Kate is 8 and it's great

We've had a little too much fun with the rhyming of this birthday!  But the truth is Kate is 8 and she thinks it's great! 

The very first thing she did Monday morning (her birthday) was head to the car and take out her car seat.  She's been counting down the days.  Frankly so have we!  The car seat has been an issue for her since she was 3! 

Her birthday was the small one this year. She didn't get a big party but she did get to pick one friend that she could celebrate with.  Surprisingly she chose Madi (not really...I actually typed that with much sarcasm ;) ). She's been begging to have Madi spend the night for weeks.  They love to draw, play with their American girl dolls and do gymnastics.  All of which they did! 

We went to dinner.  Kate's choice was Applebee's. 

The rest of us enjoying our dinner out.  Ya know, like the crazy people we are. 

After dinner we went home and had root beer floats and watched Frozen (again!). The girls stayed up late and got up early. Madi's an earlier riser than Kate ;) 

They put on their leotards and went and jumped on the trampoline (brr!). Kate caught me as I pulled out my phone and was getting ready to blaze out of the picture.  I still caught her! 

They played and drew pictures then asked if they could make cupcakes for their friends they were going to see at lunch. The only ingredients I had were for banana bread muffins.  They were happy to do that. 

This is always an interesting experience for me.  God uses these times to refine me in my need for order and control!  The girls were super enthusiastic and excited to bake.  This pictures cracks me up because of how they wanted to get a teaspoon of baking soda.  Can you see what can happen here? A pile of baking soda in the bowl?  Thankfully I caught them once I realized what was about to happen and showed them the right way to measure.  

In the end the muffins were good and the girls had a good time.  

It's blowing my mind a little bit that she is 8.  We're planning on getting her into gymnastics soon.  The girl is naturally talented and coordinated.  She's taught herself many things already and she's constantly doing cartwheels in the house. Next Mary Lou Retton? 

On a random side note, our house is going under contract as soon as we can get the papers signed.  As we learned last year, it doesn't mean for sure that we're moving but it's definitely a step in that direction.  If all goes well we will be out of our house at the end of April (a week before Mark graduates from school!). If any family reads this and you'd like to road trip down here around this time, we're more than happy to see you! ;)

Now to work on an offer for the house we'd like to move to...

12 Months of Christmas - Kate

Thursday was Kate and Mark's date night. They had originally intended to go out for Italian but apparently Kate was very against the idea when the time came. So they headed to Ken and Sue's where the hostess was thrilled to see a dad take his daughter to dinner.  She found them the perfect table for 2 up by the front window.  Mark said everyone around them thought she was adorable.  We know one of the chefs here and he came out and said hello.  I think Kate loved the attention. :)

After dinner they had dessert at Top That Frozen Yogurt. 

Mark said it was even better than their last date.  Kate seemed to be more comfortable talking and enjoying herself. 

I think they had a good time.

This girl is growing!

This little cutie pie has had a busy weekend of growing up. She lost her 7th tooth on Thursday.  Biting into a doughnut of all things! 

And then just yesterday - 2 years ahead of her older brother, who just learned a couple weeks ago and I'm pretty sure taught and motivated Kate to learn - she mastered the art of tying her shoes. Woohoo! Big milestones here people! 

Thanks to Pinterest for showing me a way to tie shoes that's a bit easier than chase the bunny around the hill...I wish I could upload a video for you. 

February is Flying!

My goal was to blog at least once, hopefully twice, in February.  I still have time.  That's what I keep telling myself.

I once again feel this need to update you.  And then maybe I'll share some of my spiritual journey on the 2nd one I do this month :)

We are one week back from a 12 day trip to Denver.  It started with us going to Denver for the funeral of Mark's grandmother.  A bittersweet time for sure.  We have no doubt that she's in heaven, healed and whole, but we are sad for those left here.  It's a new place to be for Mark.  He remarked that he's 38 - almost 39 - and this will be the first time in his life that he hasn't had grandparents.  What a blessing to have had them in his life for as long as he did.  And still such a change when they are gone.  

Mark stayed up for two more days for district meetings then drove back home.  The kids and I stayed up the extra week because we had my sister Kelly's baby shower to go to (something we had already planned on doing).  My broken booty said it was easier to stay up rather than drive up and back twice.  It also gave us another opportunity to visit the therapist we've seen with Kate.






