little league

I wrote this post way back at the beginning of April! I was going to publish it then but I was having trouble uploading the pictures from my blogger app on my phone that day. And I just now finally sat down today to download my phone pictures onto my computer. 

We are now at the tail end of the baseball season. Perry had his last game on saturday and the playoff's for Kacin's team start this week. Kacin literally still has something baseball every week night. We love baseball, but the time commitment has been a bit tricky for our family. But Kacin is enjoying it and his team officially ranked second at the end of the regular season.   

It feels good to sit down at my computer again! I spent the first weekend of April in Utah for General Conference and then I ended up subbing the rest of the week at Layla's school. My evenings are filled with little league baseball and the weekend was spent catching up at home and trying to spend some much needed family time together.

But now I'm back here to document our little lives.

Since it seems like our time is dictated by Little League schedules these days, I will start with that.

I was so proud on Little League opening day to have two players parading onto the baseball field.

Kacin is playing in the Majors this year and was drafted onto the Redsox team. He has a pretty amazing coach who is very serious about this game of baseball so this has been the most competitive season Kacin has ever played. He has a game or practice usually four times a week. His team has won every game so far, except for one in which they tied.

Perry is playing on the Challenger team and I'm so excited for him that we found a team that he can participate on successfully. He keeps calling the sport soccer (since we just came off of soccer season for Kyler), but he is having a good time playing baseball. I think his favorite part of it though is bringing a gatorade to drink. And he is so proud that he can go play a sport (at night, without his little sister--sorry Layla) just like his big brothers. The challenger team is an amazing community of parents and players! The support and the kindness and the love permeates that field when those kids get out there to play.

Kacin's team played against the second challenger team one saturday morning. The brothers were disappointed that they didn't get to play each other, but it was great watching Kacin out there working well with and watching out for some pretty awesome players.

Love my baseball boys!

sick day

Our Layla girl is feeling under the weather. A high fever came on last night and has stayed. My poor girl. We canceled all of our plans today (and we had a lot--field trip, dance rehearsal, and subbing) and called it a sick day. We are hoping this passes quickly. No one likes being sick.

 

The only good thing that has come of it is that since we are home all day, in between taking care of Layla, I have made a nice dent in my to-do list around the house. And I started to bake.

I've been watching the Great British Baking Show while I fold laundry and do dishes and I find it quite fascinating. And it inspired me today to make my first caramel custard. It's baking right now so I can't say how it will actually turn out. But I tried my hand at something new so that's exciting, right?

And so I don't leave this post with only a picture of poor, sick Layla, here are a couple of pictures from our Activity Days Mother Daughter Luau. Layla loves tagging along to these "girl time" activities, even though she's got a few more years until she is on the roster. And I love having her there with me!

 

  

happy Thursday

I accidentally slept in this morning. It was 7:08 when I woke up. It put me in a bit of a panic when I knew I needed to rush to get lunches made and kids ready for school. But my mood shifted to pure happiness when I heard a few minutes later that our church will be pulling out from the Scouting program for 14-18 year old boys! Which is a step in the right direction and hopefully it means its only a matter of time before they pull out of cub scouts and the rest of scouts! And I am thrilled. I know the scouting program does a lot of good for some people. So maybe I shouldn't be this happy.  But I have always hated the disparity between the programs the church supported for the boys vs the girls. And we have such active, busy boys that scouting has always felt like one more thing to pile on our full plates. I am relieved and just plain happy this morning.

In other family news...

Kyler is going to club soccer tryouts this week. We lucked out with absolutely beautiful weather on his first day of tryouts. But he also came home with blisters on his feet because his soccer cleats were too small! We bought him new cleats last night--one and a half sizes bigger than his last pair! He is growing so quickly. No wonder he eats like a bottomless pit. So with new shoes that actually fit him, I think he is ready for the second day of tryouts.

 

We went to home depot over the weekend. There was a bug on the ground inside the store. Layla rescued him and brought him outside so he wouldn't get smashed by feet or carts. She has had an obsession with bugs since a study of insects and butterflies at school last month so this rescue mission came as no surprise.

 

 

Happy Thursday!!

May the Fourth

We are big Star Wars fans around here. I personally have a growing collection of Star Wars t-shirts. I wear them proudly. Especially on May 4th. 

 

Poor Eric needs his own Star Wars t-shirt. I think Kacin's was in the wash that day. And Layla told me all she had was Star Wars Darth Vader jammies "and that would just be embarrassing to wear to school." 

 

We will need to prepare better next year. 

May the Fourth be with you! 

all the way from Japan

Last month we had a box delivered to us. We were so excited when we saw it was from our cousins in Japan! They filled that box to the brim with fun goodies and tokens from life in Japan. There were chopsticks and treats and toe socks and more! It made for a fun morning when we opened up. 

 

    

 

  

Layla has an obsession with her pink chopsticks and uses them to eat anything. And whenever we eat an Asian inspired dinner at home the kids remember to pull out the chopsticks.

I think the package they sent also came with a traveling bug--because now we wish more than ever that we could make it happen and travel to visit them in Japan!

a little more Layla

It's not that she's my favorite, it's just that she is my only child who asks me to take pictures of her. All the time.

 

And the only one that goes to school like this.

 

You noticed that badge on her shirt, right? She makes those things ALL the time and wears them all day on her clothes. Like this one, too.

 

She's my one who worked hard at school on a life size human body project.

 

She's also the one who I spend more time with since she is in half day school (but that all changes in just 10 weeks!! Yikes!).

 

  

She's the one who poses before dance class.

 

And is thrilled about her new tie shoes.

 

And she's the one who reads a scripture book like this: "Captain Moroni tries to get satan and his crew.

Captain Moroni thinks of a plan of what to do."

 

So while she is not my only favorite (I have four of those!), she is pretty great to have around.