2015 WILLYMPIC GAMES

So this year for Will's birthday we decided not to have a big silly party...because at some point, big silly parties aren't "cool" for little boys anymore.  

Sports are cool!  

Billy had the great idea of challenging Will's very best bud (and family) to the first (of hopefully many) Willympic Games.

The 2015 Willympic Games was held in The Woodlands, Texas.

The events were as follows: 

Batting Cages 

Air Hockey

Bowling

Putt-Putt

And we made medals, yes, made medals for each event, for each of the contestants.

Here's a quick pic of the bowling medals...each one had the Willympic Games emblem on one side, and the event logo on the other.  Quite painful to put together, but well worth it!

The Opening Ceremonies took place in the parking lot of Legends Sports Complex where we marched in to the tune of the Olympic Theme Song (for real, I'm not kidding, it was jamming through my iPhone). 

Here are the olympians getting ready to begin their first event - batting cages!

 Here are some action photos of Will in the cages...

 Here are some action photos of two little goofballs who were too small to actually participate in this particular event ;)  I have absolutely no idea what John is doing in this photo - but his Ironman and Captain America wrist bands are legendary!

 At the conclusion of the cages - we had a medal ceremony and presented the birthday boy with his first gold medal of the 2015 Willympic Games!  Michael finished second for the silver, Cade finished third for the bronze, and Billy ended up fourth (what can I say - he makes a better golf swing than baseball!)

Next we changed venues to The Main Event and prepared for our second event - bowling.

 Once everyone was wearing the proper equipment...the glow in the dark craziness began!

 Here's Will squaring up to send the ball down the lane...

 And here is the Boomtastick - who takes bowling VERY seriously, taking his turn...

When the even concluded, the following scores were posted...

And the medals were distributed accordingly...with the birthday boy getting the bronze.

Next up - air hockey!  The older brothers played...

The younger brothers played...

 And after the dads and moms (yes moms played in this event just for fun - think of it as an exhibition lol)...the medals were again distributed with Will getting the gold, Cade the silver, Billy the bronze, and  John came in fourth!

 We then hopped in the car for get to our final venue and event in the Olympic Village of The Woodlands (haha), Shankz glow in the dark putt-putt golf.  Here are the contestants, eager to complete their final event!

Here's a photo of Will, lining up his putt...

 And lefty John, as usual, showing waaayy too much aggression than needed :)

 As we rounded 18 and came in to the clubhouse, the final set of medals were handed out with the gold going to Billy, the silver to Michael, the bronze to Cade, and Johnny and Easton tied for fourth :)

But we weren't done yet!

We still had to have the closing ceremonies (ie Will's birthday celebration)!

The decorations were all set out...

The cake was ready...

 And the birthday boy and Olympian himself was excited to have a small celebration with his very closest (and our very closest) friends...

 This picture is totally unnecessary for this posting, but it is too classic not to include.  

What do you get when you have a table full of boys and one mama who wants a birthday celebration photo?  One mama, no one else, looking and smiling at the camera.  

 After a few gifts and some fun, the games were officially in the books.

I think our little Olympians had tons of fun...we can't wait until next year!

 And who knows what the events might be and who might come out the winner!

Easter 2015

Easter 2015 was a busy busy busy busy weekend for us.

We had tons to do.  

Beginning Friday.

The four of us and four of our besties set out to have the confetti egg battle of a lifetime.

It was tons of fun and I think we've officially decided to make it a tradition!

And then Will had a baseball game on Easter eve (note eye black still on Will below).  

So we crammed in our Easter egg dying and coloring at the last minute Saturday night.

We had a lot to do - 24 real eggs, 24 fake eggs, dying, painting, crayons, you name it!  

Even Billy and I got involved :)

Finally, we finished.  Here are the boys with their eggs.  If you look closely, you will see a Spiderman egg I made for Will and a Hulk egg Billy made for John.

Sunday morning we woke up early and set out for church.

And when we arrived home, the boys' baskets of goodies were set out and eggs were hidden!

Here is Johnny's basket full of WAY too much chocolate and his Easter book.

And here is Will's Easter basket - also overflowing with Russell Stovers an Hershey's...and how apropos - a Who Was Milton Hershey book...now he knows where chocolate came from! 

At the count of three, the boys sped out of the back door and into our yard where they hunted, very politely this year I must add, all of their Easter eggs.

When it was all over, we counted their loot...

And then as expected, they immediately started chowing down on their goodies :)

To include trying their very first Peeps - which they took one bite of, an spit out hahaha!

Happy Easter 2015 from the Browns!  

Who Was Benjamin Franklin?

So along with getting older, and starting real school (1st grade), we have had lots of homework, plenty of tests, tons of extracurricular assignments, presentations, speech competitions, and spelling bees.  

One of the last assignments of the year was the class history project. 

At the beginning of the year, we (parents) selected a presentation date and corresponding historical figure that our child would later be responsible for preparing an oral presentation for the class.

I am smart, so I of course picked a spring date and the slot right after spring break - just in case we needed extra time to prepare :)

Will's historical figure - Benjamin Franklin.

Will did tons of research including reading the Who Was Ben Franklin? biography from the Who Was? series.  He even used a highlighter as he read through the chapters to highlight items, fun facts, and important events he found interesting and wanted to include in his report.

From there, he created a book report which we were given all the directives on, page by page, so it was easy to know what information to provide, but we were also given plenty of liberties on creativity - so we sat down with Will and created the following pages...and I'm proud to say he did all the drawings, coloring, writing, cutting, pasting, etc on his own!

From there...we created his tri-fold poster board!  What fun!

I wish these existed when I was little.  

With his readers on and 100 dollar bill in hand - was set for his presentation!

We rehearsed numerous times, so he knew his material well, knew when to point...

When to change positions...

And more importantly, when to ask his teacher's assistance to "please dim the lights" for the big lightening bolt debut!  (Totally Billy's idea)

It was an amazing presentation.

Will did an awesome job putting in the time and effort to read the books, find the fun facts, write ALL the writing in his report, and draw this...from scratch...no tracing...no help...our little Picasso :) 

The way Will's sketch turned out was my favorite part of the whole thing :)

Needless to say I will be keeping this booklet forever!!!