Pinewood Derby 2010

It's derby time again! Last Wednesday was the Cub Scouts annual pinewood derby. This year, Connor decided he wanted Kevin Levin's awesome green muscle car from the cartoon show Ben 10 (awesome!). Ben 10 is a family favorite, we record every episode and watch them together, so it was really fun to watch the car take shape. Darrin (and Connor) did a great job and the car looked great! We didn't win any prizes (or any races) but Connor was a terrific sport and had fun cheering on his fellow cub scouts. Here's a couple shots of my gorgeous guy and his cool car.

Let's try this again...

Some of you might remember the last time Lily tried soccer. It was a couple years ago and it was a bit of a disaster. She refused to play in the games, and spent the whole time holding her coach's hand and walking up and down the field. But she's been asking to play soccer again, so we thought we'd give it another go. We went with an easy, no competition, program this time around. Figured we'd wait and see if she actually likes it before we shell out the big bucks an a competitive league. Her friend Sydney is doing it with her, and so far, she's having a blast. They have a little mini game, against their own teammates, at the end of each week and that's just about perfect for Lily. She feels like she's really playing, but doesn't have the crazy stress of tons of kids out on the field trying to get the ball. So...maybe she'll be ready for a real league next spring, we'll see. Here's some pics my Dad took of her first practice.

Double Digits Baby!

It's official, Connor has now passed into the land of double digits. I can't believe my little baby is 10 years old! It seems like just yesterday, we were driving home from the hospital (at 25MPH...first kid) with him all bundled up like a peanut in that gigantic carseat. What an adventure it's been so far. And although Connor seems to have hit his teenage rebellion phase a little early and I'd glady throw him off the nearest pier at least twice a day...he is a truly wonderful son and a blessing in our lives. He's smart, funny, talented and most importantly-he wants to please, not only us, but his Heavenly Father as well. That's about all you could ask for in a son! As we watch Connor grow, we are constantly amazed at his capacity for learning and progressing in whatever he strives to do. We have no doubt that Connor will achieve great things in this life and we count ourselves as blessed to be able to be a part of that. Our family wouldn't be the same without him. Happy Birthday Connor! We love you!

FYI: This is almost always how I picture Connor in my head. Look at those baby blues and that beautiful smile!

Last Wednesday was a banner day for Connor. First-he got contacts! He's been patiently waiting for us to decide that he was old enough to handle contacts and he was SO excited. He's already a pro at putting them in and taking them out and he feels like a new man! And truthfully, doesn't he look so much cuter without the glasses? You can actually see his gorgeous eyes!
Second-he earned his Webelos badge (and before he even turned 10)! Connor is very goal-oriented and works hard to achieve any goal he's set. And since his competitive nature is out of control, he usually works as hard as he can to be the first one done with anything he's working on. Now we have an entire year to earn his Arrow of Light before he moves on to Boy Scouts. Way to go Con!

That's right, it's baseball season again! Doesn't he look adorable in his uniform, even if it is a Cubs uniform (ugh!)? Connor's already planning a hat-burning ceremony at the end of this season. And speaking of baseball (games, not uniforms), I wish you all could have been at last night's game. Connor was our starting pitcher. Holy Wow! Three scoreless innings of greatness, that's what it was! The third inning, he struck three in a row out, he only threw 11 pitches. At one point, he threw a change-up that was so gorgeous, people from the other team whistled! It was a glorious thing to behold! The coach pulled him after three innings because his pitch count was still low enough that he could start Saturday's game as well. It was amazing! I went to mutual right after his game and told everyone I knew how totally awesome my son was. Then, for good measure, I began stopping random strangers in the hallway and telling them too. Yeah, that's right, I'm that mom.

Connor says TTFN to Disneyland

As promised, a post of Connor's last trip of the year to our favorite place. We're really gonna miss Disneyland, but they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. We'll definetely be super excited the next time we get passes. Until then...a few of our last moments together.

On the way out of the park for the night. It was raining, you can see the bottom 6 inches of my pants are soaking wet. We still had a blast, look we're even smiling-and this after 12 hours in the park!

Connor in line for Thunder Mtn.-the scary dinosaur fossil. He's so over Thunder Mtn. I mean, he still likes it, but it's just not the same rush as Space Mountain or California Screamin. He's getting too old for my liking. But he is super fun to go to an amusement park with now.

Dad and Connor under the Thunder Mtn. lantern.

Connor convinced Darrin to go on the river rapids ride at CA Adventure even though it was NOT WARM. Connor barely got wet at all, Darrin wasn't so lucky. That's love.

We like this crazy illusion. They taper the street to make it blend in with the picture behind it. It's super cool. This was right after Darrin tricked Connor into going on Hollywood Tower of Terror. Connor was super brave but it would be an understatment to say that he hated that ride. I had to buy him a Churro afterwards to make up for the trauma.

Meet my kids...

So my friend Mary was telling me about something she happened to see when she was walking her daughter to school last week. She was walking behind Lily and Connor as they were heading to their classrooms and this is what she overheard:

Lily: I am absolutely freezing this morning!

Connor: (big sigh) No you're not. If were freezing, first you'd get frostbite. Then you'd get hypothermia. Then the hypothermia would make you really tired and you'd fall asleep. Then you'd freeze to death.

Lily: (big eye roll) Fine. Then I'm really really cold. Okay Connor?


The reason I share this random story. Because it almost perfectly describes my children's personalities. I just laughed and laughed when she told me. It is so them!

Catching up with Lily

I realize I haven't posted since the end of December. I swear I'm going to keep this blog up to date this year if it kills me!! We've been super busy with school, work, church, and now (cue sinister music here) it's baseball season! So life as we know it is over. I'm guessing I'll have lots of baseball posts forthcoming, so I thought I'd give you little rundown of Lily's activities over the past two months. Enjoy.

President's Day. Isn't she just the most darling little Patriot you've ever seen?

The 100th day of school. This is Lily and her poster of 100 things (stickers in her case).

Valentine's Day...some times I just can't believe that something that cute came from me!

Lily eating her noodles for Chinese New Year...and by eating I mean holding the bowl and playing with her chopsticks.

She actually put a noodle in her mouth...big mistake.

Lily and her friend Ben on Snow Day at kindergarten. Since we live in So. California we obviously don't get much snow. So once a year the kindergarten teachers hire a company to come and make a snow hill on their playground and they sled and play and have so much fun. This was definetely the highlight of Lily's year thus far.

Gorgeous gingerbread house. I was helping in the classroom that day and it got so frustrating because the kids just wanted to eat all of the toppings rather than decorate their houses. If I had give a ballpark figure, I'd say at least half of the decorations ended up in stomaches rather than on houses. But hey, it's kindergarten!

Lily-last Disneyland trip of the year

Our passes expire in March...frown. We've had so much fun this year, we've gone to Disneyland at least once a month since last March. It's been a good run and we wanted to get one last visit in. Unfortunately, it didn't look like Darrin would be able to join us and I hate going to Disneyland on Saturday. Since Lily won't go on rollercoasters (not even the kid Go-Go Gadget coaster...she's a whimp), and Connor only likes to go on rollercoasters, we opted to do separate "last visits". Here's a couple snapshots of Lily's last trip to Disneyland.