So it worked out.  Honestly I was nervous about how it would be.  I was worried we'd overwhelm my generous parents for letting us stay.  I was worried I'd lose my mind single parenting all week.  But my worrying was, of course, for nothing.  Yes there were challenges but it went very well.  

We did a couple field trips.  One to the Denver Mint and one to the Museum of Nature and Science.  If I could homeschool in Denver it'd be awesome.  So much stuff to do and see!  We'd have a blast.  We'd be broke but it'd be fun!  For now we just do what we can while we're up there.

I went to an Avalanche game with my dad.  One that my children turned down.  Let's just say they aren't likely to do again :)

Kale turned 9! And he soaked it all up.  He requested Red Robin for lunch and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  Daddy would've been pleased with RR.  I was thrilled with the ice cream cake.  Win win!

You wouldn't know this because once you read this you just toodle along reading all I've written, but I just sat here for like 10 minutes trying to get my thoughts together to write this.  I was on the verge of frustration and I realized that this is probably why blogging has been so difficult for me for the past 6 or 7 months.

Back in August when I went to doctors to see what my deal was, my general practitioner said I was dealing with the physical side effects of stress.  Made total sense to me.  I had been uber stressed!  But a couple months ago I looked up the symptoms of clinical depression.  I was shocked at how many symptoms I had.  And I came to a greater realization that this was more than I thought.

I've always been a buck up and move on kind of person.  Not that I skip hard things but that I can always do something to change it.  This time I couldn't.  This time has been so frustrating because of my lack of ability to think, focus, concentrate, stay awake... My grace tank is empty and that's not fun for me, Mark or my kids.

I finally decided - and was persuaded - to go visit Kate's therapist and see what she could do for me.  I was honestly amazed at what she shared with me and how she wanted to help get me off medication (which really wasn't helping all that much) and see change.  I was able to see her twice and in just two visits I can already tell a difference.  I'm not out of the tunnel but I can clearly see the light at the end.  Helplessness (another symptom) is slowly leaving and hopefulness is taking over.  I can't tell you how thankful I am for that.  I have learned a lot, and continue to learn a lot, and am learning more compassion and understanding.  Blessings come from raindrops.  It's a journey for sure.

In church land (just to switch up gears on ya - welcome to my new world), we are still in the process of finding a new youth pastor.  It's been a crazy process and it hasn't been without learning curve bumps in the road of new pastors.  But overall it's been fun and exciting to see what God has in store for a generation He loves so very much.  We are this close to filling the position and I'll fill you in when it happens.  This has definitely been a year of crazy firsts for us!

At this moment Mark is at the church working on another paper for school.  This class has been the hardest for him.  By far.  God is stretching him in so many ways.  Not always a fun time.  But he's doing such an amazing job - far better than he thought he could.  Funny how God knows and we catch up :)

This is about all I can muster out into words at the moment.  I really hope to be able to share what we're doing in the upcoming month and all the lessons God is teaching me.  That's more brain power then I have at the moment. Thanks for hanging in there with me!
 

2 in a Week?!

2 times in one week?  Watch out.  I may be back....nah.  I just can't commit fully yet :)

I figured I'd update a few more things.  I forgot to mention in the last post that my children are phenomenal at swallowing vitamins now, which really opens up a whole new world of medication and allergy meds (no more grape flavored chewable or drinkable expensive gunk!).  They can be super slow in swallowing the hand-full of vitamins they are currently taking BUT they get swallowed eventually.  I consider that a win.

We are chugging along in school.  Both kids are doing better and better.  There is less fighting me than before.  I also consider that a win.  There is still fighting, to be sure, just less of it.  I changed math curriculum to something called Making Math Meaningful.  It helps them to not only understand math equations but also math concepts (something I'm getting a ton out of myself!).  I think it'll be good in the long run even though they are having to get used to doing a bit more work.  Kale has moved on from studying just the U.S. to now studying different countries.  He and I are currently playing a geography game of North America.  Seriously I've never known more geography in my life.  Sad!  Kate is steadily reading more and more and doing amazingly well.  So proud of her!

On that note, her eyes have improved since starting therapy and we had them rechecked by the eye doctor.  He approved of her going from the bifocals back to just one lens.  We were super excited to see serious progress and we put the new lenses in right away.  Unfortunately she couldn't focus up close on her schoolwork and it frustrated her (and me) so we had to change back to her bifocals.  Bummer.  But we'll keep on trying!

