Tumbles...

Conner and Ben both took some pretty good tumbles off their bikes today and managed to hurt themselves in exactly the same spots!  But, they got right back up and after Dr. Mom fixed them up, they were ready for more!  They are really getting good on those bikes!!!  (Obviously judging from their facial expressions, Ben took the injury a little better than Conner...)

Flip Flops...

The boys got their very first pair of $0.98 flip flops today.  They were beyond thrilled!  We had to pry them off their feet for bedtime! Two dollars well spent!

Tired...

We got home Thursday after school, and Conner decided to put himself to bed... he needed a little nap before soccer tonight!

Double Header...

Tonight we had soccer scrimmage at 6 and baseball practice at 7.  It was a very busy night!  Soccer went so good.  The boys have improved so much since last year.  Ben even scored two goals tonight!  Conner chases that soccer ball everywhere!  It is awesome to watch!  Baseball practice was fun, too, even though the boys were already getting tired.  They worked on hitting and fielding.

Amazing...

Nick moved the bike riding to the street so the boys had more room to try to turn around. I am still amazed!  When Conner and Ben put their minds to something, they can do anything!  They just need to figure out how to get going by themselves and they won't need those training wheels for much longer!  They're almost there...

7:42 a.m.

Nana and Gramps were in town last night so they stayed the night at our house.  The boys were up a little bit later and they definitely had a full day of playing and riding their bikes on Saturday so they were very tired when they went to bed.  Nana snapped this picture of them sleeping at 7:42 this morning.  This has never happened before.   This is the latest they have ever slept...!!!

Bike Riders...

Today, Nick took the training wheels off the boys' bikes again and we were astounded by how much they have improved!  After a quick pep talk, Ben was off and riding!  He was amazing!  He just needs help starting and stopping, but he is really good at balancing while he is riding the bike!  Conner really surprised us because until today, he had been less than thrilled about even learning how to ride his bike without training wheels.  Today was a very different story!  He decided that he was really going to try today and he jumped on the bike and with some help from Dad, he rode by himself for the first time!  It was awesome to watch them!

Another Soccer Practice...

We made it to another soccer practice this week!  The boys are really enjoying it.  They will start games next week!  (And Nick did a great job coaching these 8 boys tonight!)  In the first picture, Ben has the ball.  Conner got a turn in the second picture.  

"Fishing!"

I went outside this morning to see what the boys were up to... I found them "fishing" by the side of the house while Daddy was working in the garage!

Birthdays!

We went to Charles City this afternoon to celebrate 3 birthdays!  Our nieces have birthdays in April, May, and June so we had one big celebration for all of them!  It was so much fun to see them and the boys really enjoyed spending some time with their cousins.  I cannot believe how much these three have grown!  Happy Birthday Jennifer, Mikayla, and Kelly!  We love you so much!

Soccer Pictures!

Ben's soccer picture!

Conner's soccer picture!

Soccer Practice!

Friday night brought us our first soccer practice!  The boys were beyond excited and were very proud to tell everyone that their daddy is the coach!  Ben and Conner had a lot of fun... maybe a bit too much...  We did have to have a little refresher course on how to act at soccer practice, but we have a whole team of very "active" little boys!  It was fun to watch Nick with the kids and it was a good first practice!  Hopefully they can get a couple more in next week!  We found out that baseball will be starting next week, as well, so we will have some busy boys.  Summer is coming!

Ice Cream... at least...

Soccer started 4 weeks ago... at least it was supposed to.  Every night that we have had soccer practice, they have postponed due to rain.  Every. Night.  So, tonight was no exception... The guys were all dressed and ready to go this time, but the rain just wouldn't stop, so I got the inevitable email that practice was, indeed, cancelled again.  We had talked about getting ice cream after practice, so we decided to go ahead and at least get our ice cream tonight!  Ben loved his caramel sundae and, as you can see, needed to lick the bowl clean!  Conner chose chocolate ice cream with hot fudge.  It kinda made up for no soccer practice!  Hopefully we will be able to have our next scheduled practice tomorrow night!

