Early May

Baseball North Style
Cole has been playing AAA Babe Ruth this year and he is having a blast! There were not enough kids in his age group so he is playing up in the 9-10 year old kid pitch.
He is not the strongest, biggest or fastest but he holds his own on the field and has learned a ton of baseball this year from a great coaching staff. He is still batting in practice right and left handed but only bats left during games. Coach said that he is a couple steps closer to first base batting left, he has a better chance of actually getting on base. (He doesn’t have the strength yet to hit the ball out of the infield, he gets the bat on the ball most games howevber. And then his speed, well he doesn’t really have speed. Haha)

Mother-Daughter Brunch
Yearly Sorority brunch with my Mother.
I sure enjoy this with Mom. I love seeing all the women that I have grown up knowing. They are wonderful.

New house, new flower bed to plant.
The kids and I planted a bed on our new front porch.
It’s looking quite full to date and beautiful!

Things you can find in a refrigerator living with Jo.
What? Doesn’t everyone have a couple mermaids swimming around in the fridge? Sorry you miss out on such things.
The ladies have also hung out on beds of ice cubes too, in the freezer. We just never know when we will see these two sneaky creatures.

Easter Weekend

It’s been hard to find time for the extras these past couple months. I have been working full time and with the kids activities and just life our Family Blog has fallen behind. I am back working part time hours in hopes that it will be better for everyone in our family and in turn should be able to catch up and keep up with our website.

Hope you didn’t miss us too much!

EASTER 2010
Our trip South again this year and the kids got to hunt in the “big kids” hunting ground. What does this mean? Well the eggs are hidden cleverly, not just sitting on top of the grass!

This age group the kids wanted nothing to do with the candy, “Just eggs please”. Worked for us adults as we picked up candy and shared it amongst ourselves.

Hidden so well that one $5 egg was still missing when most kids headed home. But not these three!

Unknown Child, Cole & Jo looking for egg in dirt worth $5.
(Unknown Child found it first)

Jo’s Worst Day Of Her Life!

And
Jo’s Best Day Of Her Life!

She was very sad (more like down right frustrated, depressed wanting to cry because everyone “got something but me and I’m jealous”) that she could not find one egg with a prize attached too it. Mason gave her a general direction for a 50-cent egg and she found that. THANKS Mason! You made all our day brighter, phew!

Gma & Gpa’s Coloring Eggs
Met most of the B family at the Grandparents house for egg coloring plus.

All the kids (including Corri) had a good time making their eggs colorful.
We even had three goose eggs for the kids to have fun with. HUGE!

Then, Family Walk time along with trying to find a Geocache or two.
Kids were able to stretch their legs and arms a bit at the school year while the adults were hunting a cache that had been Muggled.

Cousin Derian, Cole & Jo

Easter Morning

Don’t know what to say about this photo, just made me laugh seeing them again. Hello, are you actually awake yet?

The Bunny is going to have to start hiding eggs earlier next year because the kids had a hard time waiting for Rachelle and Connie to get up before heading out the door.

Good morning you two.

Walking up the see the cows, oh and Calvin too.

The dogs like the walk as well.

Calvin sat the kids on the bull and they loved it! Don’t think the bull cared.
A very good Easter weekend full of family and family fun.

Kids Talk

Jo is into “Reruns” as Cole would say. We could all be sitting together eating dinner for example in the middle of a conversation and then Jo would start recapping the whole experience.Jo pretending to be Oma or Nanny.

Here is an example of “any” conversation by Jo.
“Mom, you said,
And then Cole said …,
And I went …,
And then Oma …,
And then Mom said …,
And then Oma said …,
And then Cole did …,
And then he did …,
Then he said … while Oma said,
And I was like …,
Isn’t that funny?!”

And we all go “UHG” while we listen and smile.

Cole is so into Star Wars that he can almost relate any feeling or experience in his life to something that has happened in a Star Wars movie. The other day he was very tired and when the kids get very tired they talk about serious thing. He was all about his feelings and anger the other day.

A Jedi in training we think.

