HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life has been crazy lately and I've had NO time to write, though I've thought about it. I've been totally focused on the kids and their activities, oh, yeah, and this vocal competition (I found out yesterday I made it to the finals!!!!! This Thursday night at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn - 7:00pm, $10cover for adults, $5 for kids under 12. COME ON OUT if you're around!) I thought I'd try and recap and catch everyone up on the boys, the girl, and...well, I just caught you up on me. I've tried to take lots of photos to keep you posted. Some, unfortunately, are still in my camera, but I'll get to those later. These are the ones I REALLY want you to see. LargeBoy - yes, he gets to be first. He finally got a haircut! Woo hoo! He was hoping for a simple trim and to keep the length - cuz, you know, he's in high school now. He came home and hid from the camera for days, until I managed to sneak this candid photo of him playing guitar at a family party. We gave him grief, though, when he came home from getting it cut. With the shape of his face and the way he had his hair combed, he looked like Jim Carey's character in Dumb & Dumber.

Girl, in all her softball glory, played her butt off this weekend. She had a tournament Friday night, Sat & Sun. She missed Friday night's game for "the last dance" of the school year, and then was out at the tournament - about 45mins away - by 8:00 Sat morning. They played 4 games ( I think), and we finally made it there for the last game. We won in three extra innings. The games were set for a one hour-15minute time limit. We were tied at 7:00 (regulation), so we had to use international tie-breaker rules - batting team gets one runner and one out. We held them , and they, us, for the first extra inning. They brought in two runs in the next inning, so did we . They had to turn the lights on at the ball field, as it was closing in on 8:00. Thankfully, we held them, and then we scored! WOO HOO! What did winning that game do for our girls? Secured the 8:00am time slot for the next morning - add to that the required hour early arrival. Yep, these poor girls- out in the sun playing softball ALL day, then having to be back by 7:00am the next morning. And Girl wasn't done, we still had a family party to attend. The pic behind the plate is obvious, but in the other, she's playing short. I consider these "action shots" for her for softball....

SmallBoy.....HE had an incredibly busy and WAY overstimulated, and over scheduled weekend. Friday night, we all just hung out and had some friends over to play music. SmallBoy LOVED that. He got to stay up a little later, listen to music, play. He was happy. Saturday, he snoozed until probably 9:30 or so - and for SmallBoy, that's LATE on a weekend. After he got up, he listened to his discs for his listening therapy, hung out, watched some tv, and then he and PC got to work on their next Cub Scout project - the Raingutter regata. Similar to the Pinewood Derby, this is a race, only it involves racing a "sailboat" powered only by the boy's air down a length of gutter. The boys can either blow directly on the sail, or through a straw, but the use of hands is a big no-no. The boats are very light weight and only allowed to be sanded - no cutting. I'll have more pics for my next post - those are the ones still in the camera.

After finishing the boat, we headed out for Girl's softball game - the first part of our afternoon/evening. SmallBoy went and hung out, cheered for his sister, climbed trees (isn't that just THE best pic?), and had TONS of fun - until we went into extra innings. I had mistakenly told him the game would be over by 7:00 (silly me - extra innings are always a possibility), so we had to work on an exercise geared towards "being flexible". He was hungry, it was starting to drizzle, and he wanted to get to the party. Eventually we got there, and he ran around with Princess and the other kids, toasted marshmallows, played hide & seek, and was so NOT ready to leave when it was time to go home. He hid. We freaked, but all was well. Home and off to bed. Sunday, boat race, mom's competition. LONG DAY. It was well past lunchtime when we got done with the race and left directly for the competition. We knew it was an Italian place, so we figured that even if the menu was not kid-friendly, we could still manage a plate of pasta - nope. Thankfully, PC was able to get them to pour us milk for him - he hates pop, the carbonation makes his sensory issues scream. He was hungry, it was crowded, it was unorganized, it was loud, he couldn't sit with me. Poor guy. PC, my love, my saving grace, let SmallBoy wrestle with him for most of the competition - pile drivers, wrestling, dogpiles, steamrollers...SmallBoy was in heaven. That PC of mine - he's awesome.

And my poor poor baby goo-wah (baby girl, in Girl speak, when she wants to be a wittoow goowah). She fell asleep at the family party. Sitting in front of the bonfire, with PC's jacket under her head, she wouldn't leave the party spot. We offered her a room inside, but she wanted to hang with us. Poor sleepy Girl - and she was up at 5:00am the next morning. Oh yes - they went all the way out there, got up super dooper early to be at the tourney by 7, lost, and were home by 10. It was a blessing in disguise, though, because she and I were both disappointed that she would have to miss my competition. Her loss got her to my win. Since it was Girl and PC who convinced me to enter (threatened to enter me if I didn't do so myself), it was very important to me that she was there. Love you Sweet Pea!

So, enough about me...how are all of YOU?