The gig is up….

Everyone says to write down the funny things our boys do – this time I had to take the opportunity.

I have been in California the last week for a work trip. Nothing was out of the ordinary coming home. I got in late Friday night and was up this morning for away soccer games in Terre Haute. We went out to eat after the games with our friends the Desnoyers and their parents.

Full disclosure… I am a chocoholic… and in true chocoholic form when we got home I wanted a small piece. Usually, I look for chocolate chips and just a few will do the trick. I’m also usually pretty quiet about it and usually no one even knows I do it. Sneaky, huh?

Well, tonight I searched the pantry high and low to no avail… I KNOW I purchased a large bag of chocolate chips the last weekend before my trip. I seriously couldn’t find it. Now, sometimes I make it hard to find these chips so they aren’t staring at us, but I checked all the usually places.

Brady was watching TV and I asked, “Hey B, have you seen the chocolate chips?” I seriously didn’t expect a reply. Instead….. he gets up, sighs, and says dejectedly, “Follow me Mom.” I was shocked that he was going to help me… but more shocked that we left the kitchen and went to his room.

This is what I saw….

Gooooooooooooooo Disco Ninjas!

OK, so your first question might be… “Disco what?” Soccer teams sometimes have fun names, right? Well, when Jon decided to coach a team and asked six 9 year old boys what the name should be you should expect something like this. ;) Noah came up with it and his buddies like it – and ran with it. They even have a team celebratory dance. (See video for that.)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1-4KSBRbuE

Jon organized a team of Noah’s friends from his Columbus Express Soccer Team and signed them up for several tournaments this summer. 3v3 is a nation wide organization with all kinds of tournaments that ultimately qualify you for competition at Wide World of Sports at Disney in Orlando, FL.

Our boys won the regional championship and our local paper wrote an article for it.

Here are some pictures of the article in the paper and more!

First day in Mexico

Can’t complain about one single thing…..

Take your kids to work day

So not long after I started at Cummins in 1999 I helped organize an event where working parents could take their kids to work. I used to imagine the day I might have a child to bring, would it be a boy or a girl? Would they be hyper or shy like some of the kids I saw. I also used to marvel how much some of the kids used to look like some of the employees.

Well, fast forward to 2014. Noah was finally old enough to join me. He spent the morning doing a group activity to learn about engineering. His team won a contest with the best boat!

He noticed a few posters in the building with his Mom’s picture. He wanted to take a picture with them. It was hilarious because we tried to do it incognito! I didn’t want anyone to see me taking a picture of my picture lol. He also spent some time flying paper airplanes in my office of course!

For lunch he earned a chocolate shake. Then he spent the afternoon with me going to meetings!!

The last picture is of us in the CIO’s office. Lol.

Really boys? The BEST day of your lives?????

Really? Not Christmas, your birthdays, vacations?

Minecraft success = best day of a 7 and 9 year olds lives. Really.

video of boys

What is Minecraft anyway?????

A project…

When I’m extra busy at work or with constant running with sports, I sometimes I look for a project I can do at home… A “forced” healthy distraction.

I have never been too fond of my lonely clock hanging above my couch. Enter these ceiling medallions!

Thanks Mom for painting! I couldn’t have done them in time for our party Saturday without your help. :)

<img src="https://thesandlins.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140620-210731-76051865.jpg” alt=”20140620-210731-76051865.jpg” class=”alignnone size-full” />

A first of many..

This was the first time for Jon to take a team to 3v3 Live – a tournament that could ultimately lead to playing at Disney.

Jon put together a team of kids from Noah’s Express travel team. They had a ball! Everyone was nervous to see how they would do… Including Jon! We signed up for the highest competitive bracket and prayed for the best.

The boys learned a lot today, they won semifinals and lost in the final match to come in second.

Brady had a ball with all the other siblings. :) He came running into our bedroom this morning at 6am yelling, “Mom, it’s Noah’s big day!” I think he was pretty proud of his big brother.

Oh and by the way, the team name is: Disco Ninjas FC. (FC for football club)

Morning drive..

I love taking the boys to school. The conversations go like this….

B: “Mom, I want to change my name. In Spanish class my name is only Brady there is no Spanish name for Brady.”

Me: “Brady, you could have a family Spanish name like ‘Gustavo’ like your Grandpa or ‘Antonio’ or something like that.”

B: “Nah.. Can I change my name to ‘Fire Flame’?”

Me: …… (I got nothing.)

Noah: “At least your name isn’t ‘Noah Toilet Sandlin'” Jon is another name for toilet.

Seriously. I can’t make it up.

Love my boys!
❤️❤️

Dress for Jesus Day

1) Noah dressed himself…… Socks and all
2) Brady thinks dressing up = bow tie

Love them so much!

Dress like a cowboy day!!

Noah was too cool for school, but not Brady! To raise money the boys could dress up to a specific theme each day and pay the school one dollar.