Ryan's First Tackle Football Game

Two weeks ago, Ryan had his first tackle football game.  It was very fun watching him finally get to play in a tackle game.  He's been begging me to play tackle football for over a year now.  And, actually playing flag last year was my idea.  I wanted to see how he liked it before we made the commitment to tackle.  It's definitely more involved than flag - and so far he is really enjoying playing.  Even with the scrapes and bruises.  They did not win their first game, but I think they really had a good time being out there.  And I really liked how the coaches were with the boys during game.  No yelling and telling them what they did wrong.  They really emphasized having fun.  You could definitely tell a difference in play from the beginning of the game and the end - the nerves were going away and they were remembering things from practice.

Before the game, they coaches had the boys out practicing
some plays.

In the huddle setting up the next play.  Ryan is number 6 and is
the only player on the team with a red face mask.  Makes him
a little easier to spot at times.

On the sideline watching the plays.

Getting ready for the kick off.  Ryan is the one with his arm up.

Ryan playing Left Tackle.  You can't see it, but he's holding the
defensive man, keeping him from getting to the quarterback.
(He's the one with the purple socks and is leaning forward.)

The Continuing Storm Saga

At the end of last month, I told you about some crazy rainy and windy weather we've been having.  Well, here is the results of all that weather.

Doug decided it would be easier to drain the
pool than it would be to scoop ALL
those leaves out.  Plus, there were some
areas in need of attention.  So, while empty
Doug got to do some repair work.

And since most of the leaves were out of the
trees - mostly because they were in our pool,
Doug took advantage and trimmed out a
lot of those branches.  I should have taken
pictures of the branches we had to carry out
to the street for bulk pickup.  Crazy.

Ryan's Birthday Part 3 - The Party

With Ryan's birthday always happening over Spring Break, we decided to have his party the next weekend.  He invited a few close friends to come over.  We took the boys to Jump Street and then came home for pizza and cake & ice cream.  We didn't stay at Jump Street for the full hour after Doug & I saw another boy, thankfully not in our group, break his ankle.  It was rather disgusting and I will not go into details here.  Let me just say, it left me feeling rather nauseous for a few hours.  Yuck.  The boys had a great time while they were there jumping.

Ryan compiled his collection of Nerf guns for
use towards the end of the party.  The boys all
had a great time playing war.

Eating pizza.  Ryan's the one in the crazy hat.  He bought the
hat at the Renaissance Festival and wore it constantly for
like a week after.

The presents

Here is the cake I made, vanilla with
chocolate frosting.

Ryan getting ready to blow out the candles.
He blew them out so fast I didn't get a picture.

Ryan received a Nerf gun and either gift cards or cash
for his birthday.  Which he loved.  This is all the
goodies he got after shopping at Walmart.  He
bought a Lego Harry Potter Quidditch set, and Nerf
weapons - sword, shield, axe and dagger (they
are so cool!)  He was one very happy boy.



6th Grade Field Trip - Renaissance Festival

Doug & I were able to join Ryan and his class for the very last Elementary Field Trip.  This year we went to the Renaissance Festival.  The day before the field trip it rained all day long.  So, we were a little concerned about the weather and mud.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day - and not too much in the way of mud.  Just a few puddles here and there.   The parking lot was the worst area - and the place that I got all the mud on my shoes for the day. 

We had four boys assigned to our group.  And they are all good boys, not a trouble maker in the group.  We had a pretty easy day deciding which shows to go see, which shops to look in and what food to eat.  The very first thing the boys wanted to do was get Turkey legs. 

All four boys enjoying their Turkey legs.

Once we had our Turkey legs, we headed over to the jousting
tournament.  And wouldn't you know it, the knight that was
"fighting" for our section was purple!

Ryan bought a mystery egg.  It ran down this
track to get smashed and then you won a prize.



And of course funnel cake!  You can't possibly go to an event
like this and not have funnel cake - can you?



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