Date Night with the Boys

We look forward to Thursday nights in our home.  It is DATE NIGHT with the boys!  
Since we are a family of 4 the math works out simply.  Danny takes a boy out and I take the other boy out.  We try to go out on a date with each son once a month.  
Just about anything goes for Date Night.  Dinner and movie out, dinner and movie in, mini golf, art projects, science experiments, high school plays, hikes...  
Whatever we end up doing there are a few expectations for our date:

1. The boys have to have at least 1 question for us about life and 1 question about God.
2. Distractions are put away - texts, phone calls, emails, to do lists.  
3. The point of the Date is spending time with each other, getting to know each other and building memories.

Danny and I also try to use the one on one time with the boys to teach them about life, teach them life skills, and teach them how to become a man with integrity and character.

Last month I focused on teaching the boys some cooking skills.  I let each of the boys pick a meal they wanted to learn how to make.  We created a plan, wrote down the ingredients we needed at the store, went shopping, then went to work in the kitchen.

Cody loves Mediterranean flavors, and I had found this Greek Pizza recipe on Pinterest.  We didn't make our own dough (but used our favorite Trader Joes Pizza dough).  Cody made the Homemade Tzatziki sauce, chopped the veggies, and helped assemble the pizza.  
For me to watch my son get excited about feta and avocados and trying cucumbers and tomatoes on his pizza is a big deal for me.  This boy used to be the pickiest eater I knew.  He has come a LONG way in trying new foods and enjoying them.
End result... Cody loved the pizza and wants to learn how to cook more meals.

For dessert we tried a Nutella Mug cake.  We love Nutella.  The cake was good, a little dry but was more than enough for Cody and me to share.

Colton chose one of his favorite meals to learn how to make, Chicken Enchiladas with rice.  This is a recipe that I just threw together.  Thanks to this pinterest post, shredding chicken for this meal is incredibly simple.  After I shred the chicken I add red enchilada sauce from Trader Joes, nonfat greek yogurt and shredded cheese.  We enjoy fresh baked tortillas (one day I will venture out and make them from scratch).  After the tortillas are baked we added a little sauce then the meat mixture and of course a little more cheese, fold it up and place it in a glass bowl.  Once we made all our enchiladas we baked them till the cheese on top was melted, and enjoyed every bite.  

A special tradition we have created is having dinner picnic style enjoying a movie.  I don't remember what we watched but I remember having a great time with Cole.  He was so proud to make his favorite meal with me.

I am sure we will have more Date Nights making meals together, and I look forward to learning new recipes with my boys, and one day learning from them.

New Season Ahead

This week our family began a new season.

The boys started back to school.

2nd & 3rd Grade.

Did you check out the boys new kicks?  

They were so ready to wear them, Cole waited almost all summer till he could wear his new shoes.

I am so thankful that my boys love life 

and have fun where ever they go.

Our 2011 Summer of Adventures is now behind us but we are looking forward for more adventures to explore this school year.

November 1 is a GREAT day

8 years ago on November 1st Cody came into this world to make a difference and it started with me.  I was 22 when he was born, married for 2 years, just graduated college, in a new city and a new mom.  This boy has rocked my world and given me a joy that I think only a child is capable of doing. 
This year for birthdays we are not doing parties with friends to celebrate but are celebrating with family.  We decided to celebrate Cody turning 8 by going to Disneyland (passes for Christmas is a great thing that lasts all year long).

If you haven't figured it out November 1st this year was on Monday and the boys had school.  We took the boys out right before lunch time and let Cody open his gift from Cole before we left for the park.   

They have had a lot of fun playing laser tag everyday after school since getting this.  Smart brother getting Cody something he gets to play too...

We parked on the Goofy level and well that about explains both of my boys.  Cody's favorite color is green and we found the row 8 and check out Cody's idea for a pic.

Cody did get to open another gift in the car when we parked - mostly because we did not want to carry it around all day with us.  But Danny had this great idea to take a backpack with us and put Cody's gifts in it and let him open them at random times in the park.

 The one above is taken while we were in line for the Pirates ride, one of the boys favorite rides.  The picture below is taken on the island.  The boys had a great time exploring the island.  Cody loves to read so he got a lot of books for his b-day. (easy to carry around the park)

 

Here are the a few of the boys just having a great time.

 For dinner Cody wanted a Monte Cristo.  We had gotten reservations at the Blue Bayou which is inside the Pirates ride to find out they only serve the sandwich at lunch time.  So we went over to Cafe Orleans and while we waiting for dinner Cody opened his cards from family across the country. 

 We had a great time celebrating Cody's 8th birthday but more importantly I think he felt special and had a great day too.

I love you Cody and am blessed to be your mom!

Student of the Month

If there is anything that you should know about me is that I am NOT a morning person.  I want to be and have been doing good this school year, but mornings are not my best time of the day.  I think it has something to do with waking up with so many headaches that I prefer to just stay in bed and go back to sleep.

So when I do not get a good night sleep due to smoke alarms going off at 3am (everything was fine, it was just the batteries), and when a sweet little boy of mine can't fall back asleep until he crawls into bed with us, I typically need to sleep in and take my time to get up.

But that was not going to happen yesterday morning after the night I just told you about because I had an assembly to go to at 8am.  Okay so really it was 8:15 but we had to drop the boys off at 8.

The day before Danny and I were informed that Cole had been chosen as the student of the month from his class and was going to be recognized at this assembly.

So I got up grabbed my camera and was proud to watch Cole receive his award for KINDNESS.

