cruel season

"It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed when it's still light outside."

--quote from Ben, last night after his at art class and a piano lesson, as we were finishing dinner at 7:50pm, with only 10 minutes left to play outside.

(I think it's a cruel season that gives you 65 degrees one day and snow the next.  At least today is the 65 degree day, before we have to brace ourselves for tomorrow!!  I'd better go mow the lawn now before it's too late.)

dropped the ball

Needless to say, when it comes to blogging about sports, I have totally and completely "dropped the ball," so to speak.  It is one of those things where I have so many pictures over so many different days, that I have to go through them all, and it's just kind of gotten lost in the shuffle of bloggerdom.  I went back to check, and I haven't posted any of these pictures before.  That's terrible, because some of these pictures are a year and a half old!  

In the fall of '09 Ben (3rd grade) and Jake (kindergarten) both played lacrosse.  For Ben, it was his last season.  He loved playing with all his school friends, but he didn't love the sport.  As you can see in the picture below, that was about as into it as he got. :)  That's ok, though--he's found other things to keep him busy, including piano, art class, and building Legos of course.

Jake, on the other hand, was a machine (as a kindergartener!) and he really liked it.  Unfortunately, they didn't have enough kids to make full teams, so the season was mostly just one big practice.  

So in the spring of '10 Jake decided to play soccer with some friends 

here in Riverton, and had a great time.  

Then last fall he hooked up with a bunch of school friends to play up in Sandy.  This picture was taken after he scored his first goal, just before the end of the season.  He was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

(Jake on the left in the front row)

Which brings me around to winter '11.  Jake was the first of the boys to take a crack at basketball.  This picture was taken just before their first game--the boys thought they needed to workout to get stronger!

This is a classic shot--Jake is the tallest on his team, so in the first game they asked him to do the jump ball to start the game.  Um, he had NO CLUE what a jump ball was, thus his feet were planted firmly on the ground, just looking up at the ball!  Really, I should be ashamed of myself for not teaching him better.

This was one of the best moments of the season.  The ref stopped the game to help the girl on the other team tie her shoe--how cute was that?!

Jake shooting, and making, his only basket of the season.  He's getting there!

Jake and his friend, Daniel, with their first grade teacher, Ms. Neal.  They LOVED that she came to the game to see them and support them.

For the last game of the season all I had was the camera on my phone, but I still got some fun shots that night.  Daniel's mom, Oksana (from Russia), helped keep Will preoccupied with folding, and flying, lots of paper airplanes.  She was a lifesaver that night!

After the game I took the boys to La Frontera, formerly known to us as "The Chip's Place," for dinner to celebrate the end of the season.  And now we are caught up.  Jake just started soccer again (Will wanted to play so badly with Jake's team, but they are bursting at the seams this year with 14 on their team), so I'll try to be better about posting something about this season before the end of the year!  I should have taken pictures of last week's game...in the SNOW!  

7 x 2 = 14

That's seven YEARS times two equals fourteen YEARS...

no wonder I'm so tired these days!

Will and Jake turned seven a couple weeks ago, and it seemed as though the parties went on and on so I had to wait until the last one was over so I could put it all together.  But really, I am that tired, and I'm sure it's completely their fault.  Well, at least partially.  What started in California with Disneyland continued to their actual birthday, and then celebrating it at school (two schools, cuz they go to different schools), and then finally their first official b-day party with friends, it was non-stop fun around here.  Tired and all. 

They both LOVE to read now, and their favorite choice, as you know if you have read this blog at all, is Calvin and Hobbes, so why not add to the madness?!  More books=more reading=more laughs. You can't beat that!

For Christmas Ben got the BTTF Delorean from the first movie, and for their b-day's Will got the car from the second movie (he is child #2, by 1 minute) and Jake got movie #3 car.  Bits and pieces have already come off, but they LOVE these cars.  Great Scott!!  

It was tricky celebrating birthdays at school when they go to two different schools, but it worked out well.  I took chocolate donuts into Will's class on his birthday (see below--such a cute class!), and then the next day I took donuts into Jake's class when I went in to read If I Built a Car to his class for the book reading that week.  It was a great time in both classes.

And finally, they had their first official friend birthday party this year, and we held it at Daren's fire station...so much fun!!  This was their invitation:  

First, we had all the kids dress up in Daren's turn-outs...

