Thanksgiving Again

He went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.  Ryan had his first birthday party there.

The boys made a gingerbread house with Tracey.

Tracey and Lou with the kids.

Then my dad photo shopped our family picture and I think it came out great!

Ryan

Here is a funny video of Ryan singing.



Ryan decided on the day of his birthday party that he wanted his hair in a mohawk.  So he got one!

He had a blast at his party.  Here are the kids waiting for cake and being silly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Take 1

Take 2

And finally

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Chef Ryan

Ryan has been helping me cook lately.  So far he can cook steak, fish and meatballs.  All I need to tell him is to get the steak ready and he knows to put the soy sauce on it and the seasoning.  He also knows how to pound the steak.

Here he helped make fish and edamame.

Then he got an Easy Bake Oven from his Grandma.

Mixing the cookie batter:

Then putting the batter on the pan:

 Finally a little video for when the cookies were finished.  Ryan was talking to his Grandma and when the timer went off he handed me the phone.  You can hear me saying bye.

Ryan then helped me make meatballs and wanted pictures of every step.
First cutting the onions:

Then finding out what happens when you cut onions!

Adding the egg.  He was very proud that he didn't get any shell in the meat!

Adding the spices

 Mixing

Finally a video of the last meatball.

Great Wolf Lodge

After we went to Busch Gardens we headed to The Great Wolf Lodge.  We had a great time at the water park.  It was the first time I had a really hard time keeping up with both kids.  As soon as we got there Chris ran off and we couldn't find him for about 30 minutes.  Finally we set some ground rules down that they had to be with a parent at all times and the day turned better.  Since we were in the water the entire day I didn't get any pictures.  I did however take a movie of Chris on the boogie board.

Busche Gardens

School ended in the beginning of June.  Chris got off the bus and we headed to Virginia to go to Busch Gardens.  We had a blast.  Chris is tall enough now to ride all the rides and is getting brave enough to try some roller coasters.

The first ride we went on was their new coaster Verbolten.  I have to say that we were not impressed with the ride.  Since Ryan was still too short to ride we had to do a parent swap.  After Chis and I rode I went to stay with Ryan and Ken was able to get on the ride right away.  Chris had a great deal going because he could ride with me and then ride with Ken again.

We squashed his fear of heights on this vacation.  We took him up on Mach Tower...250 feet up in the air before it drops you!

We also got him on Apollo's Chariot. 

At the end of the night he went on The Loch Ness Monster.  He loved this roller coaster and since there wasn't much of a line we went on it about 10 times!

Here are the boys on the teacups.  This is a family favorite ride and we have to go on them everywhere we go!

Ryan and I on a kiddie ride.  This was the most uncomfortable ride and we stayed on it about 4 times in a row.  He was big enough to go on the adult version however that had a bigger line.

Towards the end of the night we let the kids play some games.  Ryan really wanted to play this soccer game.

He didn't win and only got one ball in the goal.  Chris then asked if he could play. 

Chris got his first two balls in the goal and missed the goal completely on the 3rd shot.  He won a small prize.  I was so surprised when he waled out with his cone hat and gave it to Ryan.  He is such a sweet kid.

Moving On

Ryan continued to get swollen on his last day of school.  Before school started I called to talk to the principal and she said since Ryan wasn't contagious that he could come to school.  He would have stayed home any other day but since it was his last day at the preschool he had been attending for three year I decided to send him.

They called me about an hour and a half after I dropped him off to come pick him up.  We went to Chris' field day.  Chris did awesome.

After watching Chris at field day I took Ryan back to the doctor.  She gave him another antihistamine.  By the time of his Moving On Ceremony he looked great!

I

f you listen you can hear Ryan and you can hear me laugh when he starts too soon.

Then later they sang The Best Day Ever from Sponge Bob.   

All the parents asked me afterwards how I got my son to sing all three years that he was in the school.

Well, when he was in the two year old class I thought the Moving On Ceremony was really only for the 4 year olds.  Well, I told his teacher that we would not be there three years ago.  Two of the teachers were really upset that he wouldn't be there.

Three years ago we had a full schedule.  Ryan wanted to go to his moving on ceremony.  I told him that we could go but I wasn't going to waste my time and he better sing.  He agreed.  Ever since then he has sang his heart out. 

Wonderful Green Dinner

I was so impressed that the kids ate all the green dinner! Unfortunately, Ryan woke up the next morning and his face was swollen.

I took him to the doctor and they ran a blood test. The test came back that he was allergic to grass and trees. He was also allergic to wheat, soy, peanuts, pears, dairy, cats and dogs. We will proceed after we see the allergist because he has never had a reaction to any of the foods listed before.

