The other night Ryan and I went out to dinner with some friends. Matthew watched the girls for us. (Awesome perk of having a 12 year old) I told them some options for dinner before I left that they could make when they were hungry. Matthew called us about half way through our dinner and we had to settle an argument about if he had to make Allison a pizza or not because ‘she won’t starve’. (Not so awesome perk about kids watching their own siblings) When we got home there was pizza stuff on the counter and cold cereal. We asked who are what for dinner and they all said cold cereal. Matthew mumbled something about the pizza not being very good. I asked him what was wrong with it and he said he didn’t know, he left it in the oven for me. I looked in and found this.
We figured out that he had set the oven to broil instead of bake and this is what a pizza looks like after it has been broiled for 14 minutes. Before we left I was reviewing standard safety rules because they said they were probably going to make a pizza. Matthew was being a little snarky and answering all my questions with the answer, “Immediately call 911 and run around screaming.” Luckily while his mouth was being sassy his brain remembered what we talked about. I didn’t specifically cover what to do in case you broil the pizza instead of bake it but when I asked him how he decided to deal with it he said, “It wasn’t on fire so I turned the oven off and left it for you to figure out. We had cold cereal so it wasn’t an emergency so I didn’t need to call you or 911.” I clarified if he meant the pizza wasn’t an emergency or eating cold cereal wasn’t an emergency, to which he said, “We still had food to eat even though we wanted pizza.” We were gone for two hours.
Sometimes I would love to see the inner dialogue and thought process of the 12 year old brain. He felt the need to call me to determine if he had to feed his sister at all, but when he opened the oven to what should have been a perfectly cooked pizza and instead found a charred melting blob he thought it best to just close the oven and leave it until I got home. 🤷♀️
I got to go out to dinner and enjoy a delicious meal with friends and my Punkin and everyone was healthy (and no one starved in the two hours we were gone) and the house was standing and no one called 911 so it was a successful evening.
Sometimes when I go to bed I find a note or picture on my nightstand from one of the girls. The other night when I went to bed Allison had left a path of arrows for me to follow that lead me to a cute little tree that she had made out of pipe cleaners and pompoms with little birds in nests. It is so cute! She just came up with it all on her own. I love it when she is creative like that. She has some artistic abilities!
While we were at the baseball tournament Allison’s girl scout troop went on a fun adventure last weekend. They went to the State Capitol and toured the building and saw how everything worked. About half way home there is a girl scout cabin that they stopped at and spent the night. She was pretty excited. She has a lot of fun with the girls in her troop. They are all really fun and mesh well together. They hiked and started and cooked over a fire. She had the best hot dog ever that she cooked over the fire by herself, and of course they did smores’. She got a little nervous at night but her and a friend shared a bunk and were fine after that. She loved playing all the games and getting to do all the hands on stuff.
The Monster Bash was our last tournament of the Fall season. This team has played in this tournament three years. This is our second year playing with this team in this tournament. Part of the tournament is a twitter contest. The team that has the most tweets over the weekend gets cash for future tournaments. Our moms have won the contest by miles for the last two years and we made it three this year. There are over 400 teams that play in this tournament so we were playing in Platte City which is a little over an hour away. It was a really nice ball field though. We played two games the first day. We squeaked into the top division in 10th place which meant we had to play at 8am the next day. When the boys won that game our next game wasn’t until 4pm. One of the coaches had family that lived near by and offered to let the team hang out at their house for a while. So we ordered some pizza’s, and watched the football game, the boys played dodge ball and baseball in the front yard, the girls played in the leaves. It was a fun few hours.
We won the 4pm game. The 6pm semi championship game went extra innings and the boys clawed their way to finally win it in the 9th inning (usually a game is 6 innings). The Championship Game started a little before 9pm and the boys did really well just came up a little short. It is a long day at the ball park when you see the sunrise and sunset on the same day. It was a great end to the season.
Twitter competition material.
Twitter competition material
Excited to play some ball!
