Finally a POST

WOW, I just looked at the last post and it was after the kids' birthday in the fall. SO much has gone on over the last 6 months. Rather than try to post on it all, I am just going to start from the last month.

Mainly because I cannot get this video to go through email, I am going to start with a video from Zach's game on Saturday. He is doing AWESOME with soccer. And absolutely LOVES it.

Zach is in the blue shorts. He starts this play off. ENJOY :)

Birthday Party 2010

We celebrated the kids birthdays this past weekend. Despite the wind, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Sandy Bottom Park is such a beautiful area in the fall!!

Just looking at Alexis' hair you can see how bad the wind was blowing. We ended up not being able to set out a lot of the decorations and decided against the arts and craft project. But it was still alot of fun!!

This little fellow was not on the guest list, but he sure did enjoy the chips.

Nicole was my party planner for the day:) She does such an awesome job!! She had two games for the kids to play. The first the kids had to soak up water with a sponge and squeeze it into another bucket. Suprisingly, it was really a tie:)

It was the girls against the boys.

The next game the kids had to carry a fresh egg (not hard boiled) on a spoon down and around a bucket and back to the next person in line. The suprising thing was that not a single egg was broken or even cracked.

And that was even after little Ms. Grace kept dropping her egg!!

After games we came back to the table for cake and presents. Boy did the candles on the cake prove to be a challenge. My fingers were burning from trying to get them lit.

We used a box and my hands just to keep them lit long enough for them each to blow them out.

This is Alyssa. You may remember May 2009 I took her mommy and daddys pictures while they were still pregnant. Well, her she is at 16 months old. She is such a sweet angel.

And this is Magen and I:) My Best Friend and Alyssa's mommy!

Since they were down here from Maryland for the party, one of the things they asked me to do was take a family photo for them. Such a beautiful family!!

After all of our guests were gone, the kids spent a little time playing on the playground. Here they are sitting on a truck that is on a spring that you rock back and forth on. They laughed the whole time. I just love when they laugh:)

Look at this little devilish grin!

Such a sweet smile.

I am not sure what he was trying to do here, but it doesnt look comfortable.

Play Ball

It is Fall Ball time!! Both kids are finally old enough to play T-ball and their first practice was Tuesday night. Tuesday they were both super excited before and after practice. They were able to practice fielding a ball, swinging a bat, running to 1st base and throwing.

Alexis fielding the ball. The look on her face says she means business!!

Time to practice batting. I have to admit I was really surprised at how well Alexis paid attention and listened to all of the coaches. She really did well!! Zach was very reserved during the whole practice. I could tell he was just taking it all in.

Listening and following thru with what the coach was telling them about swinging a bat.

Swing buddy!!

I think the mouth wide open helped her swing better.

The tongue helped this time:)

He has such a delicate swing.

There we go, a nice good swing. And a smile on his face.

This coach was talking to them about running to 1st base. He took the time to run with each child all the way down to 1st.

Zach chasing him:) Zach may not hit the ball super hard, but I am sure he will out run it. He is fast!!

So, running is not Alexis' best quality:) She tried hard though so that was good.

Now time to work on throwing. This coach was really good with the kids. He was funny and very encouraging. I really liked that.

I think lifting the leg helps with the throw!!

See it worked for Alexis too.

Showing Zach the technique to throwing.

Look a glove that doubles as a hat.

She was serious about catching the ball!!

Oh look, there is another hat.

So, our first game is this Saturday. Right now we only have two T-Ball teams in our league so they will play each other this week. I am sure it will be a lot of organized kaos. But hopefully the kids will have fun, learn alot and begin to love the sport. I am looking forward to it.

Back to School 2010

So, it's the first day of school!! Yay!! Oh, did I say that out loud? The kids had a pretty good day. They were up this morning and excited about going. I have taken their picture by this tree every year. Boy have they grown!!

Zack looks super exicted.

Uh, oh!! There's our yellow chariot waiting on us:) I promise I was on time and she was early. So glad it is a private school. Public school would have kept on driving.

And they are off!! The little head that you see just above the word Lutheran is Alexis. They were watching and waving to me as they left the parking lot!

So, you think once they are on the bus all is good, right?? Well sort of. I waited patiently until after 3:30 today to call and check on the kids. They were to leave school at 3:00 and I expected them at Grandma's around 3:15 or 3:20. At 3:30 they pulled up. Alexis immediately jumped on the phone and started telling me all about her day. I can tell she was excited and had a good day because she was a chatterbox!! Zack not so much. Poor thing, he had a day!! First, he didnt eat much lunch, then he was bit by what he called a wasp during recess, and finally he fell asleep on the bus on the way home. Poor little fellow. He was pooped today. To much excitement. I hope tomorrow brings a quieter day for him:)

New York Part 2

WOW!! Only 6 weeks later, but finally Part 2 of our New York Trip.

The second Play Day was spent at the Long Island Game Farm. I have to admit I really wasnt sure what we were getting ourselves into as we walked up to the gate, but I was pleasantly surprised once we got in. This place was like Blue Bird Gap Farm, but NY style (and expense I might add). It was literally 5 minutes from my SIL's house, but very big and a good variety of animals. I must have passed it a half dozen times driving around their area, and never even noticed it.

Our first stop...feed the deer!! Thats right. We were inside the fences surrounded by hungry deer. The kids absolutely loved it. They thought it was so cool.

And boy were the deers HUNGRY!!

Zack was a little nervous at first, but warmed right up to it.

Hey, who does this look like?

Aunt Gwen handed out the food to the kids. They probably would have gone through the whole cup if we would have let them.

For weeks before we went to NY Alexis had been asking to ride a horse. The funny thing was there is a horse stable right across the Game Farm that offered rides, but after calling I quickly erased that idea out of our plans. It was $50 for a 30 minute ride!!

But for $5 the kids were able to ride the pony at the Game Farm:) That made my wallet very happy!! And the kids too!!

She is so sweet:)

Zack's turn. And he was just as happy as Alexis.

My little handsome man:)

The next feeding area were the Baby Goats. They were so cute. For I believe $3 you could purchase a bottle to feed the babies. So, of course we did.

As soon as they handed you the bottle the goats basically attacked you.

Both bottles were empty in a matter of minutes.

So we just stayed and played for awhile. Alexis looks like she is talking to them in this picture. It is as if she was trying to gather them up and lead them somewhere.

This by far is the sweetest picture. It looks as if the baby goat is telling Alexis all of its secrets. Just a sweet moment:) I can really see Alexis working with animals when she gets older.

And while Alexis is playing with all of the animals, Zack is on the other side digging in the dirt with a rock. And to think, I actually wondered why I had so many rocks in my bags when we got home:)

Ostrich

I was really trying to get the Ostrich to stick its head through the fence so I could get this picture. Oh well, close enough.

Here they are trying to feed the Ostrich. Some of the animals had these long tubes leading to the cage that still allowed you to feed the animal, but also keep a safe distance from them.

This sheep almost jumped out trying to get to our cup of food.

The next few are taken during the Dog Show that we watched, but I wasnt really supposed to be taking pictures. They said no photography. I guess some rules are made to be broken.

They even had a few rides in the Farm. The kids liked the train although Zack was mad because Alexis sat on the side that could control the bell.

Alexis with the baby ducks. See, I told you she loves animals!!