We were all excited to watch old man winter give way to
spring, warmer temperatures and longer days were just right around the
corner. We were going to need the longer
days to fit in all the activities spring had in store for us. Spring certainly had some stuff to spring on
us and milestones to reach.
Before the snow even melted plans were being made to stripe
the soccer fields now that Mom had us on the soccer board. Soon to follow another season of coaching and
a new team this season we became the Black Knights. I never thought I would love coaching soccer
of all sports as much as I do but I know it has more to do with the smiling
little faces at me than the game itself.
We are still trying to figure out how much Jame likes soccer sometimes
he tells us he wants a break and then it seems as soon as we give him a break
he asks why we aren’t going to soccer anymore.
The other fun at soccer this season is watching Hopey she loves to sit
on the bench with the kids and she even practices with the kids but her
attention span is only so long
.
The Dyer Easter egg hunt was first up on our Easter
celebration this year. I was in Texas
working so Mom, Mimi and Grandma Vicki took Jame and Hopey to the hunt. The town does a really great job of putting
on the hunt but it is harder now with the two kids in different age divisions. They hand out a ton of prizes, Hopey won a
basket but Jame did not it made things a bit awkward for awhile until Mom
suggested they share the basket.
Jame’s favorite restaurant has become an Easter tradition
with us now we have a “special” relationship with the Easter Bunny and love to
see him there. Grandma Vicki and Grandpa
Mike joined us along with some other old woman who I don’t know but somehow she
is related. Auntie Jea Jea also hopped
over with us. We were there a long time
in fact I think the Easter Bunny left before us. The night was filled with a lot of fun. Jame had no problem with the Easter Bunny and
neither did Rock but Hopey wanted nothing to do with the bunny. The Easter bunny tried and tried to play with
her but she was not going to give in.
Hopey did have a great time playing with Grandpa Mike and Grandpa Mike
liked the Easter Bunny but even with that going for the bunny Hopey was still
not a fan.
Normally we would try and go to the big helicopter egg drop
but Aunt Wendy and Bailey called and asked if we would like to join them at
Water Park that they belong to. It was
still too cold for the water park but they had plenty of Easter games and things
to do on a spring morning. This time it
was Mom who was tied up and could not make the event so I set out with Jame and
Hopey to Aunt Wendy’s house. This was
truly a change where mom could not make it but dad was able to make it good
thing Aunt Wendy was there to help dad in his new role. We arrived at the Water Park and the kids
were very excited just about jumping out of the car to get to the park. Once again the Easter Bunny was there to
greet us and Jame had no problem meeting him but Hopey would not even look at
him. The kids quickly focused on the
bounce houses; I always find it amusing since they have a bounce house at home
with no line. Luckily the lines for these
were much shorter than the ones at the egg drop.
The announcements started for a potato sack race and we
asked the kids who wanted to try it out since none of them had ever done it
before. I was very proud that Jame was
willing to give it a try. We got him in
the sack and all lined up for the big race, the race started and he started
hopping away. He fell a few times but
always got back up and finished the race.
I was very happy that he did not let the falls get to him and he kept
jumping.
We then lined up for the first egg hunt and when the horn
sounded the chaos started I tried my best to get Hopey to move a bit faster but
she wanted to take her time and look at each piece of candy and place it gently
into the basket. Hope did not get much
candy and when we found Bailey and Jame they did not do much better
either. We walked away rubbed our wounds
and made plans for the next hunt.
In the time between hunts we walked over to the petting zoo
they had set up. I was amazed at the
animals they had there. I was expecting
goats, rabbits and a pony but they had a Kangaroo. I had never seen a kangaroo
before in a petting zoo. I was amazed by
the kangaroo Hopey was amazed by the pony they had and couldn’t get enough of
him. Jame was running from bunny to goat
to the horse and even a brief look at the kangaroo. I eventually walked over to the strange
animal in the petting zoo, the camel.
