Easter, 2012

This year, the last weekend of Connor's Spring break coincided with Easter. So, the boys went down to Grandma and Grandpa's for a few days to visit beforehand, which was pretty nice! We followed them down on Saturday and spent the weekend with Jim and Sara. We had a great time and the boys really enjoyed all of the attention and fishing.

Waiting patiently...ok, let's be serious, impatiently for the Easter "go ahead!"

I had an epic fail this year and forgot to take the boys' Easter baskets down with us :-( Luckily, Grandma Gillam had a couple of extra baskets that she let us borrow. I think the boys were more interested in their Easter gifts and candy then they were the baskets anyway!

We let Cooper start 1 minute before Connor, but don't worry, Connor made up for the time lost!

Happy Birthday Cooper!!

Coopie Doops is 4! He has been waiting for this day for quite a few months now, especially since his best friend Christopher turned 4 in February! His birthday was during Connor's Spring break, so Connor was home and Brad took the week off too.

It had been quite a long time since we had been to the Magic House, so we thought it would be a fun birthday event. Afterward, he invited his friend Christopher over for pizza, cake and ice cream, and to stay the night. The boys had a great time and it was a nice, fun-filled, low key birthday!

Cooper touching the static ball...

me touching the static ball...oh yeah, that's right!

He was super excited to get a swing for his birthday. The boys have two places for swings on their swingset, one is a regular swing and one was a baby swing. Cooper recently learned how to swing all by himself and literally spends all day outside swinging. Since Cooper has learned how to swing, it has been a constant battle as to who gets to the swing first when Connor is home. You would think adding a swing so that there are now 2 would solve the swing problem, right? Wrong! Now, they fight over the new one ugh!

This duo right here spells TROUBLE!

Cooper asked for a Power Ranger cake...let's just say that I have learned my lesson on frosting a cake before it cools off. Melt, melt, run, run goes the frosting! This rivals Connor's cake from his 7th birthday!

Officially a Soccer Mom

I guess technically I have been a soccer mom for about 3 years now, but now that I have TWO boys playing, it seems more official somehow. Connor started his 7th season this Spring and Cooper started his 1st!

We have had quite a crazy late Winter/early Spring as Connor played indoor soccer, both boys are playing outdoor soccer and Connor's baseball practices have started. Oh, and did I mention that Brad was out of town 6 weeks in a row during this crazy time?!

I thought I had it all planned out, but as it happens with what you think are the best laid plans, it didn't quite work the way I wanted it to. Indoor soccer was supposed to end the week before outdoor soccer began and baseball was not supposed to start until a couple of weeks after outdoor soccer was over. I couldn't have been more wrong!

The soccer club that we went through had some major scheduling conflicts which pushed indoor soccer back to March, which meant indoor and outdoor overlapped for several weeks. His poor team was playing 2-3 games a weekend. Plus, his baseball coach decided to start batting practice the first week of outdoor soccer...exhausting.

We had planned to wait until the Fall to start Cooper but our friend whose son is Cooper's best friend, begged us to sign Cooper up a couple of games into the season. They had some kids quit and needed an extra player. Once Cooper heard about this, there was no talking him out of playing!

So, with Connor's games/practices and Cooper's games/practices, I have been quite busy! Luckily, their games are played at the same soccer complex so Grandma Olson and I have spent quite a bit of time running back and forth making sure each one has a supporter there.

I have not had a chance to get a picture of both of them together in their uniforms, but have taken several during their games.

Cooper's first game was quite exciting. At one point in the game he stopped running, looked at me, started waving and yelled, "Hi Mommy, I love you so much!"

Throwing the ball in.

He fell down while running and literally laid on the field until his coach came back to midfield and picked him up. Notice the other two players are getting ready and are in position to kickoff. Not my child, guess he decided he needed a little rest!

Semi-corner kick.

This is not Cooper, lucky for him ;-) If you notice there is a large mud puddle behind his teammate which was located behind the goal. The ball was accidentally kicked into the puddle and after the coach got it out, the little boy went and jumped in it. I guess that was not good enough so he flat out did a bellyflop into the puddle. Only in 4-year-old soccer!

Connor is the one in the middle kicking the ball.

The lighting was not great for the indoor pictures, plus I have not gotten photo editing software for the Mac yet and am quite frankly too lazy to get out my laptop to fix them...!