THE MARINI FAMILY

WELCOME TO THE CRAZINESS OF OUR LIFE WITH TWO BOYS!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Science Olympiad!!!

Quick update...the mission project is finished!!!  I was not a popular mom the other day when I sat Matt down and said, "We are finishing this today!!!"  I knew this weekend would be crazy, so we pushed through and it turned out great!

I am not a crafty person at all.  AT ALL.  But we chose a scrapbook instead of a build.  I can take pictures and write...I don't build.





Finished product!

On to Science Olympiad. 

What a fun day!  The entire experience was met with some mixed emotions, but overall it was a great experience.  Matthew competed in three events: Extinction is Forever, Bottle Music, and Rubber band Catapult.  A couple of weeks ago, Matthew had a bit of a panic attack and it was completely understandable.  Extinction is Forever was a study competition and that meant he and his partner were responsible for not only knowing if the species /animals were extinct or endangered, they also had to know the reason, their habitat, primary location, and when this happened.  It is a lot of information and he kind of hit a breaking point.  As much as I tried to tell him that he just had to do his best and no one would get mad or be disappointed if he didn't do well, it was still so stressful for him. 

Reese Roadrunners Represented!!!
 
Matt and Nicholas having breakfast before their first event.


Luke, Nicholas, and Matt watching egg drop.  These three boys are inseparable!

Extinction group.  They were all smiles, but they were sooooo nervous!

Last minute studying.


Rubber band Catapult.


Matthew and Brian setting up.


Reese cheer section!

Bottle Music group!!

Our cheering section for Science Bowl.

WINNERS!!!!!!!  Matt's team won 5th place for Bottle Music!!

Proud kids!!  They worked hard and did a great job!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A Little Work...A Little Play

Spring break is here!!  And it is like 80 degrees outside and beautiful.  I had to walk into the my hidden stash of summer clothes in Ryan's closet, which he does not know is there (on purpose), to get some summer gear out.  The next two weeks will be full of no make-up, air dried hair, and comfy summer dresses, with maybe a cardigan or two thrown in, and I am going to love every minutes of it.

On Sunday we headed to Fresno to celebrate Grandma Jean's 85 birthday.  The boys had left the day before so that they could suck as much cousin time out of the trip as possible.  We had a great day at Grandma's and then went back to Mike and Stacy's to stay for the night.  And that was a treat because we rarely stay with them anymore due to mostly day trips.  Sunday night Mason had basketball tryouts and we were told "No girls allowed", which I totally get!  However, that left Stacy and Mikayla and I to fill the time while they were gone, so we went and got massages.  That is what you call a win, win!

Monday morning we headed to Carmel for the second leg of our trip.  As I said before, I picked...wait, Matthew picked Carmel as his fourth grade mission project.  And I supported him a hundred percent and told him that we would be more than happy to take him there to help him with his project. We could not have picked a better day!  It was gorgeous there!  I mean stupid, ridiculous, gorgeous, then again begging the question---why is it we don't live here???   Oh yeah...the dough. 

We started our day at First Awakening (that's First Watch to you locals! Hi Noelle;).  We decided to jump start our brains with the proper nourishment for the information we would be collecting.

Ryan chose the Mickey Pancake.

I chose the special...salmon and grilled mushrooms eggs benedict.  Yep, it was that good. 

Excited boy.  At breakfast he went over a list of things he specifically wanted to include with pictures. 

He is all ready.

Unfortunately there was major construction going on and a lot of the mission was closed off.  Matt was really disappointed that the cemetery was closed because he had just done some work on a writing piece for his report.

I thought I would show you all the pictures that I took first.  Because all the pictures I took first had both boys in them because Ryan wanted to be in every picture.  When we kept telling him that they were for Matt's report, his response..."That's okay, she can know I was here too." Again, I have two sets of every picture...one of both, and then one of Matt.







 
 
After we were done we headed to Carmel.  A little drive along the scenic route.

We sat and watched this couple with eight dogs, which we thought might have been a litter, but when we got closer realized that they were all older dogs.  Anyway, they ran around in the water like crazy.  So fun to watch!

Shorts and t-shirts...crazy beautiful weather.


 
This bird kept me company while I watched the car.


Last shot of the day...

Okay...let's start a poll.  State reports for fifth grade officially start nine months from now.  Where should we go???  I mean, of course, what state should Matt pick as HIS choice for state report???  Because I have a couple in mind and flights would have to be booked shortly. :)

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Date night

On Saturday we wrapped our Upward season with two wins and two happy boys.  Matthew's team ended the season 7-1, and Ryan's team just ended the season.  Even though no score is kept for kindergartner's, Matthew always keeps score to torment Ryan with.  That's how we know that Ryan won...it physically killed Matt to admit that they crushed the last team.  Oh well...on to AAU ball and baseball. 

I love a good date night. But you know what makes a date night more fun....other people with you on the date. Solo coupling is for daters. And daters we are not!  So we asked our dear friends Brent and Sharon if they would like to head over to San Jose and catch a Sharkies (in our house, they are affectionately known as that) game.  Brent is a huge hockey fan like Rich, and I didn't know until dinner that the Sharks are his favorite team.  Which was cool...unless he was humoring me because that's who we were going to watch--and root for loudly.

We had dinner at the fantastic restaurant in downtown San Jose called The Counter.  Food was delish!!  We all loved what we ordered and raved over the three, yes three, different kinds of fries we ordered.

We made it just in time to the game, thanks to the nifty navigation Sharon has in her car.  I only mention this because on the console, where the gear shift is--I think--is a little mouse or joystick that the driver uses to "navigate" around the navigation system.  It occurred to me as I watched Brent drive and try to "navigate" with the mouse, that if we owned this car and Rich was driving...our car would be wrapped around the nearest telephone pole.  No joke!  I am so grateful that the system that is in my car can ONLY be operated when you are in a parked position.  If Rich had access to work this joystick while we were driving...again, not a happy ending.  The headline would read, "Tragedy as family of four crashes, driver's hand found on joystick!" 

The nice man behind us took our picture.

The guys....

The gals....

Okay, so we need to talk about the best part of the evening.  No, it wasn't that we had an amazing dinner...because it was.  No, it wasn't that we saw the Sharks win...even though it was much needed.  No, the best part of the evening happened approximately fifteen minutes after the game was over as Sharon and I were patiently waiting for the guys to exit the restroom.  As we were standing there, talking, minding our own business, this young (very young) guy walks up to us and opens with, "Do you guys know of a bar around here?"  The good news is that he was at least old enough to drink, because it was clear that was what he had been doing for a majority of the night.  The random chit chat conversation that took place was hysterical.  I don't even remember half of what he said because all I could think about was that Brent and Rich were going to walk out of the bathroom at any minute and see this fella making conversation with us.  As they came out, he was walking away and Sharon and I just started giggling.  And couldn't stop.  I do love that Brent opened with, "Did you tell him you were married?" and we looked at each other and said...." Uh, no."  This is the difference between Rich and Brent...Rich would have never asked me that.  He would have just laughed and made fun of me the rest of the night.  And he did.  Sooo funny!!!  That incident will live on as something Sharon and I come back to every now and again, you know, just for the fun of it!

I had to include this next picture.  This is the next morning when Ryan found out that we went to the Sharkies game without him.  Oops.  Cried for thirty minutes straight.  No joke!