Yet another long day

This morning we walked to school.  Then, Morry and I went to Camp Gladiator.

After Camp Gladiator, I tutored.

Then, I went to a grand opening of a blow dry salon (Drybar) that I was invited to as a blogger.  I got my hair done and met the owner of the business.  This is the 75th location she has opened.

Then, I had to stop at Sprinkles (the cupcake place) since it was on the walk back to the car.  I bought a few cupcakes to bring home for us to try.

There was a lot of traffic and it took a while to get home.

Morry had a dentist appointment and got home a little bit before I did.

Then, we walked to pick up the kids from school.

We were home for about an hour and then we went to the Toyota dealership to look at some cars.

We ate at Freebirds for dinner.

Now the kids are getting ready for bed.

Noah's Birthday

Today was Noah's actual birthday.  9 years old!

We walked to school with Lizzy this morning.

I went to Camp Gladiator.  Morry couldn't go since he had a meeting at that time.

After Camp Gladiator, I ran a few errands including Sams Club to pick up cupcakes for Noah's class.

Morry and I went to Noah's lunch at school and passed out cupcakes at the end to his classmates.

This afternoon we walked to pick up the kids.

Evan had baseball and I had tutoring.

Once everyone was home again, we picked up Grandma and Papa and went to dinner at Buffet Palace - Noah's birthday choice.

Now, the boys are getting ready for bed.

Here are some pictures from today.

Rockies - Game 1

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Noah seemed very tired when I got him up this morning.  In fact, after I got him dressed he wouldn't come downstairs with me.  I checked on him a few minutes later and he was sleeping on his floor.  Once we got him going he was fine.

Rachel ran to Sam's Club to get cupcakes for Noah's Birthday.  We're going to go to his school tomorrow and bring cupcakes for his classmates.  He's got a game in the evening and we'll bring cupcakes for his teammates.

I had to run to a quick meeting while Rachel was doing that.

Before Rachel went to tutoring, she found a new Roomba for sale on craigslist.  After two years of running daily and sometimes multiple times per day, our Roomba broke down.  Rachel met an older gentleman and got a newer model of Roomba.

I picked the boys up from school and we walked home.

Noah's team had their first game tonight.  Noah, Evan and I went over to the fields early and I worked with the kids on hitting for warm ups.  Noah played very well in the game.  In the first inning he really hit the ball hard, right back up the middle into center field.  Two runs scored from his hit.  I had him as pitcher in the first inning and he fielded several balls though they didn't turn into outs.  The next time up, he hit another ball into the outfield and knocked in two more runs.  Later in the game he played shortstop and fielded several balls cleanly.  It was one of the best games I've seen him play.   And the big thing is that he looked like he had fun doing it. Unfortunately, we lost.  The team played well though.

One of Evan and Noah's old coaches, Troy, was coaching in the game after us.  It was good to see him.  Evan and Noah both said hi to him.

We came home had dinners, the boys then had showers and now they are in bed.

Until next time...

Cupcakes!

This morning we hung out at home. 

Around noon we met Morry at Hey Cupcake and we got a tour of the bakery.  We saw very large mixers, huge canisters of sprinkles, and huge containers of icing.  They even gave us a few cupcakes to bring home with us.  The boys enjoyed that.

For dinner we had corned beef and potatoes.  Evan didn't eat the corned beef, but he ate leftover salmon. 

We took a walk and now the boys are watching some of the Steelers pre-season game.

Noah Bear is 5!

Today is Noah's 5th birthday.  Noah has been really exited about his birthday.  He was in a great mood this morning and couldn't wait to get to school.

After I dropped him off I went to a therapy massage, then to Walmart to get a pinata, and Sams Club to get cupcakes.

I came to Noah's class after lunch with cupcakes and little sherbet cups for the kids.

Noah and I came home for a little bit.  He enjoyed filling the pinata with candy.

Gabby came over and I left to tutor.

When Morry got home he shortly left with the boys to go to Noah's baseball game.

I met them at Noah's game after my tutoring.

Noah had a good game.  They won.  After the game we passed out baseball cupcakes to the kids and had them hit the pinata.

From there, we went Logan's Roadhouse for dinner.   That was Noah's choice.  The kids were good at dinner.

