Rounding out T-ball

The t-ball season has come to an end and I couldn't be happier about that!! We met a few really good families on our team with kids that go to Tyler's school and I'm excited about that, but I was so unimpressed with our coach and assistant coach this season for more reasons than I even care to list. It was fun to see such an improvement in Tyler from when he first started a year ago. He was pretty ready for the season to end as well, so I'm not sure that we'll be doing this again in the Fall. It may be time to move onto other stuff!! :-)













T, Lucien & Caleb


Team Mascots: K & Sawyer (Caleb's little brother)~


Check out video of the only point scored during this inning!! Tyler is normally a much better batter than this, but who cares!! And after three seasons, I actually caught his FIRST slide into base on video!!! Talk about an exciting moment! HaHa! He was so proud of himself! Look at how this other team was on top of him!!

(You have to view from a PC)

T & Jakob


K & Belin (t-ball friend)


Getting ready to get his trophy at the end of the season!




Look at that Kool-aid smile!






Tyler & Caleb

Kinder field trip to Sea World!

Talk about lucky- the whole kinder group got to go to Sea World for their field trip... in a fancy charter bus! It was not nearly as exciting as going as a family because there were only a few attractions available as the park was closed to the general public and intended to be "educational," but the kids had a blast!!! Tyler loved it! The highlight was getting his little shark from the gift shop, of course! I was so glad that I was able to go with him and that baby girl didn't make it too difficult.



with Vox & Sydney


Sharks!










with Jacob, Ty & Ethan


with Cash








with Ethan


with Marlo, Vox, Gavin, Matthew, Caleb


with Lucien & William

Happy 6th Birthday, Tyler

Dear Tyler,

Number SIX! You have been counting down this birthday for months because so many of your friends have already turned six and now it's your turn! And just like every birthday before this one, I'm sitting here wondering where this past year went?!

Our schedule has been very busy since you started kindergarten and I have such mixed feelings about your first year of school. You are lucky and go to a fantastic school and you have the best teacher, but I don't think we prepared ourselves for the high standards that this school strives for and because of that, you have struggled a little bit. You know all of the information that has been taught, but taking timed tests has not proven to be effective at showing how much you have learned. Let me just say that I am not a fan of these silly tests! The one thing you truly did struggle a little with was phonics/reading and you have been pulled out of the classroom daily for about 30 minutes in a small group since January for some one-on-one attention, which you absolutely love and what a difference that has made! You have shown a huge improvement in reading and aced the test! It's so fun to watch you read pages from a book and learn to write sentences. You are reading on a level 4 now, which is right where you're supposed to be! I am so proud of the hard work and progress you have shown in school!

You have made some great new friends at school this year. Everyone loves you and enjoys your company. The kids that you seem to be the closest with in your class are Lucien, William, Caleb, Sydney, Ava and Kyriana, however, your entire class is pretty close. You are getting sad about leaving kindergarten behind and going to 1st grade because you won't be with your entire class, but you are lucky because you know so many other kids from the other classes. Like I said, everyone loves you and it makes me happy to know that you are such a good friend!

A big change that I have started to notice is that your confidence level has seemed to drop. You seem unsure of yourself and your ability to do things sometimes. You recently told me that you would be last doing hurdles at school because everyone is faster than you, but that actually wasn't true! You did great and I was so proud! I have seen you hide a little behind your teacher when standing in front of your class to tell a story. You get frustrated and want to give up when something is difficult, whether it seems small like drawing a picture or big like riding your bike without training wheels. Sometimes you gravitate towards the back of the line or crowd. Little things like that. I want you to be more confident! I want you to know that we don't expect you to be the best, we just want you to do YOUR best and be happy about that. We are so proud of everything that you do!

You took tumbling classes with some friends for a few months and did t-ball this past year. You didn't love tumbling and t-ball was a so-so experience. We want to keep trying activities until you find something that you do love and something that makes you feel confident and proud. You recently told me that you wanted to give basketball a try, so we'll be looking into some summer options. In addition to that, you're ready to give swim lessons a try and plan on taking a few art classes this summer.

