Love this guy

I had a very random and precious conversation with my son yesterday. In the car on the way home from errands (which is where several interesting conversations take place), Addison out of nowhere started talking about mosquito "nuts" for the kids. I had no idea what he was talking about until he began explaining that the kids in Africa get sick and die from the mosquitos biting them. Then I realized that they had talked about mosquito NETS, and he said they had talked about buying some in children's church. He was speaking about this very passionately (as those of you that know him know he does), and then he said something that just melted my heart and brought a tear to my eye. He said, "Mommy, I can bring my whole piggy bank to church. They only cost like ten dollars, and I might have ten dollars in my piggy bank." He went on to say that we needed to buy the nets for ALL of the children in Africa.

As a mother, it is so special to start to see these glimpses of your child's heart as they get older. Addison has such a huge and tender little heart and a sensitive and caring spirit. When he prays, without fail, he will always include everyone in the WHOLE world. And for a kid, he has never thought much about that money in that piggy bank. I don't even know how much is in there- mostly consisting of tooth fairy money and random collections- he doesn't get an allowance or anything at this point. But to him, it is a great treasure of large amounts. And he has never once wanted to get that money out and buy a toy with it. His first mention of it was quite a while back wanting to save it to help him go to school (mother's day out at the time). Since that time he has offered his piggy bank to help daddy pay for late fees at the video store and other random things. Always suggesting it to help out and not for himself. I think that this quality in a five year old boy is very precious, and I know God is going to do something with that. We will do all we can as parents to help foster that generousity in his spirit. I think that's one of the coolest things about being a parent. We get to see these gifts and talents that God placed in our children, and we actually get to help in the process of crafting and molding them into what God intended them to be. It's actually kind of scary at the same time. Lord help us to make good decisions on behalf of our kids!

We are absolutely going to let him take that whole piggy bank to church and proudly offer it up with all his heart. And it makes me want to pour a ton of money back into it! Hope that little story made you smile and perhaps challenged and encouraged the generousity in your own heart today. Peace out from the Pate house.

Updating

Wow, where did July go? I literally feel like the 4th of July was a couple of days ago. Pretty accurate reflection of this summer- it's come and almost gone in a fast, hot fury. Of course our schedule doesn't change much during the summer, so it's not as dramatic as a lot of families. Work is a little more relaxed for Chris right now, but not really enough to make much difference. And mine hasn't changed at all, except maybe getting a little busier! Now that the kids are getting older I'm sure it will feel more like a true summer after a year of hard work in school, but for now it's mostly just hotter! But we've still enjoyed the longer nights, taking long walks as a family with the kids in the wagon and doing summery things like swimming.

So I really haven't done well in keeping with the current updates. A lot happened there at the end of June/beginning of July and I fell behind. Bad blogging mother :( I'm taking this time to post some pics of the 4th of July because we got such cute ones. We had a somewhat relaxed holiday, hanging out at the church party that we got kicked out of (as in, the entire church got kicked out of the pool) and then we stayed at the house the rest of the day. We got sparklers for the kids, and we had Rachel with us as well. We just let them play in the sprinklers until it got dark and busted out the sparklers. Much to everyone's dismay, the city fireworks got cancelled due to high winds, but not until we sat out in the front yard forever waiting for them. Oh well!

