Pinewood Derby

I was reminded of and/or learned two things last night.
1. Our family sticks together.
2. Our family is consistant.
Last night was Ryan's 1st Pinewood Derby. We knew it was coming for quite awhile but either we were too busy or too lazy to find the time to work on his car. A few days before the race, Matt finally starts cutting the wood into some kind of shape. He proudly shows it to Ryan. Matt leaves for work and Ryan starts to laugh. I asked him what was so funny. He says, "this doesn't even look like a car!"
So in just a few days, Matt managed to carve 2 cars, buy 2 pre-cut cars and paint and decorate all 4. He and the kids were set to go.
To make a long story short, all of our cars came in last. If there were 30 cars there, our cars placed 27, 28, 29 and 30. No joke. I think the kids were okay with that. Sure, they would have liked to win at least one race but there is always next year. And the next. And the next. And...

Brothers

Sometimes my kids make me want to pull my hair out. They can drive me absolutely crazy. Tonight was not one of those times. Cade has been so into Ryan lately. He wants to snuggle with him. He wants to read with him. He wants to play with him, draw him pictures, make him something.
Tonight, Cade decided to he wanted to wrestle me. Ryan jumped in and 'took him down'. With a little effort on Cade's part (and a lot of Ryan "letting" him), Cade pinned Ryan. Any attention Ryan will give to Cade, Cade will totally eat up. I love seeing them get along so well. They wrestled for about 15 minutes before I made them take some pictures together.

2009 Apple Blossom Festival

The Manson Apple Blossom Festival is always held the second Saturday of May each year and every year we head over for the festivities.
Before the parade began on Saturday morning, all 5 of us ran in the Pig Jig. We did it last year too. Last year, Matt and Ryan ran the 5K. My sister, Sara, went with Cade for the 2K and Maddy and I were going to do the 2K together. Just before the race starts, Maddy turns to me and says, "I am going to kick your butt!" She gets an early lead but it is not too far into the race that I realize that I don't see Maddy. Ends up she didn't see the turn for the 2K runners and ended up doing the 5K race instead! Of course I had to wait for her at the end to let her know I had indeed beat her to the finish line. This year she ran with Matt and Ryan so he could point out the turn point to her. Sara missed her crossing the finish line this year so had Maddy re-enact finishing the race. She is so not the actress.

Cade did great. He ran and talked the whole race.

Ryan ran with Matt and did super. He beat his last years time.

This year marked the 89th year of the festival. It was especially neat this year because my youngest cousin, and my grandparents youngest grandchild, was a princess. Whitni is grandchild number 37.

Dale, Whitni's dad, was named Citizen of the Year so he got to ride in the parade as well. He is the one in the Hawaiian print shirt.

Matt, our brother-in-law Doug and my cousin Marissa all drove fancy cars in the parade. Maddy and her cousin, Kelsy, rode with Marissa. Ryan and his cousin, Aden, rode with Doug. Cade opted out so he could grab candy that was being thrown along the parade route.
Looking forward to next year!

He said WHAT?!

Every year for Mother's Day, Cade's kindergarten teacher, Ms C, invites all the moms in for snack time with the kids. Each mom brings a special snack for her and her kiddo and then the kinders sing some songs. This year she also had the kids answer some questions about their mom. The questions were simple enough. What does your mom like to snack on? Cade's response was ravioli. Really? I like ravioli but don't ever recall 'snacking' on it. What is your mom's favorite sport? He says all of them. What does your mom do in her free time when she is not doing mom stuff? The paper says shopping. The mom filling out the sheets tells me Cade actually answered quite differently. His original response was "looking for a man to marry." Wonder if I should tell Matt.

Toothless Twins

Cade has had a lose tooth for awhile now. Ryan had one tooth that was just a little wiggly. In the last 3 days, Ryan has lost 3 teeth. (We are doing a 'lose tooth' inventory tonight to make sure he won't come home with anymore missing teeth.) Cade's little front one just kept hanging in there. Finally this morning, Cade's aunt, Becca Jean, asked if she could wiggle it one more time before she left. It took Cade a few long seconds to realize that she had actually pulled it out!