Fair-Weather Friends (the feathered kind)

Katie and Kenny have finally settled on names for their feather friends...

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Introducing Kenny's birdy buddy: CLOUDY

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Meet Katie's little tweetheart: SUNNY

...Get it? They both have weather names *grin*.

The kids are enjoying their little pets and take them out every day to tame them and get them to used to being handled (without the fear of being eaten). Both birds have to be encouraged (i.e. grabbed) to get them out of their cages, but once they are out they don't mind perching on fingers. I try to talk to them every time I enter each kid's room. I am trying to teach Kenny's bird to say, "Hi Ken," and Katie's to say, "Hi Katie." We'll see how well that goes. Since neither kid is a good whistler, I have been given the job of teaching each bird to whistle a tune.

...more later.

Nervous Ned goes Independent on us

Rick and I were bugging the kids all day today to get out and play in the beautiful weather. This is the one of the two months a year the weather is gorgeous in Sacramento (the other month occurring sometime in Spring). They spent most of the day playing computer games and pretending things inside the house.

The kids finally went out and played a little basketball around 3:30.

Then at 4:30. Ken declared that he was going to go on a bike ride by himself! Rick looks at me. I look at Rick. We both know that we were off riding our bikes for hours at a time at seven years old. ... but in this day and age, should we let our baby boy out on a bike by himself?

I say, "Ok." Rick is as apprehensive as I am. I loaded up the 2-way radios with batteries so Ken could keep in touch with us. Rick called our neighbor where Ken's would be riding to (Our neighbor's daughter did the same thing and rode to our house when she was 7). He would be riding a total of 1.25 miles (there and back). Rick even made him wear a whistle around his neck to blow if the radios didn't work.

... and off he went. Now, I thought for sure Mr. Nervous-Ned-I-Hate-Anything-New (aka KEN) would get five houses down the street and turn around - but nope. He checked in with us when he had gotten around the big curve in our street and checked in a second time when he got to his destination.

You should've seen Rick and I standing in the middle of our street - just waiting for Ken. Like being in the middle of the street somehow made us closer and more able to help him... but independence must be gained by oneself.

Now, don't think we're going to make this a habit. Cause I'm not really ok with it... but I had to let Ken sprout some little wings.

Ken was all grins when he got home. Katie was still in shock that Ken did that. She won't even stay home by herself for five minutes. I am sure she'll be sprouting wings before we know it too.

Soccer Saturday (again)

It was another EARLY Saturday morning for the Carter family this weekend. All of Ken's games start either at 8am or 9am. This Sat. it was 8 (blech).

The morning was really cool and damp. Ken loved playing in the cooler weather. He said it helped him run harder and longer. His team, The Bears, won by a large margin (something like 11 t0 2). Ken scored two of the goals. Here are some pictures of him working hard and having fun.


Ken's shoots his first goal. Picture above & Video (shot by Katie) below.


Katie's game was late in the afternoon. Her field is HUGE. Her team, The Cardinals, is not the most talented bunch of girls, and a good number of them are just not very eager to play hard.

Katie did her best however and said she had fun despite the 0 to 6 score. For the first 40 minutes (1st half) she played back and helped protect the goal. She has a natural ability to know where to put herself in relation to the ball and the goal. Most girls her age don't have this skill. After a 10 minute half time break, Katie played the rest of the game in the goalie position. She let a few balls get by (heck I would too, that goal zone is HUGE), but stopped quite a few too.


Her drop-kicks are getting really good. I am glad she is enjoying herself, despite the score. Her teams has only scored one goal in three games.

Rick is beside-himself in frustration about how to coach these girls and get them to improve. He literally has been mulling it over in his head all weekend.