1, 2, 3 strikes your out!

Today we had the pleasure of attending a Lexington Legends baseball game.  If you live around Lexington and haven't been - you need to.  It is a good ol' time.  We always go on Mondays since it is Kids Eat Free night and you can't beat that!  The kids get an entire meal for zippe doo da! 

The reason we went:
So a couple Saturdays ago we ventured down to the Farmer's Market in Lexington and there was a Legends Spinner game that the kids took turns playing.  The 2 bigger boys both got squishy balls.  Score!  Then Ryan, he got a super obnoxious, annoying hand clapping toy.  A toy that MAY disappear soon!  No Score!  Then Lil Brin spun her heart out and it landed on 4 free game tickets!  BIG SCORE!!  So a dude called us a few days later and asked which game we wanted to attend.  We told him "Today" and he asked if 4 tickets were enough.  I let him know we needed to buy 2 additional tickets.  He then politely let me know that there would be 6 tickets waiting for us at the box office.  Oh Ya!

We had SO MUCH FUN!  The seats were FABULOUS!!!  The 2 biggen's even got selected by "usher of the year" to participate in an in-between-innings game.  Good times, I tell ya!!   Oh, and the best part . . . the Legends scored TWELVE runs in the 1st inning.  Woot woot!

Here are some photos and a video.  Enjoy!!

Awesome Usher Man

Ashton

Ethan and Ashton about to Take The Field!

Ashton's Prize!

Ethan's Prize!

THE Competition!

Today I went over to Eastern Elementary to check out all the artwork for the Kentucky Kid's Day T-Shirt Contest.  There were SEVERAL really cute designs.  There are some very creative students apparently!!  There are also a few modern art pieces I didn't completely get.  I need to learn to look "outside the box".  There are 23 entries total.  Here are a few pictures of the goodies. 

I really liked this one until Ethan said it looked like a toothbrush.  Now I can't get that out of my mind, dang it!  I really like the "Triple Crown" slogan though!

Very cute!

Ethan's entry!  Isn't the #7 a lucky number?  He hopes so!

My guess would be "Modern Art"

Ashton hopes that #20 is lucky this year!

Ummm, I got nothing!

Another very cute, very creative piece of artwork.  Good job #2 whoever you are!

This one cracks me up!  It totally reminds me of Arthur the Aardvark.  This is Ryan's favorite!  :)

This, according to a 5 year old, is by a cute girl in our Primary.  She is in Ryan's Kindergarten class.  She did a very good job with her entry!  I think the printing is especially good!


Good luck all participants!  Great stuff.   The entire school wins by getting to wear a t-shirt with such great design work!!

Humor Me, Monday!

Today's dialogue with Ashton . . .

Ashton:  "Mom, did I get anything in the mail today?"

Me:  "Nope"

Ashton:  "I should be getting some packages since my birthday is coming up . . . . "

Me:  {silently thinking}  "Yep, probably any day since your birthday is right around the corner (Dec 3rd)!"  haha

Bummm . . . her!

Today while driving to Matt's work Brinley asked if dinosaurs have bums.  I told her they did when they roamed on the earth.  Then Ryan piped in to let Brinley know that everything has a bum except for Barbie Mermaid Tale.   There you have it . . .

Winners, Winners! Chicken Dinners!

Soooooo, we have a winner, or two, or three???

Ethan won his class T-Shirt contest after a tie breaker vote.  He was pumped!  However, I think he was more excited that the winner from last year didn't win.  :)

Ashton said his class didn't get to vote but we did find out he won.  My guess is he was only entry for his class.  Still a win in my book!

The jury is still out on Ryan.  We have no clue if he won, or not.  He, like Ashton, said they didn't vote.  We will find out his results on Monday when I go to the school to size up the competition.  Heehee

Needless to say, we are very happy with their hard work!

We Got Horsepower!

Last night at 8:30pm I ran out to our truck to grab something when my neighbor was walking by. This is my neighbor who is the Co-President of the PTA at Eastern Elementary. We were chatting and the Kentucky Kids Day T-shirt contest was brought up. I told her I needed to get my kids working on their entries soon. She then told me they were due TODAY!!! So I ran back inside, got Ethan and Ashton out of bed and they started contemplating their design ideas. The theme this year is "Horse Power" since the World Equestrian Games will be in town in a few weeks. My neighbor told me the idea her hubs came up with and said we should do his idea. He said to use "horse power" as a muscle car theme, instead of a horse theme. So the 2 big boys ran with it. We found clip art online and they used my Mickey Mouse Light Up Desk to trace away. I thought they turned out pretty good.

So this morning, I woke Ryan up bright and early (6:15am!!!) and started on his design. He did not like the tracing idea so on to stencils he went! I think he did a great job too!!!

Today the each class votes on their class entries. The winners of each class go on to the entire school vote next week. If you remember, Ethan and Ashton both won their class entries last year!

I'll keep you posted on the status of their entries! Good Luck Ethan, Ashton and Ryan. We are sure proud of you all for trying your best!!

 

Not the Norm!

Tonights conversation . . . .

Ethan: "Dad, thanks for adding The Statler Brothers to my MP3 player!"

