Nolan the Soccer Player

On the advise of Nolan's pediatrician and teacher, we decided to sign Nolan up for Soccer. He really seems to enjoy it, but only on his terms. Practices are a little harsh because he doesn't really want to chase a ball when there is a playground within sight. But when it came to the game this morning, Nolan was all in. And he loved it!

Nolan is actually really good at controlling the ball, but when he is confronted with someone else, he just lets them take the ball and runs about two feet behind them. It's actually very entertaining.

Nolan has some really great players on his team for him to follow. He really gets excited (as you can see in the picture above) when the crowd cheers. He's also fabulous at following directions. When the coach yelled "Go to the goal", Nolan ran straight to the goal and got caught in the net. Granted, he didn't have the ball, but he sure followed those directions perfectly!

Above is the only time Nolan really took control of the ball. He got to do the kick-off, but no one really noticed that he'd kicked it. So he took it and ran toward the goal. And missed it. And kept going into the next field before he finally stopped. He was so proud of himself! And it really was a proud moment for me. He's really understanding what he needs to do, even if he can't quite complete it yet.

And of course, we couldn't have a game without a few issues. Like Nolan's pants falling down a few times. The coach helped him once, but the next time, he took control himself. In the middle of the field. What can I say? Nolan is nothing if not entertaining. And I love him for it!

So all in all, Nolan's soccer is going well. I hope he is enjoying it as much as it looks like he is. And maybe he'll keep doing it. That would be splendid. But even if he doesn't, he's going to be awesome at anything he does. I just hope he doesn't undress himself anymore...

My Favorite Pictures of Paris 2011

To celebrate our 5 year anniversary, Don surprised me with a trip to Paris. We went the first week of August, and it was SPECTACULAR!! I've never had a more fun or exciting trip.

Since we spent an entire week in Paris (with a day trip to London), I decided that I'm going to break up the posts a bit so you don't get too bored looking at my pictures or reading my ramblings.

So here is the first installment: My favorite pictures of Paris! (in no particular order... just how blogger uploaded them)

an urn in the gardens at the Palace of Versailles

Statues in front of the ponds at the Palace of Versailles

The Westin Paris- Our hotel

one of the bridges over the Seine that leads to the Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame de Paris tower

Notre Dame de Paris

A view of Napoleon's Tomb from the garden of the Musee Rodin

The Musee d'Orsey

The Inverted Glass Pyramid at the Louvre

A fountain in a park near the Champs-Elysees

A carnival was being held in the gardens of the Tuilleries across the street from our hotel

The Eiffel Tower from the subway platform

My favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower from some very random spot we walked through due to the flooding in the subway system

So there you have it: Paris at a glance. Stay Tuned for the story of Paris!

What can I say? He's a geek like me :)

You know those moments when you know you are your child's mother? Like when he bites his nails, says that playing the piano is fun but practicing isn't, or collects every bit of "treasures" he can get his hands on?

Today I can add another to the list: Brennan loves science! And not only does he love it, but he's amazing at it. (Gotta brag for a second here: We got his TCAP testing from last year and he got 100% on the science portion. That's my boy!!)

So I can't say it really surprised me when he came home with a Cell Project and wanted to get it done right away. It killed me to tell him to wait. We were sooo busy for the first few days after it was assigned that I thought he was going to run out of air from asking so much. So when I couldn't take the begging anymore, I put him to work painting, gluing, and labeling his cells.

Here's the final project:

First Day of School: 2011 Style

Just a few traditional shots of the first day of school:

Nolan age 4

Nolan

Brennan age 9

Brennan

Nolan and his teacher Miss Erica DelGreco

Nolan started his second year of PreSchool at T.W. Hunter Middle School in Hendersonville Tennessee with Miss Erica DelGreco (whom he loves sooooo much). Brennan started 4th grade at Station Camp Elementary School with Mrs. Kim Carrigan as his teacher.

Here's to starting the 2011-2012 school year with a bang!

We're Alive!!

