Go Daddy

It was purely a coincidence that on Danica Patrick's big day, the boys decided it was time to whip out their race track and take their hot wheels for a spin. Thanks to my excellent engineering...or, ability to follow step-by-step instructions...the boys were entertained for hours.

 

Racing is a very intense sport, and Henry takes it very seriously.

 

Sam found that by sticking out his tongue, he was better able to maneuver the sharp turns.

Cardboard Static

I spent some of my Friday lunch pursuing Pinterest (I'm addicted) and got the clever idea to spend my evening creating the below slide with an empty furniture box sitting lonesome in the garage.

While the idea was grand in scale, our slide was much less attractive than the Pinterest slide. And regardless of how hard I tried to stretch our cardboard box, I had trouble making it span the width of the stairs...but then, if it had, I'm not sure how we would have climbed to the top.

 

It was indeed an ugly slide, but looks were decieving. Poor Henry was the first to test the slide. I have no doubt he made it from top to bottom in less than half a second...and his bottom had the skid marks to prove how suddenly he stopped. It probably goes without saying, but Henry's first time down was also his last. Sam, on the other hand, would have gone down all night had we let him.

Slugger

For the entire last year, Henry has had his heart set on playing soccer this spring. His uncle Omar has a love for soccer, and Henry has a love for Omar. In fact, Uncle O. has a professional Guatemalean soccer player in the family! Very cool. And, conveniently, Henry loves to run (non-stop), be outdoors, strategize, and well, kick things. Needless to say, I had already written the check to the YMCA for Henry's first spring soccer season.

Then...dun dun dun...I pick him up from school one day, and Henry starts talking about how he can't wait to play BASEBALL. What?! Where did this come from?! Henry goes on to beg and plead with me..."Mommy, I want to play soccer AND baseball. I NEED to play baseball. I LOVE baseball. But I LOVE soccer too. I NEED a glove so I can do this..." He then proceeds to pound his left fist into his right palm, like he were pounding a fist into an open glove.

So what's a mom to do but bite the bullet and sign him up for Wee Ball. Thankfully, soccer games are only played on Saturdays and there are no practices. Hallelujah. T-ball games, on the otherhand, are played on week nights...and I'm told there are week night practices.

And so it begins...although I've taken an oath to God and my husband that our lives will NEVER revolve around practice and games. In any event, it's bound to be a fun spring. Lots of evenings enjoying spring temperatures and being outdoors with family and friends.

I had to dig...REALLY dig...for a lefty glove for Henry. FINALLY, I found the last lefty glove in all of Stillwater. Of course, Papa had to one-up me and surprise Henry with a T-ball stand and bat. Everyone met in Stillwater for February birthdays and batting practice last weekend.

 

Teaching a lefty to bat is more difficult than expected.

 

While Henry was at bat, Molly practiced her driving as we hope she'll be making lots of trips to Stillwater this spring to watch Henry play.

 

 

Spring Fever

It seemed appropriate that on a snow day, I post photos from our 70 degree weekend...which was less than two weeks ago.

Sam loves to look for airplanes. And squeals like a piglet when he sees one.

 

Sam thinks the harder he strains, the higher he'll go

 

Look out NBA. My 24 inch baby just got his first hoop.

 

Pooped out after a day in the sun

"The Wonderful Museum"

I do believe we have a future chef in the family. Perhaps he'll take over dinner duty on week nights when he gets older? Hey...a mom can dream, can't she?

If my dream should come true, I'll need to acquire an appetite for sushi between now and then.

 

 

After 30 minutes being Sous-Chef Henry, I coerced him to join me at the dairy farm.

 

 

Clearly, sushi was still on his mind...and the dairy cow, less than impressive.

 

 

Right or wrong, Sam wants to be just like his big brother. In this case, he wanted to make things smaller, not larger, just like brother.

 

 

Scaling Niagara

 

Fishing in the Nile

 

I think this is cheating???

 

Henry returned to the kitchen, while Sam developed engineering and physics techniques.

 

Our Sam is sometimes too smart for his own good. After struggling to do everything the older, taller kids were doing, Sam improvised by borrowing a foam block from the building area. It worked wonderfully until a Wondertorium staff caught him red handed.