Matt: "No problem, bud!"

Okay, so we are not normal . . . not even close!

6.5 hours x 213 miles = my day!

Yep! Still working!

Everyday Kentucky

Today the two older boys stayed after school for tutoring/extended day learning. On days like this, I need to pick them up about an hour after school lets out. While waiting in the parent pick up line a few cars behind me arrived this . . . in line to pick up his child.














Only in Kentucky!

Another Favorite!

Today was (possibly) my last day working for the U.S. Census Bureau. My day consisted of driving to Paris, KY then to Frankfort, KY. After a couple short meetings at both locations, I headed back to Georgetown. After a short stint in G-Town I ventured back to Frankfort. While there, me and my assistants (Ryan and Brinley) pulled over to the Scenic Overlook at took a nice picture of the Kentucky State Capital. It is a different view than we have taken before. It is such a beautiful place. Following our 2 second diversion, we continued on to our meeting, just in time for it to be moved to Paris. So back we went to Paris. After a brief meeting there I headed back to another quick meeting in Georgetown. I logged 160 miles today!

I have absolutely loved working for the U.S. Census Bureau. I have met a lot of wonderful people as well as some total goonbirds! I guess that is what makes the world go round, right? I will miss my job, but will be even more prepared and ready in 10 years when the decennial census returns. Until then . . .

Our Performer

Brinley LOVES to sing . . . and dance . . . and talk . . . and . . .

Our children began learning the song "I'll Walk with You" in Primary this Sunday. She has been practicing it ever since. Here is the first part of the song.

E-Man, the Art Man!

Today Ethan started drawing some of his favorite Pokeman characters. He then notified me that he was drawing them for "Grace". I asked him if he liked "Grace"??? He replied, "No, she just really likes Pokeman." Here is the official Pokeman art as well as the "Unknowns". (That is what he calls them)

I really, really hope he inherited a fraction of the talent that his Uncle Luke has in the art department! (Crossing Fingers!!) So far, so good!

School Rules!

Today was the boys first day of school. There is just something wrong with the first day of school being 100 degrees outside. I remember wearing jeans on the first day of school growing up. Here they would have DIED if I sent them to school in jeans!!

Here are some before/after school pictures.

P.S. They all had a super 1st day of school. Hooray!

P.P.S. or P.S.S.??? Ryan's teacher, Mrs. Pratt just sent me an email saying, "Ryan did a great job on his first day of Kindergarten! I am so happy to have him in class." How great is that?

Ryan's 1st day of Kindergarten (Pratt)

Ashton's 1st day of 2nd grade (Holbrook)


Ethan's 1st day of 4th grade (Hockensmith)


The school-goers!

Ryan's return home!

Ashton - happy to be home! (Coming down the steps)

Ethan's afternoon return home. Trapper keeper, and all!

More, in THIS case, is a Good Thing

Today, while yardsale-ing we were on a quest to find a barn with an American flag painted on it. Not to buy (of course), but to get a picture of for my MIL. We didn't find one, but found a bunch of other beauties. A big shout out to Matt who didn't grumble once when asked to "pull over - I need to take a picture!"

But . . . not to completely disappoint . . . we found a sweet American Flag painted on the side of a VFW in Frankfort, KY.

Oldies, not Goodies!

Holy Cow! Today the Clayburn clan decided to acquaint themselves with the World's Longest Yardsale. Let me just say that too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. It was OUT OF CONTROL CRAZY!!! Most people had their items on trailers right along side 127. They usually had an RV or tent accompanying their goodies. This is because they started on Thursday and will camp out until Sunday! Isn't that nuts??

Here are some tidbits of the "World's Longest Yardsale". It goes from Hudsen, Michigan to (drum roll please) Gadsden, Alabama. That equals 675 miles - some of which are in Kentucky!!! We drove up to Owenton (my new favorite place, remember?) then back down to Frankfort. We purchased very, very little. Matt thinks that a giant garbage truck needs to start at one end of 127 (the road's name) and not stop until it reaches the end. However, they would need about 2 billion garbage trucks!

Some of the items we saw today . . .

• one house had at least 15 viewmasters and about 100 viewmaster reels
• more betty boop items than you'd ever want to see
• about 2 million bicycles from pre-1900 (it seemed)
• a tin cannister of marbles marked at $25 (they appeared to be the SAME EXACT marbles you can pick up at Walmart for ummmmm ONE DOLLAR)
• enough glassware to make your head spin
• stuffed animals - REAL and fake ones
• books that look like barely survived the flood of '93
• Gigantic bull horns - like Boss Hogg's on top his caddy (upon proofreading, Matt informed me that he thinks the "bull horns" were really elephant tusks. Whatever they were - who would want them??
• Lots, and lots of rusty items.

I'm sure there was a lot of fabulous finds - just not at the ones we went to. It was mostly nasty, smoke smelly, super dooper old TRASH! The craziest thing though, was, we couldn't stop checking out the next one thinking it had to be better than the last one. We were always WRONG!

Here are some pictures of the MADNESS.

Oh - and for more information check HERE.

When we FINALLY turned of 127 at about 7:30pm the sales were still going strong. It was one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed!!