Baseball.

So this year we had 2 kiddos in baseball. Easton played t-ball. He was one of the youngest on his team. And Cameron is playing coach-pitch. We were very busy this past spring. Lots of practice and games. Once the games started they did not have practice ....thanks goodness!!! The one nice thing about the little kids playing is they played games at the same park so when they did have games at same time we could sit in the middle and watch both games. 

It was very entertaining to watch Easton. They are pretty much clueless at the t-ball level. He did lots of messing around more so than Cameron did at that level. And he would throw tantrums! OMG the tantrums were so embarrassing. The first one was at the second game. He was catcher the first game and wanted to be catcher the next game but they all take turns playing positions and well he wasn't ok with that. He was screaming and crying, it was so bad. I had to drag him out of the dugout and we packed up our crap and left the game. He had some issues with not wanting to share positions with other players. He always wanted to play first base because he wanted the ball. At the t-ball level they teach them to always throw the ball to first base. Oh and he loved to give everyone on the other team a hi-five as the ran by. It was so funny and cute. We are hoping next year goes a little better. He was the youngest one on his team. The coaches and team moms were very good with him and had lots of patience. 

 This was Easton's first practice. This first practice was a mess. Kids running around everywhere with no clue what was going on LOL.

It was awesome to see how much Cameron improved since last year. Cameron played coach pitch in the fall last year so that helped him a lot when the spring season rolled around in February. It's such a great feeling to see your kids succeed. Cameron has already started practicing for fall ball. They practice a couple times a week and will start playing games in a couple weeks. 

Cameron as catcher. This was a shocker. Last year he wanted nothing to do with being catcher. He didn't really like it but he tried it and that's the most important thing:)

Okay I was having some technical difficulties with this freaking computer/internet. Hopefully there's no duplicate pictures and things are a total mess on this page:)  

Boys' Skylander Birthday Party.

So as most of you know Cameron and Easton's birthdays are in December. Cameron's is the 17th and Easton's the 24th. So we try and have their birthday party the first weekend of December and we do a combo party {not sure how much longer that will last}.

Last year {yes this is one of those catching you all up post. A little late but at least its getting done...right?}They both decided on a Skylander Party. If your not familiar with Skylanders it's a video game. Santa brought the kids a Wii for Christmas the previous year and it was the special Skylander edition. It comes with this power of portal thingy that the little characters sit on and then you are that character in the game and you can switch them out. There are like a bazillion characters {we have about a million of them}. So prior to this party they have been all about Skylanders. They go in phases and as of lately they haven't played it much at all. 

I was thinking of buying a cake to look like the power of portal but got a couple quotes and was like "Oh HELL No!" LOL. I looked at some pictures on the Internet I told myself I could totally make it. So that's what I did. I wasn't wanting a fancy cake or anything. A round cake with 2 colors of fondant on it and the prices were crazy. It was super easy to make. All  I did was roll out white fondant and covered the cake. I used the Duff pre-made stuff from Michael's. I got little square cookie cutters, there were 3 different sizes and I just made about 2 inch panels or so and gently pressed the cutter into the fondant to make it look like stones. Then I just gently laid it on the cake. It was super duper easy. Then I bought them some NEW Skylanders and used those as the toppers. 

The party was held at LazerCraze. By the name you can tell its a Lazer tag place but they also have this huge party area and inflatables for the kids to bounce on. It's a great place to have a party for the little kids. They also have arcade games. It was a great party and Cameron was able to invite all his new Kinder friends from school, which he was super happy about. It was a little weird not decorating and cooking and party prepping but it was SO nice not to have a mess to clean up. 

I saw these invitations on Pinterest and had to have them for the boys. So when you buy a Skylander it comes with a trading card and they look exactly like this. The Etsy shop owner can no longer sell these because it goes against the copyright policy or something like that. Too bad because these are so cool!

 Bentley wanted nothing to do with the slide or bounce houses. He hated them. Nowadays he loved them! Uncle darrin and Cousin Landon enjoyed themselves:)

 We took presents home to open. The kids were bummed but it's just easier to take them home and open. Especially when there's two kids it can get a little crazy. 

This was the best picture out of like 10 different ones. Oh well at least Ryan and I are looking at the camera.

 This was on Cameron's actual birthday day. We took him out to dinner and ice cream. The little crown he got from school and just had to wear out to dinner. And can you believe we still have that crown. It's almost ripped in half because Bentley has gotten a hold of it a couple times but it's still hanging on. 

And poor Easton will never have a cool birthday dinner and ice cream. Everything closes early on Christmas Eve. So we had take out pizza and Baskin Robbins. Then we went and checked out some Christmas lights. We might just have to make that a traditon on his birthday now since everything shuts down so early. It was a wonderful night and we will always remember it. The kids faces lit up when they saw all the lights. Absolutely loved it!

Please forgive me if there are numerous typos. I did kinda proof read. Dinner is cooking, Ryan and  Cameron will be home soon from baseball practice. Ryan always lets me know when there are lots of typos...thanks dear:)

Summer Swim Lessons.

So this summer we signed the kids up for swim lessons again. Last summer they did 4 weeks of swim lessons. After 4 weeks of swim lessons this summer I asked the kids if they wanted to keep going and they said YES! So they had a total of 6 weeks of swim lessons 4 days a week for 30 minutes. 

