The results are in and Sam got 2nd Place in the “other” category for the Fine Arts show.  The competition included entries from 13 other schools up through the Raleigh area.  Only two students from TCS  won an award at the competition, the other was a 3rd place finish by Christie’s daughter (Mom’s friend/co-worker in After School Care).  Sam placed 3rd last year and hopefully next year we can get both boys to enter in the competition.

The boys just got a new tent from Ikea if we remember correctly.  Sometimes they still get along this well….

           other times not so much.  🙂

Today was a very busy and a socially active day for the boys… Sam’s soccer game today was at 8am (cold and rainy) – so much for sleeping in this morning. Then Mom had to go to the grocery store and Dad had to go to Lowes.  By the time that was all done, we were off to Chick-Fil-A for the free sandwich for the soccer players.  We also had to take Alex and Matt back to the soccer field to watch Hanna play her game and then they were staying as their game started at right after the conclusion of her game.  In the meantime, Sam had to be dropped off at Josh’s house and Mom had to pick Dad up to go back out to Alex’s game.  After the 2nd game, we made a 2nd trip to Chick-Fil-A for the free sandwiches for the soccer players.  While we were waiting for Alex to eat with his friends we ran across the street to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things.  Finally home, we are now cleaning the house and waiting for another group of boys to come over and play video games with Alex and for Sam to call to come pick him up.
  As for the games, Sam’s team lost by 1 goal as Sam had 1 good save and almost a 2nd one but it just barely rolled in (we think his own teammate might have knocked it in accidentally) – final score was 2-1.  Alex’s team won with the help Of Matt and Cole both of which were not actually on the soccer team but we had some extra shirts and they both came out to play… hopefully nobody finds out, but they were also playing Wesley’s team and he didn’t seem too happy that they had all the help.  The final score for that game was 5-2 and Matt actually scored 4 goals while Wesley scored two for his team.

Sam had to go to the Fine Arts competition to show off his photo (earlier blog) and sing in the elementary class choir.  Of course he had to put on a tie and dress up for the competition so what better tie to wear than his new one from Aunt Emma and Uncle Rupert.  Mom thought he looked so handsome in the new tie she decided to take a photo – of course he still can’t smile in front of the camera. 🙂
   Thanks to Emma and Rupert for the ties, the boys look great in them.  Alex will be wearing his for the Junior/Senior Athletic banquet in a couple of weeks.

  Spring soccer started on Saturday with Alex’s game at 8am and Sam’s game at 1pm.  So soccer pretty much takes up the whole day and it looks like it will be that way all season.  Both Sam and Alex lost their games but both of them played well.  Alex had some nice passes and two very good shots on goal but their goalie was pretty good.  Alex’s team ended up losing 2-1 but could have very well won the game.  I am pretty sure by the end of the season once they are used to each other they will be in much better shape.  Alex does still have Josh on his team, but some of his other school friends are on different teams.
  Sam meanwhile was put in at goalie/keeper!  We originally thought it was only going to be for just this game because the regular goalie wasn’t there, but found out after the game that the ‘regular’ goalie was there but they needed him on offense.  So it looks like Sam will be playing goalie all year.  The coach volunteered to give him some one on one time on Wednesday nights after the regular practice (Sam will generally miss practice because it is from 5pm – 6pm), so he needs to make the most of the coach’s offer.  Sam actually played pretty well for his first whole game as keeper.  He did give up 3 goals but one of them he couldn’t see and another one was just a great shot.  He made a couple of nice stops too, just needs to learn when to fall on the ball and when to make a challenge.  So all in all it should be a good season!  Below are some photos from the two games, a photo of Sam with his new goalie gloves we picked up later in the day and then a short video of Alex trying to help him learn how to reject the ball at goal…. hmmm – love the gloves but the flip flops just don’t match.

