Trent and Carter

 Today, everyone was home.  I made the kids lunches and then went for a run/walk.

Chewie's trainer came today.

In the afternoon I Zoom tutored 2 students.

Then, we picked up Home Slice Pizza and met Trent and Carter at the park in that neighborhood. 

Trent and Carter are checking out Austin because Carter and his girlfriend would like to move here.

We had a nice time in the park.

Carter and Evan played hackysack. 

We just got home and now I'm doing a little bit of work before Morry and I sit down and watch more Schitts Creek.

Here are some pictures from today.

Fun with Friends

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Calvin got Chewie up early, as he's been doing.  Rachel came down with them and fed the animals and let Chewie out.

I went to HomeAway this morning for a meeting.  Rachel took the boys to get some dress clothes.

Apparently, Evan and his friend Reid were planning to hang out today.  They talked and set everything up.  After going clothes shopping, Rachel dropped Evan off at Carter's house who was having both Reid and Evan over.  Reid's mom brought Evan home later in the afternoon.

When Rachel and Noah got home, Anelio came over.  Anelio was still here when I got home from HomeAway.

We had dinner at home and then walked to the Food Trailer Night.  We got snow cones while we were there.

The boys are upstairs and will be getting ready for bed soon.

Until next time...

Another Long Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan's teammate Carter came over this morning around 7:20.  His brother was playing a baseball tournament in another part of town so they dropped Carter off for me to bring him to the game.  Evan, Carter and I stopped at Donut Taco Palace on the way up.

Rachel and Noah stopped by Aunt Susan's to see Sherah, JW and her kids before coming to see Evan play in his game.

The Bucs won the first game today.  It was a good game as we came from behind.

Rachel and Noah left after the first game and went back to Aunt Susan's.

In the second game, Evan played very well.  He made a beautiful throw over to get a runner out.  He fielded the ball almost on the third base bag and throw such a perfect throw to first that he beat the runner by about 3 or 4 steps.  In the final inning, Evan raced to get a foul ball near the dugout and dove in a way to avoid hitting the fence.  He just missed catching the ball.  Unfortunately, the other team was able to squeak out a win in their final at bat.

We had Coke ham for dinner.

After dinner, we went to Sweet Caroline's for shaved ice for the first time this year.

The boys are in bed.

Until next time...

Noah - Math Pentathlete

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today was the day of Math Pentathlon.  Noah has been going every Tuesday in preparation for today.  He had to play all 5 games.  There were around 25 elementary schools from around Austin represented.  We left the house at 7am to take him.   Rachel and I took separate cars.  Rachel dropped Evan off with Darius because Evan had two baseball games today.

The actual Pentathlon was in northeast Austin at a basketball gym shared by several Austin high schools.  The kids were on the floor and the parents were up in the stands.  There was one "monitor" for every two kids.  The monitors were parent volunteers.  They did not act as a referee but rather handled a "challenge" where one of the players felt their opponent violated the rules.  Noah and I got there at 7:30 but we really didn't start until after 9am.  It was a lot of waiting and getting set up.  Each game was scheduled for 30 minutes although if the game was completed in less time, the kids could come back to the stands.

Noah lost his first game.  He came up to me and he put his face in my chest and cried.  I felt so bad for him.  We talked about it and I said it's just one game.  And he can't think about it any more.  I don't know if that made him feel any better or not.  But he went and crushed the kid in the next game he played.  I think he took 5-10 minutes in beating the other child.  This time he came back and he was very happy.  He won the next two games as well.  Both fairly easily and he was really happy. In the fifth and final game, he tied.  The game is very much luck and it's a long game that almost never completes in the 30 minutes.  Most times that game ends in a tie.  Each win was worth 3 points, a tie was worth 2 points and a loss was worth 1.  Noah ended with 12 points.  That got Noah a bronze medal.  He was so happy.  They had an awards ceremony where they called each kids name grouped by their point total.  So anyone 10 points and under got a certificate.  Eleven total points got them a certificate with an honorable mention.  Twelve points was a bronze medal and a t-shirt.  For 13 points, they got a silver medal and a t-shirt.  Fourteen points was a gold medal and a t-shirt.  And 15 points, which was perfect, got them a gold medal, a t-shirt and a "Hall of Fame" declaration of some sort.  There were probably 400 or more kids there.  It took a long time.  But Noah was really really happy and we were so proud of him.

Meanwhile, Evan played two games.  He told me he played really well in both games.  He got one hit today and walked every other time he came to bat.  So he was on base every time today.  The Bucs lost the first game, but Evan walked to drive in the winning run in the second game.  He was so excited to get a "walk-off walk".  He told me his friend on the team, Carter, pretended to interview him after the game on his game-winning walk.

He and Darius' family stopped at Whataburger on the way home.

For dinner, we just had pasta.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Mr. Social

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I heard the boys, Carter, Evan and Noah up around 7:30.  They played nicely in the game room for a couple hours.

