Closing up May 2009

It's hard to believe May is already over. It was definitely a full weekend of fun.
Friday night was the boys' baseball team party at the local summer league park, then a gang of us went out for dinner. Saturday night, the same gang of us went for dinner....and then bowling. Yes bowling. If you haven't been bowling in a while, trust me; it is NOTHING like Wii bowling. Between all of us, we have 7 boys -- no daughters. And after seeing the parade of hoochies filing into the bowling alley as we were leaving, we decided we are all glad we do NOT have daughters!
Check out the picture in the top right corner--IV is the only person I know that can get a gutter ball WITH the bumpers up!


Sunday night, we had the little league year end party at the Batting Center. The kids had a GREAT time and Spencer decided that this is where he wants his birthday party this year. We had pizza, snacks, cake, ice cream, cookies, sodas and unlimited tokens to the pitching machines. Mid way through the party some of the parents gave it a whirl, too. I hadn't held a bat in who knows how many years, but after the first four pitches it was addictive. We spent the rest of the evening standing in line with the kids! Between the bowling and the approximately 120 swings in the cage--I have a blister on my thumb- but had a fantastic weekend with my kiddo.


Check out the trophies the kids received. They got the normal generic trophies from the YMCA plus the coaches got each kid a big trophy, engraved with name, team record, etc. The trophy holds a baseball--which the coaches had each teammate autograph the balls. The head coach and his wife also gave color prints of a team picture and action shots they had taken throughout the season. This was by far the best group of coaches and parents we have met!

Mom's ACTUAL Birthday

Mom, Dee, Brenda M. and I went out for dinner and a movie tonight to celebrate her birthday. Dinner and drinks at Phoenix Asian (Plum Wine...MMM!) and then we saw Angels and Demons. Notice, one of her gifts from me says, "To Mom and Cass From Cass." I gave her 2 season tickets to the local theater. But she has to take me :-)

A&D was one of my favorite books. In the book, it would take 20 pages to break down a cryptic clue, but in the movie, Tom Hanks would say, "The Angel is pointing thatta way!" and Tada!....oh well. It was still pretty good.
One thing is for sure. The pontiffs have nothing on the baddest of the pimp daddies. Seriously, who else gets buried in kicking, red boots?

Happy Birthday Nana

We went out to eat with Nana tonight to celebrate her birthday a day early since the guys are going camping tomorrow. Nana looks good for 79 doesn't she? :giggle:

Cherry Pickers

The cherry tree is ripe. It's us against the birds--and with the help of some Guantánamo Bay strength netting, the birds lost this year. Spencer and I had our fill this afternoon of ripe cherries....bring on the tummy aches...it was TOTALLY worth it!

Muck Night

click on the collage to enlarge the pictures

Tonight was the Children's Spring performance at church. Spencer and IV had a great time performing their "Imagine God" songs/skits. I have worked as the craft teacher with the kids over the past few months so their butterflies, rocks animals and stoles were on display tonight, too. Very cute!

After the performance, the youth group hosted a "muck night" cast party for the children. Raw egg tosses, chocolate balloon throws, jell-o shoe races, bobbing for gummy worms in whipped cream, wading through muck and picking up grapes with their toes....it was quite an evening. They LITERALLY hosed the kids down at the end of the evening. Spencer and IV both said this was their favorite night EVER at church!

Slugger

Big props to Little IV-- he hit his first home run today! (Last game of the season and the last scoring run to end with a win!) Way to go!

Rock & Roll

Girls Night Out tonight-- MAC counter for makeup, SOMA for a panty raid, then Mexican for Margaritas before a few hours of laughs at Jennifer's house. Laura brought chocolate covered strawberries, Jennifer brought the Bud Light Lime and Jennie brought back the phrase "Rock and Roll"--once hip for parties in the 80's and can now be dropped in the presence of dignitaries...and quite possibly worked into her upcoming wedding vows.
We laughed until our sides hurt...and Jennie snorted. Perfect hoochie evening!

C.A.R.E.

