Birthday Party Photos

It’s almost a month later; why not?  Pictures from the opening at home and from the bowling party.

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A rare event

Boys both had basketball this morning….showed up for Christopher’s game and the opposing team only has 4 players.  They play 4 on 4 for the 1st quarter.  I know the coach of the other team (I coached his son in soccer last year); he knows Matthew….ask at the end of the 1st quarter if he wants to use Matthew for a sub. 

Turns out they use Matthew as a fifth player (no subs) which had the bizarre outcome of Matthew playing more of the game than Christopher.  The other outcome was that many of the players on Christopher’s team (who play soccer with both of the boys) were lining up to be matched up with Matthew for fun.  While many wanted to be matched up with him, Christopher took his brotherly rights and ended up matched up with Matthew for two of the 6 half-quarters that Matthew played.

Matthew –vs- Christopher doesn’t happen very often….normally they are on the same team.  Both boys seemed to get a kick out of this turn of events; big smiles as they are playing.  Video of this rare event can be found here…..

Matthew did go and play his game immediately after the 3rd/4th grade game finished.  No real noticeable drop off in activity level….still was going full speed at the end of the second game and was diving after loose balls and picking off passes. 

From the Archives

I was cleaning out the sunroom a few weeks back and ran into some old artwork we’ve been saving.  Before I moved it upstairs to the container we purchased for the artwork, I took the opportunity to snap some photos.

So, without further ado, some art, with commentary, as always, from the artiste:

“I regret my decision”….Kevin doesn’t remember this, but I do…when asked why he chose this profession Kevin replied “because I want to make people happy, and people are always happy after they get their food!”

“I remember making this…not sure what the project was but we were all on a beach”.  Matthew just walked over when were doing this and noticed he’s not in this picture…and isn’t very happy about it!  This picture appears on some coffee mugs and magnets…

 

“Must have been in 2002 during the Olympics”

“That might be a couch…was this the family room?”.  He’s right, had a green couch, a reddish rug, and a TV….

from fifth grade “Oh yeah, we had to trace leaves and color them in….I wasn’t very good at it”

from second grade “I think it’s a butterfly….”

he’s not sure what this is  “those are some houses…that’s a French girl”

any idea what’s going on here….”I know it’s not one of my best pictures”

“I remember that”…this turned into some magnets and other art in our house

We can’t figure out what grade this came from “It’s a good picture though”

 

from fourth grade “I really like this picture.  It belongs in a museum.”

from kindergarten

also from Kindergarten…do you remember what was under the bed “I think a candy monster…do you remember?”

“A candy monster???  looks like he has some lollipops.”

from fourth grade “Oh yeah, we had to do a reflection thing.  I remember not liking it when I first made it but it looks ok now.  I had to fold the paper in half and didn’t do it that well.”

“Bluejays and robins…the ones that don’t migrate”.  Think this is kindergarten.

from fourth grade.  “Very elementary”

Catching Up

Winter Walden:  Last Saturday, the boys finally go their chance to visit the slopes with Kevin. 

Christopher was feeling his normal trepidation about things….didn’t want to go….not sure he was going to like it, etc.  The nice thing about Walden is that the whole point is to go and take lessons, from the first beginner to the advanced ones (Kevin only has one more badge to go, I think, to have completed everything).

You can find video of Christopher’s first adventures at the link.  He’s “making the pizza”…putting his skis in front of him angled at each other to go slow down the slopes.  Did well at the lessons and eventually made it all the way down one of the bigger slopes by himself as the day went on.  The big guy, at home, wasn’t keen on going skiing again (a lot of falling and he had difficulties getting back up), but, the day was a success overall.

You’ll notice in that video a few shots of the Kev-meister.  Suzanne went (and took the video), I stayed at home….that video was the first time I’d ever seen him skiing.  Was very impressed by his control; totally blown away that he was going down backwards with Christopher.  Don’t know if I should have been expecting anything less…he’s been going to Walden for a while now.  But that first time I saw him there backwards….a definite wow. 

Matthew decided he would rather have a snowboarding lesson.  Matthew has a snowboard here at home; it’s a ‘toy’ board, not a real one, as we’ve tried to tell him (to no avail).  He’s achieved a measure of control on it though….can slide down the mini-hills around here in a straight line without falling and, during our one trip to a big sledding hill, as his father watched on in horror, started from the top and came all the way down (going really fast) without an issue.

Matthew was the only new snowboarder so had his own ‘personal’ lesson….and was completely frustrated by it.  His instructor was definitely from the slow but certain approach, and Matthew very quickly grew very bored with it and wanted, desperately, to move up to the bigger hills.

When we went to the sledding hill, my advice to Matthew was to not do the giant hill from the top, but, to start about half way his first time and get used to it.  He marched off to the hill, promptly ignored any reasonable cautious advice his Dad may have given him, and “laid it down” all the way to the bottom while Dad hopes he doesn’t have a spill to end all spills.

This story has some relevance to Day 1 at Walden; after lunch, where Matthew very emphatically explained to Mom that he could do the bigger hill, he trotted outside and, when his instructor wasn’t around then, said, ok, I’m going up.  That video is here.

His instructor came out later and told him that they would try the big hill after a little more practice; Matthew pointed out that he had done it already and the instructor, after going “oh”, moved the instruction on a little bit quicker.  By the end of the day Matthew was doing S-curves down the hill and can’t wait for his next chance to try again!

Basketball:  Finally edited and uploaded some video of Matthew from his last basketball game.  He seems content to take the shots from outside; happily for him he’s pretty good at it.  Christopher’s last game is this Saturday; Matthew has two more left due to a water main break at one of the schools.

