Baseball Spring 2023

We switched Bryson's league so he could play more competitively. The downside was Bryson didn't get to pitch this season because he wasn't good enough. The upside is he improved all around because the skill level of his peers was higher. Bryson has to work through nerves when he plays, which holds him back. (For example, when he bats in practice, he can knock the ball way out in the outfield. During games, he couldn't perform to the same caliber.)

His team won the championship! It was a tough battle trying to beat a team twice that was essentially undefeated all season. 

Showing off the championship ring

Carter's season did not result in a championship win, but they were the youngest in their age bracket (7th grades playing against 9th graders). Matt coached again. Carter mostly played shortstop and pitched on occasion. 

Carter going in to pitch and warming up.

Catching a fly ball at shortstop

Suzuki Graduation Recital

Caleb participated in a Suzuki Graduation Recital on May 13th. This was a huge deal because he graduated from the highest level of Suzuki. He performed Mozart's Sonata in A Major, K. 331, Theme and Variations memorized. It's a difficult piece with little intricacies, and it's 8 pages long! His memory is incredible. He didn't perform flawlessly, but he did very well. The video he submitted to the judge was all 3 movements (19 pages long!!), memorized, but he was fortunately able to record one movement at a time for the submission (not back-to-back). He is gearing up for his Book 7 Suzuki Recital; all pieces are learned and mostly polished and memorized. I admire his dedication to see this through. It definitely represents a lot of hard work!!!

Caleb and his new piano teacher

Ellery also performed at the recital!

 

Preschool Field Trip

I finished up teaching my 10th and final year of preschool (over the span of 13 years). I took a few years off in between boys because my boys are all 3 grades apart. It was a bittersweet decision, but one that felt right. Our final field trip of the year was to a farm. I pulled Austin out of school so he could join us.

Feeding the animals

Pony ride

Train ride

Fun Run

Austin and Bryson participated in a one-mile neighborhood fun run. Bryson got 3rd place and Austin got 7th place.

Happy Birthday!

Carter turned 13 this year! He's excited to be old enough to watch PG-13 movies, though he had permission to see a few already. Carter is such a hard worker and very independent. School comes very easily for Carter, and he makes high As in all his classes. One of his spiritual gifts is connecting with younger children; he is very patient and willing to be part of their silly playing. For example, in January we went to The Downtown Aquarium for a preschool field trip on Martin Luther King day. A single mom from our church was there with her 5 children under the age of 9. Carter took one of the rambunctious 6-year-old twins and became his best friend for the day, doing whatever rides with the boy that he wanted. It was such a service to the mom and so unselfish on Carter's part to play "babysitter" when he didn't need to. Carter still enjoys playing baseball, but has found a new love in football which he tried for the first time last fall. He also tried out for the tennis team at the beginning of March and is playing line 2. Caleb and I have each given him some lessons, and he has picked up the sport very quickly! He struggles with consistency, which is expected, but he's improving at a rapid rate. Carter is in percussion, but he's not dedicated to it like he is to sports. Cooking is an interest that may play into future high school classes. His relationship with Bryson is a little less toxic now, but still not great. Carter can be the sweetest kid and initiates saying "I love you" before he leaves for school each day or before he hangs up the phone. We are very proud of the young man he is becoming!

He got a tennis racket, a nice pillow, a can of freeze-dried strawberries (that he finished off that day!), and a water bottle. Grandma and Grandpa got him those slides pictured above that are apparently all the rage right now.

 

Taquitos was his birthday dinner request and banana cream pie for dessert!

He celebrated his birthday with friends the next night with an informal party--movie night and sundaes, no presents.

For my 40th birthday Matt arranged dinner and gaming with some close friends. I told him I did NOT want a big party. Matt made his homemade lasagna and a knock-off Carabba's bread dip, which I love. We played Wingspan and chatted until late. I tried hard to stay in my 30s, but time keeps marching on!

Disney World

This was completely an impulse decision, but we decided to add on an extra day to our vacation and go to Disney World! (Our friends were doing 2 days of Disney after Universal. It was just too tempting because we were having so much fun!) We would have loved to go to Hollywood Studios, but the wait times for all the rides were insane. So we started the morning in Epcot, then park hopped to Animal Kingdom. 

Waiting in line for Ratatouille. This is a new ride that I thought was so clever!

Guardians of the Galaxy was the ride we were most excited for. (New ride) I'm amazed that they can come up with new ways to make roller coasters exciting. This was Space Mountain x10. The individual cars turn sideways during the ride!

Animal Kingdom was not busy for the last 4 hours it was open. We were able to ride Mt. Everest a total of 9 times. The kids had fun coming up with new picture ideas!

Safari ride--rhinos in the background

Giraffes

Just finished breakfast, gearing up for the long drive home

We decided to drive straight through on the way home. We left after breakfast on Saturday morning. Traffic was not our friend, however, and it added 2 hours to our trip. (We did lose an hour with the time change.) We pulled in around 12:30am. 8:30 church the next morning was a little difficult!

Spring Break

Three years ago, we went to Universal Studios at the height of Covid. We loved it so much and knew we wanted to go back. Last time we were there, they were building Velocicoaster, which we heard was one of the best roller coasters ever. Another incentive to go again! We met up with our friends, the Millers, and hung out for a good portion of the trip. Our plan was to do a day each at the 2 theme parks (Universal Studios and California Adventure) with fast passes. Day 3 we went to Volcano Bay, their water park.

We left Sunday after church and broke up the driving over two days so that we could make sure to be rested before starting bright and early Tuesday morning.

Harry Potter World

Last time we were too cheap to buy the interactive wands. We got two this time so the boys could enjoy taking turns doing spells.

Butter beer

Waiting in line for Hagrid's Motorbike. It's my favorite ride!

Velocicoaster was awesome!

Dr. Seuss Land

Minions

Austin and Mommy time while the others rode a ride he wasn't tall enough for

Volcano Bay

The parks were so crowded for Spring Break. We are glad we got fast passes as the wait times were 20-30 minutes versus 90-120 minutes. It was a little chilly for Volcano Bay, 78 degrees was the high, but we didn't have fast passes for day 3 and none of us wanted to stand in long lines for rides we've already done. Plus we needed a rest day. We slept in that morning and didn't get to the park until noon. We only stayed for 5 hours, then got dinner when we got back to our hotel. The scenery at Volcano Bay was amazing, but living 20 minutes away from a waterpark, we weren't that impressed with the water slides...nothing special. The water coaster was fun and different though.