Mark and I went to Branson, MO. at the beginning of October for a pastor's conference.  It was the first time in a long time that we've been away from our kids.  I loved it.  I was so desperate for a break and it turned out to be such a nice time.  We went with our associate pastors, the Quisenberrys, and had a great time getting to know them better as well.  The kids shared their time away with us with both sets of grandparents.  It was so nice to be able to leave them with family.  

On that note, Mark is doing an amazing job as lead pastor.  Honestly I couldn't be more proud of him.  He works hard, loves people, seeks God and has just blown my mind on his capacity to minister!  He's also going to school and working hard reading textbooks and writing papers.  On top of that he has dealt with our issues with Kate as well as my struggles.  He's been a rock and a help and support and I'm super blessed to be married to this man.  I don't normally gush but just when I start thinking about all he's had to do and deal with in the last few months, I'm blown away at how God has faithfully used him.  So awesome.

Two weeks ago I helped lead my first women's retreat as lead pastor's wife.  Overall it was a huge success thanks to the amazing ladies who helped put it all together.  So much of the original planning was done when my mind couldn't focus.  It was so strange to me to not be able to concentrate and make decisions.  Normally I know just what I want to do ;).  But I struggled with reading the curriculum we were using and putting it all together.  The ladies on my team stepped up and took over much to my great delight.  My mind has been coming back and was much better at the time of the retreat.  Honestly the few glitches we had were in areas I was in charge of. We had 55 women come (way more than I thought would come) and my overall goal to have women get to know each other and just have fun together was reached.  It was thrilling.  There was even a ropes course there and we had a blast going down the zip line and trying out different elements on the high ropes course.  I told people that God just filled in all our cracks and the retreat was successful!

Wow.  I don't think I even shared about our trip to Breckenridge over Labor Day weekend.  Sadly I need to get going so I'll have to save that for another post.  That just means there's another one coming!

Embrace the Grace

I'm back.  Don't get too excited...I'm not sure how long the next gap will be.

I've been busy learning some life lessons.  Like how to embrace the grace.  Ya see, I've been overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed with just the busyness of life. Something I mention often when I blog.  But it got to me.  My mind was overloaded trying to sort through the next couple weeks, the next couple months.  Too much was in there that I was trying to juggle and I wasn't doing such a great job with it all.

So God is using it to teach me lessons.  Doesn't He always?  If we let Him?

I am learning that His grace is sufficient for today.  His grace no longer exists in the past so don't dwell there.  It is not in the future so don't dwell there either.  Yes, we can plan.  But if we are constantly thinking about ways it's all gonna work together or how we're going to survive it, it brings us down.  Or it brings me down.  My future life doesn't look to be slowing down till....January.  But that isn't the whole truth.  It's how it looks in my head but God knows better than me about all of it. 

I need to trust Him.  Embrace the grace for today.  Live in the now.  Not worry about the future.  His grace will be there when I get there.  I cannot dwell in a place where there is no grace.  (BTW I spoke on this very thing at our last women's breakfast this past Saturday hence all the rhyming)

So, in light of the fact that I am, in fact, embracing the grace, I won't beat myself up that I haven't shared since the 2nd of July. And that I missed sharing stories about the 4th of July parade,

Kale getting 3 stitches after cutting his head on a ceiling fan that hung over a bunkbed he was climbing on (no he is not 9ft tall...),

Kate learning how to put rubberbands in her hair all by herself.  I think this is the record so far. 7!

 The kids and I playing at the Children's Museum while Mishka got groomed for the first time since we've had him.  This blowing machine was their favorite by far!

 I won't dwell on the fact that I haven't shared all the stories I'd like to.  Instead I'm taking this extra moment that I have while Mark is in CA at school for a week (he's starting a 2 yr Master's program) to embrace God's grace for me today, blog for a few minutes and share yet another thing I found on Pinterest (oh goodness help me!) [And Kristin, I have actually made and done many things on Pinterest -- thanks for inspiring me to join :)]

And then she was 6

Yesterday, the 3rd, was my sweet little girl's birthday. Unfortunately for her, fortunate for us, Mark and I were at the church learning how to be better parents. We were blessed to be able to host and attend a great parenting conference at the church and we learned a ton! Sadly that prevented us from celebrating her birthday on her actual birthday...

So we did it beforehand.

It started Thursday night when we had her friend Madi over for a sleep over.Aren't they sweet? This was Kate's first sleepover at our house. She's been to Madi's and another friend but it was a first here. They stayed up giggling till 9:45 when I finally begged them to rest! Then they were up at 6! Too stinkin exciting!