Our Green Dinner

I was planning nachos for dinner but when I realized we didn't have chips we wound up with our "green" dinner!

Edamame, toast with spinach pesto, artichoke, and a fruit/veggie smoothie. I about fell out of my seat when the kids ate this and were happy!

Last Game

Chris had his last lacrosse game this weekend. This video shows the awesome skills I have of recording the sky...at least I got him with the ball! The second half Chris played goal. Now we wait until next year!

Chris Playing Lacrosse

Here is a quick video of Chris playing lacrosse. He is number 7 on the white team with the blue helmet. The other team was very aggressive and used their body well to push our kids off the ball. This is what happened a few times during the game.

Dover Mile

This year is the second year that we ran in the Dover Mile. Last year Chris and his buddy Caden ran around before our running time and Chris tired himself out. It took us a little over 12 minutes to finish. Ryan walked the route with Ken. This year I reminded Chris of what happened and he remained calm the entire time. Pretty impressive since registration started at 4:30 and we were not running till 6:15! Ryan on the other hand ran around with Caden. Chris decided that he wanted to run the official timed race instead of the fun run with us. He was able to switch his bib and run in the race. He finished in 8:33. I was impressed! Then he decided that he would also run in the fun run. Surprise surprise, Ryan was too tired to run. We wound up dropping out of the race at half a mile. Chris ran the entire mile again and finished somewhere between 9 and 10 minutes. I am not sure of the exact time. Chris loves to run. I asked him if he liked short distances or long. He said the longer the better. He has even asked to run the half marathon with me! However, we told him that he would have to stick to running 5K for the time being and if he wanted to run longer distances we would talk about it when he was 10.

Our first 5K

Ever since Chris, Ryan and I ran the Star Hill mile Chris has been bugging me to run a 5K. I finally found one close by on a day Ken was off and a day Chris could still make it to lacrosse after. I went to turn in the paperwork at the high school and right at the last moment Ryan decided he was going to participate too.

Chris and I ran the 5K twice beforehand to practice. The first time it took us 45 minutes. The second time 44 minutes. So we set a goal that we wanted to finish in under 40 minutes. I was so proud of Chris when we finished right around 34 minutes! My official time was 34.04 and Chris was a few steps ahead of me.

I really thought when the truck went out to see how many people were left Ken and Ryan were going to be in the back! However they were not and Ryan finished just under 50 minutes with Ken following.

During the award ceremony Chris found out that he came in 1st place for his age group.

We also found out that I came in 3rd for my age group and Ken and Ryan came in 1st for the Father/Son team (especially created for Ryan).

The best part of the run was when Ryan turned the corner to finish the race every single person waiting was cheering and clapping for him. It was awesome!

Bike Riding

Ryan decided he wanted to take his training wheels off his bike. He had practiced a couple times and we knew he could do it but Ryan still didn't have the confidence that he could. Then a few days ago our last gerbil died. Ken decided we wouldn't get anymore gerbils so we had a family vote to see if we would get more. The family voted 3-1 in favor of the gerbils. Ken then decided we wouldn't get the gerbils until Ryan could ride his two wheeler. Ryan immediately said "let's go for a bike ride around the block." and then my video card was full and stopped recording. Of course by the time I deleted some pictures Ryan was already home. I made him ride a short while for me so I could tape it. Then yesterday Ken came in the house and told me to watch Ryan. Ryan learned to: He also apparently learned to go over the curbs too.

Fishing Fishing and More Fishing

Chris has become obsessed with fishing. He would go everyday if we let him. Ryan finally caught his first fish!

Then he proceeded to catch fish after fish. He out fished all of us that day!

Ken caught a couple bass on this trip.

Chris also caught a bass on this trip. He is now obsessed with bass fishing.

Just as we were getting ready to leave Ken cast his line out and part of his pole flew into the water!

After about 5 minutes of trying to get it back he had to enter the water! I was laughing so hard at this point!

Finally he retrieved the pole!

Happy Easter!

Rocketry

The Wolf Scouts spent the last two weeks building rockets and got to set them off today.

Chris was hesitant to launch his rocket since only one rocket had been found and it came back in pieces.

He finally decided that he would launch his rockets with a smoke bomb inside so it would be easier to find.

Ken and Chris went off looking for the rocket and actually found it. If it were not for the smoke bomb they wouldn't have.

While the kids were off looking for a rocket Chris screamed that he found a grave. One of the parents went over to see what it was. Turns out it was a deer carcass. Leave it to Ryan to pick it up and bring it to all the parents to show us! Thank goodness someone had hand sanitizer with them.