Cub Scout Popcorn 2010 October 2, 2010

Ok, so we haven’t updated this blog for a loooonnnnggggg time now, but now is the best time to add to it and to tell you all the exciting news about Zane selling popcorn again this year for his Cub Scout pack.

Remember a couple of years ago when you visited and saw Zane throw out his first pitch as a Tiger Scout:

Well after a year off from his video making and with Tessie being a big part of this year’s popcorn campaign, Zane returns this season with a message to kick off Popcorn Season.

If you are in the area you are welcome to contact us if you want to buy any popcorn or Zane will personally come to your house.  How can you say no to Zane’s plea.

In addition, you can also purchase online and it will ship right to your house.  If you choose Zane as your scout, he will reap the rewards.   Here is how you do it:

1. Go to http://www.trails-end.com/
2. On the right side in green it tells you who you are supporting.  It likely says you are supporting no one.  Here is how to select Zane.
3. Click on Change and you can put in Zane’s assigned number:  3390218
4. Start shopping!

Keep on Dancin’ May 14, 2009

Today was a big day for Jace.  Not only did he have his first visit to the dentist (which we hope to post later) but he also had his first dance recital.

At Jace’s preschool they have someone come in from Dance, Dance, Dance once a week to teach dance to the kids.  It is one of those things that lets them have a little fun and great to see how they can move around.   Each week, Jace comes home and talks about having dance and at the end they get a “special stamp” of some kind for doing a good job.

Well tonight we got to see a little performance from those 3-4 year olds.  We were supposed to see something around Christmas time, but it got snowed out and they weren’t able to reschedule it.  So we were pretty excited to see what all he has been doing.  So here is the inaugural performance from Jace:

As expected it took a little to get warmed up, but doesn’t he look cute?  Here is the next song.

Their theme was a Pajama Dance Party and they got to wear pajamas and they all had a little teddy bear that they danced with.  At this point he was really into his dance.  Waking up is hard to do.  Jace shows us that every morning 🙂  :

Then they had their longest performance of the night!

By this time, the little guy next to Jace left to see what his mom was filming.  He was like, “let me see!!”

As they got over the hump and down the back stretch to finish the performance, this is where the dancing gets really exciting.  Not just Jace, but the ones around him as well.  Hilarity ensues.

At this point, I ran out of video.  We have this little cheap video camera we were using and had a bunch of light coming in the windows which made it a little hard to see, but anyway it was a fun time had by all and you could tell Jace had a great time.  He said as he went to bed tonight that he wants to “Keep dancin’ mom and dad”

A Mother and Her Boys May 10, 2009

A year ago for Mother’s Day we started this blog.  The idea behind it was to create memories.  Memories for us, memories for our Boys and memories for our family and friends.  Though we may not have posted as much as we have liked, it has been a great year full of many memories.   Tessie has helped create all of these great memories.

Being a mother is tough enough, but she has taken it so much farther.   Whether it is another OScraps “Challenge” where she continues to become an Adobe Photoshop pro or just uploading to Flickr to share some of these creations with Family and Friends, there is one thing she continues to do and that is love our boys.   She always captures those precious moments.

Each page with the special memory of just going to the park, or losing that first tooth, or encapsulating a summer trip into one page just amazes me.

The first Art Show, the first BB Gun, playing in the snow, reading books or even eating a bowl of cereal.  It is the simple things in life that we remember but yet take for granted.

My wife continues to be one of the strongest people I know and brings out the best in others.  That strength is what helps this family each day.

But what also special to me is that she still has time to keep us all organized, doing different projects and always making sure the boys are taken care of even when she is gone.  She is a great wife and mother and deserves to be honored not only for today on Mother’s Day, but all days.

Thank you Tessie for being a great wife and a great mother.  I look forward to more memories with our boys and continuing to walk down that path together to watch them grow.  Happy Mother’s Day!!

