys, stroller, camera and laptop... by 5:15 it is all gathered and ready to be loaded into the van and I am sweating as if I just ran a marathon!  I load it all into the car while the older boys play in the backyard and Mason sits in his high chair and screams because I keep going in and out without him!!  Finally van is loaded... I chase the boys back inside for one last bathroom break and take Mason to get him into a dry diaper before the 2 hour ride (good thing I did as he had quite the surprise waiting for me)!!

We pick my mom at 5:30 and we are on our way to the lake.  Mason is the back of the van ready to take his nap on the way and the boys are watching Sandlot... should be a quiet trip (and for the most part it was).  We stopped at the gas station in New Auburn, WI just 10 miles from the campground to grab milk and get the boys a snack (and me some lottery tickets, which I did not win big on).  The boys were standing by me as I was checking out... after taking a good 5 minutes to decide which candy bar they were gonna get for their snack, when the cashier ran up my items and said my total.  Colton immediately said " Whoa, $8.42 - We are Expensive".  I just started laughing.  If he only knew how expensive he really was - crazy kid!  By 7:30 we were at the lake.  The boys couldn't wait to get out of the van.

 Mason just lounged around inside while I unloaded the van and tried to find places for everything we brought with.  Seriously we were only going to be there for 48 hours yet I think I brought enough to stay all week.  Traveling with kids is a lot of work!

 The boys played at the playground until about 8:30 and then it was time for SMORES!! The boys had fun making smores (Colton does eat them but he loves to make them for his mom and his grandma)!  Mason really enjoyed his graham crackers but wasn't as big of a fan of smores!  I was holding one so he could have a bite but of course he wanted to grab it, he took one bite and that was enough!  About 5 minutes later he was sitting in his stroller and started crying like he was in pain.  We were outside so I couldn't see what happened or why he was crying... I got out my phone for light and realized that his fingers were completely stuck together by marshmallow and he was NOT a fan.  We laughed pretty hard.

 9:30 we headed back into the trailer to start the bedtime process!  We inflated the pull out couch for Mason and me to sleep on, we set cushions from the patio swing on the floor and cover with a sheet for the boys. I got the boys into their pajamas and we decided on what movie to watch while we went to sleep... yup you guessed it... Phineas and Ferb.  Colton and his friend were sleeping by 10pm.

 At 10:15 I finally got into my pajama's and crawled into bed with Mason who was still wide awake!  We cuddled and watched TV, hoping that Mason would fall asleep soon.  Nope, he was all over the bed doing everything in his power to stay awake.  

Finally at 11pm I turned off the TV.  Mason snuggled up close to me with his blanket and his nuk, we took one last picture on my phone and he was sleeping about 30 seconds later!  I moved him back to his side of the bed and went to sleep as well!  

It was a long crazy day but at least we were at the lake and could spend the next 2 days relaxing and hanging out!