Another event that took place at the end of June was Addison's end of season baseball tournament. Don't have many pics to post of that one, and I haven't sorted through the shaky, crazy video snippets I took.... maybe one day. But let me tell you, that day decided for us that we will not be going with that league again next year if Addison plays baseball. The entire event was a little ridiculous. First of all, it was over 100 degrees outside because we got such a late start to the season. Bad decision number one. The kids played the first game against a team that had a coach that drove us all nuts, so we really wanted to beat them. That was one of the craziest games I've ever been to, and these kids are only 5/6! Addison was shining, getting a good solid hit every time he came up to bat that game. Three times, I believe. Well, that game went into extra innings because it was so close, and we managed to pull out with a victory at the last second. Unfortunately because of the rigorous schedule they made, the kids immediately went into game two. With no break. In 100 degree weather. Bad decision number two. We were so concerned about those little guys out there. Every time they went to the dug out, we were draping them with wet towels, giving them water and fruit, and everything else we could possibly do to keep them cool and well. A little nerve racking as a parent when you're melting yourself and watching your child running around, dragging his feet trying his best to weather the weather. Well, this little team we played had the league president as the coach. And they were conveniently placed in the bracket to be fresh and ready to play us. League president coaching a team = can we say conflict of interest?? And the game continued with some shady calls and some poor attitudes on their end. In another gut wrenching game (and now concerned about everyone's health on top of everything) we went into extra innings again. I guarantee if our kids hadn't of played a game right before with no break, we would have killed them. Sadly, in the second extra inning we lost. But honestly, we were all so relieved to get them out of the heat for a break I don't think anyone cared much. Even coach Darrick wasn't feeling well and was unable to pitch for the third game. We had an hour break to regroup and then played the team we played in the first game. They pretty much had nothing left. And we lost. And those two teams went on to play each other in the championship, with the league president's team winning the whole thing. But we were just happy to get out of the heat after that very long, draining, emotional day! I was totally the crazy sports mom, yelling and screaming and getting my heart rate up to ungodly levels. I can see why people get nuts when their kids play sports! It was fun in the beginning, but like I said, the heat was so bad and dangerous I lost my pep and just wanted to be done. But Addison did smashingly well, and he ended up batting like 7 for 9. He went out with a bang!

Whew- that was a mouthful. Sorry so long, but I wanted to relay some of that crazy day. You had to be there though, I guess. My goal is to actually get past just blogging for event updates and get more of the every day life little things.... maybe I'll get that goal one day. As soon as these days stop slipping through my fingers. Ha! Well, peace out from the Pate house. I leave you with pictures.

(capturing the heat of the moment- literally)

posing with the tournament trophy

As Promised...

Well, it's only a few weeks late! Now we have other things to post as well, but I wanted to go in order since I was building everyone up for this musical theater video. Addison had such a great time in this little camp. It was only four days, and they put together this little performance during this time. We were pretty impressed with how long it was and all of the moves for just four days! His teachers couldn't stop talking about him and how much they enjoyed him. They said he just worked so hard and was so talented. He was also the youngest in the class, which made it more impressive. Since this was such a success, he is going to take a musical theater class in the fall that's every week. It's the same performing arts company that Cadence will be taking dance at and I will be teaching a couple of classes at. Since I am teaching my kids get to take for free which is such a tremendous blessing.

He has since performed this song on a very regular basis to many crowds. Still knows every word and motion, not to mention perfect pitch :) Cadence does it with him and it's quite humorous to see her trying to keep up with him. I'll admit, it's so much better to see live, especially since the video is kind of dark. It's also not good quality since it's such a big file- it kind of looks like we're trying to blur his face! You can't always see his priceless facial expressions, such as the wink during the Wizard of Oz, but you can still get the idea. There are actually two videos, one farther away and one close up. We're posting both of them because you can see different things in both videos. We sure have been some proud parents lately :) Glad to give our kids the opportunity to explore different areas and activities so we can start to see where their gifts are.

Enjoy "Flicks Are For Kids"!

(I forgot the teacher talked at the beginning of this one, so just fast forward through that)

P.S. After watching the videos after they downloaded, I decided we might need to retape him singing and repost it so you can see it better, because I'm not happy with the way they turned out on here after they were cyberspace-ready :(

I have to put closure on baseball season and retell our dramatic ending, and I also have 4th of July fun to share, but I will separate it out into different posts as to not overwhelm anyone :) Also to appreciate each event fully in stand alone form. More to come, but for now peace out from the Pate house!