At home, Noah and Evan opened presents, since the ones we had were for both kids.  They loved all of their gifts.

They are now ready for  bed and in their rooms, but not asleep yet.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie?

Cole came over to our house today. Noah asked me the other day if Cole could come over again. The boys had fun playing together. It was cute.

Cole left around 11am to go to his Little Gym class.

We ate lunch at home and then went to Noah's sports class at the Little Gym. Noah liked playing football today.

On the way home we stopped at HEB. I have been searching for recipes and ways to improve my chocolate chip cookies. I can never get them like the mall cookies. I found this one recipe online called My FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookie. Everyone raved about how good these were. So, there were some things we didn't have in the house and that's why we stopped at HEB. Of course, whenever Noah is with me I end up getting more than I planned. We also came home with cupcake mix, blueberry muffin mix, and some oreo cake mix.

We walked to get Evan from school. This time I brought the stroller and it worked out a lot better. I would prefer that Noah walk, but he gets so cranky.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today. I made the batter for the chocolate chip cookies. They suggest leaving it in the fridge for 24 hours. You can make cookie dough and not try a little, right? So I made just a few of the cookies today. They were good. I'm looking forward to seeing the difference tomorrow after the dough has been chilled.

For dinner we had cheese and ground beef foldovers.

I made the cupcakes for dessert.

Now, it's time to get the boys ready for bed.

Cranky Boys

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The day began early for a Saturday as Rachel got up before 7 to meet some women to go running. She did a 5-mile run which is pretty impressive. It was cool for Austin this morning which helped, I'm sure.

Noah got up at 7:30 but I left him in his room. Evan got up at 8am and let Noah out and then the two came into my room. They got up in bed with me and I put Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on for them. Rachel came home shortly thereafter.

We had a birthday party to go to for a friend of Evan's. It was a pool party. It started at 10 and Rachel had a baby shower to go to at 11. She said she'd show up a bit late to that and help me out longer at the party. Evan seemed to be the only boy his age that couldn't swim without the aid of floaties or a life jacket. Ironically he was the only one who consistently wanted to be in the pool. The other kids were using a blow up water slide not attached to the pool. Rachel and I were the only parents in the pool helping Noah and Evan. When Rachel left, we got the kids out of the pool because I couldn't hold them both at the same time. That started the crankiness. Then they served cupcakes. Evan ate his fine but Noah said he wanted one. But then he wouldn't eat it, so I gave it to another kid who wanted a chocolate one. Noah, of course threw a fit, even though he wasn't going to eat it. So then I gave him mine but he still didn't want to eat it but he didn't want me to eat it. Then he wanted grapes but he wouldn't eat them and wouldn't let me eat them. He insisted on having me hold him but he was crying and just being plain miserable. He wanted a juice box but then he didn't want a juice box. I couldn't put him down for even half a second. Then Evan decided the other boys weren't sharing toys with him although the birthday boy was simply opening up the presents. No one was playing or sharing anything. I think it stemmed from the fact that Evan wanted the present that we gave to the boy and he wanted to play with that. So Evan just stood and cried. I said "we're leaving" but then Evan's friend called him over to come play which made him happy. When it was time to leave the father of the birthday boy helped me get everything out to the car since the boys were of no help. I didn't talk to any adults the whole time.

We came home and had lunch, and of course, the boys were in fine moods at home. Rachel came home from the shower and we put Noah down for a nap.

Evan and I watched the Little League World Series. I asked him if he wanted to play in the LLWS and he said no, he wanted to play for the Pirates. I said he can do both and he said no, he just wanted to play for the Pirates. Later he said he wanted to play for the Pirates, Rangers and Steelers.

For dinner, Rachel and I went and picked up Chipotle for us and made dinner here for the boys.

They're in bed now.

Until next time...

Shmevan pays another visit

This morning we didn’t get to school until about 10am. Evan threw another fit and again I had to take him to school in his pajamas. He told me he was sick and didn’t want to get anyone else sick. He kept crying that he didn’t want to go to school. I took his temperature and it was normal. I was barely able to get Evan buckled in his car seat. When we got to school I had to run to drop Noah off and then come back to the car to get Evan out. He was kicking and screaming. In the classroom both Evan and Noah were crying. I think Noah was just reacting to Evan and wanted me to hold him, but I was trying to deal with Evan. They had to get the director of the school to come in and help. It was really embarrassing. Noah and I tried to get out the door once, but Evan ran after us. A second time, Noah and I were able to get in the hallway while Evan stayed in the room. We hung out in the hallway for a while until Evan’s teacher told us Evan had calmed down some.

