Sunday was a busy day for us! With it being Father's Day, I wanted it to be a little more relaxing for Perry instead of go-go-go. But I think it's safe to say, everyone had a fun day.
We thought JP's last football was the weekend before but they sprung another one on us. He and HD have improved SO MUCH over the course of the season.
This weekend was also HD's championship game. They had only lost their first game this season and had the best record overall. He was so so so excited for his game! And they won too! Immediately following the games, was JP's end of season football party, clear across town. He rode their with a friend so he had plenty of time to play while we watched HD's game. We planned that perfectly as then we only had to stay for half an hour :)
Last week my parents made a quick trip out to see us and on Wednesday (the only nice day they were here) I took them to Lacamas Lake Park about half an hour away from here to do some exploring.
Trying to find something my dad will enjoy is a challenge, so I opted for a little hike to see a couple waterfalls. It was so nice to get outside for the afternoon!
With that little hiking adventure under my belt, I wanted to take the boys to see the waterfalls too. After finishing a few things up at the house, we packed up and headed out for a Father's Day adventure with Perry. Because Ms. Gail and I already saw Lower Falls and Pothole Falls, we decided to hike to Woodburns Falls.
Just before we got to the falls, there was a fork in the road. We happened to pick the one to take us to the falls, but on the way back, we decided to take the other one to see if it would lead us to the top of the falls. It didn't. We hiked and hiked and hiked, and then took a dead end trail for a while and finally made it to Lower Falls. By that point, Charlotte had slipped a few times and was a muddy mess, and her little legs were getting tired. Quite frankly, mine were too, so I was able to successfully lead us back to the beginning of the trails. Without Perry though, I'd have been lost out there. My sense of direction in the woods is terrible!
Just as we were pulling back into town, all three kiddos passed out in car. I suspected Ms. Gail would, with the possibility of JP too as he was getting pretty sluggish towards the end, but was surprised to see HD conked out too! I had dinner planned for the night, but with our hike taking longer than expected we grabbed some food to go and had a little picnic in the front yard.
It's been a busy few weeks here now that football is taking over our lives. I didn't expect so much practice time when we signed the kids up earlier this winter. Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I'm scrambling to figure out an easy meal that's quick to prepare and still relatively healthy. We're about a month in, and I have several go-to meals but I can imagine they're going to get old pretty fast...
We had a week off of games in lieu of Easter and had pictures yesterday before the games. HD's team was the first team up on the docket so they had to be to the field by 7:15, though their game wasn't until 9:00a. Luckily Perry ended up taking him and leaving me with the other two so they could sleep an extra hour. I also realized the night before that this was HD's snack week, so I needed time to pick something up from the store before leaving. We were running late, like usual, because JP forgot his mouth guard at home, along with his water bottle...We made it just in time for the beginning of HD's game, but I had to hang with JP to make sure he'd push up his glasses for pictures.
I thought it might have just been a fluke last game when he was matched up against the biggest kid on the opposite team, but it happened this week too. I was able to catch the second half of his game and really enjoyed watching him play. He still has a lot to work on skill wise, but he's improved a bunch already. I mean, he was actively trying to grab flag instead of just watching the action.
This week HD had a second game at the same time as JP. We lucked out having them play at fields next to each other. Let me just take a minute to tell you about the weather though. It was warmer than the previous game, but oh the rain! Perry and HD were there from 7 until about 11;15. Everyone was soaking. The ground was soaking. When you walked on the grass water would spray up and all the ground in about a 6 inch radius around your foot would move. It cleared up a bit by the time JP played but still.
This week was JP's turn to be a team captain. He co-captained with his new friend (#2) and was thrilled about it.
Sometimes it's really hard to watch JP play. He's been play on the line and doesn't really understand what he's doing. See video below. Several times I had to roll up his sleeves to get him at least looking ready to play.
Having the boys play next to each other was a blessing and a curse. Despite having MPRs, they didn't seem to play much. They were both on the bench at the same time, and when they were in, the plays move so quickly that it was hard to really watch them. For the first half of JP's game, he was playing on the line. After the half, the coach realized something wasn't working with his players so he made a quick adjustment and pulled JP back for the huddle. Of the 5 plays they ran, the first four were either handed off to someone else, or just ran. On the 5th play, I was over watching HD and was walking toward JP's field when he was handed the ball and made a dash for it. He had a flag pulled immediately, but was excited to get to touch the football. I was so excited I couldn't get my camera on and focused. I was at the wrong angle for it anyways, but still. Exciting none the less. We hope more of that happens with JP as the season continues.