Kate got to open up her presents.

Tinkerbell dolls from Madi and a bike from us.
We took them swimming and then to lunch at Dairy Queen. When we got home that afternoon all the kids were wiped out!

I think overall she had a good birthday. I mean we celebrated it for 3 days!
Friday night as I put her into bed I told her this was the last time I'd kiss her goodnight as a 5 year old. Kinda made me sad...She really is getting to be so grown up. Even at 6.

Of course she asked me this morning if she was 6 1/2 now....

Jack, Kate, School

Just a quick post to let you know that we did hear back from the Dr about Jack's blood tests. He does not have Celiac's and he does not have any food allergies. Praise the Lord! So we will continue with the acid reflux medicine for another month and see if it has helped. If not, then we'll have to do further testing. We are praying that this round of medicine will help his little tummy.

Also, this time of year is difficult for Kate. She has been melting down a lot lately. Just seemingly out of the blue. I'm sure it has nothing to do with our busy schedule and many late nights in a row...{hopefully the sarcasm was evident!} We are trying to slow things down a bit and get into a routine.

We're trying.

And lastly, this homeschool mama has not stopped school for Christmas break. They will finish this week then be on break for the next 2 while we are on vacation. So my poor, poor children are still doing math :)
I will tell you though, that this mama/teacher is also ready for a break. It's dang hard to motivate your children when you, yourself, are not motivated!

Only two more days. Only two more days.

Her First One!

My little girly is growing up!
She came to me Monday after lunch saying her tooth was hurting and really loose. She hasn't once told us she had a loose tooth so I wasn't expecting it to be that loose. But it was. She had to wait until I finished my phone call (yup, I can talk a lot some days) and then I yanked it.

She didn't like that it hurt but she was brave and so excited! I think she feels like a bigger kid now that she's missing a tooth. It's hard to see when she smiles cause her bottom lip covers it, but it's there, or rather, not there.

If you look at the picture on the left it's hard to tell what tooth she's missing. She actually had 2 teeth grow together when she was a baby so she doesn't have the normal 4 bottom teeth. I'm hoping when the new teeth grow in that she'll have 4. We soon shall see!

But for now we rejoice that the tooth fairy only forgot to come the first night and made up for it the next day while we were gone...stinkin tooth fairy. All busy and scatterbrained! How could she forget to bring money for Kate's first tooth. We might have to fire her and find someone a bit more reliable...

Fun on Friday - 19 & 20 (trying to catch up)

I should've known that when I started trying to post a weekly thing I'd get behind. But I guess that just tells you that life happens and you roll with it. Including Fun on Fridays.

The past couple weeks have been a bit on the insane side. I'll try and fill you in.

After our vacation to Pagosa we came home and hit the ground running. We had Dr's appointments galore! Plus we had to shop to fill up our fridge again. That may not seem like a ton but with 3 kids running errands - it feels like a lot.

Friday morning we had 2 appointments scheduled so FF wasn't quite as fun as the kids would've liked (or us for that matter). Jack and I had a WIC appointment then we headed over to the eye Dr so that Kate and Kale could have their check ups. Kate was being reevaluated after doing eye-patch therapy for 3 months and Kale was just being evaluated.

Kate went first and it was determined that her eye just isn't getting better. It is crossing even with her glasses on and she's starting to not even notice. She'll think she's seeing out of both eyes when it's clear that her bad eye isn't working at all. So the Dr suggested bifocals as our next option. The theory behind the glasses is that they will do all the work so that her eyes don't have to struggle to focus. She's actually got good vision but her eyes compete when they focus and the right one gives up and crosses. So the glasses are supposed to do the hard work for her so that the right eye doesn't give up. Since it's still crossing with her current Rx her glasses need to be stronger. But if the entire lens is as strong as she needs it then she'll lose her distance vision. Thus the bifocals.

After her appointment we went and tried on glasses since the ones she wears she got when she was 3. They've been pieced back together several times and are on their last leg. Unfortunately Kate is not thrilled about having to get new ones. Mark and I love getting new glasses, but for Kate it's a whole new sensation that she's not used to and it's no fun.

We went to try on different pairs but she couldn't stand any of them on her face for more than 3 seconds which was super frustrating. I kept trying to explain to her that they wouldn't feel this way when we got them, that we would adjust them to feel good, that this was to just see if they fit her face and looked good on her. Nope. She didn't care what I said. She just melted down.