Yes... I know. I'm horrible at updating. I'm even worse at getting back on the wagon. It's not for lack of desire. It's more for lack of time. Call my life "Keeping up with the Borchert Boys" or "As the Crazy World Turns", my life is that insanely busy (maybe I should pitch my life to the E Network...just a thought...).

Suffice to say, 2010-2011 has been a crazy year filled with fun times, and not so fun times, but we've always managed to keep smiling. It's my hope to be able to back-date some pictures and journal a little about the year, but this isn't the post for that. This post is just to let you know that I'm alive and kicking (very weakly because I'm exhausted, but it's something right?). Here's to turning over a new leaf again and keeping everyone updated on the craziness that is the Borchert's!

Train & The Black Widows

Facebook does it again!!

A few months ago, my friend Robin posted on her FB that Train was coming into town and she would love to go if someone had an extra ticket. I piped in that I'd willingly take a ticket too. So instead of just waiting around for someone to invite us, we decided that we'd get our own tickets and make a girls night of it.

It was great! We had dinner downtown at Joe's Crab Shack (which was fabulous!).

We made sure to leave enough room for some really yummy carmel cheesecake.

We walked from Joe's to the Ryman (which is just as beautiful as you'd imagine.... I love the architecture and interior of such an old, historic building). We got there just at Butch Walker and The Black Widows started their set. For a band I've never heard of, their music was really good.

Butch Walker and The Black Widows

Robin and I waiting for Train to come out

When Train finally came out, it was insane! The energy in the crowd was amazing and since it's such a small auditorium, it felt very intimate as well. They sang some of their new songs that I love (Save me San Francisco, Soul Sister, Marry Me) as well as some of their old hits (Meet Virginia, Calling All Angels, SuperMan, I Look to the Sky). They even threw in a Van Halen song!

Isn't Train amazing!?

The last time I saw Train in concert, I was 6 months pregnant with Brennan and they were opening for Matchbox 20. No one had heard of them at that point, but everyone knows them now. And just for future reference, at the time of this concert, Train's single "Hey, Soul Sister" is #3 on the Hot 100 and the #1 downloaded song on itunes.

Thank you Robin for such a great evening~ It was an AWESOME!!

2nd Grade Egg Hunt

2000 eggs? Check. 100 eager 2nd graders? check. Total Chaos? check

Part of celebrating spring break/Easter at the school involved having an egg hunt. It wasn't really a "hunt" in that they were covering a small area and could be seen very easily and that each student could only pick up 20 eggs and then have to stop. With the help of a few other moms, it took us about 20 minutes to lay out the eggs and about 4 minutes for the students to pick them up. Was it chaos? Totally. Was it fun? Judging by the looks on the kids faces, I'd go with yes.

Lining up at the start of the hunt

Don't they look super eager to get some of that candy?!?

And the race is on!

For once, the clean-up went much faster than the set-up.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Have you ever taken on a job that when offer you thought "Oh, I could totally do that. I'll show everyone how great I can be" and then realized that you'd gotten in WAY over your head? Being a room parent has been like that all year for me. I have these fabulous ideas that seem super quick and easy, but end up turning into craziness.

Take for example this year's Teacher Appreciation Week. We were told by the PTO that we could do something small for the teacher every day as long as we didn't ask for monetary donations. Working with Darlene, we came up with what I thought would be sweet and simple projects for the kids make in class or at home to let Mrs. Huey know how much they loved having her as their teacher. Keep in mind, everything had to be approved nearly a month in advance by the school secretary, so I didn't really know what the kids would be working on in class at this time, nor did I realize that it was also the week before spring break.

Here comes the craziness! Not only were we (Darlene and I) at the school everyday for teacher appreciation, we were also there for class projects, parties, pictures, and scholar dollar. And that's not mentioning the reports that the kids were working on at home. Please believe me when I say that it was a crazy week!

Our Teacher Appreciation week consisted of:

Monday~ "Thanks for Helping Us Bloom" where the students made flowers for Mrs. Huey.

I think the student bouquet turned out pretty cute!

Tuesday~ "Everything You Wanted to Know About Mrs. Huey" Scrapbook where the students completed a survey about what they thought about Mrs. Huey.