So Alex missed the deadline for the photo contest – the upper grades were a few weeks ago.  The good news however is that he can enter his waterfall photo or any other photo in next year’s contest.  Sam’s choice came down to 3 photos… see the finalists below.  In the end, we asked the teacher’s opinion and she thought the berry photo was the best.   Now we can just cross our fingers and hope Sam places again this year.

Desert Lizard

Lizard on a hot tin roof

Winter in North Carolina

 

Thankfully we have 3 or 4 more years before these 2 boys are ready to drive….

We made the trip up to Virginia for Easter weekend and managed to get a short hike in at the Shenandoah National Park.  The drive was about 1.5 hours from Waynesboro but was worth the trip except of course for the cold, the wind and the fact that Mom sounded like she was dying from a lung infection.  The hike was about 2.6 miles down and back to the Rose River Falls.  Since it seemed like it was going to be the easiest of the hikes and the shortest we thought this would be a good place to start (there are 10 waterfalls listed in the guide).  Below are some of the photos….

Ok – so we didn’t actually take this picture, but we now know the answer to the question…. Yes!

What can you do in 24 hours and two plane tickets to KC??  Alex and I found out over the weekend.

De-icing the plane at 6am on Sat morning…

So the guy at Budget says – pick any car in section 1 (Economy)…. Alex and Dad go out there and there are no cars in Section 1, so we go back into Budget and he says just pick one from Section 2 – there aren’t any cars in Section 2 either, so he says just pick one in Section 3 then.  So instead of a economy car we end up with a Dodge Hemi – this of course made Alex’s day and he immediately started texting his friends!

Doing some shopping in Downtown Lawrence, KS… 2 hours until tip off.

Lunch at Fuzzy’s Tacos – great Enchiladas.  We couldn’t get into the The Burger Stand (our first choice) – too crowded.  Both are listed as 4.5 stars –  Lawrence has a lot of great little restaurants.  Our favorite spot, The Local Burger, was closed due to the fact they are moving.

Give Big Jay a rub for good luck at the Student Union.  We parked here and walked across campus…  since it was Saturday we didn’t have to pay for parking!

After a grueling 38 minutes, the Hawks finally pull ahead.  Definitely missing their big man Cliff Alexander today.  Perry Ellis at the line with 1.6 seconds left and a 4 point lead.  Perry had a double-double in the game 28 pints and 13 rebounds to lead the Jayhawks.  See why AFH is the toughest place to play in all of college basketball below (114 dBa)

After the game…

Brand new – just opened a couple of months ago about 5 minutes from Grandma’s house.  We actually needed another light for Alex’s room.

The College Basketball Experience center

College Basketball Hall of Fame

Sprint Center – home of the Big 12 Championships in just a couple of weeks… right next to the College Basketball Experience center.

The Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts – unfortunately the KC Symphony was having a performance , so we didn’t try to get in.

KC Scout overlooking the city.

Another view from the Scout – you can see the Kaufman Center in the middle and the Convention Center is the building with the 4 small towers.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

Heading home – STL to RDU… we just missed all the storms and didn’t have any problems flying.

So we had our second winter storm of the year on Tuesday and received almost 4 inches of snow.  Of course the forecast was only for flurries  or up to 1/2″ of snow so it caught everyone a little of guard.  The boys got out of school early and we all went outside to clear off the driveway and let the dog run around for a few minutes.  The boys had Wednesday off as well as the road crews did a terrible job of clearing the street.  We are now waiting for winter storm #3 to roll into town on Wednesday night into Thursday.  Predictions run from 2-4″, 3-6″ or a winter mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow – basically they have no idea what is going to happen.  The boys already have a 2 hour delay, but may not end up going to school at all if we actually receive one of the first two forecasts.  The Raleigh area is predicted to get 6-10″ of snow so Dad took the day off to avoid the drive.  Here are some of Dad’s photos from Tuesday.

A little better prepared this time.

Home Sweet Home – even can see the smoke from the fireplace.