It's going to be a busy summer with new baby sister in the mix! You are getting very excited about her arrival and have definitely warmed up to the idea of having a sister instead of a brother. You are happy now that you don't have to share anything with a boy! :-) You are always giving my belly a hug and talking to her. She doesn't have a name yet, but you have suggested Trixie Morales Barrett as your pick! I think that I'm going to let you hang on to that special name for your little girl one day. ;-) You are already such a great big brother, but I'm really looking forward to seeing you take on this role again now that you are a little older.

You have really gotten into Legos this year, especially Star Wars Legos. You love Star Wars anything! You tell me about playing "Droid Express" with your friends during recess and your friend, Sydney, has even worn her hair like Princess Leia to school so she could play Star Wars with you! You love playing Lego Batman and Lego Star Wars on the Wii and you and Daddy just recently went to the movies to see The Lego Movie. Your favorite shows are Paw Patrol, Sponge Bob and Avengers. You are getting so creative and so good at drawing pictures. Your teacher has made several comments to me about how animated you are in your artwork at school. You are still sleeping on a small bed in my room, but we have talked about getting you a bunk bed set for your room and you are actually excited about that. You just lost your first tooth and I adore your new toothless grin. It definitely makes you look like a big kid!

A lot has happened this past year and we have a busy year ahead of us! I'm looking forward to all of our new adventures! Happy Birthday, Baby! I love you tons!!

Love,

Mommy

Tyler's 6th birthday!

What a non-stop day for this birthday boy! This was the first birthday that we didn't get to spend all day together because he had to go to school. :-( However, we did what we could! Kinley and I ate lunch with him and brought yummy treats to share with his classmates (he wanted brownies and big chocolate marshmellow pops). Travis took off work early and we went to Chuck-e-Cheese to play games for a while and then to Mamu Fu's (one of Tyler's favs) for dinner. After dinner, he had his first t-ball tournament game and won! He crashed out after we got home and it didn't occur to me until after bedtime that we didn't even have time to enjoy birthday cake! Busy, busy birthday!

Happy Birthday!!


Birthday lunch~


Class celebration~


Chuck-e-Cheese~


































Here's Tyler's "birthday interview" for this year. Fun to see how the answers are changing!
1. How old are you? 6.
2. What is your favorite color? Orange.
3. What is your favorite toy? My little Jango Fett toy and my Legos.
4. What is your favorite game? Lego Star Wars game.
5. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Run around and play on my fort and do the water slide. (He has really been enjoying riding his scooter lately)
6. What is your favorite thing to do inside? Play with my Legos. (He likes playing on the Wii, iPad and loves doing art progjects)
7. What is your favorite TV show or cartoon? Lego Star Wars that's on cartoons. What about Paw Patrol? Yes. (Had to include Paw Patrol because he loves it!!)
8. What is your favorite outfit? My hammerhead shark shirt.
9. What is your favorite animal? Sharks.
10. What is your favorite song? Kidz Bop. (He still loves anything that he considers Rock-n-Roll)
11. What is your favorite book? Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman.
12. What is your favorite fruit? Green apples and red apples. And I also like grapes and watermelon.
13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms.
14. What is your favorite drink? Rootbeer.
15. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal.
16. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Fish. (This seems to never change. He still loves BBQ chicken, pasta, lasagna, and grilled turkey sandwiches)
17. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas.
18. Who is your best friend? Lucien. Do you have any other best friends? Caleb, William.
19. What do you like to take with you to bed at nighttime? My great white shark. Oh, and my lovey.
20. What is your favorite restaurant? Mexican Food. (He still loves Mama Fu's, Chick-fil-A, and Chuck-e-Cheese)
21. What are you excited to do this year? I'm hoping that my dad will buy a boat so we can go fishing and catch some black tip sharks and eat them. I don't know that you want to eat sharks... Black tip are yummy.
22. What is your favorite place to go to? Chick-fil-A.
23. What do you want to be when you grow up? A-10 Warhog pilot. And fly A-10 Warhogs. Some people call them tank killers because they kill tanks. You want to be a pilot?? Yes. That sound pretty scary. We'll have to talk about that one. They drop bombs, they shoot missiles and they have a big gun in front that go like, beep. Oh my goodness. Well, that sounds like a pretty good plan.

Here's the video of Tyler's answers above. :-)