Our Triathlete

 I raced in my first triathlon on Sunday.  I was pretty nervous before we got there but as we waited in line, I started to get extra excited.  I got my game face on!

 Right before the prerace meeting, I was ready to go!  Isn't it cool how they write your number all over your arms and legs?

 I was number 3 into the pool and one of the first 10 out of the pool in my age group.  I raced with 6, 7, and 8 year olds.  There were 228 of us in that group and 24 6 year olds.

 I did awesome in transition. Here I am coming out of transition about to mount my bike.  We had to tote our bikes up a hill before we started.  That was crazy hard.

 This is the home stretch of the run.  At the very end, I passed this kid in front of me!

 Finished, with my medal!! That was a tough race.  I finished number 11 out of all 6 year olds and 10th out of the 6 year old boys.  Not too shabby for my first race!

Mom is including this here because she is terrible at remembering race statistics!

Easter at the beach

We had a great time at Surfside Beach with Nana and Pappy and all of our Byman family cousins over Easter weekend.  We stayed in a fun beach house that had a big porch, neon palm tree lights and lots of bunk beds.  We dyed eggs, flew kids, made a giant hole in the sand on the beach and even hunted eggs left by the Easter bunny.  We learned that Davis is quite the entertainer of baby Matthew.  Matthew laughed at all of Davis' tricks.

We kids did not know it but there was a little craziness at the beach during a Kappa Texas beach party.  There were over 15,000 people walking up and down the beach for about 3 or 4 hours.  As you can imagine, with that many people, there was eventually a violent incident but we kids were none the wiser.  Because the beach party was so traumatic we invited a nice family from Utah who was staying right on the beach to come have Easter lunch with us.  They were so grateful and so nice.  We hope we left a better impression of Texas with them.  Hoping all future beach weekends are a little less exciting.

69 Months

My people,
I've had a great month (except for this last week, I've been nasty sick).  We celebrated a lot this month at my school.  We had a great Easter egg relay race and cookie decoration party.  We also celebrated 100 days of school.  We decorated lots of numbers for a 100 number quilt.  We also made 100 day shirts.  My shirt had 100 googley eyes.  I didn't get to celebrate with my class because I was sick but I still posed for a picture.  I'm mastering sight words.  I also started piano lessons.  My teacher says I'm a natural.  I'm catching on a lot faster than her other 5 year old students, or so she says! I'm practicing tball, piano and sight words almost every day. It is busy here every afternoon, at least for me.  I'm loving when Mom, Dad and Mimi read me Encyclopedia Brown, A-Z Mysteries and other chapter books. I'm making my own chocolate milk in the mornings sometimes and even getting my breakfast ready a time or two a week.   I haven't been to the doctor since my last birthday but I had a sick visit this week.  I had a nasty virus and missed 3 days of school with fever.  While I was home I learned how to take my own temperature and work the tv remote.  I will be driving before you know it!
Later,
luke

47 Months

Hi friends,

You read it right.  I am almost 4.  One month away.  I don't quite understand the concept of a month but I like saying it rather than 4 weeks or 21 days.  I'm really changing this month.  My disposition is all around better.  I'm channeling my energy to become a comedian.  I like to trick you with "made you look" jokes.  I also like to tickle you and scare you if the time is right.  I know all of my letters now and lots and lots of my numbers.  I catch on while Luke is working on his sight words.  I bet I will be reading sooner rather than later. I certainly pick out lots of books when I go to storytime at the library.  I have my own library card and can check out up to 25 books at a time.  The most I've taken so far is 14 (for myself).  I like bedtime even more now than I have before.  Everytime I get ready for bed Daddy and I fight for who gets to lay on the "kids side" of the bed.  I even ask mom and Luke to protect the kids side for me while I'm brushing my teeth before bed.  If Daddy gets there first I have to fight for him to move out of my way!  I've become quite the gamer.  I LOVE to play Wii Pirates of the Caribbean (Lego version).  Mom and Dad don't let me play that long but sometimes, when no one is paying attention I sneak upstairs and play for a while.  At Luke's tball games I am allowed to go to the concession stands by myself and order up a popsicle or sprite.  Not every 3 year old is that responsible, right? I still practice my Ninja moves whenever I can.  I even practice with Mimi.  Poor Mimi.  I am excited for my 4 year old birthday party. If you are looking to get me a gift I have requested 13 Nintendo DS's (because I don't quite understand that you only need one, with lots of different game cartridges).
Talk soon,
d

Tball Teams are in full swing (pun intended)

 I am on the Reds this year.  It is my first year of Dad's Club (Little League, competitive tball).  I am a great hitter and am improving in my fielding every game.  I've played a lot of positions so far: Left Field, Center Field, 3d Base and Pitcher.

I am on the Arizona Diamond Backs this year.  I'm playing Small Stuff tball for the YMCA.  I love it because I get to play catch with Dad and run the bases with my coaches.  I do not like running a lap at the end of each practice.  That track is big!

Spring Break Madness

 Spring Break was jammed packed fun this year! On the first day of Spring Break we went to see a play at Main Street Theater.  The play, How I Became A Pirate, was SWEET (in Luke's words).  We had second row seats along the aisle and we saw lots and lots of action.

 Afterwards we got our Playbills autographed by all the actors.  This is Capt'n Braidbeard.  He's a great actor!

 After the play we had lunch with lots of our friends at Lupe Tortilla.  On Tuesday, we had a playdate at our friend Jason's house.

 On Wednesday we headed to the Rodeo to check out the livestock show and the carnival.  We went with Michael Patrick and Mimi.  We didn't realize it was value Wednesday so we got in free and so did Mimi (and about two million other people).  It was crazy busy but that did not stop us from riding rides and wasting lots of money on carnie games.  See below for what did stop us from making it around the carnival easily!

 Before we left, we stopped to make splatter paint frisbees.  Nothing says rodeo like a painted frisbee.

 On Thursday we attempted to go pick strawberries 3 different times.  We were only successful once. Even then success is loosely defined.  We picked about 30 strawberries total.  But, we got fried pies and posed with this giant strawberry.

 We missed our friends Keegan and Finn.   They were with us for the first two attempts.  In between tries we had a good lunch at Joe's BBQ in Alvin and jumped on Mimi's trampoline.

Exhibit A for what will slow you down at the rodeo carnival.  Especially if said objects are won/purchased within 15 minutes of arriving at said carnival.

On Friday of Spring Break we headed to Chuck E Cheese.  Keegan and Finn joined us and we all got lots of tickets (and pizza).

What a great Spring Break.