(Will hadn't had a haircut in 3 months!!  His choice)

...next there was a tour of the station, pizza for lunch, and then messing around on the fire engine...

...presents and cake (Star Wars, cuz they didn't have a fire engine cake at the grocery store)...

...and finally some swinging on the workout rings and a group photo.  We had the party with all the neighborhood friends, and it was so much fun!!  Jaycie held her own, as usual, with all those boys. :)

will and jake

One hard thing about having twins is that you end up lumping them together on so many things, even though they couldn't be more different than each other.  So, I'm going to take just a minute to write about each of them as individuals, since they just turned seven, starting with Will, because he is the oldest of the two, even if it was just by a minute.  

The boys were filling out their annual "favorites" papers the other night, 

and here are a few of the things Will wrote:

FAVORITE THING TO DO:  build Legos  

FAVORITE FOOD:  pizza (he's not just a kidding--he eats it for breakfast all the time)

FAVORITE TV SHOW:  Megamind: Button of Doom  (and Sponge Bob)

FAVORITE MOVIE:  Polar Express and Flushed Away...and Ghostbusters I and II...and BTTF...

FAVORITE BOOK:  Calvin and Hobbes, Polar Express and The Boxcar Children

FAVORITE GAME:  Little Big Planet 2

Will is just a little spitball of fire!  From the youngest times he has loved dressing up as his favorite movie characters, and now he's made it a little more simple by creating his favorite movie characters with the Lego minifigures.  You wouldn't believe how many we have, and how creative he gets with them.  I'll post his latest creation, The Polar Express, in the next few days.  He LOVES to read, and loves to just look at pictures in books.  He wants to be a captain of a ship someday, and he just might do it.  He loves Legos, and playing them with his brothers.  Will loves animals and is so kind to them (he would really love a dog if I wasn't so allergic to them...).   Will can quote any movie line from any movie he has seen, and loves music from movies.  Will's favorite website is You Tube--first he looks for a lego rendition of whatever movie he is into at that time, and then asks Ben to build it for him.  Will has a great connection with Jake, but he has a very special connection with Ben, who "gets" Will like hardly anyone else does.  He likes to hang out with me, but in reality he is a daddy's boy, and he is thrilled to be hanging out with "daddy" this weekend on their 4-wheeling trip.  

 Indiana Jones

 Ghostbuster

Mr. Staypuft Marshmallow Man

and a lover of Legos (and camouflage) 

 Jake's favorites:

THING TO DO:  build Legos (ok, one thing in common)

FOODS:  ice cream

TV SHOWS: Sponge Bob and Scooby Doo

MOVIE:  Star Wars

BOOK:  The Monster at the End of This Book, The Boxcar Children series, The Magic Treehouse series, Calvin and Hobbes, and My Weird School series

GAME: Lego Star Wars on the PS3

If I listed Jake's best friends, his list would go on and on...and on some more.  This is one boy who LIVES and breathes for friends.  Someone to play with.  Someone to keep him entertained.  Thus, he's the hardest one to have at home alone because he wants constant attention.  Jake is a very loving boy and shows it constantly with lots of hugs and kisses.  Even when he's been so mad at me (usually at bedtime at night) he will still yell to me as I'm closing his door, "You're the best mom in the whole world!!"  Jake is an amazing helper around the house too, with whatever needs to be done.  He is as stubborn as you get, though, when he doesn't want to do something.  He can be loud and obnoxious, just ask his bus driver and anyone who rides the bus with him, but he also loves to sit next to me as quiet as a mouse while we are reading a book.  Jake loves to wear shorts and flip flops year round, and he might be our little sports guy. 

When looking at this first picture of Jake, you would think that he is mild-mannered and so loving.  He did love holding Nan's puppies, but don't let him fool you.  This is also the kid of a thousand crazy faces.  I can't get him to give me a descent smile for the life of me, so I thought I'd throw a few of his crazier ones in here.

 This last picture makes me laugh out loud every single time I see it, and it has to be my favorite.  Oh how they wanted that gargantuan Hershey bar.  All 5 pounds of it.  For $40.  Dream on, bruthers!

And that might help explain why I am so darned tired all the time!!  

And every once in a while, they go to sleep too.   I love you guys!