Arriving before the sun did.
Sunrise at the ball fields.
Emilee hitching a ride on the way into the field
Sunrise
Sunrise
Peaceful moment before the fun starts.
Warming up as the sun rises.
Emilee passing the time between games with Coach Kent.
Emilee and one of her buddies, Coach Kent
Relaxing between baseball games.
Matthew getting ready to throw his curve ball.
In a tournament after six games, everyone that can pitch will need to pitch.
Coach Terry
Matthew crushing it, mom trying to stay warm.
Sunset
Runners up. Not bad.
Game ended at 11 pm.
We took 3rd last year, 2nd this year-next year 1st!
A little while ago a few companies put a few hundred scooters around down town Kansas City. There is an app that you download and then you can scan the little code on the scooter and it unlocks it and lets you rent it to scoot around town. When you are done you park the scooter on the sidewalk or where ever and log off on the app and it locks it back up and you leave it there for the next person that comes along and wants to ride it. The idea is to cut down on traffic, and pollution and that sort of thing but a few of us crazy ladies decided to go check it out and ride some scooters for fun and it was pretty fun! They are pretty hefty little scooters. They have a fun little bell to ding, and some of them tell you how fast you are going. We were usually going 3-8 miles per hour. That might not seem very fast but when you are flying down a road with cars passing you, a trolley track to avoid, and watching for people, and nothing between you and the concrete road flying by under you except for two little wheels on a piece of metal it is plenty fast. It said you were not supposed to ride on the side walks so we were on the road most of the time. I think everyone just rides them on the sidewalk though, and I would feel much safer on the side walk. Down town roads are not know for their roominess. I am sure pedestrians feel safer if scooters are not zipping around them though. We were safe and all wore helmets. We zipped around town for about an hour then headed back to our car. We had one casualty right at the very end but she recovered and we all parked the scooters and went to lunch together followed by some famous ice cream from Betty Rae’s before heading back to pick kids up from school. It was a fun little break for myself which I was glad I did because it refreshed me for the next week few days that were ridiculously busy.
Janae, Maren, Heather, Lauren and Sarah getting ready to scoot.
Selfie Break
Crusin’
Getting the hang of it.
We made it to Union Station and took a short break for pictures before heading back.
Emilee had her first field trip at school. There is a fire station just down the road from the school so all the kindergartners walked down and learned about fire safety first hand. She thought it was a pretty long walk but she had fun.
For the past several years we have been ‘Booed’ by someone. I am pretty sure it is the same person every year but we can’t figure out who it is. Being ‘Booed’ is when someone leaves a treat or goody bag on your porch without you knowing it. When you get Booed you are supposed to hang the little sign on the front door that says “We’ve been booed!” and then you Boo two other people. Kind of a more fun version of a chain letter. The kids love it. Emilee likes to just leave it on the porch for them to find sometime, but Alli and Matthew like to ring the doorbell and run to test their speed and sneaky skills.
On our way to deliver our ‘You’ve Been Booed’ treats.
Some years I am more into Halloween than others. Either way I am ready for it to be over by the 31st. This year is kind of on the down side for being gung-ho for Halloween. Fall came really late so the hot weather made it hard to get in the mood. The kids like to help me put the decorations up. I am into more cute and silly Halloween decorations. Allison and Emilee (totally just being an Allison follower) keep begging to get more creepy scary Halloween stuff. I am not into that part of Halloween at all. Matthew and Ryan aren’t either so luckily the girls are out numbered.