We've had other exciting news in the house too! We're losing more teeth!
HD lost his first top tooth the day after Easter. He spent the entire evening trying to get it out. We tried pulling it and twisting it, but nothing. Then after school on Monday, he casually just pulled it out.
JP lost his first top tooth on Saturday after bugging me about wiggling it for him for the past several months. Both of his top teeth were loose though. He tried pulling it out with his Terra Climber race car, but no luck, so he also casually just pulled his out. He doesn't want to give it to the tooth fairy though... It was placed in his little treasure box under his pillow and then removed before she arrived. Instead of a coin, he was given a note saying she be back to look for it tomorrow... he hid it again.
In other news - I think I've mentioned before that I'm having a really hard time sleeping through the night. I think it's been since maybe July since I've slept through the night without waking. I have no problem falling back to sleep, but I just tend to toss and turn all night. I've even bought a cooling pillow at who-know-what-thirty at night. It's okay. It stays cool to my face but it smells a little funky. Probably the aloe that's in it.
But for the last several nights, Perry and I have been fighting. It's unnerving how confident he is in that he is not stealing all the covers. He refused to believe that he could ever be a cover hog. So the other morning when I woke up freezing, curled up in a little ball, I got proof.
I suck out of bed, leaving my side intact. I had a corner. I had even pulled up the quilt from the end of the bed in the middle of the night, and look where it ended up... The best part about this all was knowing I won. When I left the room, he heard the door tap the frame and he woke up, rolled over to look for me, realized he was being a hog, and tried to fix the bed to make his cover-hogging ways less obvious, as I giggled at him through the crack. The things I put up with...
Our Sundays have now been taken over by flag football. (We're going to have to start going to the Wednesday night church service or something!) I'm so thankful this weekend we did *nothing* but spend time together as a family. And watch Moana for the bajillionth time. *proceeds to sing SO SHINE-NAY!!* Sorry for getting that little tune stuck in your head now!
It warms my heart every time I see my kids snuggling with their dad. It gets me right in the feels every time. I am the resident snuggler of the house. Snuggling is the best. JP has developed a love for snuggling as well and often asks if we can just lay down and snuggle together. Doesn't matter that his siblings are running around screaming about who has what and who had it first. Just give JP some snuggles and he's good.
Ms. Gail has been faithfully toting around Baby Bootie and/or Mama Booties. We had a little fiasco earlier this year with them though... Her loving brothers thought it would be fun to hide her kitties. Not just one or two of them, but all of them. Over the course of a couple weeks, I had found all of them except her two favorites. Every time she went to play with her kitties, she'd ask where Mama Booties and Baby Booties could be found. I had no idea. I searched the house completely and couldn't find them and the boys conveniently couldn't remember. I lost sleep over these darn cats! In an attempt to put my mind at ease, I ordered her new ones. Mama Booties came knocking at the door a few weeks ago, and it was so so so cute to see her answer the door and have Mama sitting there waiting. A few short days later, Baby Booties came crying at the living room door for her. I told her they must have went to the spa while they were on vacation. She believed me. In a sudden turn of events this evening, Perry found the original Baby Booties the other. Yay!! I promptly switched them out, and when she picked up Baby Booties the next time, she had a puzzled look about her, and then questioned me, "I don't think this is the real one..."
After football on Sunday, we were all starving, so we opted to splurge and try out a diner near home called Fatty Patty's. It was okay. Pig decor everywhere. Though it was a full house, food seemed to take longer than expected. Luckily I told the kids they were having coloring contest. I don't know if they really were, but my kids remained *very* focused on the task of coloring the perfect picture. JP is an excellent color-er.
Later that afternoon, HD came rushing into the house demanding I make them flags for their jersey's so they could practice with dad. I had some stick on Velcro - I knew it wouldn't sew on very well, but I tried anyways. It gummed up the needle as predicted, so I made them temporary flags out of baseball fabric with the stick-on Velcro and off they went. I was roped into playing defense.
