Family Photos - Goin' around #9

This was from last week's soccer game. I was coaching again, so Nae was taking pictures. She had a hard time getting one of the front of Sul because the field is so big. Sul is just about to juke number 9. They lost this game but the team won the next day (Sunday) when Sul couldn't be there. The team they played today stomped them by a score of 8-0. This team was really good and the defense on Sul's team just couldn't slow them down. Sul got scored on twice while he was in goal, but there isn't much he can do in a one-on-one against a really good shooter.

Two Wins

Today was another game day and both boys won. Sul's team shut out the opposing team with a final score of two goals to zero. He made one good save in goal where he had to dive on the ball to gain control of it. Afterwards he punted the ball all the way to the other end of the field. He also had an assist on one of his teams goals, so he had a productive game.

Mads' team won by a score of 3 to 2. They were leading 3 to 0 for most of the game but their last pitcher hasn't had much experience and he let a couple runs in before he could stop them. The final play of the game was a big pop fly to right field. It was actually going foul but the boy out there caught it. He looked in his glove and realized that the ball was in it and then got really excited. The whole team ran together into a big pile. A much better day than last week. Each team now has a 1 win and 1 loss record.

Can has started walking on his cast. He and Mom are counting down the hours until his visit to the "broken-leg fix-it doctor" on Tuesday. Hopefully the cast will come off and stay off so that he can go back to running instead of hobbling.

Family Photos - Sul Posing

(taken 04/06/07)

Family Photos - Riding the Bent Tree

We found this funny bent tree on our hike through Umstead State Park. It looked like a good place to have the boys line up for a picture (taken 04/06/07).

My ignoble debut as an assistant soccer coach

Saturday morning marked the start of baseball and soccer games for Mad and Sul, respectively. We were supposed to be at the baseball field at 8:15 for an 9:00 game. The coach is a pretty zealous and wanted plenty of time to warm up and go over strategy. I was on my own with all four boys for this game because Nae was busy running the Cary Road Race 10K, which she completed in just over 50 minutes (I told you that she is a wonder woman). I brought gameboys for the non-baseball playing boys, which seemed like a good way to keep them entertained except that they spent most of the time fighting over who got to play which games. The only toilets available at this field were porta-johns, so I had to force Dec, kicking and screaming, to stand in one long enough to complete his task. After I got to the field I realized that Can hadn't gone yet that morning, so I tried to get him to go in and he wouldn't release the death grip from my neck long enough for me to get his pants down past his cast. I tried to talk him into peeing on a tree but he didn't want to do that either. Fortunately, he has an iron bladder when he wants to hold it, so we didn't have any problems there. Oh, the baseball game. It wasn't a very good start to their season. Mads' team lost 4 to 1. There wasn't much action on the field for most of the game. Nobody could get a hit on either team because the pitchers were throwing too fast. They've instituted a new rule where each boy can only pitch 2 innings, so after four innings we had to resort to our third string pitchers and they walked a number of runs in before we could get out of the fifth inning. We managed to get one run in the sixth, but that just wasn't enough. We all survived, despite the fact that I was on my own.

In the afternoon we went to Sul's soccer game. I sort of wandered into being appointed as an assistant coach, since no other parents stepped up to help the only coach. I'm not sure that you can blame me for the 4-1 loss of this game, but I probably didn't help much either. Sul played two quarters in goal. He was scored on twice in the first one, but he had no help from the rest of his team and the goal is at least twice as big as the ones he was defending last year. He made several really good saves and even stopped one with his chin. After the game the ref said that the other team was the best he had seen all day. They had better ball handling skills than our team and they definitely out hustled our team in getting to the ball.

Dec doesn't start his T-ball games for a few weeks, but he had his first practice on Friday night. Although he is catches and throws the baseball right-handed, he has always swung the bat left handed. Nae said that when the coaches put him up by the T to hit the ball, they lined him up right handed and so he had a hard time swinging the bat correctly. We'll get them straightened out at the next practice.

Family Photos - Sul Dyeing

Sul dyeing Easter eggs. (taken 04/06/07)

Blowing out the cake with the candles

We had Sul's party with friends on Saturday and then on Monday we celebrated as a family. He only got a watch from us because he wants heelies (those annoying shoes with wheels in the heels) and we thought it would be better to take him with us to pick them out. Since he had cake on Saturday, Mom made him a pan of lemon bars for the birthday celebration. We didn't think think about the fact that powdered sugar on the top of the bars wouldn't go so well with blowing out the candles. This left a bit of a mess.