Last year Cameron hated it. He cried almost everyday and looked miserable in the water about 90% of the time. And of course Easton was always smiling laughing and  having a great time. So this year I was a little worried it would be a repeat of last year. Cameron was a little hesitant the first few days but after 2 weeks he improved like 100%.  It was awesome seeing how much he improved and after he got over the fear factor he did great. He started trying and doing stuff he hadn't before. 
Not much I can say about Easton. He was the same old silly kid out there with his mouth wide open laughing and smiling the entire time. He had a hard time listening to the instructors. He always wanted to just play with the little dive toys:)
We were just over at my friends house yesterday swimming and the kids haven't forgotten anything they learned. They were swimming like little fish and loved it. It's such a great feeling seeing your kids succeed and improve at something. It makes you all teary eyed and warm inside.

On the last day of the each 2 week session they get a little 
report cards telling them what they needs to work on. 

Oh and as you can tell Bentley was not part of the swim lessons. Maybe next year when he doesn't need a parent in there with him. I was not going to be getting in the pool every day each morning for 6 weeks with him. Sorry B just wasn't happening:) 

Summer Break Coming to an End.....and I couldn't be Happier.

This is our first summer with a real summer break. Our first 10 week break after being in school all year. Even though Cameron only went from 8:20-11:40am, that short 3 hour window kept me from not losing it. The kids have been at each other all summer. The fighting and the arguing is getting old. Cameron's smart ass mouth is getting old. He currently cannot play with the Lego's or the Wii until I SAY SO. I am hoping that once school starts up again his attitude changes. Some days they can be so good and then other days they are flipping crazy and I am about to lose my shit. Yesterday was one of those "I am about to lose it" kinda days. 

Recently I have been playing referee . Cameron will hit Bentley and then Bentley will haul off and smack him {usually on the face or head and usually with a toy of some sort}. And then Cameron will end up in a time out. Bentley wants to do whatever his big brothers are doing and most the time they do not want him playing with them and that means lots of screaming and crying. It's either Bentley smashing up their Lego's or smashing up their lined up trucks and cars. 

School cannot start fast enough. It will be a little sad. Sad because Cameron will be in First grade. First grade is like big boy status. He will be there all day, he will eat lunch there, and he will be dismissed at the end of the day with all the other students. It's crazy how fast the Kindergarten year went. BUT I will happy to have a normal everyday routine again with a little peace and quiet. 

They had lots of water gun fights in the backyard and lots of Free time to make a huge mess. 

Not sure how many bottles of wine I have gone through in the past 10 weeks.......

Santa Cruz.

So last week Ryan was on vacation and we had originally planned to go on the Jeepers Jamboree, it's a 4 day camping trip on the Rubicon Trali {a post from last years trip will be in the near furture}, but our friends backed out last minute so we decided to take the kids on a little getaway. Ryan has been wanting to take them to the beach so we decided on Santa Cruz. It's only about a 3 hour drive from us and totally worth it. 

The kids had a BLAST. They loved the beach. Easton loved it so much I was afraid he was going to get sucked out into the ocean. He wanted to do nothing else but to swim and play in the waves. Bentley on the other hand wasn't as excited. The waves freaked him out and he held onto you for dear life. Cameron was in and out and loved playing in the sand. 

I was attempting to get a picture of all three of them smiling looking at the camera...You can see how well that went.

Cameron passed out at dinner. He slept like that for like 30 minutes.

We spent all day at the beach. We headed back to our hotel to swim in the pool and get ready for dinner. We decided to walk {it didn't seem that far} but once we were all the way on the wharf our hotel seemed soooooooooo far away. Took awhile to pick a place to eat and get seated. Cameron passed out at the table and Bentley was making a mess with his noodles and kethcup. The kids were exhausted!

The next day we went to the boardwalk to play some games and hang out. The kids freaking love all those arcade games. Easton wanted to play every game that had a claw and you win little rinky dink crap. And just like any kid they love winning tickets and they had enough at the end for each of them to get a little spongebob stuffed toy {oh joy another stuffed animal}.

This is one of those little games Easton played. We really had to watch him because he would just wonder off and swipe his little play card in every machine wasting his credits. Well this time he ran off over to the game with a bunch of soccer balls in it and he actually got it all by himself. It was so funny and cute. So Ryan had to get two more for Cameron and Bentley. 

After the arcade and boardwalk we decided to take a drive up the road about 30 minutes to another beach. Just a few miles up the road the tempature changes drastically and it was probably in the high 60's with a breeze and the water was much colder. The kids called this the "cold" beach. We hung out there for awhile before we headed home. 

The kids had SO much fun. They just ran around the beach like the crazies they are, getting their feet wet and playing in the sand. They found tons of sanddaollars and seashells {which of course we had to bring home} and built sandcastles. This was a great day and we will remember it forever. It was so nice sitting on the beach {we pratically had a huge area all to ourselves} watching the kids run and play. 

 Bentley is trying to catch up......WAIT FOR ME!!!!!!

Don't even ask about this picture. Easton had gotten his shorts wet on the walk down the beach and the shorts were rubbing his leg making him a little "chaffey" so he decided to take them off. So YES he had no shorts on half the day at the beach because he had one pair of shorts left which was for the ride home. 

 AND of course Bentley had to copy everything Easton was doing. They had sand all over:)

 Bentley was going crazy running around in the sand AND then he was running chasing the poor little birdies...crazy kid!