Here's some recent pictures of the boys. The one of Parker was taken Thursday as I worked on learning some features on our new camera. The one of Kallsen was taken at the park the other day. I wish I had some of Joseph...he's at that age where his main goal is to not be in a picture.

A Dodgebee Game

I took the boys to the park tonight. We played for about two hours before heading home for dinner. We played on the playground for a while and then my boys along with several other kids headed to the open field and played a rousing game of Dodgebee.

The kids ranged in age from 2 years-old to about 13 or 14 years-old. In the below picture, Kallsen shows his grit and determination as a Dodgebee player.

If you haven't seen or played Dodgebee yet, I highly recommend you buy Dodgebee discs if you have children and want to have a lot of fun, in a fast game where your kids can throw something hard at other kids without the worry of someone getting hurt.

Right now Dodgebee discs are not available anywhere outside of Japan. If you go to HeroDiscUSA.com, you can order Dodgebee discs. They're about $10 per disc and come in three size. The Dodgebee disc in the picture above is the large size. I think the medium is best but any size Dodgebee is better than no Dodgebee at all.

Kallsen's Dance Class

Kallsen started dance class today. All the girls are required to wear pink leotards and the boys have to wear black sweat pants and white t-shirts.

They began with tap...in this picture you can see the white tap shoes that Kallsen is wearing. They worked on tap for about 15 minutes and then spent a half an hour working on ballet.

There are nine kids in the class. Eight girls and Kallsen is the only boy. He was fine with it and I think he really enjoyed the class.

This dance school is not a competitive dance school like most but a classical dance school. The owners and instructors are all former professional dancers. Foothills Dance Conservatory is a client of mine, that's how I met the folks that run the conservatory.

Most dance classes for kids are very competitive. This training is to teach kids to dance...the only competitiveness (according to other parents) comes when they do shows. All students are invited to audition. Several parents, who have older children that attend Foothills Dance, said that Kallsen is likely to get decent roles in productions because so few boys take dance.

I do hope he enjoys dance enough as he grows older to continue with taking these classes.

Goodbye Pumpkinhead

Our cat, Pumpkinhead, died this morning.

Sara woke this morning at 4:22 and heard a deep quacking type sound and some moaning. She woke me up and we began searching the house. We found Pumpkinhead in the closet in the boys' room. He appeared to have already passed away. Sara ushered the boys into our room and I got a towel to go wrap him up and move him. When I picked him up he made a gurgling sound. Sara called the vet and off we went to Anderson at 5:00.

By the time we arrived, Pumpkinhead had passed away. I'm glad I was able to hold him before he passed.

I got Pumpkinhead in August of 1999 when he was 6 weeks old. He was a bit of a rascal when dealing with a lot of folks...specially Sara. Over time he became more of her cat than mine.

He lead an interesting life...from learning to adjust to Sara and Joseph when we got married, to learning to live with babies in the house when Kallsen and Parker were born.

In 2006 when we moved to Iowa, Pumpkinhead decided to stay awhile in the North Georgia Mountains. He was found by a friend and had a trip from Atlanta to Houston and then on to Minneapolis before a three hour drive to Iowa. While on his flight to the midwest, he had a 24 hour layover in Houston.

Pumpkinhead...we love you. Rest in Peace.

An Orange XD

It started like a normal Monday...a little less energy going to work than you like. It started to pick up with a sale before Noon and I left work a little early to pick up my kids from their first official day at their new preschool. We headed to the park where we were to meet Momma. Momma came to the park and took the boys for pizza. I headed to my Monday evening Disc Golf league.

Our league is a random draw doubles. My partner, Mike, and I were not playing very well at all. We started on hole 8, a birdie hole, and started with three pars before hitting two birdies on hole 11 and freely based # 12. By the time we made the turn off of 18 to hole # 1, we knew we wouldn't be in the running for the night.

With no aces being hit for several months there was nothing left but to 'go for it' on aceable holes. On number 1, a 165' straight, slightly downhill through the woods hole. I got out my trusty orange XD and hit the ace. I split the ace pool with another player. And with that, my 39th birthday began.

Picture taken from the tee of hole #1 in Seneca

Zoomed in from tee on hole #1 in Seneca

Without the Bread

Sara and I are in Hilton Head this weekend attending the South Carolina Broadcast Association's Summer Convention. While we're here, the boys are staying with Nana and Papa.

Sara called earlier this afternoon to see how everything was going. At lunch time the boys (Kallsen and Parker-Joseph was at a friend's house swimming) informed Nana that they wanted Banana sandwiches without the bread, Cheetos and Koolaid Jammers. I guess I should be happy that they wanted/ate bananas.

Just another reason I love me boys...

Happy Birthday Joseph!

Living in a house full of boys

When a woman finds out she is pregnant it is the great feeling. The day she discoveres that she will have a son..she thinks life is great. Then the second son is born...WOW a playmate for the first son. When the third sons makes his debut the woman is overjoyed. We have saved all the clothing, shoes, etc. in order to make the transition from a family of 4 to 5 much easier. How was that woman to know that in a few short years, her life would consist of...
"Don't throw that in the house!"
"Leave your brothers' ears alone."
"Ouch, can someone pick up the millions of cars and blocks on the floor."

Or my favorite question to ask..."Honey, do you think you should teach them that?"

Recently, I came home from the grocery store. (Evidently I was earlier than anyone expected.) I found my husband and 3 boys THROWING dodgebee discs in my living room near the curio. Needless to say my husband thought that everything was okay because "the dodgebee won't hurt". Now it is later and the kids today were throwing REAL frisbees in my house. They got stuck on top of the refrigerator, cabinets and behind picture frames. Luckily, nothing was broken. When I questioned the boys, their response was "BB's don't hurt". How can I compete with the COOL dad? I have become the boring mom who doesn't allow her kids to throw things in the house. What am I to do?