So Mark took her and the boys (who had fun trying on glasses)
back to the car to wait while I picked out her new ones. She was just gonna get what I picked. I came back in - almost in tears - and the guy came over and asked if I was ok and if he could help me. I just told him that she doesn't handle new feelings very well and that I was gonna have to find something. He showed me a pair of the frames that have the super bendy nose piece and ear pieces and I was thrilled. They look very similar to her glasses now but they are more flexible and hopefully won't break as much.

If you've ever gotten glasses you know that picking out the frames is just the beginning. They have to measure your pupils and see where you'll be looking through the lens. But Kate wasn't up for coming back inside. The front desk lady thought she was in trouble. It's hard to explain Kate's behavior to people. I'm very thankful that she doesn't melt down in public very often. She looks like a very disrespectful kid that should be punished and honestly if the boys did what she's done they'd be punished. But it's because I know that her mind just isn't processing these things there is grace. She's not allowed to treat me terribly but instead of being punished she gets removed (if possible). To others though, she seems like a problem child, which breaks my heart.

Anyway, I had to run to the car a couple times to do the measurements and the optician even came out once and she allowed him to do a measurement. I'm not looking forward to having the glasses adjusted tomorrow since they've come in. Hopefully I can prepare Kate for what's ahead and she can do the best she can. *gulp*

Kale's eyes are totally fine. He's got great vision. Thank the Lord! Because Jack just had his 3 yr check up and the pediatrician recommended getting him checked at the eye Dr. She said it just may be the shape of his eye but he may also be beginning to show signs of having what Kate does (because it is genetic - although we can't figure out who else on either sides of our family has dealt with this). That appointment isn't till October but I'll let you know when we figure it out.

After the appointments we went to Smoothie King and got smoothies. And that was Fun (kinda) Friday :)

This past week our washing machine broke so the repair guy had to come on Friday since every other day was booked already. It turned out to be ok since neither Jack or Kate were feeling all that well. It turns out that Jack has some fluid in his lungs and the Dr was concerned about walking pneumonia. He did get a fever that night and we put him on antibiotics yesterday so hopefully he's on his way to recovering. He acts ok when he's on Tylenol. But when it wears off you can tell he's just not himself. Kate's just a bit congested. She seems better this morning.

So our Fun Friday consisted of snuggling and watching a movie. We did teach the kids Skip-bo and they had a good time. Gotta prepare them for Cooper game nights!

The whole family is in a wedding this weekend so there are several things to prepare for this week. We've been doing pre-marital counseling for this couple as well as another one so we had a couple nights each week spent doing that. We also did the River Run for Orphans - an event our church is very involved with putting on. I'll have to post a couple pictures later.

I'm home from church at least for the first service this morning. I'm hoping to get in for the 2nd service. I hate missing church. But Jack and Kate, while feeling better, can't go in to their classes and risk getting other kids sick. I can't be that mom! So they'll stay with me. They don't really enjoy it though and I didn't want to force them through 2 services. After church we have something for new people to meet the staff so we'll try and attend that. Then we have one more counseling session after that. *whew!*

Glad we're home for a bit. Even though that wasn't everything, I'm sure you're done reading my picture-lacking post. Hoping for some more time soon!

Inagural Ride

On Saturday I told Mark that we needed to figure out how to go on a bike ride with the whole family. Neither Jack or Kate have bikes. But our friend, Tiff, has a bike trailer thingy to pull kids behind.

So we begged her to borrow it, got it from her on Sunday, and took it out for a spin Sunday night after naps. The weather was perfect! Not too hot and not rainy and cold.

Kale had gone to a friend's house to spend the night so we only had the two without bikes but it worked out perfectly actually.

We loaded up our bikes in Mark's truck and headed over the hospital where there are some nice easy(er) paved bike trails. Mark strapped them to the back of his bike and off we went!

The kid laughed and giggled. We had a great time. I'm pretty sure the next time we go won't be quite as enjoyable since the kids will be riding their own bikes...but we're sure gonna try! I hope we'll get to do it more often and even for fun Fridays!

An eye on you!

I don't think I've shared with you the latest news from our eye doctor. Kate and I had appointments a little over a month ago. Dr Miller wanted to check her lazy eye and see if anything was improving. Unfortunately it hasn't improved. It's actually getting a bit worse.
*sigh*

Bummer.

