Hey! Porter here again. This is actually me coming in from Porter Productions. I liked making the last blog post so much, that Mom's letting me type the blog again! Before I begin, please, sit back and get comfy. Enjoy!
By Porter Productions
-Sports: This spring, Cooper played soccer and had Mama and our friend "big kid" Jordan, as his coaches. Coop had a great season, scoring at least one goal in each of his games! He and his team did really well, and their games are looking more and more like actual soccer matches each season he plays. Coop's team, the "Orange Raptors", had a finishing record of 3-5.
As you know from my last post on March 19, I had started back to baseball and was having a great time...until March 30th. It was one of those late-night games. One of my teammates was stealing home, and at that same time, I was stealing 3rd base, sliding to avoid the tag. Good news was, that I was safe. Bad news was, I fractured my ankle. 😲 I was able to come back and play in the tournament by the end of the season, and despite the games missed, I had a ton of fun and couldn't have asked to be with a better group of guys. My team finished in 3rd place with a 14-9 record, and I was in the dugout every game but two, helping however I could!
-Easter & Spring Break: The week before Easter we got to go to Palo Alto for the first EGGstravaganza with the Santa Clara Cousins in 2-years!!! We got to hunt for eggs with cool prizes in them. We also did lots of games both easter related and not. We also had wonderful food and was nice to see the S.C.C. again.
The day before Easter we went to Aunt Myrna's in Sacramento and dyed eggs, like Mom says she used to do growing up.
For Easter, Cooper and I were in for a real treat. After going to church and doing a church egg hunt for the first time in two years, we came home and did our own egg hunt. (A silly scooter couldn't even slow me down!) Even though normally there isn't anything inside of our plastic eggs, this year we found...pieces of paper!! 😀 We eventually figured out that each piece of paper was a letter of the alphabet and after Moms gave us a code to solve, we discovered that despite having a broken ankle, we were going to... LEGOLAND for Spring Break! With the VILLAGERS!!!! We all even stayed at the Legoland Hotel.
We carpooled down together and Mommy made all us kids special luggage tags and activity books to do in the car. Sadly, we couldn't have rooms near each other because we were on the "Explorer" floor that had decorative snakes and they don't like snakes. But it was still SUPER fun!
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-Entomologist Cooper: We are SO lucky to have our very own bug expert: Cooper! Coop knows a whole lot about bugs. Types, facts, and more. Have an insect problem? Ask Cooper about it! He spent much of the Spring tending to an ant farm, raising Painted Lady Butterflies and taking care of dark-wing Beetles.
(we put a couple of videos of our resident Entomologist in the "End of School" Google picture link, too!)
End of the School Year: Check out pictures here End of School Year Pics to see some fun field trip pictures; a dairy cow assembly at school (for Mommy's birthday! 😉); a book I wrote and published for a special art class I was in at school; and our family outing to the College Softball Super Regionals, where Mommy's Beavers beat Stanford in Palo Alto over Memorial Day!
Birthdays: Our family has had a few recent birthdays. Mommy turned 43 on May 2 at 2:34 pm. Cooper turned 8 at 9:43 pm on July 13. Ninjago made Mr. 8-year old's theme, including him going to Martial Arts Camp all of his birthday week. The cake Mommy made him was a green ninja named Lloyd.
SUMMER
As usual, there has been all sorts of fun so far this summer, both planned and unplanned. Our public library has continued to offer great weekly projects, events, free books to keep and a 3-day camp (that was FREE!) in their Maker Space. We started the summer by getting new tennis shoes, we've seen a few movies at theaters, took advantage of free Slushees on 7/11, Cooper had swim lessons for two weeks and we each got to have our first real sleepovers with our own friends. Moms also got us a new pool for the summer and we have a sweet set-up now in the yard for our hottest days! Mommy says she didn't know she wanted to be a "pool girl" this summer. 😄
-Woodland Opera House: I tried a musical theater camp this summer for the first time, and I am so glad I did. It was a 4-week experience with 3 performances in the final week. The showcase theme was "TV Shows" and we got to perform ON the Woodland Opera House Stage, to a full house at each show. What a blast! I loved it so much that I asked to be signed up for the 9-week Fall class, which will end with a performance on December 3rd. The theme: Villains! 😈
-The 4th of July: While Moms got started early on the yard (more on that later!), we spent the day with the Villagers. Some of us kids played baseball for literally hours in our backyard and when it got too warm, we went over to the Villagers to watch a movie. Then we had hotdogs and hamburgers together at their house, before moving the fun to the end of our street, to celebrate with other kids around our neighborhood. Our evening finished with water balloons, face-painting, watermelon, ice cream and fireworks!
-Church Services: We have been able to return to in-person church. Coop-a-loop and I have each done one scripture reading and have been acolytes one time each. We hope to continue into the Fall.
-Random Summer Fun:
I have also taken on the challenge of cooking dinner once a week for all of us. I've made a couple of different types of noodle dishes, a roasted tomato tostada dish and a broccoli/beef meal.
-Front Yard Re-landscaping: Moms have been working very hard to re-landscape our front yard and it looks VERY beautiful right now. They're 3⁄4 done working on it. Once it's done, we'll add more pictures and re-post so you can see the final project! Front Yard Pics
-Terrific TEXAS: Y'all...we had the best time having new adventures with Memaw and Graunty! We had a WONDERFUL meal with extended family on 7/24 for Memaw's 81st b-day, at her community's club house; then we came back to her house for cake! While with Memaw, we swam for three days until we couldn't swim anymore (because I got an ear infection - oops!); Memaw treated us to batting cages, school clothes shopping, a trip to a new children's bookstore and a visit to the internationally known Texas A&M Fire School. And Moms took us mini-mini golfing one afternoon, too. We got our annual Dairy Queen stop for lunch one day and tried a grill by the airport where you could watch aircraft our last afternoon. But my favorite lunch was a Japanese restaurant where they made your food right in front of you! Our chef, Chef Patrick, spread fire with his hand! It was AWE-SOME! We also were so happy to get to see Aunt Bernedette a couple of times and she made us snickerdoodle cookies!
After 5-full days in Bryan, we headed to Austin for a little time with Graunty and Uncle Cliff. Our time with them on Friday included getting to see the newly released Super Pets movie, our annual visit to County Line BBQ and a board game. On Saturday we headed through Round Rock, TX to stop for "famous" donuts on our way to a place called the Inner Space Cavern. Personally, I liked the donuts more than the cavern, but after being underground, Cooper and I then panned for gemstones and fossils. That was pretty cool. We re-matched the board game from the night before and watched a fun Netflix movie I'd recommend called Enola Holmes - and Enola backwards spells Alone! 😉
You can check out our adventures here Texas 2022!
Oh my goodness! You've done so many fun things. I'm glad your ankle is healed. I've never been to Legoland but I love doing Lego's and I've always wanted to go. The pictures and your description make me want to go now more than ever.
ReplyDeleteYour moms have done such a great job with the yard. I'm currently trying to flip one of our grass strips and it's a lot of work. Also...a pool! Very jealous. I love that Cooper is loving bugs and it's great his soccer games are looking more and more like real soccer games. ;)
It's so fun reading these blog posts and seeing all the great things you're doing. Can't wait for the next installment from Porter Productions!