The Munhollands

The kids wrapped up school before Memorial Day weekend. Dexter and Kellan both "graduated." D moves on to kindergarten and Kellan moves down the street to the middle school. It is the last time all three of them will be at the same school. Zoe finished really strong and Kellan ended on a positive note as well. Dexter's following in Kellan's footsteps as far as being young and maybe not quite ready for the next grade. By mid year there were already conversations about holding him back, however by the end of the year his teacher felt he had come along and is ready for the move.

Jim's ready for them all to be back in school. It's been a summer of much angst, fighting, whining, crying, etc. despite Jim's best efforts he just can't win with the three of them. We like to say they are good kids and I'm sure they could be worse, but jeez this has been a challenging couple of months. They're staying up later than ever before which is a recipe for disaster with Dexter. Full time summer camp will be enforced next year, the partial camps just don't cut it. Two hours of downtime for these guys inevitably means verbally and physically attacking each other. I need to find more hours in the day to spend individually with them - it's when they are their best/nicest. When it comes down to it, all three are really good, caring people (who can Never get along with each other nor sometimes with us ;) ). I'm guessing we're not an exception.

Papa Jim and G-ma Lawna came and rescued us for ten days and we made a side trip to Vegas. It was a good break for the kids and for us. We had a great visit. I was not at my picture taking best - at all. One picture of Papa and Zoe and then one video (posted below). So sad on my part.

D with his best pal Mason who will be going to another school, but they still play baseball together.

So proud. There were times we didn't think Kellan would make it...as evident by him having no idea he was holding his certificate upside down.

End of school was followed by the beginning of softball for Zoe and first year t-ball for Dexter. Dexter has been pumped up for months. Kellan finished his season - which wasn't quite the best first year of competitive baseball. He starts "fall" ball in August. Jim coached Dexter's team. Which is great, with the exception if you're the coach you never get to miss a game to see your other kids play. In this case, I saw all of Zoe's games, but only made it to Dexter's for the first time last weekend. I saw 1.5 of his games for the season, very sad.

Zoe played up a year this summer. She did awesome and really liked her team. She pitched and played infield. The first game of the season, she individually made 7 of the 9 outs...she pitched great. Not so great after that first game though. She's the only girl who tries to pitch with a wind up vs. lobbing it in there (the girls who didn't do the wind up did really well). Zoe has the velocity and strength, but accuracy is hard to come by. Now that she's committed to playing (she's come along way from not wearing cleats), we're going to get her some pitching lessons. Regardless of pitching challenges, she hit amazing, she went 16 for 17 (only the last game did she get up to bat more than twice), one strikeout, four doubles, 12 singles. In this league if the pitcher throws four balls, the girl doesn't walk, the coach comes in and pitches, at which point the girl hits the ball or strikes out - no walks. She had a great season and really liked all the girls on the team.

Click the link for...Zoe YouTube Batting

Zoe wanted to be the same number as Kellan. Dexter considered it, then he got in his head if he was number one he would bat first in every game...

D's "ready" position. He's hilarious. I really think he closes his eyes to concentrate. Then when he hears the ball hit the bat he opens them. He's very much into playing. He was especially excited in the second half of the season where the coach could pitch and he didn't have to hit off the T anymore.

Dexter did his best to dress like Kellan for all of his games. Being "twins" isn't as cute as it used to be for Kellan.

Kellan pitching sequence.

We've made it to two Rockies game this year. One more on the calendar for Star Wars day. The kids are excited to dress up and walk the field. A"fun" day at the park isn't even spared from the fighting. Zoe angry at Kellan for something...

Zoe expressing her anger at Kellan.

Zoe just done with Kellan.

Baseball games are the few times I'll take a "selfie." Been doing baseball selfies w/people since before people were doing selfies. With the exception of the pictures of Kellan above, almost impossible to get him to take a serious picture. For every 20 attempts he then gives in...after I scream at him. So I am posting these hoping he'll see how stupid he looks and how much his mom wants a good picture with him.

Only in CO, it was raining in right field - never rained in left field where we were sitting.

CO has an amusement park - Elitch Gardens, not at the So CA amusement park level, but good enough for the kids.

Mean son video.

The sharing of the room for the boys has taken a turn recently...Kellan is almost always the first one up. He's not the quietest kid and will typically wake D up. This makes for a very long day for D (the kids haven't even been coming home until 9pm from playing) and for Jim. Kellan also tends to open the shutters every night. I came in this a.m. to close them and realized D wasn't in bed. I looked downstairs, wasn't there, looked up in Kellan's bed and there he was. Kellan was passed out.

Past kid quotes:

Kellan to Mom:

Kellan: "Is Vivienne naming her baby Lun-che-on?"

Mom: "Lun-che-on? Why would they name their baby Lun-che-on?"

Kellan: "That's what it says on the shower invite - Vivienne's Baby Lun-che-on"

Dexter to Mom:

Dexter: "Are there blue cows?"

Mom: "No, no blue cows."

Dexter: "Then how do we get blue cheese?"

Zoe to Aunt Sheila:

Zoe: "How old are you?"

Aunt Sheila: "72"

Zoe: "How old is grandma Chloe?"

Aunt Sheila: "74"

Zoe: "So she's almost dead?"

(ok another late!!! post)

The kids have a new Kabisch cousin. Francis Ronen Kabisch born March 12th. They are VERY excited to get their grubby hands all over him in July.

Practically five months into the year and the kids have gotten crazy big. Bigger shoes, bigger clothes (Zoe is in a 10, Kellan in a 14-16), bigger bodies. We finally got Zoe to a doctor for a well check - three years later (not because we are slackers, but because getting her there isn't worth the fight and she's been healthy) - she's "projected" (if you believe in projections) to be 5'9. She's raided all the shoes in my closet.

Baseball tournaments and games started for Kellan and Jim. Sad to report not the same winning record of last year. I'll hold comments until they have more games under their belts and hopefully some victories.

D is obsessed with being Kellan's twin. He insists on wearing the same thing to bed, same thing to baseball games, even if he doesn't own the exact same shirt/pants, he wears the same colors. I have never seen a kid so excited to buy black Nike socks as D was - same as Kellan (and every other kid).

With Tyler and Ryan who along with their mom took us the Rockies Fanfest with their season tickets (in January).

Had we known at the time Nolan Arenado would end up breaking the Rockies record for most consecutive games with a hit, we would have given him his own ball to sign...

In the dugout

We started to see summer, than as typical of the past 8 years. It snowed on my birthday. So glad my buddy Jenny Marston (Howe) was her to spend it with me!

I took a Friday off back in February. We made our first family trip to the mountains. I had gone tubing just outside of Breckenridge the month before with my work and thought the kids would enjoy going. It was a beautiful, seriously could have been in t-shirts, a lot of people were. As most people know, I HATE heights, then anything fast with heights I HATE even more. For some reason when I was there with work folks I must have always gone backwards, because I don't remember being scared. Dexter and I stuck together. We went down the first time on the highest mountain. Poor kid hated it, and I sat backwards with my eyes closed so didn't think much of it. I made the poor guy go three more times to get our money's worth - horrible mom, I even was scared toward the last two runs (such a wuss). Of all things to force on the kid. I'll never do it again - really never. Kellan and Zoe LOVED it though.