I'm starting to realize something....all we do is sports and fishing!!  And I'd like to say, "no, that's not true! We do other things!"  but, that would be a lie.  Every minute that we aren't working, we're going to baseball, basketball, or a fishing hole!  We wouldn't have it any other way.  Although the projects aren't getting done around the house anymore.  And if you come over, ignore the weeds in the landscaping.

Wouldn't you know it, the week Covid hit our house, my brother and nieces came to visit from Atlanta.

We did manage to see them but not as much as I had hoped.  The plan was for Erik to take Kade to his basketball tournament that was 2 hours away, while I took the girls and Mason fishing.  Then we were going to have a sleepover at our house.

Instead, Erik and Mason stayed home.  

I took Kade to basketball, and we only saw them for a little bit, masked and mainly outside.  

It was better than nothing though!

Kade's team took home 1st place!

Vivienne and Noella's first time fishing!

Grandpa is in the background, untangling lines and baiting hooks.

Vivi's first fish!!

They only stayed for a short weekend.  Thankfully we'll see them again in a couple weeks on our family vacation!  Fingers crossed everyone stays healthy!!

Oh hey, no sports going on!  Guess what the boys want to do...

Mason with his cousins Owen and Lillian

Kade worked so hard for this guy.  

Any weekend he didn't have a game he got up at 4:30 and was out in the woods by 5:00.  

Finally bagged him after 5 long weekends of trying!!

 

A few weeks ago, Kade's 5th grade class put on their last performance.  It was called, "We Haz Jazz".  They had to try out for speaking roles and to my surprise, Kade tried out!  He was hoping for 1 or 2 lines, not a big role.  He ended up with Thelonious Monk.  Which did only have a few lines at the end of the play.

And while he wasn't the "main" character, he was definitely the star/heartthrob role.  In the play, they repeatedly mentioned his character's name for a big build up in the end.  Girls fainted, boys bowed when he walked up on stage.   

The funniest part of this is when I was helping him learn his lines, he told me he was a cat!  I didn't know any better so I just figured he was a background figure.

After the play I said, "I had no idea you were such a main character!  You were, like, the star!  I thought you were going to be a cat?".  He goes, "Yeah, I didn't know that either!!  If I had known, I never would've tried out!"

He did great though and got lots of compliments as we were leaving the school.

He did tell one of his coaches that from now on he's sticking to sports, acting is way too stressful!!

Back row, left of the exit sign.

 A friend of mine sent me this side by side.

Our boys at preschool graduation and 5th grade, in the same line up!

The grand finale.

Mason's doing great at baseball this year!

Of course he'd rather be fishing, and he loses focus pretty easily.  But this kid can catch, hit and knows where to be/what to do on the field!  One inning he made all 3 outs!

I would just like to state, for the record, we asked him repeatedly if he was SURE he wanted to play baseball.  We told him MULTIPLE times he didn't have to play and we'd take him fishing on baseball days.  But he always chose baseball.  I think he may be regretting that now, now that he's been able to fish, but he's sticking baseball out.

First basemen (maroon long sleeve).

His cousin Isaac is on the team so that makes it more fun!

 

While Kade and I were at a basketball tournament, Erik and Mason were fishing.  Erik sent me pictures throughout the day and they progressively got "more Mason".  Those of you that have ever been near a lake, stream, pond or puddle with Mason know exactly what I mean.  For those of you that haven't, see pictures below.

Very first picture bright and early in the morning.  You all may be looking at his fish, I on the other hand, immediately zoomed on that object floating on the left side of the picture.  Wondering what it is?  It's Mason's croc, floating away.

Thankfully Erik noticed it, chased it downstream, and got it with a long stick.

While fishing, they ran into our buddy Porter!

Still early, still dry.

Shocking, Mason is in the water!

Still in the water, but not too bad.

Aaaaaand....there it is.  That's my Mason!!

He caught a Porter!

Kade tried band this year.

He played trombone.

He didn't like it.

He didn't practice.

He's not going out for it next year.

We made him stick it out til the end.  This is the end of the year band concert.

Where's Kade, you ask?  Great question!  We couldn't see him the entire time because he was hiding.  And I'm quite certain he was pretending to play.

Ope, they had to stand up to take a bow!  There's no hiding him now!

Tall kid under the hoop.

Unfortunately after all that fun, Covid hit.

We made it 2+ years.

Mason got it first, it didn't do too much.  He has spring allergies too so it was hard to tell what was Covid and what was allergies.

Erik also tested positive and he just had cold symptoms.

I'm not sure how but Kade and I managed to avoid it!  Fingers crossed it stays that way!

 

Picture catch up again!  For Kade's last baseball tournament in Des Moines, Mason and I stayed home.  The weather was, of course, cold but Mason, of course, wanted to fish!  Unfortunately we didn't catch anything but he had fun!

Kade's tournament ended up getting rained out, so they didn't even get to play a game.

Mason skunked on the water, Kade skunked on the field.

A couple weeks ago, Kade had a basketball tournament in St. Paul.  Just him and I went, Erik and Mason stayed home because it was going to be a long day....we had a 6 hour wait between games!!!

Thankfully it was nice out so we spent the 6 hours outside with teammates.

Of course we had to find ice cream, check out the overflow on top of those cups!!!

Shockingly, they couldn't finish them.

They ended up getting 2nd place in the tournament, so I guess all that ice cream was a bit of good luck!!

 

I can't remember, did I mention Kade is playing spring basketball as well??  He's playing on an AAU team that practices in town but all of the tournaments are in the cities.  They're doing ok, it took a little bit for the team to find their groove.  I know Kade absolutely loves it when he's playing, but he's a bit overwhelmed with baseball, basketball and still trying to find time to shoot that elusive turkey.  Lesson learned, leave basketball for the cold months (although, winter 2022 just finished yesterday May 9th).

Mason started Tae Kwon Do and seems to really love it!  He even bought the uniform with his own money!

(full disclosure:  I DID offer to pay for it but he wanted to do it himself)

Checking out the new batting cages!

Handsome boys on Easter morning