Early birthday party

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Sul. It was a few days early, but he didn't mind. I'm sure that the ice cream cake helped him get over the fact that it wasn't really his birthday.

We had quite a crowd of 8-9 year old boys at our house. They went on a treasure hunt that required disguises and a lot of running around. After this they alternated between jumping on the trampoline and playing basketball. There was also a pretty crazy silly-string war. I think that a fun time was had by all.

Aha, Crash Team Racing works on the PS2

Crash Team Racing (CTR) used to work on our original playstation, but quit working some time ago. I'm sure this may have something to do with all of the scratches all over the optical surface of the disc. Since it quit working, I've had to suffer through my boys wiping the floor with my carcass every time they challenge me at Crash Bash. Can does a great impression of the opening segment of the game, by the way. I'll have to record and post it sometime. It used to be that I could school the boys at any game we owned, for some reason, I just can't seem to compete at this game. It is really sad when Dec, who is only five, trounces me like I wasn't even trying, and believe me, I was trying hard on Saturday afternoon. So I had this brain flash, "hey, maybe CTR works on the playstation2." Hooray, it worked. Now it was my turn to do the trash talking. I blew past him like he was standing still. I even beat Sul (8), who is the best in the neighborhood at Crash Bash. It must have only been a bad day for him, because we had a tournament tonight for family home evening and both Mads (10) and Sul beat me. But I still kicked Dec's little behind. Take that you kindergartner.

Baseball to the face

This morning we got up and went to the Museum of Nature and Science. There was an exhibit on space that the Mom and the boys wanted to see. It was kind of fun, except the parents spent a lot of time trying to keep track of the two littles who had a tendency to wander off through the crowd. Can love all of the fish and turtles in the NC wildlife exhibits. Dec loved the huge replica long-neck dinosaur.

When we got home I decided that I should go out and play with the boys. Dec and I played some catch with his new Christmas mit. He is doing really well at throwing and catching. Skills that will serve him well when he starts T-ball in a few weeks. Ok, it probably will not make much difference, since they do not keep score. Sul beat me in three straight times around the world. The sad part was that I was really trying to get the basketball through the hoop and he still beat me three times in a row. The trauma of the day was when Mads and I were playing catch and he did not quite get his mit up in time to stop the ball from careening off of his face. I felt really bad but I think that he felt worse. If you look really close you can see the marks from the laces on the ball and I think that there is a faint imprint of the word "Diamond" from the brand name label. I told him that he needs to come up with a really good story to tell everyone at school, because this will probably look pretty ugly tomorrow.

Pinewood Derby Night

Tonight was the big pinewood derby. Both boys lost more than they won, but they still came away smiling.

Sul's car won the prize for the most patriotic colors.


Mad's Car won the judges favorite award.

When the two cars raced against each other Sul won by a hair. I guess that if we build slow cars, at least they are both pretty equally slow. It may not be obvious, but Sul is putting his car on backwards because he found that it went faster that way. This may because we were trying an experiment. We made his car so that only three wheels touched the track to try and reduce friction. I think that putting the two wheels towards the front instead of the back helped it move faster.

Goof Balls

The reason I don't have many pictures of the older boys is because when I try to take them they act like this.

Images - Four Ducks in a Row

We went on a hike at Harris Lake during our MLK break. (Taken 01/15/07 at Harris Lake, NC)