The Kids Say Hi May 5, 2009

While mommy is out of town this week learning great things and having some well deserved away time, the boys and I have been left here to live it up.  Zane had a birthday party on Sunday and then some play time at a friend’s house.  Daddy and Jace missed out on this since Jace was battling a fever.

Since there was no school on Monday, Zane got to go to Old Chicago with his Kids Club crew for a little field trip and got to make their own pizzas for lunch. Jace was at Preschool on Monday fully recovered from his wild weekend.

Tuesday was back to school for Zane.  A beautiful day outside as both the boys got to enjoy the weather and play outside.  It was daddy’s night off from cooking so we went to Culver’s for supper.  The boys ate like it was no tomorrow and totally earned their frozen custard.  Zane was going to get the flavor of the day which was Chocolate Cheesecake (and I hoped to have a bite), but changed his mind to vanilla at the last minute.   Jace ate his Chocolate like usual and was a delight to clean after he was done.  I guess daddy should have got his own custard.  Doh!

But they wanted to talk to their mommy.  Since mommy has missed out hearing Zane read this week, Zane decided to read a book to her to watch!

Jace wanted to say hi as well.  You can tell he really loves mom.    Kisses and all.

e just wanted to tell mommy that we love her and that we are excitedly waiting for her arrival home later this week.   We are holding the fort down pretty well.

Don’t Shoot Your Eye Out April 20, 2009

Our Easter weekend was an eventful one.  Before we headed back for home, we made a stop at Cabela’s for a special Easter surprise.   Zane got his first gun.  The Red Ryder BB gun that people dream about having, especially that kid from “The Christmas Story.”   His eyes lit up and he announced, “Grandpa is going to show me how to shoot it.”

So we found what we were looking for and headed toward the family farm.

As soon as a we got to Papa and Nana’s house, Zane raced inside to proudly tell them that he got a BB gun and that he was ready to try it out.

We went outside to get things ready while Grandpa got a target setup for us.  Zane carefully took his new Red Ryder out of the box with big eyes.  Of course had to get the safety goggles.  We wouldn’t want him to shoot his eye out.

We had to teach him gun safety to make sure he understood how serious using a gun is.  But he intently listened and let Grandpa do the talking.

After going over the rules, Zane was pumped to try it out.  I loaded BB’s in there and Grandpa showed him how to pump it and hold it and how the view finder worked.  The anticipation of the first shot was going to happen seemed like it would never end.  But as he setup to shoot it, he took his time.   We initially try to set him up to shoot left handed since that is what he is, but that didn’t look the best for him.

So we switched him around to shoot right handed and that looked a lot more natural for him.  He looked, he aimed, and he fired his first shot.

He initially had trouble remembering to put his fingers in the pump area as he wanted to put his fingers under it, but eventually got the hand of holding the BB gun correctly.  He put in several more shots and then had to admire his shooting.

By the time he was done, he looked like a pro out there.  Grandpa even got out a few cans for Zane to shoot at and he was hitting those pretty good too.

Of course, Dad had to get in a few shots.  If anyone knows me, they know I did not grow up with a gun, much less shoot one very often.   But I figure I can shoot a few BB’s now in my 30’s!!

Zane probably put in about 50-75 shots that day.  He was so excited about it that the next day, he had to bring out his other Grandpa to show him how he could shoot it.  A smile ear to ear.    A boy and his gun.  I never would have figured.  That was definitely a fun time.

Where does the time go? February 25, 2009

Wow.  It is amazing that it is almost the end of February 2009 already.   I remember growing up and in my teens wishing I would get older so I could do all these great things, but now I’m to the point where I wish things would slow down a little bit.  I look at the picture above and think that someday those little kids will be like those big kids.  I’m about enjoying the time we have now.

I have been pretty obsessed with college basketball these days so that has kind of kept me from posting on here.  Tessie has been crazy busy working hard on school projects.  Then the boys always keep things interesting and keeps us on our toes.  By the time there is a free moment, it feels good to just go to bed.  By 1AM when you sort of feel like everything is done for the day, it makes for a long day.

