Anderson: Spring Flag Football

I love to do a separate post on each sport's season because sports are just an important part of our lives, as is documenting, of course. 

First up, the entertainment of the younger brother is always a real thing. Luckily, we are now in an outside sport that includes a giant sand pit. 

The games also occasionally included a Noni to play in the giant sand pit, so this was, of course, even better!

Brooke took this pic of my creeper status at one of the games. 

Being a younger brother really has so many downfalls, but I think that 3 gatorades, toys and a giant treat at practice make up for all of those. 

Anderson with his best buddy at football and their Coach. 

Side note: I taught his coach many moons ago at Farragut! 

Love, love, love this pic of these 2. 

Anderson, per usual when it comes to football, had a great season. He scored 22 touchdowns and I am honestly not sure if anyone ever actually ran past him with their flag intact. They did play an older team that was much better at passing so those games provided quite a bit of challenge for him. 

I love, love watching him play sports. He has never, ever sat down and his level of intensity in every day life is higher than I knew could be possible for a small child. But watching him own a field provides validation every time. I am not bragging here; on the contrary, I am providing so much justification that this outlet is NECESSARY for survival for all of us. 

Perhaps you remember when he was "the kid in the green glasses"? Well, during this season, it was pretty well known that you had to watch out for "the kid in the blue socks." Fun times. 

Because I did a horrible job with actual pics, here are some videos:

(note: the videos are also horrible quality)

A running touchdown

A doing something at football

One of my favorites

MAX IS FOUR: the 1st celebrations

Because it was taking FOREVER for Max's 4th birthday, we let him open up a present the week before his actual birthday. He was so excited and it was honestly nice for him to be able to play with just one thing instead of trying to open everything at once. 

We have been talking about his birthday for what seems like years and, in his defense, it really did seem like it was taking forever to get here. 

We did the Scavenger Hunt tradition it was my favorite part of the birthday celebration! Anderson was SO excited about reading the clues to him and Max really loved his random goodies, particularly the junk box. 

Because my village is the epitome of villages, they took these boys to Dollywood the day before Max's actual birthday.

I mean, of course my mom had all 5 kids at one point. 

Even GG joined in on the fun!

I love these 5 kids just hanging out on the pigs. 

Pictures always make things seem not hot, well fed, relaxed and enjoyable. I know that there was way more to the day than that and I am so grateful that the adults let my kids have fun while I was working. 

Max was such a big help with his family cake and school cupcakes. He was so proud that he can hold the mixer all by himself now that he is 4. 

On his actual birthday, he had a swim lesson and Anderson joined in as the helper. 

He wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner but I just cannot do that on a night where we have a choice, so we convinced him to do Cracker Barrel because I had free coupons and we let him pick out a toy. Noni, GG & Uncle Curtis joined us for the fun and pancakes. 

He, of course, was spoiled rotten. He got a new tablet, a Star Wars playdoh set, a UT shirt, A Ghostbusters towel/lunchbox and gun, a car race track and a bunch of other fun stuff!

Anderson sort of took this gift over and pretended like it was from him. 

VFL shirt from Uncle Curtis!

How awesome is this towel from GG??

I love this sweet face. 

Honestly, trying to pick just 10 pictures of this kid was near impossible. He is so full of life, hilarious and ALWAYS into something so we have entirely too many pics of him. 

Clearly Brandon did this artwork. 

Aunt Manda always finds the best presents. 

We brought in chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing in camo wrappers with camo picks and barrel drinks for his class. This was very specific. He also had to pick exactly who got the tanks and who got the helicopters. "The kids who fight: (him, Marley and Nelson) had to have tanks, gold hats and specific drinks. I took a half day for Anderson's party and brought the cupcakes that same afternoon. It was so fun to be there to participate and hand them out instead of leaving them with the teacher. 

We are so in love with this crazy kid! 

Here are some videos of the past fun:

Singing to Max on his 4th bday

Max (4) Scavenger Hunt

Some work. Some family. Some things.

Mom & I brought the girls and Max to the Spring Showcase at AE and they all had such a fun time. Lily loves watching the dancers and Max & Reese loved running around, wreaking havoc. 

We have not missed a Home Depot workshop in quite some time. Anderson does not care to go to them, but Max really loves them. He is very proud of his hammering skills. 

We went to the festival at the vet near us where we had free lunch, free entertainment and I even won a basket of free dog things! Y'all know I love some free. 

Max was so proud of his face paint set up and refused to wash his face for almost 24 hours. 

It is really almost impossible to take Reese anywhere because she is so cute and everyone loves her so there is constant stopping to let her get all of the attention. 

Of course the Brimers were with us and all of our kids were trying to turn the relaxation pond into a fishing creek. 

And, because we are true festival hoarders, we also attended a Kids Walk at church where the kids promptly cheated on the dunking booth. 

AND THESE 2 LIKED EACH OTHER FOR ALMOST AN ENTIRE MINUTE!

So, so many doughnuts were eaten. 

The pizza and doughnuts were free, so you know we were all over that. 

But, the BEST part of the entire thing was when we managed to skip the entire line (on accident, but also by luck) and hit up every "spirit station" first. This picture of Lily semi dragging barefoot Max sums up our lives, in general. Also, at this point we had literally abandoned Mom & Reese because it was truly every man for himself. 

These kids are so old. 

I love watching them actually PLAY! They invented some throwing game and, while there are still fights and tears, they are occasionally instead of constantly. 

Part of Max's birthday celebration crew. 

Another part of the celebration crew. 

If anyone stays at our house for longer than 2 minutes, Anderson will rope them into playing football. 

And, because they are amazing, my parents came to AE for our Honor Roll celebration to provide prizes for the games. The students were SO excited about the balloons and my mom kept trying to give them all away because you really cannot help but just love a teenager who wants a balloon penguin. 

Seriously. What even is my life?

Speaking of happiness, Anderson caught a lizard at Noni's house and was pumped because it but him multiple time. 

And, on the same day, Pops killed a 5 foot long snake that had just killed a squirrel. Well, he threw away the dead squirrel and snake but then made the mistake of telling Anderson about it. So, of course, it was fished out of the trash. 

This was literally the best day of Anderson's life. He would have studied that dead snake for hours if the smell was not so overpowering that we made him throw it back in the trash. I love, love his interest in things like this because I cannot help but think of Teddy Roosevelt and how his love of  nature started with a dead seal that he acquired in a fish market. That dead seal head basically led to the National Parks, so I am all about Anderson playing with dead things to channel his inner Teddy. 

Max's school bday celebration. So many celebrations. 

Y'all know that we love our ditch because it is a magical place. Well, last night it flooded, further proving it's magical qualities. 

We even had wildlife!

This whirlpool was the best part. Anderson was truly smiling, which is rare and magical in itself. 

Some videos:

Life Lessons from Max

Max & Reese at AE

Boy play in ditch whirlpool