They were the cutest little bunch making plans to try to fool me. They need to work on whispering and being discreet because it was easy to tell just what they were going to be tricking me with.
I convinced Ms. Gail to practice riding her big girl bike while the guys were playing football. My sister sent me a picture of the chalk road they built at their house, so we did the same thing here. I've never seen her so excited about biking!
Everytime she rode past Perry or me, she would call out "Hi Friend!" or request a high five. Eventually HD put on roller skates to skate through the new town. Perry decided if he was going to skate on the driveway, he better sweep up the rocks, so we had a temporary construction zone. Ms. Gail thought that was great - there was construction in her town!
Our little town was made complete with a service station for Ms. Gail's bike. After the "gas station worker" filled up her bike, she biked out to me, scrunched up her nose and said, "Wow, he was such a nice guy!" Hahaha! She had to call AAA a few times to get towed into the shop. HD made a jail in the middle of our town and I was required to stand on the jail and take people to jail. Both him and JP had my police car chase them down and drag them to jail for speeding and evading police. Huge bummer that it *always* rains here - their outside roads were quickly washed away that night.
Today marked the official start of flag football for us. Technically practice began two weeks ago, but we had our first games this morning, and our boys are *still* on a losing streak. While I don't care so much they have *never* won a game (regardless of if they were keeping score or not) my boys have never been on the team that dominates, or is used to scoring. We've been through one baseball season, and five seasons of soccer and have yet to win.
We were hoping to change that streak today. We didn't. But we had fun anyways. That's what it's about right?
These boys were troopers too! JP's game was scheduled to begin at 9;00a but we had to be there early enough to get his jersey and do warm-ups. Everyone slunk out of bed around 6:30, which really blew coming off of spring break, and we left the house around 7:15a. Scored a killer parking spot being one of the first ones there. Then we froze for the next several hours...
JP can easily be picked out in numerous ways. A) We missed the gold socks memo. Everywhere I have read it clearly says, "Socks must be black" so imagine my surprise when the rest of the team shows up in gold socks... B) He wore his Lions sweatshirt under his jersey and insisted his hood be up. C) Never could you see his hands. How can you grab a flag when your hands aren't out?
This is typically what JP looks like when he sees mom taking a picture of him. He asks like the camera is going to steal his soul or something...
I wasn't sure how long the games would last, but they plan for them to last an hour. I think JP's lasted half an hour. It was over before they really got into the groove of it. There was also some confusion before the game as to who we were supposed to play. Apparently one of the fields was deemed unplayable so they had moved teams around to make up for the "missing" field and for some unknown reason, had our opponent playing at a later time. We scrambled to find another team ready to play...
I think it goes without say though, JP was mostly just excited for the snacks at the end of the game.
With JP's game starting late and ending quickly, we had plenty of time to get HD over to his warm-up area and to then go find him after the game. Halfway through JP's game, HD and his team mom came over to find me because the league wasn't going to let him play because his physical hadn't been turned in. I'm thinking I came off pretty snarky when I told her I turned it in - to her- on the first day of practice. Luckily I had taken a picture of it, just in case, but then my phone wouldn't let me send it... She ended up taking of picture of my picture of the physical. Thankfully they let that pass as they continued to look for it. I was going to be *pissed* if they weren't going to let him play!
HD is on the "gold" offense and defense. He takes his position quite literally and lines up in the same exact position every time. It's cute! He's really good about using his body to block instead of his hands.
Both Perry and I found it quite amusing HD, who might be the second smallest on the team, was having to block their biggest player. I mean they are the same height when the kid is hunched down!
HD expressed how frustrated he was at the end of the game about how this kid was blocking wrong. (I didn't know the blocking rules until I googled them this afternoon.) You can't grab any part of the opponent, at all, or block with extended arms and here, this big guy is completely holding HD's shoulders. I see now why he was so frustrated! But he did a great job none-the-less!
They lost 7-12 but they all played great! Quite a few of his teammates were also first time football players too! I'm eager to see how both JP and HD progress this season!
Next game I'm wearing some rain boot because the wet grass we trudged through numerous times, were cold and wet by the end. And I'm probably bringing a backpack instead of a bag to carry stuff in. Definitely more blankets too! Though there was no rain, it's still pretty chilly at 8:00am! The slightest breeze turned me into a big baby, quick.