Cole’s words on what is going on inside of him.
“I feel like I am Anakin (Anakin turns into Darth Vader for those who don’t know) and there is a blaster war going on inside of me. Sometimes my anger is so bad that that part of Anakin might win and that is who I will be. I try so hard but the battle is going on inside of me and I don’t know who is going to win. But who ever does win is just who I am going to be. Anakin made bad choices when he got angry and I don’t want to but some times I just have to and that is why I am like Anakin. Some time one side will win, Mom, and that is just who I am going to be.”

Just to finish this off, I listened to him, asked questions and we talked back and forth about his feelings and the blaster battle that was going on inside of him. He is quite a deep thinking kid and I’m sure proud that not only can he put his feelings into words but he understands them too.

Marched to the End

Spent a sunny day out at the Young Belmont’s Estate for a little moto-cross and BBQ. Todd has been in school for so long now (X-ray tech) that the family has not been quite a social as they or we would like them to be. School is over now (even PASSED his test!) and it’s time to have company.

Uncle Todd taking the jump.

Derian is kicking it nowadays on her bike!

Cole was a little timid at first but picked up his confidence as the day progressed. He was all smiles telling us how he was taking the jump and catching air.
I gave Jo a few laps around the track, slow and steady at first and then her competitive side was coming out as she said “Beat Cole” or “Beat Derian”!

Hoping this summer she learns to ride her bike without training wheels so she can start to ride the little bike like Cole. Why? Well, she is going to be sad when I finally have to tell her she is riding on the back of the bike as she has gotten so tall her head/helmet hits me in the face and it really isn’t pleasant. Made me laugh quite a bit though.

Corri found field mouse remains and so Jo was all over this! They found just about a full skeleton. Long sharp teeth!

Dinner with Tracy and Lil
She is such a good sport isn’t she?
Of course we didn’t get a photo of Tracy. Maybe if she played dress up too?

Oma and her New PJ’s!

How could we
pass up getting
her warm
pajamas?

Baseball

Cole and his new uniform!
He was excited to get to pick his number for the first time along with having his last name across the back of his jersey.

Red is his color now. Oh, Green and Yellow for the Ducks is still part of him but RED…our family does not have enough red to wear. The Little Man has let us know this often. “Could you please buy a red shirt so people know who you are rooting for?” “Yes Son, we will work on this for you.”

Baberuth AAA, kid pitch.

One of his first games. He is having a great time and so are Oma and I. Jo? Well she just loves sports so all this game after game day stuff is just making her love it even more. (NOT)

Jumping, Tumbling Jo & Mom’s Birthday

Jo is taking a Tumbling and Trampoline class and is having a blast! She has the least experience in her group, which she’s stated a few times that she does not understand some of the instructions but does watch the other kids and picks it up quickly. She is getting stronger every week and is jumping higher too.

Watching her learn a front flip on the trampoline was great. I could tell she was nervous about doing it but after five or six tries she finally got it and when she did the smile was huge!
Oma and Jo came home the other day very excited, she was finally able to do her back hand springs over the roll mat. (bottom left photo) She got the nerve to trust the mat and strength to roll over the matt all on her own.

Her handstands are getting much stronger and she is able to do her wall hand stand on her own.

I love seeing her face after class.
This would be her after class, self portrait.

Mom is 44 and it’s all about Jo?

Oma asked the kids what they might want to do for my birthday and Jo said make a cherry pie and eat at Red Robin. Oma asked Jo if that is some thing Mom would like to do or Jo would like to do? I believe Jo said that Mom would like it. (As it should be.)



Home made cherry pie!
LOVED IT!

Dinner at Red Robin with friends!

Julie, Annie, Oma, Sheila, Lori, Mom, Jo and Jen.
(photo credit, Cole)

I will say that walking to the front door of RR for dinner I did not lift my foot high enough to step onto the curb. I was holding Jo’s hand as I started to fall, every thing went into slow motion as I tried to catch myself. I saw Jo’s face of horror wondering why I was pulling/pushing on her. I realized that I should let her go so she does not get hurt and continued to fall to the ground landing on my shoulder, arm and leg. I guess 44 is the year I start looking forward to my new hip!
Were is my IV? Those purple sporty wheel chairs look nice.

Thanks to everyone on my (Jo’s) birthday day!