Anderson: Winter Flag Football

This does not really need to be it's own post, but you know that my inner need to document trumps logic, so here we go. 

Anderson did a holiday/winter season of flag football and it was FREEZING for a few of the games but he had fun. 

His team beat all of the teams in their division pretty handily so they were moved to the 3rd/4th grade division and they still won their bracket! It was a really close game and Anderson played very well. The team voted on the MVP and Anderson won! I was SO proud of him. I know that he is a focused player who really works hard at football, but for his team to vote for him was just the best. 

One of his catches. 

Actually, the first few games were not that bad but the last 2 were basically below freezing. Thank goodness that Noni came along to keep Max warm. 

Seriously, it was not even close to not freezing during their last game. Anderson's dream is to play at West Point so I guess he does need to practice in the cold.

A few videos:

A making a catch in the endzone

A scoring on a run

I have an 8 (18?) year old.

Anderson turned 8 and we celebrated with a party at the park near our house. They recently finished a huge turf field and he has been excited about having his party there since they started construction. I booked it about 6 weeks in advance just hoping the weather would cooperate. I know it is January, but the average high on that date is around 47 degrees, so I figured it would be fine. 

It was in the lower 20's and felt like 16 with the windchill, so it was FREEZING! 

I am so grateful to all of the mamas who brought their kids out in the arctic air to celebrate my boy. 

There was actually football playing, of course. 

I brought hot chocolate. This carafe thing is amazing!

I got very few pics because it was so cold that I could not feel my fingers to use my phone, but I did snag one of Max. 

Kids eating pizza. 

Nicole's kids were smart and sat in the heated car. 

Anderson requested this cake: 2 beakers pouring liquid that spelled Anderson. He was also SO excited about this cookie cake. We have always done cupcakes from Sam's and he has been asking for this for a year and was thrilled with the result. 

The day before his birthday, Lily threw a surprise party for him and she did such a great job! She made a cookie cake and S'mores cupcakes for him FROM SCRATCH. She had a banner and a game and was so on top of things. 

They LOVE the scavenger hunt for presents. I always buy random little things and they don't even really care about what they get because the real thrill is in the hunt. 

Well, the junk box is always a hit, of course. 

We went to eat lunch at Blaze and Levi treated Anderson to a birthday gift of peek-a-boo. 

We had to do lunch because he had a football game  and basketball practice. I brought brownies and drinks to practice and the kids all sang to him; it was super cute. 

He got an Army helmet from Noni & was so excited. 

Uncle Curtis went really far with his wrapping design! 

 I love this kid. 

Anderson at 8:

-curious, confident, logical, physical, intense, loud, consistent, sarcastic, only wears Nike clothes, picky eater (but getting better,) does not need sleep, competitive, smart, snuggly, sweet (at times) and OBSESSED WITH FOOTBALL. 

I swear he has not changed since he was born. This kid is just a taller version of every past year. I love him so much and beyond lucky to be his mom.

I did a horrible job with the picture taking this year, but I did snag this one of the 2 of us eating leftover cookie cake for dinner at 8:30pm on his birthday. Real life wins every time. 

Christmas Break

For some reason, Christmas Break seemed really, really long this year. On one hand, this was awesome because our normal routine is pretty crazy so it is nice to slow down every now & then. On the other hand, 2 energetic boys (one VERY energetic boy) at home for over 2 weeks in freezing temps is another thing....

We did lots of random things that Mrs. Claus sent with Santa for just these 2 weeks, including painting, Science things, making messes, playing playdoh, etc. 

Also, lots of this for one of the kids. 

They built this Lego set that had at least a million pieces. 

Just in case anyone is wondering, Legos are not my lane. Anything that requires logic and spatial awareness and patience....well, I will just be over here rearranging the closet. 

It was cold ....and then it got colder and 32 seemed warm. 

We stole Jack for awhile one day and went exploring. 

We went inside the library to warm up. 

To be clear, this did not last long, but it was SO stinking cute!

Since Max can write his own name now, he got his own library card!

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT LIBRARY CARDS! 

