If you've ever had young kids, you know how often they open the door to tell you all kinds of nonsense while they play in the backyard.
The door opens and I hear, "So and so hit me with the ball." The door closes, only to be reopened every 2.9 seconds for comments and questions such as these: "So and so threw the ball at the dog." "Are we allowed to dig in the garden?" "I hit a home run and the ball went over the fence! Can I go get it?" "Mom, do you like grub worms?" "Marshall's eating from the garden." "What are we doing today?" "What are we eating for lunch?" And two seconds later, "What are we eating for dinner tonight?"
Admittedly, I'll sometimes lock the door to stop the nonsense. Or I'll throw out the threat, "If you open that door again, you're coming in for a nap!" That one works like a charm.
Anyway, as I was cleaning my bedroom this morning, the boys and dogs were playing in the backyard. I believe they opened the door 52 times before I heard a new statement. Jackson yelled, "MARSHALL LOST A TOOTH AND I FOUND IT!"
"Okay, great. Yep, he's teething. SHUT THE DOOR," I yelled back. (I should always say 'Slam that door', since that's what they do.)
Jackson went back to play, and I didn't give Marshall's tooth another thought, until I walked through the kitchen 30 minutes later to find the lost-and-found tooth in a baggie on the kitchen counter.
I carried the tooth to Jackson and asked if he thought the tooth fairy should visit the pup. He laughed and said "No! I thought we could make a collection of his teeth."
Oh. Hmm.
Raising boys often leaves me scratching my head.
Things That Make Me Go "Hmm"
Decluttering
The blogging portion of my brain feels cluttered. So many pictures to post. So many events have come and gone without even a sentence granted on the blog. When I get this far behind in my writing, I feel overwhelmed and simply want to give up. But then I remember that I don't scrapbook for my family, nor do I simply print our photos, so if I don't blog, what do we have to show for our lives?
In an effort to declutter my foggy blog brain, here's a post of random photos.
Garrett finished out his t-ball career by being chosen as one of four from his team to advance to the All Star tournament.
His kindergarten teacher came to his final All Star game.
Mrs. Whitsell is one of a kind, and Garrett was sure to show off some of his best baseball skills in front of her. This is where I should rattle off all of his amazing defensive stats, but I simply can't remember one. Suffice it to say, he played well, very well. And he's more than ready to move on to coach pitch in the fall.
Meanwhile, Liam's Dirtbags were winning a semi-finals game the same night, and they advanced to the Championship. Garrett and I were able to make it to the final game, where the Dirtbags defeated the Giants. This win was a huge victory, because the Giants had only lost something like 3 games in two years!
Trophies all around for the Dirtbags!
On a non-baseball note, (Imagine that...something in our lives that doesn't relate to baseball!) Jackson and Garrett graduated from Kindergarten. I would love to show you some fantastic photos of my babies' graduation, but a certain someone, who will remain nameless, deleted many, and I mean MANY, pictures from my camera. So we're left with mediocrity, such as a blurred picture of Jackson receiving his congratulatory hug from his teacher, Mrs. Woods.
He blew her off like he'd blow a spider off his arm.
But Garrett paused for a sweet moment with his girlfriend, I mean teacher.
Yes, I must admit I teared up when I saw my babies walk across the stage. Not because they're graduating from kindergarten, but because I couldn't help but flash forward to twelfth grade in my mind. Be still my heart, what will I do when my kids all finish high school?!
After the 50,000,000 kindergarteners walked across the stage, they sang songs such as "New York, New York". How does Frank Sinatra's famous song qualify as a graduation song, you ask? The words were changed to something like this:
Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I'm gonna be apart of it
first grade, first grade
It was cute, and, of course, hand signals had to be incorporated.
I'm not sure who was most excited about the last day of school, the boys or me. But let me tell you, when the dismissal bell rang, we hightailed it outta there without a glance back. Woohoo, summer!
One of our first summer days was spent riding horses. I have wanted to introduce my boys to horseback riding for quite some time, and a perfect situation came up. A good friend of ours recently inherited two horses from his dad, and he invited us to meet him at the corral.
This is where I'd love to post pictures of my boys riding their first horse, but that nameless person deleted about 100 pictures of our horseback riding experience. About all I have to show you is Liam brushing Alley.
Alley happens to be the horse that also bucked Liam off. The horse decided he didn't want to be ridden and threw my boy off within two minutes. Thankfully, Liam didn't have any serious injuries, but he was sore for a few days. But he was brave and got onto another horse with me within a few minutes of his fall.
Liam tried out and made it onto the summer All Star team again. They've gone to championship level all but one tournament thus far, placing second twice and even first place recently. Summer baseball is hotter than hades, but when the boys win, it's worth the sweat. 
Another big event of our summer has been Garrett pulling his own tooth.
He was so proud of himself for pulling it on his own. And I cried, because I'm simply not ready for my baby to grow up.
In other news, Marshall had his manhood and dewclaws removed a few days ago. He came home looking pretty pitiful.
Yes, we've had a grand ol' time trying to keep him from chewing his bandages. A neighbor asked why Marshall has casts on his paws. Garrett said, "We had his claws removed so he won't run away and make babies." He kind of got my explanation confused.
Now that summer is in full swing, we're enjoying a relaxed schedule. Staying up late, sleeping in until 7, no homework, play dates, swimming, etc.
We're also hitting the batting cages frequently.
Just call them the Bad Bat Boys.
And on that note, these bad boys are ready to go burn off some energy, so I better run before something gets broken.
I can't promise when I'll be back, but I hope it's before summer's end.