Allison gets her creepy gross Halloween fix when she picks out her costume though. Last year she was a dead bride, this year she spent over an hour at the Halloween store looking for the perfect ‘disgustingly creepy’ costume. I walked a fine line between not raining on her parade and swaying her away from ones I really didn’t want. She was wanting a scary clown with blood all over it. Unfortunately (or was is?) her choices for that costume were eliminated by not being available in the right size. She settled for a jester costume that had no blood on it but has gloves with long creepy fingers and a mask that is definitely scary clown material. It didn’t take her long to test her scariness and she was not disappointed. She hid in Matthew’s bathroom and scared him to death when he came in. I told her she couldn’t do that again but he walked around paranoid waiting for her to jump out anytime he couldn’t see her for two days because he didn’t trust her. He finally decided to hide her costume until Halloween so he didn’t have to worry about it. I was glad he thought of because I didn’t trust her either. It worked for about a week, then she found it. There is now a battle of hide-n-seek with Allison’s costume going on. If you hear the sound of bells (her jester hat has bells on it) you know you are going to get scared.
Allison-creepy clown.
Emilee walked around the store pointing out all the creepy stuff but settled on a cute little bat outfit. She told me it is the bat ‘Mavis’ the vampire turns into from Hotel Transylvania.
Emilee- Mavis the bat
Matthew wasn’t with us when we got the girls costume so he is going to reuse his costume from last year-the grim reaper- but call it a dementor from Harry Potter instead.
Matthew- Dementor
The girls and I went to a pumpkin patch together. There are many options around here. Emilee has been really wanting to go to the Deanna Rose Farmstead. It is a fun place with lots of different farm activities and animals to pet or feed or ride. They also have a hayride out to a pumpkin patch in October so we decided to go there and do both. It was pretty fun. We have gone to the farm many many times over the years. I have to say it is a little more relaxing now that they are older to take them places. There were lots of mom’s with babies crying, toddlers rolling in the mud, or running off. I’m not complaining about them. I have been there, I get it. I help redirect a kid, and lend a hand when I can. I am just enjoying the less hands on approach I can have now. This is the first time we tried the pumpkin patch part though. It wasn’t ridiculously overpriced and the patch was pretty compact and had enough activities to keep them busy for a while. We all got to pick a pumpkin as part of admission too. Usually we go to the pumpkin patch but we will buy our pumpkins later at the store because I’m a stick in the mud and won’t spend $10-$20 PER pumpkin at the patch. Call me crazy. I call them crazy for charging that much for a pumpkin. We ended our time there by stopping at the General Store and getting a few pieces of salt water taffy. I don’t eat it very often but I like salt water taffy. They have yummy flavors too. Some of our favorites are caramel apple, root beer, cinnamon, and strawberry banana.
There is always the school trunk or treat and the church Chili-cook off (which I won last year-see my post ‘Why I Avoid Cooking’ for more details) followed by the trunk or treat, class parties and more. There is no shortage of candy by the time Halloween is over.
Kindergarten school party with friend Laney.
Emilee the mummy.
Third grade party, pumpkin painting.
We usually carve our pumpkins a day or so before Halloween. This is a picture from carving pumpkins last year. I think it captures everyone’s thoughts quite well. Matthew is trying to touch it as little as possible and repeatedly saying how gross it is. Allison is completely fascinated and loves everything about it from the smell to how slimy it is. You can’t see but Emilee has a spoon and is pointing and directing every cut Ryan is making but will not touch the pumpkin herself. Ryan took one for the team and is carving the pumpkin for Emilee. I am gagging over the smell while I take the picture. Every year I try and hype up the ‘lets paint our pumpkins instead’ option, but it is fun to put a candle in them and see the carving when your done so they have powered through carving them so far.
I actually got a carving kit this year. It was worth every penny. I had the top cut off and the entire pumpkin gutted in under two minutes. Cutting out little spiders and other things was a piece of cake too.
For the last six or seven years on Halloween dad makes home made root beer with dry ice and we have pizza for dinner. We call the root beer ‘Witches Brew’. Then we get in our costumes and go trick or treating. Most of the time the McDonald’s come over and eat and go trick or treating with us. We usually split up into a slow group and a fast group after the first few houses. I don’t know how many more years we have before the kids want to start doing their own thing instead, maybe we will keep doing it together even when the kids don’t but just stay home and play a game instead. Matthew did end up going trick or treating with a few of his buddies. He had a ridiculous amount of candy when he got home.
