Our Surprise Weekend

 On the shuttle headed to Magic Kingdom

The jungle cruise

 Dumbo!

 Jake and Pluto at the character breakfast at our hotel.

 Walker ran to his daddy at the first sign of a character

 Jake wanted his picture taken, too.

 Jake and Minnie

 I can't believe the only picture I got of Walker next to Minnie and his eyes were closed!  Ugh!  But doesn't Tyson look excited to meet Minnie?  Hahaha!

 The boys in front of Gaston

On Tom Sawyer's Island

 

This past weekend was one full of surprises!  First, Tyson has been gone for almost 2 weeks recruiting and wasn't supposed to fly in until Saturday; well, Friday night after bath time, I put the boys in their PJs and told them to hop in the car.  Walker immediately recognized our route to the airport and said, "We're going to the airport to pick up Daddy!"  It was so cute!  I kept them guessing the whole way there, though.  Needless to say, they were thrilled to see their Daddy...and delay their bedtime!

 

And I already mentioned in the previous post that after Jake's t-ball game, instead of going home, we just hit the road and went to a hotel near Disney.  Walker fell asleep when we got in the car, so he was kind of clueless until we pulled up to the hotel and woke him up.  When we told Walker that we were staying in a hotel and then going to Disney, he screamed, "YES!!  DISNEY WORLD!!"  Hahahaha!  My mellow Jake, on the other hand, said, "I knew all along we were going to Disney World."  Ha!  He can be a tough egg to crack, but I could tell how excited he was to be going.  And the boys do love to stay at a hotel!

 

Once we got to the hotel, we jumped in the pool for a bit to cool off from the t-ball game, got some food, and then hopped on a shuttle to the Magic Kingdom.  Since our passes ran out in March, Jake has been begging to go to the Electric Parade again.  Well, Disney is running a 3 day special for Florida residents right now, so we thought staying at a hotel would let us take advantage of our time at Disney and stay a little later to see the "Erectric Parade" (as Jake calls it).  We stayed at the park for about 6 or 7 hours Saturday and the boys did great!  We even got up the next morning and went back for about 5 more hours!  (We probably could've stayed longer, but this almost 6 months pregnant mama with sciatic nerve issues just couldn't take much more!)  We had so much fun, though! 

The Last T-Ball Game!

 The Grasshoppers (well, most of them) with Coach Tom!

 Coach Tom and Jake

 Jake and his little buddies...and Jillian, our team mascot. :)

The boys and my belly.

 

Jake had his last tball game of the season this past Saturday, and he went out with a bang!  He nailed the ball to the outfield on 2 out his 3 hits!  Coach Tom called him "big Jake the big hitter."  I'm so proud of him...he gets out there and practices almost every single day and has really improved since the season started!  He LOVES baseball!

 

After we finished the game, we got in the car and drove the boys to Disney where we surprised them with a weekend stay.  We had the BEST time, but we are all completely exhausted!  Ha!  More on that later. :)  

Happy Mother's Day!

#3 Has a Name!!

#3's name will be Anderson Patrick Summers!!  Anderson was Tyson's dad, but everyone called him Andy.  As of right now, our Anderson will probably just be "Anderson," though.  And Patrick is a name we (actually Tyson) kind of came up with to honor my mother, Patricia. :)  So there you go!

Swim Lessons!

It's that time of year again...SWIM LESSONS!!  My littlest fish, Walker, saw Coach Ann a few weeks ago and begged me to put him in swim lessons.  I've never heard of a kid asking for swim lessons; I guess she didn't torture him enough last year. ;)

Anyways, Walker started last week and is doing great.  He could already swim by himself short distances, but considering how much we're in and around water here, he really needs to be able to swim longer distances and to know how to come up and take a breath and swim again.  So that's what we're working on.  Coach Ann says he should be swimming the length of the shallow end by the end of the lessons, so we'll see.  It'd be a huge relief for me if he does...that child is fearless!

Jake is also going to start lessons next week with a group of his friends to help improve his strokes.  Coach Ann is grooming Jake for swim team, despite the fact that he has already told her numerous times that "I don't want to do swim team...I already know everything there is about swimming."  Hahaha!  We shall see. 