The camel took an immediate liking to me or more so my hat. As soon as I got close to the fence the camel
marched over and started playing with my hat.
The encounter was a bit tense at first but when I figured the camel was
just there for fun we had a good time. I
took time and held both kids and they would get a nice up close visit from the
camel, they were both nervous at first but then couldn’t help but laugh.
We now had our plan on how to get the most candy for the
hunt as we lined up for the next run.
Aunt Wendy took a moment and went over the strategy on last time with
the kiddos before the horn blew and they were off. They did listen and were soon grabbing candy
and filling up their bags. Before you
knew it the locust of children stripped the field of every last piece of candy
and everyone stood there staring at each other.
We had our victory and full bags of candy. We played a few carnival games before we
headed out back to Aunt Wendy’s house and then the car ride home where both
kids took a nap and I wished I could have joined them, it was a very busy day.
Easter Morning was here and the Easter Bunny did not
disappoint. When the kids got up they
headed in to the front room but in that true silly Easter Bunny fashion there
was only one basket for Rock along with an egg and a note for Jame and
Hope. The note read “For Jame and Hope
Love The Easter Bunny” Looking a bit puzzled they opened the egg and there was
a picture of Rock’s bassinet so they went there and sure enough another egg
this time with a picture of silverware the hunt lead them all over the house
finding more and more eggs with pictures in them. My heart was filled with joy when I heard him
say “Now this is a real egg hunt!” Their
laughs as they found the clues were all my heart needed on that Easter
Morning. Eventually the hunt led them to
the bathtub where both of their Easter Baskets were hidden. They quickly got into all the toys and
candy. Our Easter was finished off with
Family and friends stopping by and celebrating.
Easter was once again a wonderful time of year and we built
some great memories and we can only hope that in years to come that Hope comes
to like to bunny and Rock will as well.
It will be interesting to see how Santa goes this year. Thank you Easter Bunny!
I missed last year’s spring soccer tournament due to
work. This year it worked out that my
schedule did not interfere. I arrived at
the field shortly after the crack of dawn and started setting up; Mom brought
Jame, Hope and Mimi later. Uncle Brett
made the trip out to the tournament as well.
The day had a Chick-Fil-a cow playing soccer with Spiderman and then
Anna and Elsa showed up to paint faces.
Our first game went well against the Lime Green Leprechaun Dogs but our
second game was funny since most of the team had decided to have their faces
painted. Hopey had her face painted by
Anna who also painted a soccer ball on my bald head. I had two girls named Madison on the team
this year and one had a princess’s crown painted on her forehead so to this day
we still call her princess. Hope now
likes to be called princess as well. The
tournament was a huge success and a lot of fun for the kids. The Black Knights played well and we built a
lot of memories on the day.
Jame wrapped up his last year in preschool and they had a
graduation for his class. He did well in preschool this year but we do think he
may have been a bit bored since we were seeing many of the same arts and crafts
projects come home. Work kept me away
from the graduation but Grandma Rosie, Grandpa Jim, Grandma Vicki and Grandpa
Mike were there along with Auntie JeaJea and Mommy. Next year he starts kindergarten I think he
is ready but I’m not so sure about Mom.
Also in May was one of my favorite times of the year, Movies
in the park. This year it was Big Hero
6. Luckily my crazy work schedule
allowed me to be there but the weekend following it is the town fest and work
was taking me to Nashville. The town
sets up a big blow up screen in the park and everyone brings out blanket,
chairs and something to eat. Mom, Meghan
and as I call them now the Gruesome Twosome Hopey and Jame got Pop’s beef
sandwiches and Auntie Jea Jea showed up with White Castles. It was a beautiful night and the kids enjoy
running and playing in the park before the movie, it is hard to calm them down
later when the movie does start. Jame is
a pretty good movie watcher but Hopey is only good for short moments at a time. I flew out of town the next day and Mom and
Auntie Jea Jea found sometime between the rain to take the kids to the carnival
and even watch some fireworks.
