November 2014

November was a good month for us!
Ty celebrated his 5th birthday at this awesome place called Dart Warz!  It was so much fun and we are all dying to go back!  It is an indoor Nerf  battle ground (think paintball except for inside with Nerf guns!)  It was seriously so much fun, I wish I had a better picture of Ty's vest pocket because you were supposed to keep the darts in your pocket that way you can have them ready to shoot.  He had his pockets stuffed, whenever he would bend over or run darts would spill everywhere!  We all highly recommend you check it out.  (Must be 5 years old to play and they offer black light play where you must be 8 years old.)

Ty in action!

Our "Team" minus me and Bella!

After Dart Warz we had the rest of the family meet us back at the house for a small party, a Green Bay Packer birthday party!  I made Ty's cake again, this time a camo colored cake on the inside!  (Those two ball cake pans are the best money I've ever spent!!)  All in all, Ty had an awesome birthday!

Ty's actual birthday is on Veteran's Day and there was a huge snowstorm that day so we didn't get to eat our normal Golden Corral meal, but he was okay with it.

The Sunday after Veteran's day Vinny, Tucker, Trey, and I ran in the National Veteran's Day 5k.  Now remember when I said that there was a huge snowstorm on Veteran's day, well the weather hadn't warmed up much, so it was FREEZING!!!  There was still a ton of snow and ice on the course.  It was seriously the coldest race I have ever ran!  Vinny and I ran together the whole time and even though I was running, I just couldn't seem to get my body warm, it was the slowest I have ever ran before, but it was actually nice to do this with Vinny.  Trey smoked all of us again, but got his slowest time ever because of all the ice he said he had to walk quite a bit.  Tucker keeps improving upon his 5k time each time he races and I am proud of him for taking on these runs.  It was a great way to honor Vinny and all of the Veteran's and the proceeds went to a pretty good cause too!

My parents gave us all an early Christmas presents of taking us to watch Wisconsin play CC.  We all proudly wore our WI Red, but got spanked by CC!  It was a lot of fun going to the game anyways!

We have had quite a winter so far and man has it been beautiful!  I just love the mountains covered in white!  I just had to throw this picture in here (I actually took it with my new phone..I am loving the camera and the phone in general.)

November also brought the official start of wrestling season!  This year all 3 boys are wrestling.  Trey finally decided to wrestle, but strongly told us that he is only doing practicing and only to keep in shape for running and soccer.  I think it is extremely important for the kids to participate in some sort of physical activity so Vinny and I were completely fine with him doing practices and no tournaments.  (I know there are a lot of people who do not like wrestling, but I honestly thing it is one of the greatest sports for kids to participate in, I know it's not for everybody, but if children are coached correctly the benefits are huge..I think I might have to post a separate post on this because it's kind of hard to explain in a few short sentences...)
Tucker moved up to 10 and under this year and it has been tough.  He now has to wrestle 5 matches instead of 3 and he is in A class, which is made up of very good wrestlers, some of these kids have been wrestling for over 7 years now, where as this is only Tucker's 3rd year!  Although challenging for him, he has made a big mental breakthrough, which for him the mental/emotional stuff is his biggest challenger.

Well remember how I said Trey only wanted to do practices, well the second tournament of the year, his cousin Bella (yes girls do wrestle, we have 6 in our club and they are AWESOME) decided to do the tournament, Trey, not one to get shown up by his cousin, decided to do the tournament too.  To say I was nervous was an understatement!  However, this boy got on the mat and it was like he has been doing this for years!  He did amazing!!!  He wrestled hard and listened to his coaches.  I was so proud of him!!  He took 2nd place (but he should have taken 1st, but the Ref was messing up on the handing out points and gave points to the other kids, and when our coach tried to talk to the ref about it, the ref wouldn't admit his mistake...so Trey ended up loosing by points..when he actually won!)  However now we always have two coaches on the mat, one coaching and one taking points down!  Trey has done every tournament since then and has taken 2nd twice and 1st 3 times.  My favorite part about him wrestling is that when his coaches tell/show him to do something in between rounds or when time has stopped, he will mimic their actions on the mat.  It is so comical, but it works for him because when the match starts he will do what they told him!