Anderson frequently shared his rankings of the SEC with his new helmets, including best new design, best offense, best colors, etc. 

Also, A LOT of football was watched in our house over those 2 weeks. 

We went for a 24 hour visit to Blountville to see our girls and Levi. We crashed their school's Open Gym time. 

At one point I looked over and Max was showing a bunch of girls his various stitches scars. I am so, so glad those moments of trauma/expense have provided this option for him. 

We spent quite a bit of time at an awesome park....freezing. 

Then we immediately jumped in their lake bed upon the return to their house. 

Lily made dinner for them! Pancakes and bacon! Well, and she made eggs, but my kids are weird and don't eat eggs. 

Lily is intense in all things so Nicole is usually exhausted, but I love seeing this girl as such an adult in her planning and execution of all things. 

She also set up a movie night for them, complete with assigned seats, individual popcorn/drinks and a vote for the movie. (The Emoji movie won out.)

Mom saw something about this random dino park on Facebook and it was so, so cool. It is literally in the middle of nowhere, in someone's backyard, just nestled among the trailers. 

It was seriously so different that most outside things that we do. 

There was even a trail, lined with dinosaurs, just open for exploring. 

Most importantly, there was ice to be broken, so my boys were all over that.

 I think this is their favorite hobby. 

We went to Chuck E. Cheese, which clearly speaks to our desperation to find an indoor activity. 

These 2 are everyone's favorites. 

My Top 9 of 2017 that I was too lazy to crop. 

Love all of those things. 

Max loves to build random lego creations-this was a turtle cage. 

Because we are SPOILED, Nicole & Hughes booked 2 nights for us at Wilderness in the Smokies and we had a blast and completely parented with a change of scenery. 

Max stole everyone's Dippin Dots. 

Nobody would willingly take a picture with me, but I still forced them. 

The giant bucket pouring water was a hit with all of them....and some random kid who joined.

Max was SO excited about doing the body board thing. He waited patiently for over 30 minutes and did not hesitate to jump right on it. I was nervous because he was definitely the smallest kid out there, but also so proud of him!

The first night  (New Year's Eve) we ordered pizza from room service and lived it up watching "Jurassic Park," You know that this kid was in HEAVEN!

Nicole came in at one point and was traumatized by the blood/violence/random eating of people. We are clearly going to have to start borrowing Levi for extended periods of time. 

Lily threw us a party. 

At that moment it was every level of exhausting trying to get everyone in the pic, but it sure does look cute now, doesn't it?

Of course Noni was there. 

Levi is... a lot, but he sure is cute. 

And, he tolerated me for entire sessions of 2-3 minutes on this trip,which is a huge win. 

I hate arcades. 

Gravity Ropes!

How much fun is a hotel? They had so much fun just running up and down the hallways because, as you know, THE FLOOR IS LAVA!

Nicole and 2 of her kids, just  enjoying this time. 

Nobody wanted to leave the hot tub. It actually connected to an outside part that you could swim to through a little opening. It was pretty neat to be out there in 8 degree weather. 

Thankful for these folks who spent the night in an inodoor waterpark when they did not have to...

Because we were sort of close to it and didn't think 48 straight hours in a waterpark was a good idea, we visited Ripley's Aquarium with the rest of humanity. 

I did not really get any pics, but they really did have fun looking at all of the animals. 

Back at the waterpark, we continued our healthy diets. 

Anderson refused to leave the room on Jan 1 because of the College Playoffs. He was SO happy when GA came back to win. TO be clear, we are not GA fans, but he picked them to win, which clinched his earning the top spot in our collge football playoff family pick 'em. 

We found a new pet shop and took Jack with us there one day. 

Gabs. Love. 

Max attended a Ninja Warrior party INSIDE where it was WARM and it was AMAZING. I love this kid's enthusiasm for everything. 

So, so, so, so many hours of random thing like playing cars, 

playing aquarium, 

and making huge messes. 

I love my time of with these boys but I also love routines. 

Some videos:

Max body boarding at Wilderness

Max paying with dinos

Reese/Max trust fall

Anderson still has to wear his patch