Bed Buddies

So this isn't the best picture, but I just have to document this because I have no idea how much longer it'll last.  You see, back in February when Tyson and I were rearranging the house, we were trying to figure out how to make it work as far as the boys' rooms are concerned.  Upstairs, we have the master and 2 bedrooms (1 large and 1 small) and downstairs, we have a small bedroom.  Well, I didn't like the idea of putting either of the boys or the baby downstairs by themselves, so we thought we'd try the two big boys together in the larger room and let the baby have the smaller room upstairs.  I think we were also hoping to fix Jake's sleep issues (waking up all night long trying to sleep in the bed with us), but we didn't have high expectations.  Anyways, we ended up putting the bunk beds in the big boys' room around mid-February, and the two boys have slept together every night on the top bunk together.  It is so cute!  It blows my mind that they would want to share that top bunk instead of having their own beds, but whatever works!  Jake has stopped his middle of the night escapades and Walker is adjusting just fine, too.  It turns out that Jake is scared of the dark and sleeping alone and is comforted having his little brother next to him.  Again...whatever!!  More sleep for us...for now. ;)

My Pre-K Graduate

In a few short weeks, Jake will graduate from Pre-K!  Of course, Jake says he is "congraduating," though. ;)

Let me tell y'all, Florida is hard core about some Kindergarten readiness.  It might be this way in other states, but I just didn't get this impression when we were in Alabama!  I didn't even get this impression when we moved here and Jake was going to a Christian preschool.  Needless to say, I was a little blindsided by Jake's first Kindergarten Assessment.

Here in Florida, the kids are supposed to be able to count to 100, be able to match the corresponding uppercase and lowercase letters, and write their first and last name without a model prior to starting Kindergarten.  Ok, that doesn't sound like much.  However, when I met with Jake's Pre-K teacher (at the old school) in October, she was like "Jake doesn't know all of his letter sounds and he doesn't recognize his numbers to 100."  Apparently, you're supposed to know those things prior to starting Pre-K!  OMG, I was freaking out!  It's taken us the last 6 months or so, but Jake has rocked it and learned everything he's supposed to, plus some.  He's also learned over 50 sight words, simple addition and subtraction, how to write all of his letters in uppercase and lower case, and he can even write some words.  He has come SUCH a long way in a short time!  I can't tell y'all how proud I am of him!

Jake LOVES to write notes; he is constantly asking me how to spell stuff so he can write it down.  On the other hand, he is not interested in all at reading (but loves to be read to).  Despite knowing so many sight words, he HATES when I ask him to pick them out in a book while we're reading. 

Jake's teachers (at his new school) say he is a fast learner and really enjoys learning; they say he loves to participate in circle time.  His teachers also say how sociable he is, which blows my mind.  I just knew Jake was going to be an introvert, but apparently, that isn't the case at school. 

Like I said, I'm so proud of my big boy.  We have really pushed him this year to play "catch up" and he has just blown me away at how well he's done.  Congratulations on your "Congraduation," Jake!  Haha! 

Professional T-Ball Pictures

Somehow, this kid always ends up rolling around on the ground.  Boys!

  He sure makes me laugh though!

 And this time, he actually ended up with the ball.  I told y'all he was a ball hog!!

Snack time!!!

It turns out that our team mom just happens to be a professional photographer, so she shot some pics of the boys and I couldn't resist posting them.  I have giggled so much over that picture with Jake and his legs up in the air!  I missed what happened, but the other parents told me that Jake dove for a ball, did a flip to avoid colliding with another player, and got up...with no ball in his hand.  Ha!

More T-Ball

 Stepping up to the plate...

 On first...

 Walker was playing baseball with our buddy, Sean, during Jake's game.

 He is obsessed with his UCF jersey!!

 Jake with Coach Tom

 The game ball!!

 Celebrating getting the game ball with the Wensyel boys

 Jake was so proud that his daddy got to come to his game!

 Ryan also got the game ball.

 These are a little out of order, but here is Jake batting and fielding the ball.

 Jake is a bit of a ball hog, so I actually have quite a few pictures like this. ;)

 Swimming in the pool after going to SeaWorld.

Man, what an awesome weekend we just had!!  We spent a lot of time in the pool, went to SeaWorld, went to Jake's t-ball game, and bought a new car!! 

Jake had an awesome t-ball game on Saturday; in fact, he even earned the "team ball."  I cannot explain how excited he was to get the team ball!!  Jake has come such a long way since last year and even since the beginning of this season.  He LOVES t-ball/baseball and wants to practice every day.  Thankfully, our flower pickin' and playing in the dirt during the game days are gone!!  Well, those days are gone for Jake at least...I'm sure we still have plenty more with Walker and #3. ;)

So about the new car, it is actually a mini-van and I've never been more excited in my life to have a new car!!  Tyson has been trying to talk me into getting a mini-van since we were pregnant with Walker, but I just wasn't ready.  Well, now that I spend so much time in the car hauling youngins' every where and carpooling with friends (and not to mention having #3 on the way), I NEEDED a bigger car.  Mini-van it was!!  It is absolutely awesome!  Jake says he "loves all the space!" Hahaha!  He is sitting in the back already and Walker sits in the middle in front of him- it actually works out well this way because they can't reach each other to fight!  Ha!  I love it!!!

Other than that, we're just enjoying our time together.  Tyson has been very lucky with his recruiting schedule so far and has been home a lot more than normal, but that will all change next weekend. :(