Sports, Sports, and More Sports

It's hard to juggle all the sports practices and games, but it's a lot of fun to watch the kiddos grow.  Little Lady is her 3 season with the same team, and they seem to be hitting their stride.  Her coach is really trying to get them to set and overhand serve even if it means losing the games.  They've been hitting hard the concept of calling for the ball and moving to it.  The amazing thing is that they've actually been winning set after set.  They are currently ranked first in their division.  Their toughest games come at the end of the season playing the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams which will be a wonderful challenge for them.  Little Lady has improved quite a bit this season.  She is moving to the ball, and she's actually scoring with her overhand serve now.  Joel put a chalk line the height of the net on the side of our house, and she's been practicing at home quite a bit.  

I got to take BB to an eight in the morning soccer game, and it was oddly very delightful weather.  He is also in his third season with the same team.  He was all hustle this game, and I love when that happens.  He played mid field and ended up with the winning goal two minutes left in the game.  He was thrilled.  

Spicy Banana Bread

BB recently has updated his goals, and he wanted to learn how to bake something.  He chose banana bread as the first thing he wanted to learn.  We used my Grammy's recipe for spiced banana bread.

Spicy Banana Bread:  

1/2 cup butter                         ½ tsp. nutmeg

1 cup packed brown sugar     ½ tsp. mace

1 egg                                      2 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla                         ½ tsp. cloves

½ tsp. salt                             2 Tbs. milk

¾ tsp. cinnamon                 ¼ cup chopped walnuts

¾ cup whole wheat flour     1 ½ cup mashed bananas


Place butter and sugar in large bowl. Mix well. Add egg and vanilla; cream until light and fluffy. Blend flour and remaining dry ingredients, then add alternately with bananas and milk.  Spoon into greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Sprinkle nuts on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cool and then remove from pan.

 

We went over all the basics about baking as we made the bread.  He's a quick study.  BB has decided he really enjoys baking when he's doing it alone with me.  He chose to leave out the walnuts, and we didn't have any mase, but it was still very delicious.  He's excited to try it again soon.

April Dates

 This month Little Lady and I had date night together.  She wanted to get ice cream at Betty Rae's and watch the third Harry Potter movie.  Betty Rae's just barely opened back up, and has the best ice cream in Kansas City.  They even make their own waffle cones.  Yum!

Little Man went on his date with Joel.  They tried out a crepery for breakfast and then later in the day they went to Betty Rae's as well.  No pictures, because I wasn't there, but here's a picture of my middle schooler playing Blockus.

Track Time!

Little Man is trying out Track this Spring for the first time.  For his first meet he ran the 75 meter hurdles and the 100 meter run.  For how short he is we were surprised to could get over the hurdles, and it was fun to see him hold his own in the sprint even though most of the guys are a full head taller than him.  He pulled a muscle in his leg during the hurdles race, so that set him back the rest of the week, but he's recovered and running again.

Snow in April

We woke up yesterday to snow on the ground.  It was so bizarre, because the weather has been beautiful the day before.  All of the blossoms were covered.  Little Guy was planting seeds and talking about Spring in preschool with snow in the background.  

By late afternoon it had completely melted away and looked like Spring again.  It was a bizarre blip in time, but gratefully it didn't end up hurting the flowers. 

Giggles and Cupcakes

 Little Lady had 4 of her close friends from school over for her birthday on Saturday.  We have a close family friend who is in culinary school, so she came over to help the girls make cupcakes from scratch.  First, they had to play with the balloons and then they baked.

Sara did a good job keeping them on track, because five 10 year old girls are the definition of giggly.

They made their own cream cheese frosting and filled the middle of the cupcakes with a variety of things: jam, Reeses Peanut Butter cups, chocolate pudding, and sprinkles. 

 They had fun decorating them, and then it was time to eat!  The boys had no problem showing up when the pizza arrived.  Imagine that!

