Little League Opening Day

Baseball season is underway, and this past weekend the league Logan plays in celebrated with an opening day parade and celebration.  Mom and Robby cam out for the event, and the six of us had a great time.  It was colder than usual, but sunny and blue skies and as the day went on we warmed up. The boys enjoyed all the free amusements at our local baseball park.  Play ball!

Here is Logan's team, the Iron Pigs, in red shirts.

 

And the boys during the singing of the national anthem, Logan is #2

 

 

 

 

 

This one was hilarious.  The logs came around and tried to knock the kids of of 'tree stumps".  They both had some great wipe outs.

 

 

Dylan got his clock cleaned this time!

 

 

Meet Me At the Sock Hop!

We look foward to our schools' spring dance every year. The kids run around like crazy, and we get to see a lot of our friends.  Its a win-win for everyone!

The teachers get way into it, too.  This is a 4th grade teacher dressed as Elvis!

 

Dylan's homeroom teacher, she is so wonderful!

 

Dylan and his friend S.  Dylan danced for three straight hours, he was so sweaty!

YMCA!

 

 

Logan goofing off with his friend N.

 

Dylan and his friend R

 

The guy in the "52" Ravens jersey is our incredible PE teacher, Mr. C.  Every year, he DJ's the event and hosts a dance off challenge between him and some students who sign up to show off their moves.  Its hysterical!

 

 

Such a great school, and a fun event!

catching up ..... again

I've been slacking on this blogging thing, that's for sure.  Lets go backwards.

It all went downhill last week when Logan came down with the flu.  Type B.  Six days of lethargy on the couch.  My boy didn't move, except when he had to go to the bathroom.  Today is Day 10 and he still isn't eating much.  He went back to school Monday, after missing all of last week. 

Then on Thursday, I started feeling the yuck come on, and I've been fighting an uphill battle for 8 days now.  Not quite the flu...more like massive head cold/respitory nastiness.  I had to miss a couple of days of work training, and returned today trying to soak in some more medical assistant knowledge as I get acclimated to my new job.

On Friday of last week, on top of all the plague in our house already, Dylan came down with strep throat and missed Friday and Monday at school. We got him on antibiotics right away so he was well enough (kind of) to attend his all day Odyssey of the Mind competition.  He's been working with his team (which Andrew has co-coached) since October, so this was a "can't miss event".  That day we also had to sandwich in a birthday party for Logan to attend, summer swim team registration (which has to be done in person for swim suit try ons), and a teacher vs. teacher basketball game.  Needless to say, we all collapsed Saturday night and slept for 10 straight hours thru the spring ahead time change.

Here are a couple of photos from Dylan's team, the "Flaming Fury":

Team Shirts representing our school...

 

Dylan the lion tamer (which is actually our leaf blower in disguise)

 

 

 

The whole team with Lucia (head coach) and Andrew (co-coach)

 

 

The big performance..

 

 

 

 

And here is Logan later that day at our school teacher vs. teacher basketball game -  halftime student free throw

 

 

 

 

So, before we all got sick last week what else has been happening in March?

 

Well, Dylan had his Webelos I Blue and Gold Banquet in late February. He's been having a lot of fun with the boys in his den, and this time next year will cross over to Cub Scout as long as he sticks with it.  This year there have been lots of focus on physical fitness, craftsmanship, and outdoors skills.  We have a family Scout camping trip coming up in mid-April, and a hike coming up this coming weekend.  Whew. See why my head spins around sometimes?

 

The week after that, it was time to send invitations out for Dylan's little birthday slumber party.  He wants the same party as he's had the past few years... inviting a few boys from school on a Saturday night in April for a pizza party sleepover at our house.  He wanted a 'cool' shot of himself to be part of the evite. 

Here he is, my big boy about to turn 10 on April 14th.  I can hardly believe it.

The first weekend in March, we had a nice treat.  Mom and Robby took the boys for the weekend, and three of my dear high school friends came out for the weekend.  Ronda, Liza, Angela, Andrew and I put in a full afternoon of wine sipping as we toured them through some of our area's vineyards.  They all live in Maryland, so they had never been to visit any of the Loudoun Vineyards. We had time to fit in five, and we had a blast.  We're hoping to do it again once the weather gets warm!

 

 

This is after visiting the first several vineyards.

 

 

In case once wasn't enough...

 

 

 

I think that one about sums up that day.  Pure joy with friends you've known forever and love, love, love.

And finally, somewhere in between all of this last week, we had a kind of, sort of snow day.  They scared us into thinking we'd be snowed in for days but fortunately it didn't out to be quite the storm they thought.  Just enough for two little boys to enjoy for a few hours.

 

 

My two monkeys. 

 

 

Happy New Year!

This past Monday, a whole new year began.  I always feel like the beginning of school is truly the start of a New Year, not January 1st.   Its a whole new routine, lots of new things starting at once, and tons of schedule changes. 

