Spring Training

It's Spring Break!

Which means I'm quickly finding things to keep our days fun filled!

Monday we went to Spring Training!

Texas Rangers vs San Diego Padres

It was 88 degrees!

Perfect sunny day for lounging at a baseball game!

Ok so there was minimal lounging with 2 extremely busy kids!

But we had fun nonetheless!

We remembered the stadium had a kids' baseball diamond.

So we gathered up our mitts, whiffle balls, bats

and brought them along.

We were the hit!

Anden & Ryan single handedly started a full on baseball game.

I guess if you bring out a bat and ball,

kids flood out of the walls to come play!

So rather than watching the "real" game,

we played our own.

Totally worth the ticket price right?! lol

(ya maybe I should work on that ballet baseball pose!)

Taylee, as usual, always finds a way to crack me up.

She got hot and tired during the mini game.

So she found herself a shady perch in the outfield! lol

She really perked up when I got her a soda.

(hey it was family pack day! hot dogs, chips, soda included!)

Finally we were all too hot.

Time for lunch and to actually watch the real guys play!

It didn't take long before the kids were restless.

So I helped Anden make a friend to go play catch with.

They were down by the fence.

All was going well until he runs back to me

and informs me that "THE OTHER KID" accidentally threw the ball 

onto the field.

Well guess that means we are going to meet the Outfielder!

So there we hung on the fence yelling "MARTIN"

(luckily his name was printed on his jersey!)

When he finally turned around in complete annoyance,

we begged for him to throw our ball back.

And lo and behold he did! lol

Suddenly we're a fan of #2 Martin on the Rangers!

We yelled our Thank Yous and were back to playing!

When we grew restless (and HOT!) we ventured to find new seats for awhile.

We cheered for our new favorite player!

And stopped at the kids' park for one last round of batting!

This is the perfect way to spend a Spring afternoon!

Spring Flowers

Spring Weather 

brings 

Spring Flowers!

So that's just what we did Monday morning.

We put our green (or brown) thumbs to work.

And yes my superior green thumb took the easy route

and bought one pot of flower bunches instead of single ones.

But hey, I wanted to make it easy for the kids to do by themselves!

(um ya it had nothing to do with my lack of skill haha!)

The kids are so proud of their own flower pots 

and are in charge of watering them daily.

Any bets on how soon these things will die? lol

Take Two

Not to be outdone by his sister's injuries,

Anden managed to crack his head open on Sunday.

Why do these things come in multiples?

As daredevil as the kids are,

they haven't really been majorly hurt yet.

And oddly this one didn't occur from one of his sports.

Instead a ball rolled under a cement tabletop and he bent down to get it.

Well when he quickly stood up he hit the top of his head on the bottom of the table.

After lots and lots of blood,

we got him all cleaned up and then debated whether to take him to ER.

(go fig Urgent Care was already closed for the day!)

I took a picture,

not for my own enjoyment,

and sent to Nurse Ashley for her opinion.

We decided that as long as he would let me thoroughly sanitize it

that Liquid Bandage (glorified super glue) would do the trick.

(Before I glued it together)

And who knew, it worked wonders!

I was sure he would bust it back open just being a busy boy.

But it's held together just fine!

Now to figure out how the heck to remove the dried glue and when??

Out of my League

At 7am on Saturday I was at Home Depot

getting paint/supplies for Anden's room makeover.

Well Tracy calls me and asks me to go to a 

"Market on the Move" Farmer's Market with her

which just happened to be exactly across the street from where I was!

So we met there and loaded up!

60 lbs of produce for $10!!

Yes we hobbled out of there with 2 cases each.

Now the brutal truth,

I didn't know what half of this stuff was.

Tracy was cracking up as I would make some snide comment in her ear about the food.

I did learn however that is not a club to beat your children,

it's actually a butternut squash!

And that peppers come in all colors other than green.

And that the little green pepper is actually a jalapeno!

So basically I have no freaking clue what to do with any of this except the Watermelon!

I figured we have family coming into town for Easter.

Lyndsay's a vegetarian.

So I hope she's hungry! lol

Oh and yes I did take a crate to Holly

and wished her best of luck!

Final Basketball Game

Well this sports season flew by!

It was Anden's final basketball game on Saturday!

He had quite the crowd attend

Grandma Kathy, Papa Larry and Trentyn came for the excitement.

The first half was complete blah.

Again it was passing 18 times before someone took a shot.

We were trying to holler to Anden to just shoot the dang ball

but he was too busy playing, or twirling his hair, to hear us.

Needless to say he had 0 pts.