 Here is Cole and his friend who also received the award from his class

 Cody watching for his brother - it was mix match day for red ribbon week

 Cole with his STUDENT OF THE MONTH

Way to go COLE

So after I took this picture of Danny and Cole another mom asked if I wanted her to take a picture of the 3 of us.  I told her NOPE I don't want to be in a picture... (I had just thrown on a sweatshirt and sunglasses planning on going back to bed, which never happened)  Later when I picked the boys up I explained to her that I am not a morning person and was not feeling good.  She just laughed at me.

So there is not much in this world that I will get out of bed when I have a headache and did not sleep the night before, but my boys are for sure something to get up and support no matter what I feel like.

oops....

I knew that I had not blogged in awhile but I did not realize how bad it really has been - oops :)

So here are a few pics from some of the most recent things going on for us. Being that it is November, Halloween has pasted and this year we had a pirate and Bumblebee in the house. We also had a little Barbi cheerleader/princess (my niece). After hitting up our neighborhood for way to much candy that we will not eat we headed over to a friend's house and hit up their neighborhood too. So what did I do after we got the kids down..... No I did not eat it all - I had maybe one or two Twix (my favorite besides dark chocolate) - I sorted the candy with Danny's help. So now we have trashed the stuff that will no doubt get touched, we have all the suckers in a bowl, all the chocolate candy in another and everything else that is sweet is in the last bowl.

A great way to get rid of your candy is have teenagers over or better throw a party for you son and use leftover Halloween candy in the cupcake sundaes***more about this to come.


Next that has been fun and is also over till January is flag football for Cody. This season was a fun one with many interceptions and touchdowns by Cody. He was also great on defense - not afraid to grab the flags and run from one side of the field to the other to make sure he got the flags off and the other team did not score.

Interception by Cody - one of the many he ran back for a touchdown!

Cody also played QB and threw some touchdowns as well!!

Cody running in for a touchdown in his last game!

After the last game Cody was awarded a trophy by his teammates votes for the player with honor and character. We are so proud of the hard work he did and also for who he was on the field!!!

Cole has been tearing it up on the soccer field this season. For me it has been so much fun to watch him play (soccer is what I played for many years and loved it and miss playing). He is a hard worker and means business on the field. He is a natural defender. I am not sure how many goals he saved this season (there are no goalies) by running back to stop the ball from going in their net. He has also scored lots of goals.

Cole also has a bright orange ball (not planned).

They have one more game this season and then Cole wants to play flag football with Cody (and dad as coach). I am sure he will come back to soccer again.

This has been fun watching the boys play hard at a sport they love and do well at. And this is only the beginning of our sports adventures ....

Cody and Football

Cody has finally been able to play football and he is loving it. Of course Danny is coaching and they are having so much fun. When we told Cody that he could play flag football he said that he did not want to but that he wanted to play tackle :) silly kid. When I told him that this was all there was he was game to play.
They have done really good and this weekend is their last game and then we are done with sports till the fall (I think).

Cole Playing Soccer

Cole is now playing soccer and this past Saturday he had his first game. He was so excited and had so much fun he was ready to play another game.

This is really exciting for me playing many years of soccer now watching my son play the game and love it. My heart was so proud of my little guy giving his all even though he was tired he never quit.

Go COLE!!!!!

That's One Way to Loose a Tooth...

... is what I said to Cody the other day when he opened his mouth and his tooth was on his tongue. The boys and I were hanging out on the couch and Cole stretched and bumped his brother's chin and out popped a tooth, it was loose already and needed to come out and Cole helped take care of that.

Cole's Wipe Out

Cole was out riding his scooter around and was turning around and fell off the sidewalk and hit is eye on the corner of the curb and this is what I came home too.

He is doing much better and his eye is not as swollen.

Cody's 1st Day of School

Here are some pictures from Cody's first day of school back on the 4th. He was so excited to go and then was a little nervous when we got there but had a good day. He has a great teacher and is enjoying school.

Cody James

Cody James, originally uploaded by kbowers17.

I am playing around on flickr and trying to figure out how to post my pictures from this so here is Cody :)

1st Date with Cody

Today I took Danny and Cole to the airport for them to go to Colorado for Tara's Wedding this Sunday, Cody and I will be going out there on Thursday after he starts his first day of Kindergarden (I still do not know if he is early or late). But now that we are getting settled and my little boy is growing up we are going out on dates once a month, just Cody and me.

He was really bummed that he did not get to go to Colorado today so I thought we would go hang out, put aside all the things I need to do and just have some fun. So we went to the Irvine Spectrum, the plan was to have lunch and go on the ferris wheel. since it was only 10 am I thought it was a little early for lunch so I thought it would be fun to have dessert first. There is a cupcake shop there so we eash got a yummy cupcake. The ferris wheel was getting repaired so we walked around. He wanted to go in to the video game store so we did and had fun looking at all the DS games and WII games. He is hoping to get both of thoses..... I know he is getting a DS for being in the wedding...shhh don't tell him :)

Then we went into the Vans shop and tried on shoes with out socks, but he found a pair that he really liked, we didn't get them yet. We then checked to see if the ferris wheel was working and it was not so enough time had pasted after visiting a few other stores that he wanted to go into that we had lunch at Red Robin. It was a nice time. He told me he is excited to make new friends and have them come over to play and have sleepovers.

After lunch the ferris wheel was still not working so he did one ride on the merry-go-round by himself, because that was what he wanted to do. It was cute to see my little boy do something different each time he can around to try to impress me.

We had a great time and I am looking forward to the next one we get to go on.

What the Boys and I have been doing the past few days

and yes Cole is wearing pink floaties...they were the only choice at the store.