I got up and the boys wanted to go outside and play wiffleball.  While they played, I made waffles for them.  They came in and ate, then went back outside to continue playing.

Around noon, Rachel, Lizzy, Evan, Carter and I walked to Clayton.  Noah refused to go so we left him at home.  We stopped by to take a look at the pond and then Evan, Carter and I played football in the fenced-in field.  We let Lizzy off the leash there and she had a great time running around the field as well.

When we came back, Carter and Evan played outside a bit more before Carter's mom came and got him.

Evan got invited to stay over Josh's house tonight.  So after taking it easy in the afternoon, I took Mr. Social over to Josh's.  Tomorrow they plan to go to a pond to fish.  Evan has a fishing pole he got from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen so he brought it to Josh's.

Since Noah was without Evan, he got to choose what we would do tonight.  He chose to go to Genghis Grill and eat.  After that, we walked across the parking lot and went to Cafe Monet.  Cafe Monet is one of those places where you paint pottery.  Noah painted a cat bowl for Calvin.

We stopped at HEB on the way home.

Noah is about to go to bed soon.  In the morning, he and Rachel are running the Race for the Cure.

Until next time...

Lots of Friends

This morning we walked to school and then Morry and I stopped at Grandma and Papa's house to get the mail.

I did some cleaning around the house and then went for a run.  I ran to Wholy Bagel and Morry met me there.

After lunch, I rode back home with Morry.

We walked to get the kids from school.

Around 4pm Evan's friend Carter came over to spend the night.  At 5pm I dropped Noah off at a birthday party.

We ordered pizza, ate, and the Morry went to pick up Noah from the party.

For dessert we all went to TCBY.

The boys are ready for bed now and in the game room about to watch a movie.

Walking

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning as we were getting ready to go, Evan walked by the front door and saw Grandma and Papa outside.  They were on their morning walk and decided to check to see if we had left yet to walk the boys to school.  They joined us on the walk.

When we got home, Rachel left to go on a hike with Deborah and two other women.  She said it was a nice hike.

I had a meeting with Your Trainer today about building an Apple TV app.

Jack walked home with us after school because Rachel was going to be tutoring him.

I had to run out and meet Carter's grandmother to get him.  She had to take Carter's brother, Ben, to his baseball practice.  I brought Carter back to our house while Evan got ready for practice.  Then Evan, Carter, and I drove to pick up Darius.

Rachel had to leave to tutor so she dropped Noah off at Grandma and Papa's.  He ate dinner with them and helped them unpack.  He seemed to have a really good time.

Baseball practice went really well.  Evan just keeps getting better and better at third base.  He made two really nice plays there today.  He also pitched and hit well.

Evan, Rachel and I had leftovers for dinner.

The boys are asleep and I'm about to go to bed myself.

Until next time...

The Belkin Athletes

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Evan had his first flag football game of the season.  His team is the Raiders.  I have to tell you, it is very hard for me to root for the Raiders.  I just yell "come on guys!"  Evan is in the third and fourth grade league and his team is all third graders.  The other team today was all fourth graders and they were pretty big.  It made a difference and the other team was able to win.  But Evan had a great play in the second half.  He was covering a boy who was much bigger and the quarterback threw to him.  Evan cut in front of the boy dove and knocked the ball away and then somehow taking the kid out.  The boys was laying on the field crying and Evan got up and went over to him and checked on him and then tried to pull him to his feet.

After the game, Evan and I went with the two other families to Maudie's for lunch.  These are families of boys that Evan has played many sports and teams with.  It was Evan and Darius and Carter and Carter's older brother Ben.  They were really excited to be with each other.  When we got to Maudie's all four boys went to the bathroom together.  But somehow, only Evan, Darius, Ben came out and as they walked back to us they had big grins on.  Apparently Ben was messing with Carter in the bathroom and they all thought it was funny.  Carter was all right and he was smiling when he came out.  After lunch, Darius' dad Daniel bought ice cream for the boys.

When Evan and I got home, we picked up Noah to go to Noah's baseball game.  I had promised Noah last night that we could go to Smoothie King on the way.

Noah had a very good game.  He struck out in his first at bat.  In his second at bat he hit a hard grounder to third and then took second on the overthrow.  In his third at bat, he didn't get much of a ball but he put it down the third base line in between the foul line, the pitcher, the catcher and third base.  No one went to get the ball so I sent Noah to second base.  What ever player picked it up threw so wildly to second that it went into the middle of the outfield and Noah came all the way around to score.  Everyone was cheering for Noah.  He played pitcher quite a bit because he makes great throws to first base.  He stopped a shot in the fourth inning and threw just a tad late to get the boy.  Noah's team lost in a walk off so Noah was upset but he did well and should be proud of himself.

We came home and had dinner.

The boys are in their rooms.

Until next time...