Boo at the Zoo

We decided last minute on Friday night to head to Boo at the Zoo. It looked like it was going to rain, but we decided to risk it anyway. There were barely any people there, so it was nice to have the place to ourselves.

We made it through almost all of the trick or treating before it started to pour.

It was a quick visit to the zoo, but we had fun trying out our Halloween costumes!

Fall Sports

We let the boys each pick out a sport this year for their fall sport. Patrick picked out soccer and Peyton picked out baseball. We also decided to let Patrick run cross country, since it is such a short season and he really loves to run.

Patrick really looks forward to all of the practices and meets. The coaches said that he is always the child that is begging to run more laps after they finish. Patrick was competing with the 1st and 2nd graders this year. There is a pretty big difference in the size of a boy at this age, so the one year age difference is pretty noticeable. Patrick was always one of the fastest in kindergarten. But, since he was competing against older kids this year, he was normally around the 4th St. Henry boy to finish. We really worked hard to remind Patrick that cross country is an individual sport and you only compete against your own time. Patrick is very competitive, so he asked me to look up all his times from last year and write them down so he could try and beat them this year. Since I already had all of the information, I thought I would go ahead and list it on the blog for easy reference next year!

2017 Season- 1st grade times:

• Meet 1- 6:52
• Meet 2 - 6:04
• Meet 3 - rained out
• Championship Meet- 6:29

2016 Season- Kindergarten times:

• Meet 1- 7:03
• Meet 2- 6:37
• Meet 3- 6:57
• Championship Meet- 6:55

Patrick had a great season! Although, he was pretty devastated about the championship meet. There is such a large group of kids that run that the start of the race it is a jumbled mess! One of the boys in front of Patrick tripped which also caused Patrick to fall. Unfortunately, his shoe fell off and he also had to quickly put his shoe back on before he could continue. He made up so much time and really worked hard to make it back to the front of the pack. We were extremely proud of him for finishing the race and trying his best to get up to the front. The first 20 people to finish get a special ribbon and he was really hoping for one of the ribbons. It was a tough lesson to learn, but we could not be more thrilled with the way he handled the situation.

Cute cousins!

I only took one picture at Patrick's soccer game this year. It was crazy HOT for every single game and I was constantly chasing the little ones around. But, Patrick's team was really great and they won every single game by a landslide. The amount Patrick improved from the first game to the last game was really incredible! Conor joined in on the team meeting at the end each time :)

Peyton chose baseball for his sport this season. I was a little surprised at the choice since he is a really great soccer player. Soccer seems to come really easy to him, but he insists that it is not his favorite sport. So, we tried out baseball this year. Baseball does not come as easily to Peyton, but he had the time of his life playing and hanging with his buddies. And that's really all that matters! 

Michael was one of the assistant coaches for his team this year. He is ready for his first practice. He looks adorable!

The pre-k and kindergarten teams play a little differently than the normal rules for baseball. There are two innings and every player bats for the 2 innings. There are no outs and no strike out's, so every kid hits and scores. I thought this might be frustrating to watch, but it was perfect for Peyton (Patrick would not have enjoyed the non-competitive game). Peyton left every game saying that they won and was thrilled each time! 

Love how happy he is about playing baseball!

We had a great fall season of sports. I can't imagine what it will be like when Conor is thrown into the mix of fall sports, but i'm sure it will be even more fun (and hectic of course!).

Baby #4 is a.....

Michael and I were pretty excited to find out the gender of our last little one. Michael was able to make it to the ultrasound, but I asked that the ultrasound tech not tell us the gender of the baby. The baby was being shy and she had a lot of trouble finding the "money shot." We had to come back a second time so the ultrasound tech could make sure she was confident of the gender. Michael and I both thought it looked different from the boys ultrasounds, but weren't exactly sure.

Patrick asked if we could have a party like we had for Conor. So we decided to throw a party together last minute. A couple days before the party, I found confetti poppers online and thought the boys would love them. I called Publix that day and placed a cake order. I thought they did such a cute job on it. I also picked up a few sweet treats at party city. I already had the streamers, so Peyton and I quickly hung them up.

Michael had been so busy that there was only one night we could do the reveal. It conflicted with most of Michael's families schedules, so it was a small group.  Megan wasn't able to make it so she opened the ultrasound and selected which confetti poppers we should use.

