Fall Football Fun

It's not fall without a LOT of football at our house!  This was Mason's first year of tackle and let's just say practicing for anywhere from 4-8 hours a week was a little adjustment.  There were a few sore muscles and lots of bruises, but mostly enjoyment!  Although their record wasn't the best, the boys learned the essential skills of the game and worked together as a team.

Mason played quarterback and center on offense...not your usual combination!

Ron coached the 5th and 6th grade Panthers this year.

Panthers 2011

 Connor enjoyed another year of flag football.  The game really came together for him this year and his "wheels" came in quite useful on both offense and defense.  He enjoyed scoring several touchdowns and was quite the master at flag pulling.

We were fortunate to have some gorgeous fall days at the beginning of the season.

Connor could get an eye on that flag, dive, and pull!

 You don't have fall football without including the Panthers!  When schedules and weather cooperated we enjoyed tailgating with friends.  We bought an extra season ticket this year so one of the boys got to take a friend to each game.  What is more fun than tailgating and watching football with a friend?

TK and some loyal fans!

TK, Caleb and Connor

#1 Panther Fan - Owen!

Halloween 2011

Once again, time has gotten away from me, but here's a quick update on the McCartan goblins of 2011!  We had a beautiful evening to trick or treat and for the first time, Mason and his buddy Lily hit every street in the neighborhood.  Owen sweetly approached each house with a "Happy Halloween" instead of "Trick or Treat."  Connor and his bud Joe had fun together too.  Between the three kids we ended up with 3 gallon zip lock bags full of candy!  After a couple of weeks I was so tired of finding candy wrappers under furniture and in other random places (to avoid being caught eating it) I emptied the candy bucket and smuggled it into the UNI Dome for a football game and distributed all the sweet treats to family and friends.  Mission accomplished!  No more candy wrappers hidden around the house.

The ultimate Tiger fan, Incredible Hulk, and Skeleton.  Watch out Viking Hills!  Here we come!

Just a small portion of the goods!

Summer in a Nutshell

While I had the best of intentions to blog more this summer, it just didn't seem to happen, so I'll let the pictures do the talking!

We took a trip across town to see Jared at the fire department.

Made it back to West Bend to celebrate the 4th of July...

and saw Grandpa Bill in the parade with his old tractor.

The kids enjoyed a dip in the city pool I spent hours in as a kid. 

We enjoyed the best small town fireworks in the state with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Lois. 

We made the trip to Lost Island a couple of times which is always a favorite of the boys, especially when Uncle Jay lets them drive the pontoon boat! 

I enjoyed visiting with several friends at my class reunion.

The boys had a blast washing a few cars in the neighborhood with friends.

A HUGE highlight of the summer was seeing our good friends who moved to Georgia (or China as Owen would say)!

Obviously, petting a newborn calf at Grandpa Jim and Grandma Mary's tops the list!  Owen even kissed it...yuk! 

We caught up with some of the Bormann cousins at the lake.

We ended our summer with our annual trip to the state fair with Grandpa and Grandma. 

Mason was seeing how many pull-ups he could do at one of the Army booths!

Overall, we had a great summer.  I could also include several pictures of the 50+ baseball games we watched this summer too, but they got posts of their own.  The pool was our home away from home as well, but since they're anti-photo happy (as I've mentioned before) I don't have any photos to share.  Bring on fall now!

Coach Pitch It Is!

I can't even begin to count the times Connor corrected me on this one. I mistakingly told people he played baseball or sometimes even t-ball and Connor was always quick to respond with a "No Mom, it's COACH PITCH." 

 Obviously, he felt this was a big year transitioning out of t-ball and into real baseball! After his initial practice in the rain, which evidently is just fine for 7 year old boys, the season went on without a hitch.

  They practiced the usual fielding, grounders, pop flies, and most importantly hitting. 

 Thanks to lots of baseball games popping up in the backyard, Connor did just fine in this area.

 I guess it doesn't hurt having a big brother to play with too!

Finally

I finally have an avid reader on my hands.  OK, that may be an exaggeration, but compared to the past several years I will go with it anyway!  We spent countless hours reading to Mason as an infant, toddler, and preschooler.  When he learned to read he still enjoyed listening to us read to him, but never really settled into the routine of reading to himself without a LOT of threats prompting from me. 

