You Still Have Time

Kyle and Reed had to bring their Valentine boxes and "cards" to school today, so you still have time to make yours as awesome as mine if you want to copy me.

We are sticking with what works, so all the girls in both of their classes are getting a (fake) rose.

Reed said all the girls loved them last year. 

 The boys in Kyle's class are getting a squishy basketball

And the boys in Reed's class are getting a baseball key chain.

Tooting my own horn here, but I outdid myself on their boxes.

You are supposed to be able to put their valentines in their mouths, but my pictures should have been bigger.  If the valentines are small you could get them in there, but I left one side open so you could put them in there too.

It wasn't sure what Reed would want for his.  I was glad he chose tennis (that was easy).

Kyle's was a no-brainer. I'm not sure we even discussed any other options.

Diving Progress

Kyle is continuing to dive twice a week, here are some of the dives that I've captured lately.

JTF

I dropped JR off at the airport this afternoon and he is in the air now headed to California.

Back in May he auditioned with one of the theater groups he performs with to go with them and compete at the Junior Theater Festival.

We didn't find out until July that he was one of the 33 chosen. (They took so long to announce it that I  just assumed he didn't get picked and that we just didn't hear back from them.)

They have been practicing since September, and they will perform on Saturday and Sunday.

(The other days they are in workshops/classes/auditions.)

He doesn't have any big parts, but as I like to say "Who cares? You got a seat on the plane!"  

They are doing songs from The Little Mermaid where he is Prince Eric in 1 song and seaweed in another. 

And they are also performing "Me 'Old Bamboo" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, where he's Sid and gets his hair all cut off in the hair cutting machine.

They had a mini performance on Sunday that Sherry, the boys, and I went to.

Here is JR as Prince Eric

Kyle wasn't nearly as impressed with JR as we were.

(No, I'm not really sure how he got himself in that position, 

and yes, his head is on the floor under the seat.)

We are very proud of JR and so excited for him to have this opportunity.

Here he is with his group, he's in the left hand corner with the Texas hat.

He'll be home on Monday night, hopefully with lots of exciting stories to tell. 

Nice Swings

I was really impressed with how Reed played at his first "real" tennis tournament on Saturday. 

Reed's opponent showed up dressed to play at Wimbledon and Reed was wearing this.

Everyone had at least 3 tennis rackets in their fancy bags, and Reed walked in with his 1 racket and no bag.

  Reed didn't look outmatched at all, even though his opponent has been playing tournaments for a year...and Reed learned how to play this summer.

I've never been a tennis fan, and had no idea what was going on (I even had to ask the other kid's dad if Reed had just won), but I so enjoyed watching him play!

And the only advice Reed's tennis coach had wasn't even for him, but for me...to get him a "proper pair of tennis shoes". 

He Lost

JR's dislike (to put it nicely) of Tom Brady runs deep and wide.

I thought he was going to die when the Vikings lost and the Patriots won two weekends ago. 

(Not to mention he lost 10 bucks in a bet that the Vikings were going all the way to the Super Bowl.)

I was bracing for the worst all day yesterday. And Reed was so nervous JR was going to lose his mind, he made him a cake to try and make him feel better.

But thankfully the cake turned in to a celebration cake instead of a "please don't carry on like a crazy person" cake.

Just listen to him.  He doesn't care that the Eagles won, just that Brady lost.

Crazy 2 Days

Jason left on Thursday to go to Telluride for the weekend, and wouldn't you know it, the kids had more going on this weekend than any other weekend ever.

I wasn't sure how I was going to manage, but thankfully my parents came in town and Granny Sherry is always around to help.

Friday we snuck Reed out of school early for lunch.  Kyle was going over to a friend's house after school so he stayed.

From lunch, Reed went to a baseball lesson, and then a tennis practice.

I picked up JR from managing the basketball team and Dylan from his house so they could meet up with friends for dinner.

While I was driving the big boys around, I had Paw-Paw pick up Reed from tennis and take him to basketball practice.  Maw-Maw stayed home with Kyle who I had run by to pick up from his friend's earlier.  

Paw-Paw couldn't believe how hard Reed's basketball coach worked them. He was very impressed. 

After the big boys had dinner, we went to see Memorial High's production of All Shook Up.  Our across the street neighbor, Payton, was in it, and she was excited to see JR and Dylan.

(She's a sophomore and they're 8th graders...funny how much bigger they are than her now!) 

Saturday started with Granny Sherry taking Reed to baseball practice, and then me picking up Reed early from baseball to get to his first USTA tennis tournament.

After a rain delay, he got in one set before the rain really messed things up.

While Reed was playing tennis, Granny Sherry, Maw-Maw, and Paw-Paw took Kyle to his basketball game.  They said he did great with 2 or 3 rebounds and a couple of steals.

And JR certainly wasn't going to be sitting around, he left Saturday morning going to his friend, Marshall's ranch. 

After Reed got rained out, we made it back home in time to meet up with everybody to go to Reed's basketball game.  All the grandparents including Grandpa Gary and Buffie were there.

The coach even used all the grandparents to his advantage, after Reed got 4 fouls in the 1st quarter the coach went over to the ref and said. "Hey, his grandparents all flew in from New York to see him play...."  Sure he stretched the truth a bit, but Reed didn't get anymore fouls.

Kyle's idea of entertainment during Reed's halftime

After the all day running around, Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw headed back home and the rest of us decided to go relax in fancy, reclining movie chairs.  

I had already seen The Greatest Showman with Caroline (we went because we love Zac Effron), but the boys wanted to see it, and I told Sherry she had to see it, so we enjoyed going to that.

If you look closely you can see the candy I had Reed sneak in for himself falling out of his pocket.

 Today (Sunday) has been manageable, and I'm so thankful I had 2 other licensed drivers to help me out this weekend!

Basketball

I don't think I've talked much about basketball except when I was talking about Kyle's hurt foot.

We've got about 3 games left in the regular season (which would be 6 for us since they are on 2 teams).

Both Kyle and Reed have done amazing on defense and both of their teams have them guarding the point guard, which is a big deal for them. 

(Normally the point guard guards the other team's point guard.)

I never buy the team pictures, but I saw these and thought they turned out cute.

They both have 10 kids on their team, but attending basketball team pictures isn't a priority around these parts.

They've even had 2 very special guests come watch them play.

Aunt Traci came to watch Kyle.

And Caroline came to see Reed. 

They both were surprised how hard 9-10 year olds play basketball.