Its the beginning of for the first time in 10 years, having 7 hours of house to myself.  Wow, has that been a wonderful, wonderful thing.  I've started exercising again, volunteering at school, meeting with my business partner to plan our pursuit of new clients, meeting friends for lunch, going on day dates with Andrew, reading, and the usual errands/cooking/cleaning and managing of our family social calendar.  Its a glorious 7 hours of quiet time to think, relax, and get sh*t done around this joint.  Calling doctors back and having uninterrupted conversations, cleaning out some closets, planting flowers...  the type of stuff that just can't get done during summer months with two kids in the house 24/7.

The boys get home at 2:45 daily and then I switch to mom-mode.  Homework, after school activities, play dates and such.   Between taekwondo (Logan) and Webelos (Dylan), we have plenty on our calendar right now and I'm glad I didn't sign the boys up for any other fall sports.  Logan wants to join the track/running program after school twice a week so we may add that in.  If he does it, there will be a 5K fun run in early December to end the season and I plan to participate with him (!!).

I have to say, the first week of school went exceptionally smoothly.  No one had a melt down, the boys love their teachers and have plenty of friends on the bus, in their classes, at lunch and at recess.   Homework has been very minimal so far. I'm sure once that hits full force I'll be breaking out the wine.  But so far, so good!

Here are my handsome boys the morning of the first day of school - August 27th 2012, Dylan age 9 1/2 and Logan age 6.

Summer catch up edition...

Wow, almost a month since my last post.  I do believe that's a new record.  It seems the older the boys get, the crazier our summers get and I'm lucky to sit down for 10 minutes.  I probably have 100 photos taken in the last month and not sure most of them will ever find their way to this blog (although they did make their way to Facebook, at least).  Its been pool days, playdates, movies, losing half a tree to major storm damage, bbq's, summer camp for Logan, parties and the usual daily grind of house stuff.

I've missed you, my little blog.

Let's review the past few weeks and get all caught up on the highlights, shall we?

• Swim team has continued for the boys, with meets twice a week and practice five days a week.  Its been a great experience again, and Logan has loved his first year.  He is slowly getting faster and faster, and learning the strokes. Dylan has been competing in Butterfly for the first time this season and while he still has some form to learn, he's improving a lot too.   We have only two more weeks before the season ends.

• Towards the end of June, we headed over to the eastern shore of Maryland where my dear friend Jay lives.  He invited some other friends and family, got a bushel of crabs and we let the kids run in the sprinkler while we feasted and toasted to old friendships.  I've known most of these guys since we were in middle school.  I love that we still get together, trying to stay young by remembering the good ole days and letting our kids romp.

• Once again, Logan's ferritin levels came back low (the same as the whole past year) despite all the iron supplements.  We know because of this, he still suffers from his sleep disorder and that in turn causes some of his behavioral challenges.  After going through this for the past year, with very little progress, our pediatrician thought it was time to take him to Children's National Medical Center to the Genetics department.  We've tried many other specialists to date and no one has been able to figure out what is preventing his body from absorbing iron.  The high dose of iron prescribed by his sleep doctor starting causing stomach issues, so our pediatrician told us to stop with the supplements for now.  No reason to aggravate his stomach until we go to CNMC and see if they can offer any insight to the situation.  Our appointment is August 1st and we've been busy emailing them all of his bloodwork history and medical information.  Crossing our fingers for some good clues that will help us understand.

• At the very end of June/beginning of July, I threw the kids in the car and we headed down to my Dad and Bobbie's for a few days of boating, fishing and swimming.  Always a good time, and so much time on the water is always fun and appreciated by my aqua boys.  Dad set up a shooting range in the backyard and the boys were in heaven shooting his pellet gun.  Dylan proved to be quite the shot.  And Bobbie make Logan an early birthday cake to celebrate #6.

• Next up was a spontaneous day spent at Watermelon Park campground, right on the Shenandoah River, for a July 4th celebration.  The water the cool, the beer was cold, and the burgers were juicy.   The day was almost dampered by Andrew's wedding ring slipping off his finger into the sandy bottom of the river.  But we all searched and searched, and the tenacity paid off when Arianna, our friends' daughter, found the ring buried in the bottom of the river.   Needless to say, we were hugely relieved when it was found.  I had it designed by an artist when we got married 12 years ago and it was very special.  It wouldn't have been the same to have to replace it.

• Our little Logan turned 6 on July 8th.  6!  I still can't believe it.  In some ways, it seems like time has flown by and in other ways, it seems a million years ago I held him my arms to inhale that sweet baby smell.  He is still willing to let me cuddle him and even falls asleep in my arm, from time and time.  I know this will be a big year for him, starting 1st grade and making new friends.  Lots to look forward to.  We had his birthday party at his taekwondo school over the weekend and it was a great time.  Mom, Robby, Chris, Jess and the twins came out too!

• Once swim season ends, we'll leave for vacation at the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  We've been looking forward to this since the winter and I can't wait to get my toes in the sand!  That trip will surely deserve its own blog post, as we hope to go on many adventures and show the boys the huge sand dunes, the Wright Brothers Memorial, canoe in the Sound, visit the Aquarium, and enjoy some gnarly seafood.

• Once we're back, we'll have 27 more days of summer until school begins.  And its a good thing, cuz I still have lots left on my Summer Fun list of stuff to do!