Rainy...

No school today... rainy morning... naturally my kids wanted to make "kites..."  Nothing like wishful thinking! We are definitely enjoying the extra day to our weekend, even if it will be spent inside waiting for storms!

Happy Mother's Day!

I woke up to breakfast in bed today... I'm not sure if I have ever been served breakfast in bed!  Nick took the boys on a little grocery run while I slept and when they got back Nick made me an omelet, hash browns, and he even made his own hollandaise sauce.  And, he got doughnuts... It was definitely a great way to wake up and coincidentally it was also the best part of my Mother's Day!  My guys got me some flowers, some personalized gifts (very sweet), and of course, the homemade cards and the school projects that I always love!  I even talked Nick into trying out our green thumbs and we got some flowers planted.  (Nick really did all the work!)  The weather wasn't great, but it didn't matter... I spent the day with my best guys.  Thank you Nick, Ben, and Conner for making me feel so loved!  I love you guys so much!  Thank you also goes to our moms,  Nana and Mama, for helping us discover how to be great parents and always being there when we need you!  Happy Mother's Day!!!

Monkeys...

My monkeys on the monkey bars.  I didn't even pose them!

Life Jackets...

Since the weather is finally getting nicer, Nick has been getting his boat ready.  He realized that the boys have grown so much that their life jackets weren't going to fit well anymore, so he ordered the boys new ones.  They arrived today and the boys cannot wait to put them to good use!  Conner and Ben were very excited with their new life jackets!

The Scheme...

There are a few toys in our house that basically live in  my closet because they get taken away so frequently.  You'd think at some point, I would just get rid of them...  Anyway, one such toy is a plastic pirate sword.  The boys haven't touched it for months and months.  Well, this morning, as I was trying to squeeze in a few more minutes of shut eye, Ben found that sword in my closet and decided that he needed it.. so he took it.  When I asked him about it, he told me he found it in his closet.  About 30 minutes later, he confessed that he had actually found it in my closet.  Anyway, in the meantime (as usual) I had taken the sword away.  So, we talked about being honest and since the sword had already been taken away, I let Ben and Conner know that the sword would be gone for a while.  A little later, I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to come up with a grocery list and I heard a conversation between my two boys as they were huddled behind the couch...

Conner: Okay Ben, I am going to try to find that sword. You have to go distract Mom.  Go do your dance.
Ben: Okay.
(Keep in mind that although they are huddled behind the couch, they are not whispering!)  So, Ben comes over to me and starts dancing.  Conner starts to leave the room, so I ask him where he is going...
Conner: I don't know! Come here Ben.
Ben goes back over to Conner where Conner, again, tells him to distract me...
At that point, I put an end to their little plan....

Little schemers...  We have always said that Conner will be the one to come up with the plan and Ben will be the one to try to carry it out!!!  So far, we are right!

Kernels...

The four of us went to our first Cedar Rapids Kernels baseball game tonight.  They had a promotion through school, so we saw lots of friends there!  Ben was really good for almost 3 innings.  It took Conner most of that time to get over the fact that he didn't get to catch a tshirt when the girls were launching them into the crowd.  The boys calmed down long enough to have some pop and popcorn, but our Ben was pretty much done after that!  Conner, however, was able to spend the next two innings sitting and enjoying the game, or at least enjoying the crowd.  By the end of the 4th, we were debating how much longer we should stay.  We pushed it to one more inning and we left as the 6th was starting.  During this time, Ben made it very apparent that we would have to make our exit soon!  However, as we were leaving, Ben threw a monster fit about how he didn't want to leave yet and we ended up dragging him out of the stadium kicking and screaming.  It was definitely a good experience, but we might wait a while to try again...!  Nick was able to get a picture of Ben before the game started, but Conner refused to move from his seat...