Since the glasses are helping but they aren't improving anything the next step would be bifocals but can you imagine trying to teach a 5yr old how to use bifocals?! Yeah me neither. The Dr said it's very difficult and probably not helpful in the long run since she's still so young.

The next option (before something drastic like surgery) is eye patch therapy. Basically forcing her bad eye to work. The Dr suggested putting scotch tape over the lens of her good eye making her bad eye have to focus. If that doesn't work (meaning she cheats and looks around the lens) then use a "pirate" patch. If that doesn't work then use an eye bandage and tape the thing to her face. She needs to do this therapy for 3 hours a day, 3 days a week for 3 months.

He told me that it was going to be difficult to force her to use her bad eye but that I had to be tough and make her. Little did he know that getting her to do things like wear a patch or a bandage that she doesn't want to wear was going to be way more than tough!

I put it off and put it off because we had company, then vacation, then company....finally I realized that there really wasn't going to be a great time to start this. I just needed to suck it up and do it. That and the fact that I was already now a month behind...Grrr!

So last week I sat her down and told her what we needed to do. My awesome, wonderful friend Kim and her daughter, Ashley, heard about what I had to do and they went to the store and bought some pirate patches and some bling and bedazzled the hooey out of a couple of patches in hopes that Kate would totally dig them and want to wear them. Kim also suggested starting with the patch (which would most likely be uncomfortable) and if she hated it do the scotch tape thingy. Hopefully showing her that it could be more comfortable. Genius.

She resisted - a lot - at first. I explained to her that we needed to make that eye work right by golly (I joked with her about it). I told her that if we could get her eye to do what it's supposed to then maybe she wouldn't have to wear glasses. Then I told her that if she did this for the 3 months then we'd have a celebration at the end and we could invite her friend Madi over for a sleepover. She stopped arguing for a second and asked if we could bake cookies with Madi. I said we'd do that and more! Can you say desperate?

Then my sweet, wonderful son, Kale, came out wearing an extra eye patch and pretending to be a pirate. He was somehow able to get Kate excited to be a pirate and that girl wound up wearing her patch for the rest of the night. Way to go Kale!

So we have to do the pirate thing 3 or 4 times a week (since we're behind). She does pretty well....if I put it on the correct eye....After I took this picture I realized the patch was covering her bad eye. Mother of the year. Right here!Now I need to set an alarm on my phone to help remind me to make her put it on. I get so forgetful!

And we're back!

Blogger has been down for a day or so and it's finally back! It's not like I've had tons to say and am dying to say it but we did have a ball game! 2 actually. And Fun Friday (to be blogged later)! And a doctor's visit. And home art class. I mean there's stuff to say!

Mark had his first men's game on Wednesday night but the kids and I opted out on account that it was stinkin freezing and there was no way I was going to freeze my tail off in the wind. We're fans but I don't think we're super crazy fans. I know there were some dedicated fans there and I admire them...from my home....

So we'll start with home art class.

Nothing too spectacular. Just paint. But they painted for quite a while!

Everyone that is, except Jack. He decided to be a helper and wash his toys in the kitchen sink. I suppose they needed a good washing. And hey! It was clean! And he was entertained!

On Thursday morning the older kids had check ups. I was figuring that Kate would need her kindergarten shots (which is another thing I still need to blog about!) so I bribed them with ice cream {as any sane mommy would do....}. Turns out she was caught up on her shots. But of course we still had to have ice cream!

Then Thursday evening Kale had his 2nd game {his first win!}
Here's a super fan (totally didn't get a picture of the other one and I was so bummed) playing with his stick/planes.... ...and stick/gun.

Kale was 1 for 3 - - meaning he got one hit and was up to bat 3 times (for all my non-sports readers). He hit a double though!

He played 2nd base, outfield and he tried catcher. He was supposed to catch for 2 innings but he only made it about 3 pitches before a ball ricocheted off the ground and hit him in the butt. He was so done after that. He walked right back to the dugout in the middle of that at bat and said he didn't want to catch. His coaches graciously allowed him to be done. He wanted to come sit with me in the stands (typical Kale) but we all encouraged him to show courage and persevere and go back out for the rest of the game. He did and I was really proud of him. He tends to give up when things are hard, so for him to go back out there was awesome. His little bud Toby filled in and was great. He did like putting on the gear though :)

And that's all for this post. I'll be working on Fun Friday though and will post that this weekend.