Spoiler alert, the boys won the tournament. For the Championship Game there was a Midwest Sports Production reporter that filmed it and afterwards interviewed Matthew, Derrick and his coach. They just posted the final article/video to their Facebook page today. Matthew is in it quite a bit.
It was their first wooden bat tournament. They played a game earlier in the week and used wood bats to get used to it and it was not pretty. One strike out after another. Matthew was pretty frustrated and was not looking forward to the tournament. He put in some extra batting time and Ryan got him his own wood bat that was the right weight and he was feeling much better about it. They played 5 games, won them all and only allowed 7 runs total in all 5 of those games.
The games were all good games against good teams, and our boys played well. Everyone was on top of their game. They hit well, fielded well. It was really fun to watch. A friend of Matthew’s that is on his football team played with us because we needed an extra player, his name is Xander. We are actually trying to get him to join our team so it was kind of a try out for everyone. He is a naturally athletic kid and is a great baseball player too. He played catcher a lot of the time or second and I think he and Matthew really boosted each others playing. He had some amazing throws and stops and he kept the energy up for the team.
The team as a whole was playing great but Matthew had the best weekend of baseball he has ever had. I am going to do some mom bragging for a while so get comfortable. It is so fun to watch him play, he loves it, he gets it, you can see him watching and thinking and he is good at it. He doesn’t have to wait to be told what to do by the coaches he is already doing it when they call it out. His batting average usually bounces around 400-500. It was 778 for this tournament! He was CRUSHING it! He got several doubles, and a triple. He thinks he might have gotten his first home run if he was using his regular metal bat. He and Xander scored all 5 runs for one of our games. He is our fastest runner. He loves his nickname- Cheetah (or if Allison is around she cheers for Cheeto to tease him). We missed one game because we were at church. We arrived for the last half of the second overtime inning. As soon as Matthew got there his coach put him in as a pinch runner and he scored the tying run and then the person behind him scored the winning run.
He couldn’t miss all weekend it was awesome. Pop flies, grounders, line drives, anything that came near him he got it and gunned it to whatever base to get the out. Nothing got by him. They got a couple double plays too. There were a couple runners that thought they could steal a base than ended up in a pickle. Watching him chase someone down in a pickle is awesome. You can just see him turn the speed up a notch. It is nail biting to watch but it is great how they all know their parts and execute the play and back each other up.
This video is less than 10 seconds long (Xander’s mom took it and shared it with me) but it captures one of their plays and how awesome they were working together. I am not a sports announcer as you will soon find out but I am going to explain this video anyways. Then Matthew will have proof that I knew what was going on and wasn’t just sitting there eating my peanuts. (Love you Matthew 😉)
There was a runner on first and they new he would probably try and steal second on the next pitch so the coach signaled Xander (catcher) to catch him stealing. So Xander calls a high pitch from Frankie (pitcher) so he can start to stand up to catch it. Matthew (short stop) also gets the signal. Frankie pitches a perfect pitch straight across the plate but just above the batters head so he won’t swing. As soon as he releases the ball he steps to the side so Xander has a straight shot to Matthew. The runner on first takes of to steal second but Xander has already jumped up to his strongest throwing position when he catches the ball so he is ready to throw it immediately to Matthew who has cut across to the other side of second base and has his glove out in the path of the runner to catch Xander’s throw that hits his glove with a nice pop right before the runner slides directly into it and is called out. Bam! In 7 seconds you have a perfectly executed defensive play by some cute, talented, fun, baseball loving 12 year olds. Not to mention what all the other boys did- center and second backed up Matthew, first was ready in case he tried to come back, right backed him up etc. It is so fun to see all of them getting better, trusting, supporting, learning, and growing as a team.
Ready for the grounder.
Scoop it up
Let it go!
Crushed another at bat. I think this was his triple. Look at that form.
