Thursday, August 30, 2012

Fishing!

Dylan requested a fishing pole for his birthday from his Grandpa Dave, and Grandpa did not disappoint! As soon as Grandpa got out of the car Dylan was right there asking about his fishing pole. Luckily Grandpa had it in an easily accessible location and was nice enough to give the fishing pole to Dylan right away! After Grandpa got the fishing pole assembled, he showed Dylan how to cast the line and after a few tries Dylan started to get the hang of it.
On Saturday morning we headed to the pond at Anchor Park to go fishing. Dylan couldn't wait to try and catch a fish. However, we weren't so lucky, I think we needed worms, we were just using what bait came with the fishing pole. But Dylan didn't give up easily, and had a ton of fun casting the line, reeling it in and learning some fishing secrets from Grandpa!

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Grandpa showing Dylan how to cast the line.
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Any fish down there?

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Maybe over here will be better?
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What about here? No luck!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

T-ball!

Dylan had his first t-ball practice Tuesday night. I almost died from the cuteness. It was like watching someone try and herd cats...the coach did do a great job though. First the coach had the kids all run the bases, then then each child hit off the tee and ran to each base as each child hit the ball and they ended with catching grounders and even a few fly balls. Dylan seemed to have fun. I asked him before he went to be what he liked most about t-ball and he said "Everything!" he liked running (of course, he loves to run) hitting and catching. He is really looking forward to his next practice and first game next week!

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Practicing running the bases.

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Waiting for his turn to bat.
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Coach making sure Dylan knows to run to 1st base after he hits the ball. 
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Now I'll go to 3rd base! (he actually started running towards home plate, I guess we need to work little more on base running!)
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Waiting....
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Resting, there were a lot of swings and misses before he ran to third base...

Painting with a Twist: Paint your pet

My mom visited a few weeks ago and we were able to make it to one of my favorite places, Painting with a Twist! A few weeks before my mom visited I asked her to look at their calendar to see if there was anything she wanted to paint the week she was there. Luckily, the "Paint Your Pet" class was open on Wednesday night. My mom has been talking about painting a few of her cats forever, so this class was perfect timing.

I decided that I would paint one of her cats instead of painting one of our cats. I'm not quite sure where I would put a painting of one of our cats. :) Mom emailed photos of two of her cats, Minnie, a gorgeous black and white cat and Julius an sweet orange tomcat to Painting with a Twist. The instructor, Leann, penciled an outline of the cats on canvas before we got there so we would have a good starting place. We started out by tracing the cats pencil outline with watered down paint. Then we started to fill in the colors, black and whitish gray for my mom and a multitude of oranges and browns for me. We had great help from our instructor Leann. It knew this class would be difficult, but it was a lot harder than I expected. However, the background on my painting was just blue sky and a gray wall, my mom's painting had yellow flowers and (what ended up as red)a reddish background.

She did a great job on Minnie's face, especially her white fur between her eyes and wisps of her black fur. Leann helped me quite a bit at the end of my painting I was getting worn out and it was just difficult to get some of the fur looking just right. There were only 3 of us in the class, so we had lots of one on one attention, which is certainly important in a class like Paint your pet.

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You start by outlining the cats in black.


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Then you fill in the background (as you can see my mom started off with a yellow background)
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Then you fill in the rest, it's not really that easy though. It was great to have a small class and the instructor there to help with the details!
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The (almost) finished paintings. My mom wanted to finish her flowers at home. But look at minnie's face (the  black and white cat) awesome! Both cats are a wonderful representation of their personalities. 

Monday, August 20, 2012

Dylan's 4th Birthday Party!

Dylan had such a great time at his birthday party. A few of his friends from daycare came over for the party as well as his good friends Brandon and Andrew. We also had a few little ones and our neighbors, so there were lots of kids running around the house in addition to the 10 adults. The kids stayed busy playing in the new playroom, shooting baskets at Dylan's new basketball hoop, riding bikes and trikes down our hill and running around the yard.

I made Dylan's birthday cake again this year. He loves superheros as most boys do and his favorites are Spiderman and Batman. I found some cake inspiration on pinterest and went from there. I think the cake turned out pretty good, however, I didn't center it very well and it's a little lopsided, but other than those two issues I was happy with it.

He ripped through his presents in record time and of course loved all of them, especially his new Ironman and Captain America action figures, batman car and spiderman shooting webs.

A big thanks to all our friends and Dylan's that came to the party, you made his day!


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Happy 4th Birthday Dylan!!

It is hard to believe it's been 4 years since we first met you!
As you can see your eyes are closed in this picture, but I don't remember you sleeping all that much!

 Here are a few of your favorite things...

You have turned into such a fun little boy. Your dad love going to watch you at gymnastics and can't wait to watch you play t-ball this fall.

You love superheros right now, especially Spiderman, Batman and all the Avengers. And Curious George is still at the top of your list of shows to watch. You also love to watch Power Rangers from the 90's, that show is your Dad and I's least favorite. And sometimes you'll be all crazy and turn Caillou on, which is by far the worst. You also love to put puzzles together and can do most of the ones we have on your own. The iPad is probably your favorite thing right now, you love to do puzzles and play games on it and also watch shows on it.

You are still a great helper. You bring your plates and cups into the kitchen, try to get your own drinks and snacks and help throw the laundry in the washing machine. You also like to help put stuff in your sisters dresser drawers. You gave her two of your stuffed animals and the overnight diapers you outgrew.

You love to pick out your own clothes to wear to school, right now your Buzz Lightyear, Baseball and Curious George shirts are your favorite. Your dad and I got you a basketball hoop for your birthday, the Nerf hoop in the house just isn't cutting it anymore. You still love to play outside and run around like a wild man. I hope that doesn't change anytime soon.

Happy Birthday Dylan! We can't wait to see what the next year brings!!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Gymnastics=Olympic Hopeful?

Dylan has been taking gymnastics for two months now and I have yet to make it to one of his practices. They start at 4pm so unfortunately I am still at work then. However, that will chance next week when they will be at 5pm. I can't wait to go watch him. Dave says that Dylan has so much fun at gymnastics, which isn't hard to believe considering he pretty much does gymnastics all day at home too.
Here are a few of the photos Dave took at one of Dylan's recent practices. I am sure you can see a budding Olympian in them like we do! :)


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Practicing handstands 
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Working on his bar routine
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On to the vault!