Week 31: Welcome to Training Camp!

For all of you non-football fans, you can't really understand how exciting it is when NFL training camp rolls around. Still, you're a good six weeks from any actual football action, but you're at least getting SOMETHING, which is always better than nothing. 

It's super awesome that despite being a one-income family, we can have season tickets to our hometown team. I know a lot of people think the Glazers (the Bucs owners) are cheap, but as a pass holder, I've got to say they really make an effort to make the games affordable, and to do what they can in the community (they built the best children's museum in downtown!), and the perks they give you for being a season ticket holder. 

Now, I get it, we spent a lot of money on these tickets, so whats a free giveaway here and there, a special event, and a free meal? It's still awesome. I've had a couple of people ask me how much our tickets are- it's $150 for each of the kids, $300 for Asa and me. They spread it out over payments (starting in January and ending in July), and thats for each of us to go to ten games (two preseason, and eight regular season games). I think, for an NFL game that's totally reasonable. It comes out to $15 a game for the kids! 

Not only that, but we do get special events- and they make them family friendly, and free, which is awesome. Tonight, was members only training camp. While our training camp is open to the public, tonight was for members only- so less crowds and lots of perks. 

When we arrived there was our picnic dinner packs waiting for us to enjoy, and they were giving out lots of free beads off the pirate ship float to all the kids. 

Dinner was great. You had a choice of barbecue chicken or pork, homemade (super yummy) chips, and coleslaw. It was packaged up all nice so you could easily take it out to the bleachers. Calib and Asa even had seconds. We all had tons of water, and the boys were happy to have some pop they didn't have to pay points for. 

Of course we got our first look at this years team. 

And our quarterbacks. 

They had lots of games for the kids to play. 

Hayden mostly dropped the football, and fell down. 

Peyton ran really hard, though. 

But, as long as Hayden was having fun, we're happy! 

There were throwing games too (poor Hayden, he got his coordination from me) 

Peyton threw the football through the holes a few times though. 

Then they got to do all the things football players do at the combine. 

They ran drills. 

And did the long jump and the  vertical jump. 

They recorded all their stats on a card and gave them to the kids when they were done. 

They got to compare them to NFL players, it was pretty cool. 

They handed out some Popsicles to the kids to keep them cool, and brought Captain Fear (our mascot) around to take some pictures. 

Oh, and everyone got free t-shirts! 

We all got some rosters to keep track of the team, and we discovered this guy right here played college football at Eastern Michigan University! I'm hoping he makes the team! 

It was lots of fun, but it's Florida --in July-- so it was hot! 

We could have stayed another hour until the end of practice (our new coach has been inviting all the kids on the field to get autographs and meet players after practice-- apparently something he did in Chicago when he was there too). But, the boys we're hot and ready to go. We have another event Friday at the stadium, so we decided to head home. 

You didn't miss much around here yesterday, it was a pretty rainy day, we tackled lots of school work (Peyton is just a couple countries away from having all of Asia's flags, countries, and capitals down!) and we played some board games. 

We've also discovered Dipper can't be around when the boys are writing anything. He LOVES playing with pens when they're trying to work. 

I did make a Target trip (I am anxiously awaiting the big July toy clearance drop to 70 percent to pick up some more Christmas presents, so every couple of days I like to go check and see whats going on) This is one of my most impressive trips yet- two packs of index cards, two packs of post-it's and two scotch tapes for 8 cents! I've really been taking advantage of the school supply coupons, because I know it's stuff I'd need to pick up eventually. 

Big news also- we finally got the boys photo books in the mail. I make them every year for their portfolio review, and Hayden was so excited to sit down and look at all the fun and educational things he's done all year. 

 

Peyton was impressed with his too! I love these, just looking at them gives me a huge sense of accomplishment. It's another year of home schooling under my belt. It's not easy to do at all, and I know it's not for everyone. But it is so worth it for us. 

Up Next: We've got a large to-do list for tomorrow, and Night Practice on Friday!

It's A Bucs Life!

Welcome back to the blog, it's been a few days! You haven't been missing much. The dog days of summer, thats for sure. I'm counting the days to football season and fall weather. While that won't hit until October for us, at least in September we'll get super light crowds at all our favorite places, and that will be awesome! 

Speaking of football, I know I told you all about making our last payment on our season tickets- well, they arrived this week. We got a fancy-shamcy shipped super fast package in the mail the other day, and I knew it was from the Bucs when I saw Asa's excitement. 

There they all, all five of them! They only sent us two lanyards, but we let our Season Pass Liaison, Sierra know, and she's so awesome she apologized a whole bunch and said not to worry, three more were on the way. We also have two members only events/perks coming up next week. Yay! We're down to five more Sundays without real football, one of those weekends we get College football, one is my birthday and two we'll be on vacation. Goodbye boring- who knows what to do with themselves- Sundays, hello tailgating, baking at the stadium, and setting up some Pita, Nacho, and Hot Dog bars at home! 