In May, the Soccer club arranged a trip to a Chicago Fire
Game and a picture on the field that night.
We were very excited but the weather was not. All day we watched the radar and thought the
rain would blow over but no luck. Jame
had scored two goals in the prior game and I had told him he could use it to
get two things at the game. We arrived
at the game and headed for the souvenir stand Jame picked out a ball and a
giant foam finger that looked like a flame for the Chicago Fire. We arrived at our seats and yes they were
under the awning but the wind was still whipping around and the rain still
falling. I did my best to shield the
kids from the rain as they huddled under a blanket. Jame and Hope got a big kick out of the
fireworks at the opening introductions but they loved the mascot Sparky. The game started and I actually found it
interesting and chuckled to myself, as I understood what was going on. As the game progressed and the weather was
still just as bad we would occasionally ask the kids if they were ready to
leave, they always replied no. Auntie
Jea jea leaned over to me at one point
and said “We love the Cubs but, we would never stay in a storm this bad to
watch the Cubs and yet here we sit in this storm watching soccer.” I couldn’t agree more, I guess it is truly
amazing what you do for your kids. Yes
we stayed the entire time and the Chicago Fire won but we did not even want to
go down to the soaked field to have our picture taken, we only wanted to
leave. We took a couple of pictures in
the stands and headed for the warmth of the car.
It was near the end of the soccer season, when a few emails
starting flying back and forth between soccer board members. Mom and I did our best to keep the peace but
some were hurt and others were just fed up.
When the dust settled and the smoke cleared there was a finger pointed
at me saying “I nominate Roger.” The
next thing I knew I was now president of the soccer club. I thought it wasn’t going to be that hard or
difficult but boy was I wrong. Soccer
moms and dads can be really mean. I’m
now starting to get used to it and hopefully moving the club forward.
The soccer season ended too quickly for me. This was Jame’s last season in U8 along with
a few other kids that I had coached for a few seasons now. Jame was moving up a division and my decision
of where to coach next season would soon have to be made. I wish that I could coach two teams but my
crazy schedule would not allow it. The
decision was not an easy one and I spent a few nights tossing and turning
thinking about it. I finally decided to stay
and coach in the U6 division and see how Jame does with a new coach.
With soccer done and the summer in full swing we decided to
put Jame and Hope in day camp with the parks department and Jame once a week
would go to a camp called Sporties for Shorties. We had no idea they would love the camp as
much as they did. The day camp kept them
busy with arts and crafts, visits from the works department where they brought
out tractors for the kids to sit in. The
police department had a day where they brought out police cars and the fire
department brought out the fire truck for them to see. They even had a grandparent’s day where Mimi,
Grandma Rosie and Grandpa Jim went with them to camp. When we would pick them up from camp it was
fun to hear the adventures they had that day but you would always hear from Hope
that they sang the goodbye song. They
absolutely loved camp.
We thought Sporties for Shorties would be good for Jame to
see what sports he might enjoy and maybe another chance for t ball that he did
not like. I’m confident that he did not
like t ball since his team never showed up at one point we had more coaches
than players. They showed him a bunch of
sports not just t ball but basketball, tennis and yes even soccer. I was able to attend one day and they had an
obstacle course set up for the kids and they ran and ran and ran the thing, it
was right up Jame’s alley. As normal on
those days we raced from sporties to day camp so he could finish out the last
hour at camp with Hope. He loved Sporties
for Shorties but I do not think we have a better idea of what sport he likes,
he claimed to like them all.
Rock is getting bigger and bigger and will soon be giving
the gruesome twosome a run for their money.
He likes to grab the stools in the kitchen get them onto his walker then
walk around with the stool. They are all
growing way to fast it seems like yesterday we were heading to pick them up and
now we are planning Jame’s 6th and Hopes 3rd birthday.
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