Fall 2014 (in review)

Fall 2014 was full of fun and very busy!!
Vinny and I both started another full course load of classes for college. Depending on how the college offers classes, Vinny and I both will have our associates degrees by summer (or Fall at the latest if they don't offer the classes we need.)  It's a lot of work, but totally worth it!  (I totally tried to take a picture of me and Vinny on our first day of school this semester, but he shut me down!)

Tucker and Trey started 4th and 3rd grade.  They are doing great in school, but 4th grade is definitely a challenge for Tucker.  He is such an over-achiever and always strives to do his best.  He was really bummed out that 1st quarter he got 1 B and the rest As.  I'm so proud he is working so hard to get the good grades!

Trey is excelling in 3rd grade.  He loves his teacher and before Christmas break he was moved to the highest reading group (he is so proud of this and will try to bring that fact up in most conversations he has.)

Ty started his 2nd year of preschool.  He is excited about being back at school, but definitely missed his friends that moved onto Kindergarten.  Luckily, his cousin is in the same class and he quickly made some new friends.  His goals for the year is to write his last name by memory and to have the beginning basics of reading down.  He excels at his numbers, he can now even recognize all his numbers and write them by memory.

All 3 boys played soccer again.  Tucker and Trey were on the same team this year and they did awesome.  These boys can play some soccer!  Ty was much improved this season (mostly because he is no longer the smallest kid on the team), he is still a star defender, but actually scored a goal this season!

Being in 4th grade, Tucker had to complete a science fair project.  He chose to do a project on plastic shopping bags.  He took 2nd place at the school science fair and even competed in the district science fair.  Although he didn't place, it was a great learning experience and he is excited for next year.

We found out last spring that Trey is a natural long distance runner.  This boy can just run and run!  He is so fast and even after he finishes a run he could go run again.  He participated in a season of Cross Country with the Landsharks running club  and did amazing.  He took 2 Second Places over all and 2 First Places in the boys division.  In the last race he took 1st place overall!  Pretty good considering he is running against kids up to 5th grade.  So proud of my boy.  He even told us that his favorite sport is now cross country!

Ty took his annual trip to the pumpkin farm with his preschool and true to Ty's quirky nature, he picked yet another tiny green pumpkin.  He was thrilled to ride the bus again and had a blast looking at all of the animals.

The boys and I did a family 5K at their cousin's school and we had a blast.  Even though it was late in the fall the weather was gorgeous!  This was Ty's 1st 5K and he ran the 1st mile in about 11 minutes and ran about 1/4 mile more, then I carried him for awhile, then ran the last 3/4 of a mile.  He was so tired, but proud of himself.  Tucker ran pretty good finishing in 30-something minutes (I feel bad that I can't remember!) and then Trey, that boy did awesome!  First place over all, finishing at 22 minutes and 10 seconds!  (Just a reminder it is 3.1 miles!).

I am going to end my fall post with out 'crew' we had out trick-or-treating on Halloween.  (Ty was Ironman (he had a Death Eater from Harry Potter costume, but chose to wear that to the Halloween Party at school.) Tucker and Trey reused their old costumes Ninja and Swamp creature, but got to buy new weapons to add on.)

Tucker's Birthday Weekend -- 9 years old!

Tucker's 9th birthday was last weekend on Sunday.  On Saturday he had a wrestling tournament and he did awesome again!  I am seriously impressed with his wrestling, he is listening and using actual moves instead of just muscling people to their backs.  He took 1st place again (so he is still undefeated for this season).  I have been horrible about taking pictures lately and didn't even get a picture of him with his 1st place medal.  And we stopped and at Texas Roadhouse for his early birthday dinner (again I didn't get a picture of it...ugh).  It was delicious as usual!

Look at him actually using moves...nice cradle buddy!!

 Sunday morning he woke up and asked for a ham and cheese omelet.  The weather on Saturday was very cold and snowy and since we had to be out for the tournament, we were glad Tucker just wanted to hang out at home for his birthday.  It was a good day of hanging out and watching the Super Bowl!  He was cheering for the Seahawks and was happy they won.

Beautiful big snowflakes!

Helping frost his own cake!

My birthday boy!

Very Excited - he got an Ipod

9 years old!!!

Cutting his own cake...He is getting so old and I am just going to pretend that he is not on his way double digit age!