Since Tessie is out of town for a couple of days, I feel compelled with a little extra free time to update the blog for our friends and family on what we have been doing the past few weeks since the Pinewood Derby.  Memories have been created and this blog is a way to chronicle these memories.

Luckily we have had a lot of fun at home doing a lot of different things.  Lately the boys have been into different sports and playing all kinds of different things.  The other day the boys got all dressed up in their Nerf outfits and chased each other around with their Nerf shooters.  They were gracious enough to pose for pictures:

Then, one night we were just doing some stuff and we noticed that the boys were all lined up like they were playing football.  Zane would go “Hut, Hut, Hike” and they would tackle each other.  Oh those boys:

Then finally it is on to basketball.  Can you believe we let the boys play all of these sports in the house?

So you could say they are the sports fanatics in the house.  Oh wait, must be wearing off from daddy.  Oh well.  I won’t complain!

Jace has been loving preschool.  He gets there in the mornings and everyone says hi to him and it is like all the kids come over just to give him a hug.  A couple of weeks ago, Jace was the “Star of the Week” where he got to bring pictures of his family and pictures of things he really likes.   He also has a big thing with the letter of the week and making sure he takes something for “Show and Tell” every week that belongs with the letter.  That has included things like a wagon, Elmo, a vacuum, his jump rope, his bug net and several other funny things.

As we got closer to Valentines day, the boys were working hard to get their Valentines ready, Zane for his class and Jace for his preschool.  One night the boys signed all of their Valentines and put candy with them so they were all ready to go.  Jace painted his green like a frog and decorated it with different hearts and frogs.   He concentrates pretty hard when he is working on something:

Zane takes a break while writing his Valentines to his class:

But then came a bit of disappointment.  On the Friday before Valentines day, the boys were supposed to have their Valentine’s parties.  Well we ended up getting 6 inches of snow and school was called off and Zane’s party happened after Valentines Day and Jace’s party happened earlier than expected because of the weather.  It was sort of disappointing, but the Boys enjoyed playing in the snow.  Even Harley the dog had a good time:

But Harley—-“Look out for Zane’s Snowball!”

But, probably the most exciting thing of this past month happened last week.  Zane’s teacher is an assistant coach for the high school’s girl’s basketball team.  As a little project this past month, each of the 1st graders got a pen pal from the girls basketball team.  Some kids got the players as pen pals, others got the other coaches.  They wrote each other letters.  Then at end of the month, it was arranged for all of the kids to be able to attend one of the girl’s basketball games and cheer the teacher’s team on.  They all earned “money” to be able to go to the concession stand to get hot dogs and other special treats.  They even all made signs:

It was so fun to see all 20+ of them sitting together and cheering the team on– “GO TITANS, GO TITANS, GO TITAN.”  The crowd got excited about the kids and they all looked like they had a great time.  Then to cap everything off, after the game was over, the kids were able to take a little time to meet the players from the team and talk with their “Pen Pals.”  Zane was smiles from ear to ear.

It was definitely special and I know everyone really enjoyed this great experience the kids were able to have.  I’m sure it is something that they will remember in the future.   We just want to thank Zane’s teacher for coming up with this great idea and making it all happen.  These are the types of things kids don’t forget.

So that is what has been going on in our household.  Always something to keep us busy.  A lot of great blessings to be able to have all of these great memories while the boys are still young.  They just can’t grow up too fast.    Hopefully we can keep up.  I’m sure our next post will be sooner than later 🙂

Pinewood Derby Day January 25, 2009

Saturday was Zane’s first ever Pinewood Derby race for Scouts.  Let me preface this that when we first took on this project, I was a little worried.  My 12-week wood shop class I took in 8th grade probably wasn’t going to cut it  But Tessie assured me that thngs would go great and that we would “Do Our Best” like the Scouts would say. 

So Zane and the family started on this little project a few weeks ago. 

So first, Zane drew out his design he wanted.  There was one he really liked on the directions so he tried to draw that out on the block of wood. 