The plan was to celebrate Evan’s birthday at school today. I told him that, but he still didn’t want to go to school.

After dropping Evan off at school Noah and I went to HEB to get groceries and cupcakes for Evan’s birthday. By the time I got home and put the groceries it was time to go back to Evan’s school.

Morry met us at school. Evan was in a good mood when we got there and enjoyed having everyone sing to him. Both Evan and Noah only ate the icing off the cupcakes. We stayed for a little while at school and then I had Morry help me get both boys into the car.

When we got home Evan and Noah played outside while I was finally able to make myself something to eat. I was hungry after dealing with everything this morning and not having had anything to eat yet.

This morning really wore me out and I took a nap while Noah napped and Evan played in the game room.

For dinner we had burritos and made extra for dinner tomorrow night.

After dinner we cleaned up and folded laundry while the boys played.

We just gave Evan and Noah showers and put them to bed. I’m hoping tomorrow will be better than today.

Another school day and Another Bedtime fight

This morning Evan was up early again and Morry got him breakfast and a movie in the gameroom.

At 9:00 Noah and I took Evan to school.

At home, I just did a lot of cleaning and laundry – well, the best I could with Noah getting into trouble. I was putting clothes in the dryer I heard Noah say, “Uh oh” over and over. I went to see what he was talking about. There were cherry tomatoes all over the kitchen floor, some of which were squished. He must have opened the refrigerator (like he does 100 times a day) and pulled out the container of tomatoes.

After lunch we picked Evan up from school. Evan seemed to have a good day. He told me it was Benjamin’s birthday and they had cupcakes with candy (sprinkles) on them.

Evan and Noah took good naps.

I got dinner ready so we could eat pretty soon after Morry got home. We had crock pot ribs and potatoes.

After dinner we went to HEB to pick up a few groceries.

We just gave the boys baths and put them to bed. Evan is still fighting it. He’s in the hallway crying right now. Noah is still making noise too. I’m sure Evan’s keeping him up.

Evan’s Birthday Celebration at School

Last night I baked cupcakes (from a mix) and put them in Cars baking cups. Morry and I tried one last night. It tasted good, but stuck to the cup a little bit. I decided to pick up cupcakes in the morning from HEB in case the kids got frustrated with the cupcakes sticking.

Anyway, this morning after dropping Evan off at school Noah and I went to HEB to get cupcakes. I bought 2 dozen mini cupcakes.

Noah and I came home and I tried to get some stuff done around the house. Noah was being cranky and not letting me do anything. I tried to put him down for a nap, but he wouldn’t sleep.

At 12:30 Morry met us at Evan’s school to celebrate Evan’s birthday. We got there as the kids were finishing lunch. All of them were sitting and eating their lunch. We were very impressed at how well behaved all of them were. When it was time to clean up Evan actually cleaned up!

After they cleaned up we passed out the cupcakes. We let the kids pick which one they wanted. Some picked the ones I made, other chose the HEB ones. Many kids even had seconds. We gave Noah a cupcake. He stood up at the table next to Evan to eat it. He made a pretty big mess.

After cupcakes, the kids played until it was time for pickup. Noah fit right in. He was on the floor playing with all the other kids and having a great time. Right before pickup the kids played with bubbles and then sat on the floor for a few songs. It was cute watching Evan do all the gestures that went along with the songs and the Bear Hunt.

We got home, and Blanca came over for about an hour. I cleaned the house and got stuff ready for Evan’s party.

Blanca left and Evan and Noah went down for naps around 2:30. Noah napped, but Evan did not. Evan just played in his room. I was exhausted from all the cleaning and running around. I took a short nap while Evan stayed in his room playing.

For dinner we had flank steak marinated in Soy Vey and a pasta side.

After dinner we went to Target to get more stuff for Evan’s party and a few other things we needed for the house.

We gave the boys baths and now they are in bed. It seems quiet.