CKZCJ

The other day I was talking to the boys in Z Man’s room and he had a little bowl of jelly beans on his desk. As we were talking I reached over and picked out a  red jelly bean and started to eat it. Out of nowhere CaseyJ blurted “Mom! Mom! Spit it out, it’s not good!” In a mild panic (thinking oh my word what did they do to the jelly beans?) I picked up the little bowl and spit the half masticated jelly bean in it. Thereby making all the jelly beans now bad. After a moment to recover I asked why on earth the jelly bean was bad (at this point seriously concerned about what they had put on them). I had forgotten that CaseyJ had seen the movie HOP the day before and he told me “Mom, those jelly beans came from the Easter Bunny’s butt”. Oh, duh. I didn’t need the calories anyway.

There is a pox upon our house and it’s in the form of little square pieces that hurt something awful if you step on them. Just what the boys have gotten for Christmas is more than around 3,000 pieces of Lego bricks, the majority of them Star Wars sets. The boys are old enough now to build about 80% of the sets themselves with help along the way every now and then. We still have one big set courtesy of Grandmaclaus to build but I thought I’d share this one time lapse with you (first one so it’s a bit of an experiment made using *gasp* Windows Movie Maker).

Christmas certainly pulled a ninja on me this year. It’s here and I’m so far behind and unprepared. Luckily the boys have been reminding me of the daily progress towards the day marked 25 on our calendar. They asked to “camp out” on the living room floor tomorrow night to wait for Santa. I had to remind them he’ll only come if they are sleeping in their own beds. I rushed to send out a few Christmas Cards this year but we have something we’d like to share digitally with all of our family and friends. Each month at school the boys memorize a Bible verse, a poem, and sometimes a song. We’d like to share their verses for this month with you. When it comes to CaseyJ I think he gives Linus in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special a serious run for his money! Just click on the play button below each picture to start the audio…

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From our family to yours we wish you a very Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!!

6yr old: “Mom wanna hear a funny story?
Before I could say ok….
6yr old: “One day Han Solo lost his hat. Then someone found it. But they couldn’t find a mail box to mail it to him. So then they….” Tons of giggles. Uncontrollable giggling.
Me: I quickly summarize the story and ask what’s so funny.
6yr old: Still giggling… “well then the person who found it put it in a trash can. And no one looked in the trash can for ten days (which reminded me of our forgetting the trash day) and on the eleventh day someone found it in the trash can and said hey Han Solo your hat’s in the trash can”
Me: “Oh hah. And that’s funny huh?”

Does Han Solo even have a hat? I think he meant Indiana Jones. You know being it was the same actor and all. It’s been ten minutes since he told me that story and I still hear them giggling about it. I will NEVER understand little boys.

While we had the oldest in baseball for the past two months which took up three days a week our youngest was very adamant about playing soccer at the same time on the opposite side of town. Happy that he showed a bit of independence and made his own choice we grudgingly gladly split Tuesday practice days one of us at baseball and one of us at soccer and sometimes Saturday games happened at them same time also.  Three years ago CJ wouldn’t even set foot on the soccer field, last year he would participate in practice but was very hesitant about playing in games, this year he really wanted to play. He still had a hard time early on when something didn’t go his way or the other team scored but he got better about it as the season went on. He did score a goal but mostly concentrated on the defensive end of business. His coaches even gave him Best Defensive Player award at the end of the season party!

This boy has long legs and knows how to use them to run. I was surprised at how quick he got up and down the field. I think he really enjoyed playing this year even through the periodic temper flare ups and bad practices. Now that the spring season is over he still grabs his ball and goes outside to practice kicking against a ball return net thing we have. Our yard stinks as a soccer field (full of sticker burrs and pot holes) but he likes to get out there and kick it around anyway.You can see all his soccer action pictures on my flickr page.

It’s spring. Baseball season is upon us. As is soccer. Being the independent and two completely different boys that were born only one year apart the boys chose different sports this season. Which means mom and dad are going crazy keeping up with practice and game schedules. Friday is the only day of the week (besides Sunday) we don’t have something going on after school. Cub Scouts, soccer practice and baseball practice same day, same time at two locations across town, speech practice for Zach, baseball games (on Thursdays and Saturdays). Sigh, I got tired just typing that.

Zach is seriously enjoying baseball and learning a little each time he goes. Like for example – you can’t actually throw the ball at a base runner a la kickball, or run a huge circle out of the baseline to avoid being tagged, or run the bases with your bat still in your hands. He had his first game Thursday and played left field (I kind of figured he’d be the right field kiddo). The boys get 6 pitches or 3 strikes and the coaches pitch to their own players. The first two innings there were a lot of three swings and three misses for both teams but on the Z’s second time around with bases loaded he got a decent little hit and made it to first base. I was so excited I forgot to take a picture. He made it all the way to third on his team mates hits but was finally forced out at home.

His team didn’t  win but they kept it close and had some good plays. I know that he’ll get even better as he learns more about the game.

This guy however wanted to stick with soccer. The first game I don’t think he crossed mid field. He’s very intent on playing defense and keeping the other team from scoring. He won’t really kick it unless it comes toward him with no one else around. He improved a lot at game number two though. He kicked the ball down the field a few times and actually scored a goal. We were so happy!

He doesn’t like it when the other team scores or if he gets grass on his socks but we’ll take the baby steps – one game at a time. This weekend will be the only one where they have games at separate times, the other three weekends they play at the same time, across town from each other. Oh joy….