He was a football boi

We love having a 5-year-old! For me, age 4 was when parenting started to get really fun with Jack. I love being able to have actual conversations with him. Have him tell me what's going on in that little head of his and see his full personality coming through in many different areas of life. I love being able to reason with him (usually--I feel like no one can always be reasoned with, not even adults) and teach him about subjects I love like math and English. But lately, my favorite thing about having a "big kid" is watching him have so much fun and cheering him on in a team sport. 

I mentioned in a previous post that Jared and I have never really been "football people." Well, color me a football person now because it is a blast watching Jack in his element out there. Granted, 5-year-old flag football is NOT the same as tackle football. Phew. Obviously there's no tackling, and at this age there isn't even ball throwing or catching. The "games" are basically an hour of one kid handing the ball off to another, and then that kid tries to run the ball to the end zone while the other team tries to pull off one of his or her flags. Repeat over and over for the rest of the game until every kids has had a chance to run the ball. They're not even keeping score at this age, so it should be more fun and more engaging to watch him play in future years. (He's already asking if he can do flag football again in the fall instead of soccer, which we'll almost definitely agree to.) Each kid only gets one run per game but it's cute to watch Jack really commit to that one run. Here he is with his mouth guard! I don't really understand why a mouth guard is required at this age when there's literally no contact. I'd guess it's just about the practice of getting used to it. 

In other news, we have our built-ins primed and ready to paint! This week we'll decide on a color. Next week we'll hopefully paint and be done. Everyone in the house is sick with pink eye at the moment so we're taking it easy and keeping expectations low for this week. I am hoping to plant a few flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Very excited to enter my gardening phase of life. I'll start out with just a few plants this year to dip my toes in. Now some random pictures from our week:

^^Big girl sitting up in her baths now!

^^Big smiles for dad carving our carrots into elaborate swords during hot wings night. I followed my mom's surprisingly simple recipe and fried my first successful batch of hot wings ever! They were crispy, they were tasty, they were a 10/10. (The recipe is that you get your wings VERY dry, dip them in a blend of flour and seasoning salt. Leave uncovered in fridge to dry out for a few minutes or a few hours. Then dry and dip in flour mix once more while fry oil is heating to 375. Then fry for 12-15 minutes, raising the heat to keep the oil as close to 375 as possible. Once done, dip in a mix of 1 part Frank's Hot Sauce to 1 part brown sugar. We also did some dipped in just Frank's Wings Sauce. Yum.)

^^Cutest sibs ever. 

^^We did an Easter egg hunt around our house last week with the easter supplies we forgot when we went to Utah. Jared loves this stuff so he was happy to hide the eggs for a bonus hunt.

^^Football bb. Don't get me wrong, our kids still have their MOMENTS (in all caps) (why yes they did both cry for a full hour all the way home from Sunday dinner last night), but mostly I just love this stage of parenthood a lot.