This past weekend was an amazing weekend on all accounts. It was one of those weekends where the stars aligned and everyone was happy and the right amount of busy, relaxed, and enjoying each others company and activities that were going on. It was Parent Teacher Conferences so on Wednesday there was just a half day of school and then no school again until Monday. When the kids got home we went through the backpacks and got all that stuff done and hung them up so we didn’t have to think about it again until Monday morning. I went to the conferences and they were all fine. That night Matthew had a makeup baseball game that we went to. The girls both had a friend to play with so they were off at the park having a grand time. Both teams agreed to use wood bats because the tournament we played in over the weekend was a wood bat tournament. It didn’t go well. The boys had been practicing but all of their timing was a little off and it was kind of a sad game. Matthew decided to get over it by going to his friend Jake’s (also on the team) for a sleepover that night.
Thursday Matthew was at Jake’s most of the day and the girls and I went to a pumpkin patch. We had a fun little time. We did a hay ride, tractor ride, jumped on hay bales, went down slides, saw lots of animals, did a mini cornmaze (the best kind of corn maze), played in a giant bin of corn like a sandbox, and picked out some cute pumpkins. We topped it of with a favorite treat of salt water taffy on our way home.
Friday we played some games. One of our favorites right now is Trouble. Emilee thinks she can control the dice by wishing hard enough and crossing her fingers. It’s pretty funny when she guesses the right number. Friday night the girls gymnastics place was having their monthly parents night. The girls love it, they go and eat dinner, play games, and do gymnastics from 6:30-10:30. They have a blast and are still not ready to come home at 10:30. Matthew had three of his baseball buddies come for a sleepover Friday night. It was what he wanted to do instead of a big party this year for his birthday. We ate dinner at Pie Five, his favorite pizza place and then we went and played a couple games of laser tag. After that they came home and played night games outside for a while and watched a movie. I’m pretty sure they all had a great time. They all agreed to go to bed a little earlier than usual for a sleep over because the next day we started the Wood Bat Tournament.
Everyone woke up and it was hilarious seeing four boys get ready to go to their game. Ryan made us all a yummy breakfast and we went to the games. It was chillier so we were bundled up and snuggled in with blankets. I love it. We do spend a lot of time at baseball games but it is a fun time. The girls have fun at the games too. Sometimes they sit with me and watch but most of the time they run around in a pack with the other younger siblings at the game and play at the play ground or play tag or whatever they come up with. Emilee and her friend spent the whole day making homes and feeding their stuffed animals with grass that they would collect. Allison is one of the older ones so she likes being in charge and watching the kids. She played ‘the best game of tag ever’ most of the day. Then there is the food. We bring some healthier options but the girls love getting some nachos or an icee, or pretzels. They have hot chocolate now too which we all love. The boys played AMAZING and won the entire tournament with a 5-0 win record.
Champions! First Place!
Alli had a birthday party she went to at the community center pool. Best friends and swimming in her favorite pool-double win.
Sunday we made it to church on time and without fighting in the morning. That is a miracle in itself. The primary is practicing for the program for the next few weeks. It is always an exciting time to get to sit on the stand and talk and sing in the microphone. Matthew had his first class with his new deacon quorum. He was also given the Aaronic Priesthood by his dad. Uncle Ross and Brother Sawaya helped in the blessing too. That night he was able to go to his first youth fireside. He came home and was telling me all about how media can be addictive and we should be careful what we watch and limit what we watch. I tried not to look to dumb founded as he told me all this ‘new information’ he had learned. I tried even harder not to say, “Matthew I have told you that almost every day for the last half of your life.” I am glad hearing it from a third party helped it actually stick a little between the ears instead of a pass through.
We all had a really nice weekend. There was a lot of quality fun past due family time. It was hard to let it go and return back to real life on Monday morning. I won’t name names but there were more than one kiddo sad enough to start the tears that they had to go back to school. On the way back from baseball we got ice cream, Emilee was eating it but had to take a nap before she finished because she was so tired. I looked back and her hand was inside her ice cream bowl and she was sleeping.