Eat the food I give you or starve

I don't understand why my children won't eat the food I give them. Last night, before heading off to a women's book group, my wife made turkey sandwiches with pita bread and pepper-jack cheese. In the context of the sandwich, the cheese wasn't spicy, but Dec and Sul wouldn't touch the sandwiches on the chance that it might be disgusting. Mad's encouragement that it wasn't so bad, didn't even phase them. Of course, Can didn't eat the waffle and syrup that was offered him either. He got waffle because he eats little else, when he does eat, and we have no way to coerce him into eating anyway. With the bigs, at least we can threaten the loss of video games or no dessert. I tried the "nothing else to eat for the rest of the night" line and they jumped at the chance to avoid the pita, perhaps thinking that I would forget before the night was through. Without Mom's support for battle and given the rapidity with which they accepted my initial terms, I could see that there was no way I would prevail in getting the food down their throats, so I ended up throwing away the pita sandwiches (and the waffle). I briefly considered giving them a "we'll put them in the fridge and you can have them for breakfast" but I knew that I would not be around when they were pouring big bowls of sugar coated cereal and mocking me for my tyranical statements, so I just let the food go to waste. Later, as we were doing the dishes for the meal that we didn't really eat, I came across Mad's lunch box and realized that it still had food in it. Upon opening it I found an untouched ham sandwich, on regular bread, and a container of fruit. As expected, there were no cookies, donuts, granola bars or pretzels left. Unfortunately, the ham sandwich had been sitting around all day and so I didn't feel it was safe to save it for tomorrow's lunch. Another meal in the trash. By this time I was pretty fed up, so I left it on the counter for Mom to discover and I decreed that he would get only a sandwich and fruit tomorrow for lunch. I just don't understand why it is so hard to get kids to eat. I bet that if they went a week without food, they would love a little pita and pepper jack. Of course, then they would be living with foster parents when the state took my kids away for trying to teach them not to waste food.

Sleepover, PS2 and wheelies

Well we managed to get rid of Mad for the night. The problem is that it was an exchange sleepover, and we got the loud end of that deal. So far we've managed to survive through dinner time and chased them up into the bonus room for a fun filled evening of PS2 and movies.

Sul's little friend got heelies for Christmas (you know, the shoes with wheels in the heels). Of course Sul wanted them for Christmas and we made him pitch in to buy a PS2. Certainly Couldn't afford a PS3. Funny little side story about the PS3. While I was taking back the first PS2 we bought (we originally got a used one and then decided that it was worth $30 more to feel comfortable that it would last for a little while), a guy was in with his daughter asking about game systems and the kid at the counter (maybe 20) was trying to convince him to get the PS3. He says, "Its only $647," to which the guy responds, "I didn't pay that much for my first three cars." The kid at the counter makes some smart alec comment back that I can't remember, and I wanted to say, "You probably still live at home. If all you have to spend your money on is video games and fast food, $647 doesn't sound like much." I settled for a chuckle. As the guy left the store his daughter (~9) said, "See dad, that's why I need to get allowance." I laughed out loud and said, "it would take a long time to save $647 in allowance." As I'm checking out with the new PS2 the counter-kid says, "we really need to get you into a PS3." More loud laughing. Pay the guy with tears in my eyes. Anyway, back to my original story. So, we conviced Sul that he might get wheelies for his birthday and he should help pitch in to get the PS2 since he would play it anyway. Now whenever he is around his friends who have wheelies, he somehow convinces them to let him borrow them. So, he ends up rolling around and bumping into people and things, while his friends get to wear his stinky-old flat-soled footwear.

Learning to read and learning to read tarot cards

Dec's teacher sent home a note saying that they had reading tests for his kindergarten class and he has not only passed the first two levels but is reading where he is supposed to be by the end of the year. That isn't too bad for less than half-way through the year. While Mom was telling me about this, he just sat there with the biggest grin on his face. I love to see my kids feel good about their accomplishments.

As I was looking through Sul's homework, he had a fill-in-the-blank vocabulary worksheet that taught about forcasting the future. Interestingly, it was mostly about fortune telling and included a discussion of tarot cards and tea leaves. Hmm. Not sure I'm happy with that lesson.

Christmas excitement mounts early at the Cheeve household

Much to my chagrin I didn't get the Christmas lights up this weekend while it was 70 degrees outside. I'm sure it will be cold and rainy next weekend when I finally find time to do it. My wife got some indoor decorations up at the end of last week and we will probably put up the fake Christmas tree tonight for our family home evening activity. The five year old, Dec, is really getting excited about Christmas. On Saturday he decided that he had better get some milk and cookies out for Santa. My wife tried to explain that it might be a bit early to do this, but he couldn't be dissuaded so she capitulated and helped him get the goodies together for the jolly old elf. When next I was aware of the scene nothing but crumbs and a few drops of milk remained. I began to wonder if perhaps the computer had ensorcelled me again such that I was held entranced by the ever flowing source of useless information right through December and the Christmas festivities. Dec informed me that he got tired of waiting and decided to let Sul have the cookies while he drank the milk himself. I’m quite sure that Santa was disappointed at not receiving these early treats, but I daresay that he will find another means of maintaining his less-than trim figure until the 25th rolls around.

Now where did I put that bowl of ice cream?