Meanwhile, we've been spending our mornings doing school work, and the afternoons checking some things off our summer bucket list, and going to the pool. We got Asa some earplugs, so hopefully that solves the water in his ears problems. We also got some housework done, lots of laundry- you know, the boring stuff. 

But, the summer bucket list is coming along. I don't remember all we've done. My camera was a bit on the missing side the last few days. (I hate when I put things down and then can't find them anywhere!) But, I do have a few things to share. We made some orange julius which is a family favorite. 

We spent a lot of Sunday putting together a puzzle. I got out the Where's Waldo puzzle that had been sitting all packaged up for probably about a year now, and Hayden was very eager to help. We got the edge all put together just the two of us. 

Then Asa started helping us. 

Before I knew it, Calib and Peyton were in on it too. 

In no time at all our 550 piece Where's Waldo puzzle was put together. The boys let me put the last piece in since I was the only one who worked on it from start to finish. 

But, nobody was happier than Dipper. He really wanted to sleep in the puzzle box. 

We also went outside and braved the heat (and the hot driveway) to play some chalk squares. 

I made a grid on the driveway, and the boys each start in a corner and move to an adjoining space, X-ing off where they've been. The most X's at the end wins. 

At one point they all met in the middle. 

Then they dispersed again. 

Peyton came out victorious. He had about 6 more X's in his color than Calib, and about 3 more than Peyton. 

Doing the puzzle has also peaked Hayden's interest in them. He put together a couple of 26 piece ones, and then a 60 piece USA one, all on his own!  

We had a downpour today, for about 5 minutes. It was the first time in awhile it rained for a little bit without thunder or lightning, so as soon as it started I called for the boys to come play in it. Hayden ran out in it right away. Calib dawdled and missed the whole thing. Peyton was a little more timid, but did go out in it when it slowed down, and after I ran out there and convinced him to go too. 

It didn't rain for very long (see it was almost sunny out when the downpour occurred, silly Florida weather!) 

But then we just got to play in the puddles! 

Another item off our summer bucket list, and the door is getting emptier. Our goal is to finish them up by Labor Day (the unofficial end of summer). 

Today is also Justin's birthday! 

So we had him over for dinner and cheesecake, and then we all went to the pool. Happy Birthday, Justin! 

That's it from here for the last few days, I'll probably get to another update Thursday or Friday. 

Next Up: We've got some craft projects on tap, and some Bucs things to head to, that should keep us busy. 

Week 30: Time to Tackle the Summer Bucket List!

Happy Wednesday! Due to our change in theme weeks, and the boys disappointment when I said we'd take a little break from them, I decided to give the next two weeks a light theme. This week is 'Summer Bucket List' Week, where we're going to try and knock some things off our list, and next week will be Arts and Crafts week. 

After some school work this morning, we headed out for a late lunch. There were a couple of specials going on we  thought we'd take advantage of, especially since we were headed that way for Hayden's Summer Reading Club anyway. 

Our first stop: Arbys for our free Jamocha Shakes. Some of the blogs I follow on facebook had shared the free coupons last night, so of course I printed them out. We each got one for free. Kind of awesome. 

We took our shakes around the corner to Sonic- since it's National Hot Dog Day, they celebrated with $1 hot dogs all day. 

After lunch it was time for Hayden's very last summer reading program of the summer. He will get invited to the party (you had to log six books, and he's done twelve), so he still has that to look forward to. 

After the story, he got to do some crafts. He made an elephant. 

And a construction hat. 

He also got to build some marshmallow and pretzel buildings. The theme this week was construction (the elephants fit in because they read a book about the Brooklyn Bridge, and elephants marching over it to prove it was sturdy) 

Once the paint dried on his elephant we were able to add the 'trunk'. 

When we got home, Asa and I made a trip to Publix. Today is the last day of this sales cycle, and I had some really good coupons to use. This bunch of goodies cost me $7.50. I actually got paid $2 to buy those stuffed scallops! We had them some dinner tonight, and they were pretty good. 

It was another hot day. I think our feels like temperature was 105 when I checked, so we headed out to the pool to cool down. 

I remembered to bring the camera, and all the boys wanted pictures of themselves jumping in. 

I couldn't ever quite catch Hayden, but Calib and Peyton nailed it on the first try. 

It took me three times to 'sort of' get them all in the air at once. (I told you, I couldn't get Hayden) 

We came home and had dinner, and then we picked a bucket off the door for an activity. Peyton had written 'pom pom races' on one of his buckets, and that was easy enough to pull together. Truth be told they were all really hoping for an afternoon thunderstorm so we could check off 'play in the rain', but it never rained today. 

The boys each had one minute to see how many pom poms they could get into the taped off squares, all worth different points, by blowing through a straw. They all went for the three point square which was furthest away. Peyton got four in, Calib and Hayden both got two. 

We had to give them each a minute, because last time we did it, they all went at once and Calib knocked everyone around. This was much more peaceful. (Also don't judge me for my dirty tile grout, it's on my to-do list!) 

Up Next: Another Day off for Asa, and something else off the Bucket List!