Then it was on to the wood working and getting his design all cut out.  Yes, wood cutting in our kitchen!!!  We used the Dremel on this to sort of help on it.  It looked good when they showed us how it was supposed to work at Lowes. I think Tessie had a lot of fun playing with the Dremel. 

Of course Jace couldn’t be left out of this exciting process.  He also picked out his own design which we cut out, but he got to paint it himself using Aunt Ronda’s Crayola paints.  Boy did he love that. 

We also entered his car in the “open” division for family and friends cars.

Zane spray painted his own car earlier in the day (yes we did do this outside), but wanted to add some yellow flames. 

We had everything pretty much ready to go except for the wheels and we worked on that the other night by polishing the axles and wheels to make sure they were nice and smooth and added them to the car.  As you can tell, we were all about safety. 🙂

Finally, it was time for registration the evening before the race.  All of Zane’s den was registered and ready to go for Saturday.  Though we had to add some weight.  We were far below weight, but we didn’t know what to expect.   (Zane’s is the farthest one to the left)

Then came race day.    First to kick things off, Zane’s den did their first Flag Ceremony. 

Zane then put on his game face and was ready to go.  Here was the first run of the day:

 

Zane’s was the one on the far right.  Yeah, we were not the fastest car on the track, but Zane had a great time. 

We kept trying (the car in the back of the pack):

Here is another picture of his car crossing the finish line:

In the end it was all about having a great time and learning a lot about how to make the cars and experience some great times with Zane as he continues to learn so many great things.  He did win the award for “Best Craftsmanship” so he was pretty excited about that.  He definitely worked hard on this and it was a learning experience for all.

Happy New Year January 6, 2009

My theme for the year is blessings. It is hard to remember how lucky we are when life is hectic, the job is stressful, the house is a messy, and there is not enough time this day. However, we have our health, a job that pays the bills, and a roof over our heads (don’t mind that it is in desperate need of a new coat of paint.) We have made it our goal to count our blessings more in 2009. We will be posting our 365 blessings this year. They may be the spectacular events that our boys share with us, but most of them will the ordinary joys that happen day to day that bring a smile to our face. We hope that it brings a smile to all our family an friends and reminds us all to count how lucky we all are. We want to remind everyone to look for the happy moments of every day and just like my mom always said, we need “to stop and smell the roses.” Happy New Year to one and all!

January 1: Today was a day of lounging and snacking as we all recovered from a late night celebrating New Years. The boys were party animals staying up to 2:00 a.m. and Darin has discovered that he is a Guitar Hero on the lead guitar and drums. Go Huskers!

January 2: Looking in my backseat on the way home from the movies, I discover that Zane has fallen asleep. It brings me back to when he was little and we would spend a lot of time together in the car doing errands. He was and still is a great sidekick and by the end would crash on the way home.

January 3: Breakfast in bed. The boys have gotten so independent. They made us breakfast the morning of our anniversary and the last 2 mornings they have taken great pride in making their own breakfast. Jace is getting so independent and growing up more and more each day. Promise me, you boys don’t grow up too fast

January 4: The boys love to build. Here is yet another Boudreau construction creation. It was a pool, a jumping bad, a place to park their cars, etc. The possibilities are endless.

January 5: We finally went to get groceries so the cupboards are no longer bare. Jace was a big helper for daddy as they cam home with several sacks. Of course they got some donuts.

January 6: Zane has a new look. He has lost his top front tooth and looks so cute with the new gap in his smile. I find him sitting and moving his tongue in and out of the new space.

Final Thanks December 21, 2008

December 1:  surprise bling from a friend, a hot shower to start the day, a beautiful pink and lavender sunrise, wrapping a birthday present for a friend, seeing friends after a long break, saving a neglected animal, adrenaline rush, first graders writing independently, showing a new teacher the ropes, finding a pop and snack mix in the car, visiting with a new mom, watching Zane and Jace learn to play marbles at Boy Scouts, the finishing touches on a layout that needed help, time to share a story with my husband, another load of laundry done, Jace recognizing more and more letters, Jace talking to Grandma on the phone, Jace saying, “I’m always your chunky monkey,” watching Zane play a game on the laptop, and time to relax.