The cover page for the scrapbook

I know the print is small, but you've got to read some of B's answers!

Wednesday~ "Favorite Recipes for My Favorite Teacher" had the students baking their favorite recipe at home and sending in a sample along with the recipe for Mrs. Huey to try. I didn't get a picture of that, but it was a hit with her husband and son (who was home from college for a break).

Thursday~ "My Teacher Deserves a Little Pampering" got Mrs. Huey a basket of pampering items such as candles, soaps, lotions, and (from me) monogrammed towels. It turned out sooooo adorable! I couldn't have planned it any better!

Most of the items from Teacher Appreciation Week

On Friday, the students also made homemade cards for her to keep in her scrapbook to remember these students in the future

All in all, I think that Teacher Appreciation Week went over very well. While it was a lot of hard work, I know that Mrs. Huey appreciated everything that was done for her.

Now the question for you... what do you think?

Brennan's School Projects

For the past few weeks, the 2nd grade has been learning about Tennessee at school. For a conclusion project, B had to put together a poster at home about Tennessee showing what he'd learned. He amazed me with his ability to remember the details about the state we currently call home. Do I have any idea what our state flower is? No. Tree? Nope. Gem? Not a chance. But does Brennan? Oh yeah. Quiz him. He'll surprise you.

Along with learning about Tennessee, he also had to study a famous Tennessean. Of all of the famous people from here, you'd have thought he'd pick someone in the music industry or a historical figure... but no. He picked Albert Gore Jr. Not that I have anything against him personally, he's just not really that interesting of a character. The reason we needed character is because along with the report, Brennan had to make a character poster that he could wear and be recognized as that person. How interesting is a suit and tie? Not very. I'd say he did the best he could with what he had.

Got to love the cheering arms!

Scrapbook USA

It's that time of year~ Girl's Weekend in Utah at Scrapbook USA!

Though the trip was short (flew in Thursday night and out Sunday afternoon) and sweet (saw some family), it was extremely rejuvenating and fun!

Here's the quick run-down of my weekend: saw Anne, shopped and scrapbooked with Tammy & Steph, yummy Cafe Rio, ran into random people from my past, completed 14 pages, yummy Tempanyaki, shopped for friends in TN, dessert and games with Brian and Family, breakfast with Jessica, Kaci & boyfriend, and church with Tammy. Lots to cram into a weekend, but well worth the time.

Waiting in line for Scrapbook USA to start!

Still waiting...

Tammy working hard (she finished 15 pages)

Steph's super intense... because she had to beat everyone with 16 pages done

Me and Best Friends

Can I just say that I have the best hubby in the world!?! He's the one that made the trip happen and stayed home with the cute crazies all weekend. Thank you honey!

Storytime at the Library

So I've started to feel like we are in a rut. Doing the same things everyday and not really having fun or enjoying it. So when one of our friends invited us to story time at the library, we decided to see what it was all about.

When we got there, I remembered why I didn't go to story time.... my children have such short attention spans and Nolan doesn't really like large groups. It ended up that we sat outside the reading room playing with the wooden train (which made Nolan and Ian very happy) while Dylan sat with the group.

Judging by the hats on the kids when they came out of the room, they read a book about firemen and their dogs. What was great about this was that there was a real firetruck outside for the kids to explore.

Nolan LOVED it!! He wanted to drive the truck so much that he kept cutting in line and I'd have to pull him back. We even waited until the very end after everyone else had left so that both Nolan and Dylan could drive the truck again!

Doesn't he make a cute little fireman?

RainForest Cafe & Glow Golf

One of our favorite places to take the kids is the Rain Forest Cafe. If you've never been, you need to go, just to experience it at least once. We are lucky enough to live so close to one here in Nashville that we've become frequent guests when we are trying to find somewhere to go that's fun and yummy.

Sorry the pictures are that great.... it's super dark there and the flash kept throwing everyone for a loop.

The other surprise for the day was to take the kids miniature golfing at Glow Golf. It is exactly what it sounds like~ golfing in the dark. Brennan and Dylan thought they were in heaven while Nolan just liked climbing and throwing the ball.