So, fast forward five years and there's a "reader" in the house, thanks to the world of technology!  We have an iPad and the Kindle App seemed to intrigue him, but it was his cousin Abby's Kindle that really sucked him in.  When I asked Mason which one he preferred he quickly responded with the Kindle because it was more like a "real" book.  Since when did he want to read a real book?  Without hesitation we purchased a Kindle and both Mason and I have read more books in the past month than all of last year.  Mason has even found a series he enjoys (and there are TONS of books in this collection).  As for myself, I didn't realize how much I'd missed reading a book, since most of my time has been spent reading magazines, blogs, and cookbooks for the past several years.  Who would have known?  Hopefully, Kindle will get their library lending program up and going so I don't have to fork out all the money for Mason's downloads (I just read the free ones)!

Now, Mason is still probably more into this.....

but I'll take what I can get!

Apple Pickin' Time

Once again, I'm making up for some lost time on here.  But instead of going back and trying to catch up on all of our summer activities I'm posting more up-to-date happenings.  Who knows if those summer happenings will ever make it on here!

Every fall we take a trip to an apple orchard.  We usually make the trip to Cambridge, but between football games on both Saturday and Sunday this year, I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it happen.  So, we stayed a little closer to home this weekend and found a little orchard about 35 minutes away.  The apple picker poles were nowhere to be found, so Ron hoisted the boys up on his shoulders to pick the juicy apples.  Of course, the boys were more than happy to do this, especially knowing those apples would eventually turn into their favorite homemade applesauce soon!

Needless to say, two batches of applesauce and one pan of apple crisp later.  We still have a TON of apples left.  I wonder how much applesauce will make it to the freezer (and escape the mouths of three hungry boys)?

IBL Tourney

Mason finished up his IBL season yesterday with a scorching hot (literally) tourney. Of course, the big games would have to take place on a day when it's a good 100 degrees with humidity! The North Stars had a great season with a final record of 28-2, winners of the Valley Conference, and 2nd place in the tournament. We couldn't be prouder of the boys and their well played season, sportsmanship, and hard work! Go Green!!

Running Aimlessly

The title pretty much says it all! Watching 4 year olds play soccer is really just watching 4 year olds running aimlessly around a field with some cones and nets and chasing a ball.

Owen finally got his turn to participate in a sport. I really thought he would be all gung ho and pumped up about being in a sport, but I don't think he was so sure about the whole organized sport thing. He was pretty chummy with his coaches and asked on the first day if he could snap in soccer. Which by the way, is OK! There were only six sessions and I think he would have been much happier had it been a little warmer and rain free. While some kids love to tromp around in the rain, Owen is definitely NOT one of them. Let's just say there was a little melt down during practice that evening.

He sure did like the sunny days though!

Just checkin' to make sure his shin guards are OK. He really wanted to tuck his pants in them just so he could see them!

Do you get the idea the kid beside Owen thinks he's crazy?

Now that soccer is over and done with, he will proudly tell people he plays soccer, as if he's been playing the sport for years. We'll just have to see what he says when t-ball starts in a couple of weeks!

Bowling Mania!

Celebrating two April birthdays can get a little tricky when you throw Easter in there so we decided to celebrate the boys' birthdays with family by bowling. I honestly think this might become a yearly tradition - it was a blast. Poky has the nicest bowling alley and since both families are fairly close in proximity, we had a great crowd. I'll let the pictures do the talking!

He Hit Double Digits

Since I'm still behind on blogging, way back on April 29th, Mason hit double digits! As he gets older his birthday celebrations seem to get a little smaller. This year he decided to take a couple of friends to Planet X in Cedar Rapids. Mason, Luke, Quinn, and Connor had a blast. Who wouldn't enjoy bumper cars, laser tag, and more?

Mason is such a good kid and he's had a great year. He took on the job of watching his brother before and after school and proved to be very responsible and even had an extra friend here every once in awhile. Homework was even done before we arrived home from work too...usually!!!! I think we're off to a good start! Mason continues to focus lots of his energy on sports and he loves every minute of it....football, basketball, baseball, track, you name it! We are very proud of him and hope this year is as great as the last.