Warriors, Bike Stunts and Fashion Issues

This weeks "Fess Up" is heavy on photos. I just couldn't resist, between the holiday, the beginning of baseball season, and the characters I do life with, they are just better than words, well, maybe sometimes. I LOVE words! And Pictures! And little Boys!

My first "Fess Up" - I read through this blog, saw a couple of typos, grammar and punctuation errors and elected not to take the time to change them. You will forgive me I am sure. My fellas, they are hungry and sick of looking at the back of my head. 

We payed to be recreational visitors to our own city this week. I hatched a plan. My Love agreed. We would pack up our camper, squeeze in to a full RV Park with people from all over the place to watch the fireworks and recreate on the 3rd and 4th of July. It was a great place. The first discovery was the small patch of grass with a couple of hills. Note the man using the weed-whacker within feet of my sons. Yes, I thought about them getting hit by a stray rock, but what are the chances? And no, this time, it didn't happen. They had a blast!

After rolling down the grassy hills a few times we got out the bikes - we all rode bikes. Note, I am not photographed on my bike. If you really want to see that, you'll have to wait a few weeks and read my other blog after July 17th (hopefully there will be some triathlon pictures taken that I can post).

I would like to add that I am now used to his adorable face with glasses. His charm is even more evident, but then, I am just the Mom.

Working on a new skill, riding one handed. He practiced over and over and, as far as I know, never had a mishap.

My smallest is mastering the training wheels, wonder how long before he's tired of the extra help? Oh, they do grow up fast!

Even my Love enjoyed rolling around with the boys on his recreational bike.

We did have a few amusing cycling incidents - we swap boys with friends every other week - so they have our 3 and their 3 one week and then we have their 3 and our 3. So we each get a 4 hour date every other Sunday. It works great. We had the boys join us and we all rode up to one of the local parks. We had to cross train tracks. You know the kind that are embedded in the road with deep grooves? Yeah, well with my excess skill and knack for the ridiculous, I managed to squarely plant my tire in one of the grooves, almost upending myself. Awesome. Yes, there were observers, no one I knew. But they were laughing. So was I - seriously what are the odds?!! Also, on that same ride, as we are approaching oncoming riders my middle fella shouts out "Hey Mom! I am riding with my eyes closed!!" To which I replied, "Great job buddy, now OPEN them so you don't crash yourself or someone else!" The oncoming elderly cyclists were relieved I am sure, that he obeyed me just this once!

This next series of photos is Popsicle vs. Three year old. Popsicle loses, but you knew that...

Time to read the joke!

I wasn't crushed when he took his sticky, drippy stick to Nana to read it. She tried to read it without touching it.

But, eventually, she had to turn it right side up and hold it. God bless Nana!

Battle has become our lifestyle. Sounds tragic I know, with visions of Braveheart dancing in your head, but it's not that graphic yet. Mostly. The battle rules are No Shooting People (especially helpless Senior Citizens hiding out in their RVs), No "Forcing" (think Star Wars) People, and No Shooting Each Other (unless Mom or Dad isn't looking). Here are my warriors...

Nana seemed to think they were light wands. NOPE. Any self respecting Star Wars fan knows that despite the star on the end, they are LIGHT SABERS!! I did find actual glow in the dark guns for Church Family Camp this weekend - yep. I know. But I didn't buy the pitch forks - that seemed like too much!

We had our first baseball games of the season this last week. I must "Fess" that I was not entirely excited to figure out how to observe my two younger while my oldest was playing and still pay attention to the game. Baseball is my favorite sport and I really, really, really want my sons to love it too. Turns out the youngers didn't have too much trouble entertaining themselves.

I am such a great mom, I forgot to have him get his BASEBALL hat! He improvised though.

He's the one with the glove over his face.

This little girl hung around the whole time, talking, singing and entertaining my middle guy. It was hard not to wish I had a large fly swatter to shoo her away from my handsome prince. Nothing against her sweet self, I just wasn't prepared for the boy/girl focus thing to happen already.

My youngest always finds entertainment as you can see. He even unplugged the pitching machine. Yep, that's my kid!

Coach was sporting a nasty shiner. Made me wonder if one of the kids caught him with a bat or if he got in a bar fight. I prefer to think of him as taking one for the team. He's really great with the kids.

They insisted I take their picture together. Sigh.

Who actually needs words for that face? Also, I did insist he turn his shirt around that morning. I was just too prideful for him to walk around with a polo shirt on backwards all day. Sometimes I cave to my ego.

 
Oh my I have such silly guys. Their fashion sense makes me embarrassed and laugh and depending on the day I make them change their ways. I try to leave well enough alone.

Half way through the game he decided to tuck in his shirt and hike his shorts up high. Apparently pulling the shorts up over your leading leg helps you take off from the base faster. He does it every time. At least he's only grabbing the leg of his shorts... you know what I mean.

Sometimes their antics defy any frame of reference I have. It doesn't happen often since I am quite creative. This one, it blew our minds.

My Love was packing the camper last night. He looked EVERYWHERE for their bike helmets. We wracked our brains on where they could be. I finally, at 9:30pm resorted to contacting the babysitter we had that morning to find out what might have happened to them. She suggested we check the garage refrigerator, they were playing "Hide the Helmet" and the fridge was the BEST place. Sure enough he found them:

One in the fridge drawer, one in the freezer by the Otter Pops. Wow.

I conclude this epistle even Paul would have cringed at with this:

Dear Mom, I am glad that you are my mom. A love note from my oldest! 

 

Note my freshly done nails ;)

There it is friends. The reminder of why I do what I do. The tender scrawled words of a seven year old son who doesn't like writing or reading, lovingly writing a note to his Mommy. I am so grateful

I have failed miserably this week, many times. Don't get the impression that this is the entire play by play of my week. I have yelled. I have cried. I have pleaded. I have held faces in my hands and asked for forgiveness. I have eaten crappy. I have eaten well. I have skipped workouts and completed them.

All in all, it's this "Fess Up Friday blog that keeps me grounded in the reality of what matters, what doesn't and to keep laughing... as much as humanly possible. Even if you just can't bring yourself to let your son wear his shirt backwards. EXCEPT, I remember now, the other son, he wore his shirt backwards all day and I didn't notice til 6:30 that night! But, it had Batman graphics all over it, so it looked mostly the same... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!