Renaissance Time Again

Yesterday was the big boys 2nd Quarter Renaissance Assembly.  It was a football themed assembly and both boys earned a gold card again!!  I'm so proud of them and their hard work!

Official Start to Wrestling Season

We have been going to wrestling practice on and off for a couple of months now, but we finally had a free Saturday 2 weeks ago, so Tucker and Ty had their very first tournament of the season.  Ty thought he was all ready for it, but it was a lot harder than he thought...so he had a rough go of it.  But despite the crying, he didn't give up.  2 weeks ago he took 3rd and then last week he took 4th.  He decided that he doesn't want to wrestle at tournaments anymore, so he is going to take sometime off for awhile.  

Tucker was a little nervous because he hasn't wrestled in such a long time, but he got out there and just did awesome.  Tucker's main problem is his head, not his wrestling skills, but he went out there with a clear head and listened to his coaches.  He has been working on being a more technical wrestling instead of trying to muscle everyone to their backs.  So far it's been working and he is undefeated so far this season! 

Well, I have to admit these are all the pictures I have so far.  I have been helping coach the 4 and under wrestlers in our club, so it's been hard to get pictures taken (and plus I forgot my camera the first weekend and my phone has been shutting down every time I take a picture.) 

Ice Fishing

Vinny and my dad took the boys ice fishing last week.  They went to Monument Lake and the ice was over 8 inches thick.  They didn't have much luck, only 2 little Perch, but they did have fun and the weather was beautiful.

Tucker's 3rd Grade Performance

Tucker had his 3rd grade performance a couple of weeks ago and it was all about Africa.  It was very cute and he had a lot of fun up there singing and dancing.  It was hard to get a good picture of him, but was fun watching.  His music teacher is excellent and you can really tell that she loves her job and her students.  He is lucky to have her!

1st Snow fall

We didn't get our first snow fall until mid-November, so the boys were very ready to have some fun in the snow.  Ty went out while the big boys were in school and then again when the big boys got home from school.

This is what happens when Ty asks to make the hot chocolate all on his own!

Renaissance Time Again!

I'm very proud to report both of my boys earned another Renaissance card for the first quarter of school and the both earned the highest card again.  Tucker was a little worried that he wouldn't get a gold card again because 3rd grade is tough and they changed up some of the requirements and made it even tougher to earn one, but his hard work paid off and he did indeed get his Gold Card. 

 

Before the cards were given out, they passed out trophies for the kids in each grade that ran the most amount of laps during the FUNd run and Trey earned a trophy.  (It was a 3 way tie in 2nd grade!)

So proud of his trophy

After he got his gold card!

He was even picked to do the game, which was eating a 'campfire'

Tucker...despite his grumpy face in this picture, he really was happy to earn a gold card.

Trey was so excited!  This was the first trophy that he actually earned, not just given for participation, but actually earned...makes it even more special!!

Best Fundraiser Ever!

At the boys school they only have to do 1 fundraiser for the entire year.  And it is seriously awesome!!!  They do what is called a FUNd Run.  They go around asking friends and family for pledges or donations and then one day at school they run a 1/10th of a mile track (the white line on the grass) for 15 minutes.  Parents give a kids a tally mark for every lap they run and when it is all over the kids go back to get their pledges or donations.  It is a huge deal for the kids, their class becomes a team, they create a name, and there are various competitions, like class that raised the most money, class that created the coolest name, class that ran the most laps.  Seriously Awesome! 

 

Ty and I go to do some tallies and watch Tucker and Trey run.  Tucker ran 16 laps in 15 minutes and Trey ran 17!  (I have to put out a disclaimer for Tucker's sake, Tucker ran 1st, so Trey knew how many laps he had to run to beat Tucker and he pushed himself really hard to beat him...Both my boys are fast!)  Ty actually ended up running about 8 laps, a couple with his Grandma, a couple with me, and a few on his own!

Tucker has the blue shoes on!

There goes Ty and Grandma

Trey is the single kid by himself with those long legs!!! He is such a good runner!

1st Day of School 2013-2014 School Year!

 I know I'm a little late, but at least I got this post done before the first half of the school year is over!

Tucker started 3rd grade this year and Trey started 2nd.  They were super excited about the school year and have been great students so far this year!

The didn't want me to walk them to the bus stop this year...*tear* they are getting so old!!