Baseball

We have joined up with the local Little League for Sam to play ball this spring. He has only had "try outs" and a few practices so far, but he's loving it. Of course, he thinks he knows everything there is to know about the sport already and only wants to practice batting not catching. It's amazing to see the kids who played last year and how much they learned in a year. I've been impressed with the coaches teaching skills and patience with such young kids. They sure are cute out there. I just got our schedule and it looks like we will be spending a lot of time at the ball field (which is thankfully right down the street), so you can expect a lot more baseball pictures this spring. :)

Catching up

I have a lot to post, but just have been really bad about finding making time to blog lately. So, this is my attempt at catching up… 

We discovered Professor Smarty Pants who plays at a local bar/restaurant/music venue on Wednesday nights and kids eat free. We've been twice now and hope to go back again soon. Samuel enjoys telling nonsense jokes to the crowd and Emma loves to dance with all the other kids. It's quite the comedy act. Both kids got to play his ukelele… 

Samuel has had tons of friends from schools turn 5 lately which means lots of fun birthday parties…

Baby "Aye Aye" has learned to go potty…

We've had some spring like days which make emma want to roll in puddles…

And Samuel loves any opportunity to play any and all sports (more on his baseball experiences coming soon)… 

But we've had some very cold days as well, which made it a good time to buy a month pass to the indoor playground… 

Emma and I enjoy our time together when Sam's at school…

Samuel loves to help around the house. No I didn't make him do this, he volunteered all on his own…

Birthday Parties come with candy, particularly candy that turns your tongue green…

My little princess throwing a temper tantrum because she didn't get to go in to Kroger with Sam and Papa… She was asleep a minute after I took this picture. I just have to laugh at two year old dramas! 

See, cold days… Sadly this is the most snow we got this winter, not good for sledding or snowmen. Oh well, I'm willing to wait till next year at this point.

Friends

The Matz family made their way out to visit us! It was such a great visit. I love having friends in my home and our kids got along so great. I look forward to welcoming their babies numbers 4 and 5 in July… life sure has changed since we hung out for late night dinner parties and went jogging with just the dog. But these kids sure bring the fun and laughter…

Emma's New Year Resolutions

Emma has been checking off her New Years Resolution list left and right! 

1. Climb aboard the Potty Train (Day and Night!) 

2. Give up the bottle  (We just stopped giving it to her a couple days after the new year. She still asks for it occasionally, but doesn't put up too much of a fight when we offer a cup instead.) 

3. Transfer from crib to big girl bed. We decided it was time for two reasons. First, if she was going to be potty trained at night, she needed to be able to get up and go if she needed to do so. Second, she's so heavy! I was tired of lifting that 35ish pounds over the edge of the crib every day. :) She has done fabulous with the transition. She always calls for Samuel (Sa-You) in the morning to ask him if it's time to come down yet. Samuel is the time keeper in our house and at his school. :)

 4. Get a haircut She sat so still and quiet. She was afraid to talk or move. Samuel warned her before we left him at school that morning, "Emma you have to sit real still at your haircut. And they will give you a lollipop when you're done." She listened to big brother and did great. The haircut was disappointing though. You couldn't even tell and it did nothing for her unruly bangs.

 She insisted on wearing her sunglasses.

 After…

Now we just need to work on… 

5. Giving up the thumb and keeping her blanket in her crib… eventually. 

Ice Skating

We took the kids ice skating a few weeks ago. Samuel loves to play hockey and had been wanting to go for a while. He was pretty disappointed when we told him that he couldn't have a hockey stick and he insisted that he already knew how to skate. It was an interesting experience. I think our biggest problem with both of them is that they weren't afraid of falling, they had no motivation to try to stay up. Emma just liked leaning on us and having us pull her around. Samuel got to where he would only hold one of our hands, but couldn't figure out the sliding motion, so it was more just walking on ice in ice skates. 

 We did a lot of watching…

 And taking breaks…

 I can't remember why Sam was upset, but Emma was sweet comforting him…

More breaks…

The circus

This was quite a while ago now, but I still wanted it on here for my personal record… Gigi and Dodo got us tickets to the circus a few weeks ago. The kids still talk about it. Emma liked the puppies best and Samuel the motorcycles. I liked the elephants. We got to watch the elephants arrive in town and walk from the train to the arena. I thought it was pretty neat, but the kids were completely unimpressed. Oh well. Emma got to be interviewed about the circus by the local news team, which can be viewed here.

 It was freezing…

 The next night we got to see them all in action…

 We got there in time for the pre show. Emma and Papa did the limbo…

 And Samuel showed off some amazing dance moves. Apparently, they've been having dance parties at preschool and he's learned some new things…

 Watching the show…

It was a great show!