Today was Spencer's C.A.R.E graduation. CARE is a program the local police department (through United Way) does for all second graders-- I'm not sure how long the program lasts, maybe a few weeks?-- but it is Child Abuse Reduction Effort. It teaches children when to report abuse, inappropriate activity, identify trusted adults in their life and how to get help if needed.
This is the kind of thing that I thought really wasn't that "big" of a deal, but Spencer talked NON-STOP about this special day, sprang out of bed this morning, practiced his special songs all morning and after the program I know he asked me at least 15 times if I was proud of him.
Being that he REALLY felt this graduation was an accomplishment, I played it up and promised a Pokemon celebration and he gets to choose dinner out!
The program is awesome, the police department goes over and beyond to work with the kids and establish trust and I have nothing but kudos for the learning solution ....but that damn mascot is just lame. I guess budget cuts had to hit somewhere??

Happy Mother's Day 2009

Happy Mother's Day! Spencer woke me up with presents and a rose. He was so cute-all excited about the gifts he had made for me! After he got ready, I loaded up a grocery bag with his presents and he ran over to Nana's house with gifts for her, Aunt Ann and JJ!
Later this evening, we had a big family cookout. The rest of the day was spent lounging around and trying to get rid of this nasty cold I woke up with!

And the crowd goes wild.....

This weekend was Spencer and IV's first ever Hip Hop recital.
Oh. My. Goodness!
They were beyond adorable. The crowd went crazy when the all boys hip hop group took the stage! In a recital of girls in pink tutu's, a stage of tough little boys in street clothes breaking it down to old school *NSYNC was a surprise to the audience-- and they cheered loudly!!


They put the boys in all three shows. We had a Friday night show, a Saturday matinee and then a Saturday night show. By Saturday night, the boys were free-styling like pros and definitely put on a show.



Typical IV...during his free-style, he lost his shoe. The crowd roared in laughter. I almost missed Spencer's free-style because I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. Poor IV stopped mid spin--the look on his face was priceless--then he plops down and puts his shoe back on!! The entire auditorium was cracking up!


I think we laughed the entire day. The little kids are a hoot. There is always the one little ballerina that cries the entire time--I have no idea why that cracks me up but it does. And if they are holding a tissue on stage to mop their tears, I will bust a gut. I swear. During a little hula routine tonight, one little girl had total stage fright and was just standing there staring off. The little girl next to her danced over and stuck her finger in the other girl's belly button and then laughed like a hyena, then went back to dancing. I about peed my pants. Oh and don't even talk about when one of the grown ups falls down on stage-- I get in big trouble for laughing. (mom) I have to text my smartass comments to my brother/friends during the show because I am laughing/crying too hard.

Okay, back to the serious stuff. Spencer and IV received trophies- which they thought was AWESOME. It seems like half the school was up there. Everyone was giving me and Laura a hard time about not being in the recital...uhmmm, yeah, remember all the laughing and texting??? that was us! And that's why we didn't want to be in the recital!
Spencer and IV adore their teacher Ms. Bethany. They love that she was on So You Think You Can Dance--that makes her cool. I think putting up with the all boys hip hop class while pregnant makes her cool. Oh and she also teaches the class that Laura and I take-- but we are perfect angels!
Originally, we signed the boys up for this hip hop class because we thought it would be fun, good exercise and something different for them. We had no idea they would actually be good at it! Well, assuming their shoes stay on....

Very Punny

I get it now.
All the Star Wars emails and "specials" and hoopla today....I didn't "get it" until just now. (Thanks to Tina Fey)
May the 4th be with you.

Totally Boss!

Yep-- camera phone concert pics suck...but these are all I have from tonight's Bruce Springsteen concert.
First of all, The Boss is fine as hell. I'd like to see him nekkid. Yeah, I know he is old enough to be my dad....but still... that man has it going on.
Second, his voice is still amazing. Other concerts I have been to lately (like Motley Crue) sounded like crap because they have aged hard, but not Bruce.
Third, his set is simple. No pyrotechnics. No stage design. No background screens-- nothing but the band. The most elaborate thing on the stage is the fancy chair for Clarence to sit in. That dude was standing up on sheer will, vicodin and maybe some weed. He could barely shake the tambourine. He had a surrogate sax player for 90% of the time. But the crowd still loves him!
Lastly, this was probably one of the better concerts I have ever attended. And not *just* because the tickets were free, we were in the luxury box, and the parking was free.... But because the crowd was fun, no one was rude or gross, the crowds were laughing and not shoving--everyone was having a blast. It was probably the most civil event I have ever attended at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Oh and that is me and Dee in the picture collage. I guess we should have asked someone else to take our picture, or tried earlier in the evening or whatever-- but we decided this was the BEST picture EVER of us-- so we kept it.