Dog Training, Flag Sparring and a Sleepover

What a weekend! It wasn’t particularly crazy but it was filled with a lot of randomness that came together to make it a good weekend from start to finish.

Dog Training, Flag Sparring and a Sleepover

Friday

On Fridays Rhett does not have preschool and I absolutely love our one-on-one time together. We often use our Friday time for errands and oh my gosh does this kid know how to bring the sunshine to a simple grocery store run. Rhett and I loaded up our grocery carts (he loves the mini kid cart at Publix SO much) and headed home to restock our snack drawers.

Now that was satisfying! (We’ve had these pantry organizers for 3+ years and they’ve been very helpful for organizing kid snacks.)

Another thing that was satisfying? Stuffed animal organization! Rhett and I built a bungee tower to hold all of his stuffed animals. And it was the kind of simple project that’s repetitive enough for a kid to actually “help” which made it a fun project for us to do together.

Rhett sang some made-up songs as he loaded up his little tower in his room. And I immediately ordered a second one for the big kids’ room because it was so great for all of Rhett’s fluffy friends to have a proper place to go… and a place that (so far) seems less enticing to Comet!

Saturday

Saturday morning kicked off with breakfast and workouts before we grabbed showers and welcomed two women from The WoofPack, a local dog training service, into our home.

Dog Training

While Ryan and I have had a high-energy vizsla before and had Sadie relatively well trained ourselves before we had kids, Comet will be our first high-energy BIG puppy we’ve had around children. (Yes, we’ve had a puppy with kids before but Pepper was a true teeny breeze of a dog to introduce into our family. Comet is a straight-up tornado.) Comet is already 8 pounds more than Sadie was full-grown (I swear he completely bypassed the tiny puppy phase) and his size coupled with his energy level make it feel all the more important to us to have a well-behaved dog.

We currently feel like we could use a little help and had a great meeting where we discussed problematic behaviors (jumping up when the kids run is our biggest one at the moment), goals for Comet and some things we can do to help with his transition into our family and his behavior. Comet is a wonderful puppy but he is very much a puppy. And we’re excited to have some guidance to help with his training. (We bought a package where we’ll meet with a trainer once every 1-2 weeks for 10 sessions.)

Flag Sparring

After our puppy intro session, we high-tailed it to the boys’ martial arts studio where Chase had a flag sparring tournament. In flag sparring, competitors compete to try to take 3 flags off of a belt on their opponent’s waist through two 30-second rounds. If all 3 flags are taken, they move onto “sudden death” and the first flag taken wins.

Chase’s rounds went to sudden death every single time but somehow he kept himself in the running by grabbing a flag. (Ya wanna make a mom’s heartrate skyrocket? Watch a sudden death round of flag sparring.) Chase actually did the same tournament last year and made it to the semifinals but walked away a little disappointed. So he was extra thrilled when he came in second place this year!

Sleepover

The tournament ran longer than we expected so we arrived back home around the same time Chase’s best friend Jack was scheduled to come over for a sleepover. And my friend Lauren planned to stop by since she was dropping her daughter off at a birthday party in the neighborhood. I loved my catchup time with Lauren. And the boys were thrilled to have another playmate all evening! They spent lots of time playing soccer and hockey before chilling on the couch with pizza, apple slices, carrots, popcorn and brownies and a Super Mario Bros movie night.

Ryan and I both commented how we were a little surprised Chase and Jack didn’t seem to want to do their own thing more but it was a pleasant surprise when they fully embraced Rhett and Ryder in all of their 10-year-old fun, too. When it came time for bed, however, Ryder jumped at the chance for a “sleepover” with Mom and Dad versus Chase and Jack and crawled into bed with us for some coveted one-on-one time. (Rhett went to bed a little earlier.)

Sunday

My mom often did something special and a little out of the ordinary on the mornings after sleepovers (stovetop biscuit donuts were my favorite!) and I wanted to keep the tradition alive on a sleepover morning over here, too. I made the boys cinnamon rolls with fresh fruit and they were pumped!

Jack ended up spending all day on Sunday with our crew (he and Chase play on the same flag football team and had practice at 4 p.m., so he just hung with us all day until practice) and the boys filled their time with lots of outside fun since it was an unbelievably gorgeous Sunday.

Rhett and Ryder played alongside the big kids as well until Ryder peeled off for a late afternoon playdate at his friend Quinn’s house that also overlapped with Chase’s flag football practice. And I managed to sneak away for a 3-mile solo walk with the dogs which felt like a treat!

Front Porch Update

Since everyone was playing so well outside for most of the day Ryan and I took advantage of some yardwork and seasonal changes that were on our to-do list including transitioning our front porch from winter…

To spring!

The fake flower plants we’ve used for three springs in a row (ever since our front porch plants kept dying on us) have held up so, so well. I’ll never stop singing their praises! (To make them look extra real, I shove them into these foam blocks and then cover the bases with real soil. It works like a charm.)

Once everyone was back home, we were all ready for jammies and some downtime as we ate dinner and headed to bed feeling tired but content. It was a full but fun weekend and also the kind of weekend that has me feeling all the more excited for SPRING. Bring on the sunshine and warmer weather!