Happy Birthday, Carson!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, stylish peanut, Carson!!! He turned 5 this past week.

This was the outfit he picked out to wear to school. Cool sparkly blue glasses, a Happy Birthday sash and, a Birthday pen. Lol. He sure does know how to make us smile.

Weekly Portrait Project {Week 9}

Weekly Portrait Project is something we have started to hopefully keep up for the boys until they graduate. We will post a favorite picture of each of the boys once a week!


We'll it seems as though weekly has become monthly around here. We have been so busy with school, sports and, family time I haven't been taking as many pictures of the boys as I have been able to in the past. Hopefully, I can make some more time!

My youngest got glasses and he is loving them. He says they make him look smart. He has also been picking his own clothes out for school. He absolutely loves ties, dress clothes, and boots!!

My oldest has been having so much fun with his baseball friends. He had a couple snag ups lately where he was struggling with his confidence but he's getting it back up and doing better.

I sure do love these two boys!!

 

Weekly Portrait Project {Week 8} Where has September gone?!?

Weekly Portrait Project is something we have started to hopefully keep up for the boys until they graduate. We will post a favorite picture of each of the boys once a week!

  

We have been so super busy with school and baseball, I haven't even had time to sit down at the computer to update our blog. Hope I can do some new posts soon.

Fall Ball Time!!

As most of you all know we love sports and outside activities. This season Conner will be playing fall baseball. We decided that all the running around from game to game for the boys both playing last Spring was a little much for us. We decided only Conner would do baseball for the fall. Carson was a little upset but, when we explained to him that it would give him more time to play with friends on the playground at games he was a little more excited.

Conner had his 1st scrimmage of the season and, he did great. He is still struggling with using the right size bat for him. He keeps choosing tee-ball size bats because he's more comfortable with them. Yet, it hinders his hitting because the bat is so short and small for him. We're hoping more batting practice at home and the cages will help this.

He played pitcher and catcher this weekend, both are his favorite positions. Even though they do not pitch he still plays next to the mound. He seems to do really well at that position. It gets a lot of play there and he doesn't get bored. As far as catching goes, he still needs to gain the confidence of making the decision of when to get the ball. He is still learning the rules of the position.

He is with the same team as last season and a lot of the same players. He really gets along with everyone on the team and they have built great friendships.

We really look forward to seeing him learn and grow more this season so he can be ready for Spring. He has 2 more seasons of Machine Pitch before he heads off to kid pitch!!

Here's a couple fun pictures from the weekend scrimmage. 

 

Park Quest #9: Ft. Frederick State Park

Ft. Frederick State Park is a favorite of ours. In the past we've seen some really cool events going on there.

This visit was no different. After a quick check in at the visitor's center we received our packet and we were on our way for a short hike around the park. While we were there, there was a living demonstration taking place. It was pretty cool to hear drums and music playing, hearing soldiers marching and, shooting muskets and cannons in the background. The boys enjoyed finding the black powder packets in the field that the soldiers left behind.

 Once we were done our walk around the park and learned about the history of some of the soldiers in the past, we visited the fort.

 

 
We visited the bunks were the soldiers slept and, saw a soldier fire off a musket. The boys really enjoyed that! 

Park Quest #8: Swallow Falls State Park

Day 2 of our 2 day 1 night stay in Western Maryland started with a stop at Swallow Falls State Park.  SFSP has always been one of my favorite SP's we have visited in the past. It is so beautiful and a wonderful background for pictures.

We were a little sad that it was pouring down raining when we arrived but since we didn't have much time to hang around we decided to go anyway. One positive to the rain...we were one of the very few families that were there. 

We checked in at SFSP store and got our packets and were on our way.  The ques was a short hike to all the falls and learning about the Hemlock trees (some that were over 300 yrs old) and, Super storm Sandy and the effect it had on the park. Wow, we were shocked at how much our favorite place had changed due to the storm. Tons of downed trees and blocked areas. 

We were also so shocked to see once we hiked to the 53 feet Muddy Creek Falls how angry it was. Last year when we visited we were able to play on top of the falls and walk back to a bridge behind the falls. This year as we were walking up it was so loud and huge. We were getting splashed on our way up. At the top there was no way any of us would be able to walk across the top. The water was moving so fast it would of swept any one of us down the falls. I am sure this had a lot to do with the amount of rain they were getting.

Even though we got extremely wet it was still a fun and beautiful quest.

Park Quest #7: Deep Creek State Park

Our last stop on Day 1 on our Western Maryland trip was at Deep Creek State Park. We decided this is where we wanted to stay over night since it was sort of in the middle of all the parks we were visiting.

Once we had arrived we visited the Nature Center like out Park Quest booklet instructed us to do. Once we received our packet we were on our way on a short walk that started in the basement of the Nature Center.  The boys learned about Smokey the Bear and Wildfires. On our short walk around Deep Creek we learned different way to prevent wildfires, how Deep Creek prevents wildfires, Took a turn putting out a pretend fire and, visited a brush fire truck. 

This was one of the boys favorites of the trip. After we finished our quest we check in at the visitor's center to grab our info where we'd be staying.

The boys were shocked and excited to see where we were staying!!!

A Yurt!

After we got unpacked and beds made up we headed back down to the Nature Center for a little fishing. After we cleaned up from fishing we headed out for dinner at Uno's. The boys were exhausted and very hungry. After dinner we headed back to our Yurt. Because of the rain we were unable to play outside so we enjoyed unwinding with a video.