They may have also really liked the balloons. 

Joel commented that he didn't realize girls could be so loud.  They were giggle-a-minute.  I just laughed, because it's only the beginning. They're not even technically pre-teens yet.

Just about every friend got her American Girl Doll accessories (the Target imitation) for her birthday.  She was in heaven.  They ran up to her room and started dressing up the dolls. 

School Art

 Little Guy's theme at preschool was Z is for Zoo.  He loved this theme.  What's there not to love about a lot of animal art projects and coloring?

Little Lady was particularly proud of her last two art projects.  The first is her interpretation of Surrealism.  (Think Salvador Dali)  Her favorite though is the single point composition.  She says this is the best she's ever done at art, and she was really proud of it.  

Double Digits

 Little Lady turned 10!  It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that she's getting so grown up.  Of course, double digits also seems to mean twice the sass.  Oh, the joys of children getting older!

Gratefully, she can be equally sweet when she chooses.  For her birthday breakfast she chose pancakes with buttermilk syrup.  This year they've been getting free lunch from school, so she really wanted to pack a lunch for her birthday.  I can handle a request for a lunchable!  Her dinner request was mac and cheese with broccoli with an Oreo Ice Cream Cake.  I made the cake and Daddy made the mac and cheese for her, and then we played games until it was time for bed.  She's counting down until her party this weekend.

Pinwheels

I've had the squares cut out for a couple of months, but I finally sat down and started piecing this quilt top.  It was spread out over several days, but I actually finished the top this week.

I have a couple of quilting projects that I've been putting off that I really should get done before school's out.  Once the kiddos are home for the Summer all sewing ceases.

Big Boy on Campus

Today was Kindergarten Roundup.  Little Guy got to meet all of the Kindergarten teachers, do stations, and make a craft.  He's really excited about going to the same school as his older siblings.  He thought it was pretty cool that he gets his own desk.

For his butterfly he said he wrote the names of Emma and Ben, but that he didn't know how to spell Nathan's name.  Then he apologized for not writing my name and said he'd write it on there when we got home.  He had a great time, and he's definitely ready!

Pseudo-Puppies

Our kittens seem to think they're puppies.  They chew on everything they can get their paws on.  Both of them particularly love masks.  The kids have learned the hard way that they need to put away their masks.  

I had a layered quilt set out to quilt that Luna took full advantage of.  I had no idea batting was so tasty.  We've also lost two power chords of the laptop to the teeth of Luna and Stella.  The most expensive chewing project of the cats is currently the carpet in the hallway.  When they're waiting for a kid outside of their bathroom they amuse themselves by chewing on and ripping up the carpet.  Boo!

The carpet is original to the house and does need to be replaced, but we had been hoping to put it off as long as possible, because who wants to replace carpet that the children will ruin anyway?!  It turns out I should have been more worried about the cats. 

Just Like Old Times

I loved taking the kiddos to COSI in Ohio when they were little.  The children's section was so much fun, and I honestly can pretty much measure their childhood through pictures taken over the years while we were there.  Little Guy was only 6 months old when we moved, so he didn't really have that same experience as the older kids, and we never really loved the Science museum in Oklahoma the same way as COSI.  The pandemic hit and we stopped going places completely.  I've been feeling bad that I don't do a lot of the fun things with my youngest as I did with my older children.  It hit me that in a few short  months he'll be in school full time.  Kansas City just barely opened up a newly renovated Children's Museum called Wonderscope, so I decided to take Little Guy this week.  He absolutely loved it.

Little Guy went for all of his favorite foods.  It's zero surprise that he ended up with a watermelon or two in his basket.

He spent almost an entire hour at the water station.  It was bringing back all the memories of COSI.  The water table is a revered place in our family. 

You can tell by his shirt just how much he enjoyed himself!

He had such a great time.  He can't wait to go back.  I'm glad I get a little bit more time with him before he's off to school with the big kids.