End of Year Mayhem

The school year is winding down and life is in field trip, race, concert, and tournament mode.  I did sneak in a 41st birthday and a 16th anniversary in the middle of all this, which were great, but not sure will ever get a post to themselves.  But for the record I was gifted with a birthday trip to the temple with Jared, an amazing scrapbook from my sister Hailey with some memories I had long since forgotten but needed to remember!  Thanks Hailey.  I also received numerous kitchen gadgets that included new knives, replacement parts for my broken Vita-Mix, and Cuisenart, and my all time favorite surprise for our anniversary:  a Breville Juicer.  This baby makes the best juice in a matter of seconds, so when I'm out of time to prepare a veggie for dinner, I just juice one!  I gross out the kids by eating the pulp, but I cannot let myself throw away all that lovely fiber for crying out loud.  Good thing I have a good carrot cookie recipe from Emilie Harris to make use of some of it.  My gift to Jared was this Brian Kershisnik print to be the first piece of art in our bedroom.

The Amazing Breville Juicer:

On top of all the end of year activities, we've already started up with swim team, which hasn't been pleasant until this week when the temps finally made it above 65 degrees!  When the boys swam last Friday it was about 63 degrees and even though the water was a balmy 85, getting out of that pool into the cold and gusty air was painful, especially for Jonah who refused to get out of the shower in the mens locker room after 15 minutes!  And how could I stop him, really!  When he finally emerged I wrapped him up in extra towels that I borrowed from the lost and found and cocooned him in a nice bundle where he fell asleep for Caleb's practice! I told him he was snoring, which like his father and paternal grandfather, he adamantly denied! So funny how even little traits like that get past though our DNA.

Two weekends ago Gavin ran in his 4th Discovery Dash relay race by maintaining his status of fastest 3rd or 2nd grader.  Because of his late birthday he always runs in the second grade spot.  But this year they did not prove to be successful as a team when their lead runner was unable to race at the last minute.  This left Gavin with nearly a half-lap deficit which he made up by the skin of his teeth, but it wasn't enough to get them the win!  He's got one more shot next year where he'll finally get to anchor the team, something he's been looking forward to since kindergarten!  Nice job Gavin.

This past weekends soccer tournament was fortunate in that both boys where playing in Richmond.  Yet, unfortunate in that we had to split up because they weren't at the same field.  I paired up with Liam and Jared got the be with Caleb.  I learned that Caleb had a great game and he played well, but lost 1-0.  The second game was also a loss, but that was o.k., he still payed well and most importunely had fun with his buddies.  Liam's games on the other hand, were total nail biters!  In the first one Liam made one of the two goals and then they ended up in a tie, and their second game also ended in a tie when a corner kick was headed in by our goalie with 10 seconds left in the game!   That was a seriously intense moment.  By the end of the second game Liam was limping quite a bit from Sever's disease, which not to worry, is a growth related problem that we are hoping will let up soon.  It's an inflammation at the growth plate in the heel.  Gavin is also suffering from it interestingly enough.  But it's painful and he was a trooper throughout the day.  Sunday was the second day of the tournament and we were not at the games, but learned that Liam's team won, which was a huge surprise for him being that they never won a single game their entire season (Fall or Spring)!   Yet, they played everyone one of those games like they wanted to win, which is what really matters.  This team never gave up and totally deserved this final big win!  Nice job Caleb and Liam!

Jonah and Gavin were with me at Liam's game and fortunately for Jonah his two best buddies, who are twins, were there to play their favorite game:  Stufties.  There was no plan to meet these friends and no plan to bring stuffed animals to the game, but here they all are, peas in a pod!

This past Wednesday after trying to fit in two cello lessons, one piano and two swim practices on top of getting a speeding ticket ( my first in maybe 10-12 years) in a speed trap by the middle school which I'm totally annoyed about and plan to tell the judge so in a month when I have to appear in court, we finally made it to Caleb's final Jazz and Symphonic band concerts.  He was a rock star and when he played Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" with his double base pedal he brought from home, the crowd went crazy in applause!  It was awesome!

This coming weekend will bring a end of soccer season bon fire for Liam and his team, Caleb's Jamboree "shake down" where he'll spend a night with the scouts in preparation for the National Jamboree event this summer, and Gavin and Jonah's final soccer game and the last time they will play on the same team for two years!  8 days of school and counting!