But at least 10 rebounds!

And it's the beginning of Spring Break

so only 4 kids were there on his team.

No subbing today!

At half time,

I discreetly strolled over to him and told him

"Ok buddy, I'll give you a dollar if you shoot the ball 5 times!"

His money hungry eyes lit up green

and a huge smile appeared across his face!

He gave me a thumbs up and I casually headed back to the stands.

I knew the game would instantly change pace.

So I sat back and marveled as the second half started

and Anden went on a rebounding and shooting frenzy!

Before I could blink he had 2 pts, 4 pts, 6 pts, 8pts.

Woohoo!  So proud of him!

The best part is each time he would turn to me in the crowd 

and flash the number of baskets he had made.

I realized he thought I had said he had to make 5 shots to get the $1.

LOL whatever it takes!

The fans around us were laughing each time he grinned and flashed me the tally.

This is definitely the best buck I've ever spent!

He ended up with 12 points

and our non existence team in the first half rallied back to win the game!

After the game,

Taylee and I handed out the team treats.

Then the coaches delivered the coveted trophies!

It's actually his coolest one thus far!

I had to crack up laughing at this picture.

It accurately captured the reality at that moment.

Anden beaming with pride with

ticked off little sister in the background pouting that she didn't get a trophy too! 

Ahhh sibling rivlary

Great season Rockets!

And here's your dollar buddy!!

Inaugural Visit

Before:

After:

Well after 6.5 years of parenting,

I made my first Urgent Care visit on Friday.

Somehow I always knew the first visit would be for Taylee.

Little Miss Monkey was swinging on the Monkey Bars

and slipped and fell.

Landing on her hand/wrist.

Yep, hasn't every girl done this before?

I instantly had nightmares of my sister knocking her teeth out 

doing this when we were little!

She was at the sitter when it happened.

Holly immediately called me and we decided it was most likely sprained

and not broken since she could still move it a bit.

Holly already was icing it and had her back at home.

I decided I would wait until I picked her up to 

make the decision if we needed it checked out.

Well a couple hours later when I got her,

she was a sad little girl

that wouldn't let me near her arm.

She just whimpered and clung to me.

Broke my heart!

She would cry if you even touched her arm.

I told her we could go have the Doctor look at it if she wanted.

She decided that would make her feel better

as long as he didn't get her a shot!

(poor thing is still scarred from her 4 yr wellness appt when she got 5 vaccines!!)

I assured her there would be no shots.

So we grabbed Anden's basketball clothes for practice

and raced to Urgent Care.

There we waited and waited and waited

(hence the pics above)

she wouldn't move her arm the entire time and was latched to me.

We now had also missed basketball practice.

Finally the Dr. came in.

Taylee was all smiles.

He asked if he could see how well she could move her.

Suddenly she could bend that arm in every direction

and spin it around.

I just started laughing.

I guess the sight of the Dr miraculously healed her!

He laughed and said it happens often.

He inspected her further and said it was definitely a good sprain

and already swollen.

So he wrapped it up,

gave her a sticker

and off we went back home!

Now the hardest dilemma,

how to subdue her busy body self for the next few days!!

Mini Golf

On Monday we had Family Home Evening at the
Castles & Coasters Mini Golf Course!

I attempted to teach an object lesson
while mini golfing at the same time.
I wasn't too successful.

But I think they did manage to learn that making the right choice
is like making a hole in one.
Or that you can still recover from mistakes/obstacles and find the right path!
Which we spent most of our time literally recovering from the obstacles on the course!
All while dodging being hit in the head by a 6 yr old with a ferocious back swing.

Honey, this is mini golf not hockey!
(I'm positive I repeated that 16 times! lol)

They really put our lesson to a test by practicing their choice making agency

when they decided to see if they put their ball inside the middle of the lifesaver

if it still would come out on the green.

I warned them it probably wouldn't.

She was a little sad to find out the ball was forever gone

inside the Ice Cream Cone House.

Personally I don't think it's a bad place to get lost!

Sign me up!

We had a great little night

in between Anden speed golfing through the course simply to beat Taylee

and Taylee whining that the "little stick" was heavy and the ball too small

and my sore attempt at incorporating a little spiritual message.

Buy hey, A for effort!

Oh and a lesson I learned,

check the zoom before you take a self portrait.

Unless you want to be able to inspect your own boogers.

One last thing,

after we were done I saw Ryan over there secretly trying to take a picture of something.

I guess he wanted to document that I beat him by one stroke.

(Or maybe it was the other way around? Too bad there's no proof! lol)