It was time for the reveal! Baby #4 is a.....

The boys had fun playing in the confetti

Confetti Angel

Family picture

Cousin picture

Patrick was probably the most excited about a little girl. He prayed every single night that we would have a girl in the family. He asked if he could have a bag to go and collect some of the confetti from the yard so our little girl would have it later. Love him so!

This little one is going to have to get used to not being the baby anymore!

We are so excited to welcome a little girl into this family! It's going to shake things up for this family of all boys!

Chattanooga- Fall Break 2017 (part 3)

We all slept in a little bit and started out a little later than planned for our second day in Chattanooga. I had wanted to beat the heat and get an early start, but we were all exhausted from the previous day.

We started off our morning at Ruby Falls. The big boys were so excited to see the inside of a cave. Clearly Patrick was excited about taking pictures.

The big boys absolutely loved hiking through the cave. Conor was pretty scared and insisted that I carry him the entire time. It was quite challenging to carry a 40 pound baby, while pregnant and trying to duck through the small spaces in the cave. My arms were pretty sore after the 2 mile hike through the cave.

There were some pretty cool formations in the cave

The falls were gorgeous and I loved all the colors 

Looking out from the observation deck on top of Ruby Falls

We headed to lunch at The Purple Daisy and then were off to Rock City. By the time we made it to Rock City, it was mid-afternoon and HOT! It was also pretty crowded. I would definitely plan to do rock city early in the morning if it is a hot day. All three of the boys had the most fun running down the paths and exploring the trails. Luckily, Conor thought it was really neat and walked the whole path.

There were some tight squeezes through the trail

Patrick loves a good map and had fun directing us.

Pausing to spot all the trolls along the trail

Swinging bridge

There were a few pretty waterfalls along the trail

Conor was pretty thrilled with the heat....

Overlooking the seven states

Peyton is the little goofball of the family

Fat man's squeeze is not a pregnant lady's friend :)

After Rock City we headed to our last attraction the incline railway. It was so packed and the boys were a little tired, so we decided we would try it next time.  Since we didn't do the incline railway, we headed across the street to Clumpies ice cream. It was delicious! Then we headed back to Nashville so we could be up bright and early for the American Heart Association Heart Walk.

We met Charlie Brown at the Heart Walk. Unfortunately, Conor had a pretty big meltdown when it was time for the walk to start, so Conor, Peyton and I headed home. Patrick and Michael walked the 3 miles for the Heart Walk.

Later that afternoon, the boys went on a hike with Big. Patrick wanted to hike more than 3 miles, but Peyton said he never wanted to do that again :)

We had such a fun fall break! Now back to the grind of school!

Chattanooga- Fall Break 2017 (part 2)

We stayed at the Springhill Suites in downtown Chattanooga. It was on the water and had a pretty view, but it was pretty far from the downtown attractions. Since it was a last minute trip and our family can't fit in a normal sized hotel room anymore, we were quite limited on our options. We walked about a mile each way, but Patrick was a champ walking and Conor and Peyton were perfectly content riding in the stroller.

We started our morning at the Creative Discovery Center.  The boys loved running around and discovering all of the fun activities. They spent about an hour designing a "roller coaster." It ended up being Patrick's favorite part of the entire trip.

Racing the waves

Checking out the views

Lifting Peyton on a pulley

Stacking some checkers

They have a large water sized feature that the boys loved to play in. This was Conor's favorite part of the museum.

Making life-sized bubbles

We took  a lunch break at the Maple Street Biscuit Company.

Then we were off to the Chattanooga Aquarium.

Peyton was the only one brave enough to touch the fish

We lucked out and were able to see the divers feeding the stingrays. It was packed, so I didn't get a great picture, but the boys were amazed. Love seeing the sting ray's face in this picture.

The penguins were Conor's favorite. He didn't want to leave. I just love his big smile in this picture.

The sharks! The boys couldn't believe that people would actually go in a cage under water to see sharks.

Scary shark face....ignore blurry Conor. He doesn't stop moving long enough for many pictures

Jelly fish

After the aquarium we stopped for some ice cream at Cold Stone. Then we headed back to the hotel for some afternoon swimming. We took a walk back downtown to Mellow Mushroom for dinner.

It was a fun filled first day!