Emilee napping in the middle of eating her ice cream.
I love you to death Allison, but you can be a stinker sometimes. You have the tenacity, will power, and grit of a pit bull that just got bested by a chihuahua in front of his friends and his girlfriend. I love those qualities in you, they will be very helpful to you in your life. However, helping you learn to control, understand, and use those qualities in a positive way is not easy and as you well know, leaves you and your dad and I at our wits end sometimes. I am not perfect and know I make mistakes and don’t always help you in the best way. I apologize for that to you a lot, and I am sure I will owe you many more apologies in your life. Sometimes when we are in the thick of a situation with you we just have to laugh so we don’t scream or cry. When you see this it obviously infuriates you even more but we hope someday you will understand. We are not laughing at you, or making fun of you. We are laughing at the situation and our own frustration. So, I have decided to write down some of your more ‘stick it to my mom’ reactions and incidents so someday when you are older and understand we can laugh together.
Control is a big deal for you. You do not like to be told what to do or do something simply because everyone else did it. In church on Sundays when they make new callings or ask for sustaining votes, then any opposing votes. You ALWAYS oppose. If you are feeling a little more aggressive you will raise your hand high up in the air and clearly let anyone looking know you oppose. When you are a little less ornery it might be a quick half hand raise. I have even seen you just raise one finger, but nine out of ten times you do something. Then look at your dad and I like – “What are you going to do about it.”
Another one from church recently was planning your baptism. We sat down to pick who you wanted to do what for your baptism. We had to take a break and come back to it later because you were determined that you would only have one witness instead of two. “There is only one of me, I don’t need two people to watch me go under the water. I can watch myself.”
I have received many notes from you on my pillow when I go to bed at night. Sometimes it is a nice but more often than not it is chewing me out for some injustice you feel you had to endure throughout your day. This isn’t really a nasty one but it made me chuckle when I found it. If you notice, the diagonal ‘Chories Suck’ in purple letters. Very creative.
One of the earliest moments I remember of you deliberately being ornery was when you were about three. I knew your dad and I were going to have our hands full. I was chopping up raw onions for dinner and you came over and said you wanted to eat it. I told you it wouldn’t be very good but you wouldn’t let it go. I told you if you really wanted to take a bite you could but I didn’t recommend it. You grabbed the biggest piece you could find and shoved it in your mouth. It took about a half a chew before you face showed exactly what I expected, you did not like it. I said you could go spit it out because I could tell you didn’t like it. You glared at me, finished chewing, swallowed and said you did like it and grabbed another one and shoved it in your mouth. Then you stormed off, probably to go spit it out without any witnesses.
The past few months you have developed a habit that infuriates your dad and I. When someone is talking to you (anyone-but mostly your dad and I) and you don’t like what they are saying you start humming or making some obnoxious noise over them. AAAAHHHH! It seems like when I set my resolve to be more patient and not let your actions get to me, you up your game.
You have grown up a lot the past few months though and there is much more happiness than grumpiness from you for the most part. Whatever your mood though I love you tons girly!
We figured out that he had set the oven to broil instead of bake and this is what a pizza looks like after it has been broiled for 14 minutes. Before we left I was reviewing standard safety rules because they said they were probably going to make a pizza. Matthew was being a little snarky and answering all my questions with the answer, “Immediately call 911 and run around screaming.” Luckily while his mouth was being sassy his brain remembered what we talked about. I didn’t specifically cover what to do in case you broil the pizza instead of bake it but when I asked him how he decided to deal with it he said, “It wasn’t on fire so I turned the oven off and left it for you to figure out. We had cold cereal so it wasn’t an emergency so I didn’t need to call you or 911.” I clarified if he meant the pizza wasn’t an emergency or eating cold cereal wasn’t an emergency, to which he said, “We still had food to eat even though we wanted pizza.” We were gone for two hours.
