Somebody LOVES soccer

Watching the under 6 soccer division teams play can only be described as comical, but I'm pretty confident that there is no one in that entire enormous soccer field complex who has more fun than my Kaeden.  I sure do love his smile :)  

Apple Festival

Our family loves to pick our own fruit.  We've been picking blueberries with Ryan since he was 2 months old.  Having grown up in New England, I have fond memories of apple picking, but I've never been able to find an orchard close enough to us to make it worth the trip.  So until today, my boys had never been apple picking.  But this week I heard about a place a little less than an hour from us, and since the rain decided to hold off today, we made a last-minute decision to go.  I'm so glad we did, because everybody had a blast!  

As evidenced by the number of photos, the overall highlight was probably the tire swings.  They certainly took up the majority of our time! 

Since there weren't always multiple swings available, the boys figured out how to ride two at a time.  It was really sweet to see their faces enjoying the thrill together.

There was also a pile of hay for the kids to climb on.  Ethan enjoyed throwing hay and jumping around for a while.

 Of course, the primary purpose of the trip was to actually pick apples.  We took a hay ride over to the orchard and had to wait a bit.  Perfect photo opp, except that Kaeden was not in the mood to cooperate.  Apparently, neither were Ethan and Ryan at first, but they warmed up :)

Then, it was apple picking time!  It was a fairly small orchard, so they had a limit on how many each family could pick, but that was okay.  The boys still enjoyed it in spite of Mason & I yelling repeatedly, "Wait!  Don't pick that one - it has a rotten spot!" etc :)  

Early on, the boys heard about a pie eating contest, and Ryan got it in his head that he just had to participate.  So, even though it wasn't until a few hours later, we signed the boys up and found a diner for lunch and then came back for the contest.  It was hilarious.  There was a junior division, so it was all kids, and they each got a piece of pie.  Whoever finished the whole thing first won.  Ryan was feeling pretty confident (and he actually did a surprisingly efficient job) but there were some older boys who finished first.  I think they all had fun, and hey - they got a free piece of pie out of it, so who can complain!?!

All that fun sure can tire a boy out.  Just be sure you have a book to snuggle, though :)

7 years (and 3+ months)

This one blog post is evidence of how quickly time goes by.  I really didn't think I was that far behind on Ryan's birthday update until I started counting the months.  

So, way back in May, Ryan turned 7.

He continues to grow up and mature in wonderful, surprising ways.  He is still very much a kid, but more and more I see evidence of him leaving some of his childishness behind.  

Ryan continues to flourish in his role as the oldest in the family.  He is patient and sweet to his younger brothers and cousins (most of the time), and they very much look up to him.  He rather likes being looked up to too :)  He is also a big help to me.  Just last week, I was upstairs getting something out of the attic, and when I came down, Ryan was sitting in the bathroom reading to Ethan as he sat on the potty.  

Cuddles for Ethan

Checking out the river with Kaeden

These three are such sweet buddies

We've really enjoyed hiking together this past year!

Sweet cousins

School has continued to go very well for Ryan.  He started 2nd grade in July (seriously... time is flying) and has enjoyed getting to know his new teacher and classmates.  His best friend from kindergarten and first grade is not in his class this year, which has been a disappointment, but Ryan has handled it very well.  He continues to surprise us with his social nature and really seems to like making new friends in addition to the old :)

Ryan with his best bud Aiden in 1st grade

Ryan has learned to love reading on his own... finally!  It took him a while, even after he was reading fluently, to want to read to himself.  But now it is one of his favorite things to do.  I am thrilled, even when it means I have to get right in his face to get his attention because he's off in book land.  He really loved reading the Geronimo Stilton Kingdom of Fantasy books.  Some other current favorites are the Imagination Station series, Roald Dahl books (James and the Giant Peach and Matilda so far), Lego Ninjago (ugh), and of course Pokemon (double ugh).

Ryan hasn't really latched on to a sport, although he's tried a number of things and enjoyed them all fine.  He played both soccer and baseball last year.  This year, he's holding out for basketball, although he tried tennis at Ampersand and is sort of interested in that too.  He loves to swim, but he doesn't like swimming lessons because he's afraid of the jets in the pool.  Sigh. :)

Playing baseball this spring

Some of Ryan's favorite things as a seven-year-old are: playing with friends, building forts/hide-outs (inside and out), reading, swimming, building with Legos, collecting and learning about gemstones, and video games (especially when Daddy is playing with him). 

Some highlights from the past year: 

Ryan has lost three teeth so far... one of them twice!  He fell last summer and his tooth popped out, but we didn't realize that part of it was left in his gums.  So, eventually he had to have it pulled out.  He handled it like a champ, and we went out to frozen yogurt as a reward.

We started our first (hope-to-be annual) Christmas season viewing of "Elf," just the two of us.  Any time we get to do something one-on-one with any of the boys, it is very special, but this was an extra fun one for me.  We stayed up late, ate popcorn and M&Ms, and cracked up together at one of my favorite movies.  Good times, especially in the midst of the crazy holiday season.

We had an unusually snowy winter, and Ryan had lots of fun playing in the snow:

Like I said, we've been doing quite a bit of hiking now that Ethan is old enough to walk on his own most of the time.  We have loved exploring the trails nearby, and Ryan especially likes finding big rocks to climb on.

This spring/summer, we've been to two magic shows at our local library as well as the circus at Nana & Papa's house.  Ryan LOVED them all!

Mesmerized by the circus

Ryan, I love your sweet, sensitive spirit and your fun, people loving personality.  I am so proud of the  way that you care for others and grateful that you still like to give your mama hugs and kisses.  And every night that I put you to bed and you want to just lay down and talk instead of reading a book?  It melts my heart, even if you are just doing it so that I'll scratch your back :)  

I'm back!

I cannot believe that it has been 7 months since I have blogged.  Sometimes I get too busy living life to document it.  And then it gets super overwhelming to even think about where to begin.  But I love having this record of the boys and what life is like as they're growing up, so I don't want to give up.  I'm back, and I'm going to try to catch up a bit on 2015... as much as I can.  I'll back date posts so that events are in chronological order, but I'll try to post the links here as they go up.


7/20 - Cooking Camp
7/18 - Kaeden-Mommy date
7/18 - Mommy camp

Cooking camp

Kaeden has always loved baking with me.  I call him my sous-chef, and he's really a big help (as long as it's just the two of us and he's not fighting with siblings for his spot).

A couple of months ago, I signed him up for baking camp, and he has been looking forward to it ever since.  Last week finally came, and "cooking camp" lived up to its expectations.  It doesn't hurt that they baked 3 different treats every day and got to sample them all at camp.  Needless to say, Kaeden didn't eat much lunch last week :)

Tasting his Jello cookie - one of the more unique creations, which definitely won it points on Kaeden's scorecard.

The favorite from a taste perspective - chocolate marshmallow cupcakes!

And my little baker in his chef hat and apron.