Spring Basketball for JMan

Jason once again played spring basketball through the Si View Parks & Rec with his final game on Saturday, June 3 – our last Saturday sports game until September!!!  Since it was co-ed we were able to get Coach Mike again.  Jason and Aubrey are good friends and we love the convenience of having a carpool option in the neighborhood.  Sadly, they just moved to Fall City.

Pass to Aubrey 

   

Jason likes this picture cause he “has an amazing form” 

   

He still gets himself “stuck” and struggles to get a quick pass off

Coach Mike shared a little about each player after the final game.  I don’t remember all that he said about Jason, but I do remember he said he was growing out of the Angry Bird phase from last year.

 Another fun season in the books!

May Miscellaneous

May 4:  We had the craziest hailstorm EVER this afternoon.  I’ve never seen that much rain come down so quickly – the streets were flowing like rivers and water was pouring off the roofs. Crazy!  Abigail took this video and caught the flash of lighting and the roar of thunder.

May 5:  Starbucks half-price frappuccino happy hour started today.  I told the kids if they practiced piano today and tolerated their piano lessons without ANY complaint or negativity then I would treat them.  What a wonderfully peaceful Friday afternoon we had.  Not the norm when piano is concerned.

May 6:  While I was at Abigail’s final volleyball tournament Justin was home juggling Jason’s basketball game, Carly’s lacrosse game and the Pinewood Derby.  We are the WORST scouting parents – Jason will be a Webelo this summer and I don’t think he’s officially earned any of the prior rankings – wolf, bear, etc…  Justin isn’t a handy-man so participating in the Pinewood Derby isn’t something he looks forward to.  Jason enjoys it though and somehow they’ve managed to put together a car each year.  Jason went into it saying he wouldn’t win for speed, but had hopes that he would win for creativity.  I love his optimism.  I think he did some in second in one of the heats.  Jason won the award for “Most Scout Spirit” but was disappointed that our new ward doesn’t actually award any physical prizes (aka candy). 

PWD = Pine Wood Derby 

   

JGF = Jason Grant Fletcher

May 9:  Katie’s first grade concert was this evening.  Grandma and Grandpa were both able to come watch. 

We took a quick picture afterward and then we had to bee-line it to the pre-grand opening of Café Rio in nearby Issaquah to collect our free meal certificates.  We also had free meals for Thursday of this same week.  Pretty sure our family got 16 free meals during the week. Yum. Yum.

May 10:  Abigail finally picked up her permit this afternoon.  She’s been 15 since January but hasn’t been able to start drivers ed until now when it won’t conflict with any sports.  We went to the church parking lot where she got into the driver’s seat for the first time ever.  She was starting from the very basics – this is the gas pedal, here is the brake, etc…  We practiced starting and stopping, parking, and turns.  She did much better than I’d feared and she’s driven quite a bit since then.  Now (nearing the end of June) she’s already finished her drives with the instructor and has been on the freeway multiple times.

 

Jason’s scout troop (plus apparently a few siblings) hiked down to the base of Snoqualmie Falls tonight for their activity.

May 12:  Before skipping town (and country) with Justin for the weekend, I went to the Morning with Mom event at our elementary school with Jason and Katie.  Yum. Yum.

May 14:  Not even bribing Drew with cake could get him to smile for my annual Mother’s Day photo.

Jason and Katie presented me with a cards and gift that they had made in school.  I got a kick out of Katie’s card.

My Mom is really good at “sleeping”

My Mom is funny when “she burps”

My Mom always tells me “to do gobs” (aka jobs)

My Mom has taught me “noting” (aka Nothing!)

After church we headed over to the Baumgartner’s – we knew we were in trouble the moment we got on the freeway.  Apparently there was an accident at the Hwy 18/I90 interchange so we had to make our way through Issaquah to get there – taking nearly an hour instead of 20-25 minutes.  Waze had the accident cleared up by the time we were heading home that evening, but we ended up spending nearly an hour and a half to get home most of that time at a dead stop on the highway.  Not fun.

May 15:  I check on the boys tonight before heading to bed and found this cute scene.

Drew has started taking off his pajamas at some point during the nights. 

When did my baby get SO long? 

May 27:  Justin and Jason hiked to Twin Falls early this morning with Mike and Aubrey Gibbs.

These two have become good friends (both Justin & Mike and Jason & Aubrey) and we will miss having them in the neighborhood now that they've moved to Fall City.

We celebrated Drew’s birthday this afternoon (five days late) and then tonight Justin and I went to the Tim McGraw / Faith Hill concert in Tacoma.  Years ago Justin mentioned this would be the tippy top concert on his want-to-see concert list.  Back then we thought it would take a trip to Vegas or something to see them perform.  We saw they were coming to Seattle a few months ago, but with so much else going on this month that took us away from the kids we held off buying tickets until just days before.  So glad we did.  It was a good concert for even this typically non-country loving girl and I’m glad Justin was able to check this off his list.