December 2:  making a little girl’s day, flags of freedom flying in the air, taking both boys to school, book club with the girls, finishing the book on time, a teacher making progress, a great writing group, boys that care when you are sick, a little extra sleep, writing a piece that brings a friend to tears, Zane getting to prizes from the prize box, and a wonderful husband that is willing to help and pick up the kids when needed.

December 3:  new fallen snow, walking in the snow, donut and Diet Coke, talking with my new Big Sister/Little Sister, a good talk with a friend that is always there, my new car handling well in snow, a warm bath, a little down time, a call from a friend, being appreciated, hot chocolate with the boys, Christmas Tree Little Debbies, a new sweater, watching a show on DVR with Darin.

December 4:  snow flurries falling, a beautiful sunrise, looking at Jace in the rearview mirror smiling back, hearing a song you haven’t heard in awhile, Jace mailing his dance payment by himself, sharing new ideas with the paras, one of our teachers having a new baby boy (everybody is healthy), beautiful pictures of our students, kindergarten students making growth, flexible and willing to roll with the punches, relief from a headache, a chicken calzone, and teaching a friend to digital scrap.

December 5:  a good laugh from a funny forward, a great theater performance, seeing one of your students shine, hanging out with old friends, dinner out with new friends, some alone time with Zane, seeing him all dress-up, and watching him with his friends.

November Thanks

November 24:  overslept, but with a little teamwork, still make it to school on time, donuts for breakfast, Thanksgiving Feast at school for teachers, a little down time in the afternoon, a chance to rest my eyes, found a secret hiding place, field trip to the fire station with Boy Scouts, ice cream treat, scrapbooked a little, Zane read a little harder book tonight, dreamed of being a spy all night, and my sister comes tomorrow.

November 25:  a beautiful fall-like day, planning new ideas for guided reading groups, half a cinnamon crunch bagel in the lounge, teaching second graders novels, modeling for teachers, turkey sandwiches, great discussion on a book, learning from the kids, great new ideas for 1st graders, getting my computer fixed, fountain pop, getting out of the building, great discussion and planning, looking at wedding pictures, Ronda arrives, call from Dad, and dinner at Moe’s with the family.

November 26: hot shower, kisses from the boys, Breakfast from BK, funny video, getting into a doctor quickly, antibiotics, seeing my family at grocery store, a nap, another nap, reading a good boo, seeing my boys and knowing they are being taken care of when I am sick, warm bath, strawberry limeade, friends who care, Dad arriving early and hanging out.

November 27:  feeling better, Ronda and Mason taking charge in the kitchen, delicious smells, clean dishes, clean kitchen, family arrives safely, hugs, all gathered together, not traveling, memories, Macy’s Day parade, football, board games with Grandpa and Nana, going for a walk, Black Friday ads, catching up on to-do list, hanging out and conversation, dessert, leftovers, family pictures, and a phone call to say they made it home safely.

November 28:  Midwest hospitality, too excited to sleep, hanging out with my sister and best friend,  getting great deals, thrill of the hunt, people watching. 10 1/2 hours of shopping, remembering the camera, almost done Christmas shopping, strategic planning, being young at heart, not shopping by yourself, lunch out, a nap, talking with Dad, getting the perfect gift, eating at a family favorite restaurant, a little more shopping, and falling asleep on the couch exhausted after a great day.

November 29:  a hug goodbye, a great visit, Ronda making it home safely, a little time to go online, getting the house back to normal, movie with the boys, popcorn and pop, quiet time, cuddling on the couch, getting new ornaments, continuing a tradition, and your baby (who is not a baby any more) falling asleep in your arms.

November 30:  a blanket of new fallen snow, cinnamon rolls, reading a book together, creative juices flowing, time to scrap, an afternoon nap, putting up the Christmas tress, Zane’s excitement, Jace’s interest, a freaky fast drive through, and finally getting alone time.