They truly seem like such a power couple – it was fun to see them interact on stage together.

We got home close to midnight and saw on the neighborhood facebook page that someone had posted pictures of the northern lights from the top of our hill.  I had no idea that the northern lights were ever visible from Seattle so I insisted Justin get out of bed and go out with me to check them out.  Turns out it’s super hard to get a picture of them without a tripod, but it was really awesome to see!

May 28:  Morning snuggles with my two youngest

May 31:  Abigail had her very last band concert tonight.  She didn’t love band this year and in the fall having to play in the pep band conflicted with volleyball and made for a crazy busy schedule.  Justin attended her concert and taped as she played piano during one of the arrangements.  Once again, another end to an era for Abigail. 

Memorial Day on Rattlesnake Lake

We were excited to put our new paddleboards to use and take the family to Rattlesnake Lake on Memorial Day.  The holiday weekend weather was glorious and we knew that we certainly wouldn’t be the only ones with the same idea.  We intended to only stay a few hours, but our friends, the Olsen’s were there and the Howell’s, who lived here a few years ago were in town visiting so it was one great big party.

Jason and Carly started out on one board and Abigail and Drew on the other.  Drew sat perfectly still in the middle of the board while Abigail paddled him around the lake. 

Jason on the other hand shook the board Carly was trying to steer and even jumped in the ice-cold lake.

We also brought with us some regular tubes for people to float around on.  Drew enjoyed lounging on the pink blowup raft we were given in Cabo.

One of the many perks of having older kids is that Justin and I were able to go out together on the paddleboards without kiddos.  We paddled out into the middle of the lake and then laid down and chill-laxed for a while.

The Olsen’s had pizzas delivered mid-day so we were fueled enough to stay most of the day enjoying the sunshine, beautiful scenery, and fun with friends.

I just so happened to catch a fun video of Carly and Livi coming to shore.

I shared this next picture on Instagram with the following caption:  “Happy to be on the lake at not at the rim today #heatwave #lovewherewelive #sodotheotherthousandpeoplehere”

Such a beautiful day!  We’re looking forward to many more summer days just like it.

Drew’s 4th Birthday Celebration

Shhhh, nobody tell Drew that once again I was out of town on his actual birthday and then because the rest of the week was so busy we delayed any birthday acknowledgement until the weekend.  Drew was so excited for his “birthday”!  Justin went running that morning and brought home some donuts from Georgia’s for a special birthday breakfast.

Drew was very excited to open up his birthday presents. 

My Mom had sent us a great big box…

full of balls!  200!  That’s two HUNDRED balls! 

Turns out she was teaching me a lesson since I wasn’t able to think of anything she could send to him for his birthday.  We’re not big gift givers around here and I honestly couldn’t think of any toys he was lacking.  But leave it to my Mom to find something!  Just what every mother wants – 200 balls! Ha!  She also sent a fun stomp rocket.

We also bought Drew a toy – actually it came free with the little Octonaut figurines I bought for Drew’s birthday cake.  The octopod to go with the figurines.

On the way to Sunriver my friend Sommer gave us the idea of taking the family to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate.  I’ve made it through 15 years of parenthood without a visit to Chuck E. Cheese so I was a little reluctant, but we knew it would be something Drew would love and so we invited Justin’s family to join us on Saturday.

We bought a punch of tickets for all the kids (and adults) and ordered a few pizzas for the kids’ lunch.  Everyone seemed to have a great time. 

Drew especially loved any of the games that involved balls.  Skee-ball and basketball being his favorites. 

Drew had this interesting little twist to his wrist when he threw the skee ball.  He played over, and over and over.

Everyone redeemed their tickets for some little prizes and then Drew opened gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Fletcher and the Baumgartner family.

Next stop for our family was Chick-fil-A for Justin and I to get some lunch.  Turns out the rest of the Fletcher crew also showed up there, but we just hit the drive through.

Back at home Drew had his birthday cake awaiting.  He said he wanted an Octonauts cake several months ago and so I’d ordered the figurines (and the free Octopod) and avoided mentioning it in case he’d change his mind.  He usually gets to watch a show when I shower after going to the gym and 9 times out of 10 he will choose to watch Octonauts. 

As we sang Happy Birthday to him he put his hand up next to his face and I was lucky enough to capture the most adorable picture of him.  I seriously love the JOY on his face so much that it over whelms me.  Favorite picture ever!

Happy Birthday to my Baby!  Oh, how we LOVE you!