Soccer:  Only two more games of our winter schedule left as well; we have one tie and five losses against teams that are mostly a year older (one of the teams has kids that are much older than that).  Our defense is much improved but the boys seems to keep forgetting some of the basics and that is really frustrating.  Will be nice to get back to just the outdoor team and see if some of the lessons we’ve been trying to get the boys to buy into come through…..

The last three things we’ve bought on Ebay

1)  An ‘H’, a ‘shift’, and an ‘enter’ key for Suzanne’s laptop.  Not quite sure how they got lost, but, after wiping ugly Vista off of it and proving that with XP it’s actually a half decent laptop, we spent the $15 to get the three keys

2)  One free child’s ticket to LegoLand.   With adult puchase of course….we’ll be using this in August.

3) Four frosted Seattle Seahawks ‘drink tumblers’.  That’s code words for fancy plastic cups with a Seahawk logo……

Five Hundred

“But I would blog 500 posts

And I would blog 500 more

Just to be the man who blogged 1000 posts”

Two and a half years ago I started; had a song of the day and book of the day in that first post….features I think I never did again. Mused to the internet gods whether I would find the time to add to the blog. Guess I did. If you total up all of the numbers in the column in the right over there, this is #500 (Blogger actually gives me credit for 505….there are 5 posts I started but never finished and posted.)

The blog has a small, but rabid, following, ranging from Ohio to Atlanta to Florida to Lansing. Have had some visitors wander in, but, they see what they want and don’t come back repeatedly. I could make more of a big deal about it (I have a friend on facebook who posts an update there every time he updates, I don’t do that, but, then again, he doesn’t write about his family like I do….) but it is probably best the way it is...a small hidden corner of the internet.

Guess I should do this once every 500 posts....so, here you go:

Song of the day: Two of them… Do Wah Diddy – Manfred Mann….was on the 60’s station as I drove Kevin home from Mason and he enjoyed singing along to it. Also finally cleaned up the Mom’s music collection to the point that I could import it into Itunes, so, listened to Survivors by John Stewart….

Book of the day: Deadhouse Gates – Steven Erikson…..I’ve read this book at least 4 times already and am slowly making my way back into and through Malazan world to work towards reading the new books I have acquired recently.

Rube Goldberg

The big 8th big science project is to create a Rube Goldberg Device.  Rube Goldberg you say?  The relevant passage from wikipedia…”Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways”

My whole goal in this project was “do not do it; force Kevin to do it all”.   The big message I think Kevin learned was it’s one thing to have the machine work, it’s another to have it work consistently, and he spent a lot of time making it work on every attempt.

So, without further ado, Kevin’s Rube Goldberg Project.  Students had a choice, present the machine in class or videotape it….of course we chose the latter.  Kevin got 150 out of the possible 150 points for his work here. 

An aside:  it’s early, but signs are promising.  2nd semester is a few weeks old and Kevin has a high ‘A’ in Algebra 2.

Holly – Week One

Humans:  oh, she’s a big hit.  We’ve allowed way more alone time for Holly upstairs with the boys and I bet this will result in her spending a lot more time with them at night than Wiley does (Wiley is a one-track dog…he follows me everywhere…very rarely he’ll spend the night in Matthew’s bed).

Animals: Haven’t heard a cat spit yet; very surprised at this.  Last night was kind of fun….was at the front door with Wiley and Holly heading out for a bathroom stop, opened the door and Madison’s there with a mouse in her mouth!  She drops it…it’s still alive!  Madison chases mouse, Holly chases Madison, until Madison just gives up on the whole deal and that ends that (sadly for the mouse, Madison completed her task later that night).

Wiley has still been a champ about Holly…but there’s been nightly puppy fights (video here) now.  He’s playfully gone along with it and certainly gone way out out of his way to prove his dominance; he pushes her over, he ‘mouths’ her to the point that at the end of the battles she’s sopping wet from his saliva.  Holly likes to go for the ears with her bites, so, there’s been a fair bit of squawking from both parties during the fight.

House-trained?: Well, we’re getting there.  Still haven’t had an accident-free day yet, but, today we’re only at one and hope to stay there.  She is very good at going outside (I think that having Wiley around as an ‘example’ is a good thing here…)

Crate/Sleeping:  She’s way better in her crate than Wiley was….and the sleeping is improving day by day (she went seven hours in a row last night!….and went back to sleep after the 5 am potty-break too!).   Wiley never took to being in the crate when we were around; Holly seems to like sitting in there, or on here bed, just hanging out.

The Big Zoo Lesson

The teachers posted some pictures from the Big Zoo Lesson…they are here, along with some commentary from Christopher.

 

“This is my 3rd grade class in a picture taken this fall”

 

“These are the third grade classes all together after coming back from the zoo lesson”

 

“Mom is helping me do research on the mandrill”

“I don’t remember what we were doing…I’m standing here with B.K., Sahil, Sean, and Adi”

“B.K., Ireland, Ms. Hutchinson, and Amy and Me.  We’re having lunch”

“Keith, Ms. Bork, and me”

“We are doing some research.  I’m with Ireland, Linton, and Annie”

Internet registrations

It’s taken me a while to figure out who this visitor to the blog is

Domain Name
IP Address
199.119.29.65 ^? (All Saints Episcopal Hospital)

State
: 
Texas

City
: 
Fort Worth

Lat/Long
: 
32.7257, -97.3214 (Map)

Turns out…it’s Peachtree Ridge High School.  Not sure why the administrators of such an august institution allow their students, teachers, and support staff to wander the internet posing as hospital denizens, but, it’s not for me to say.

Cheating like a cheetah cheats a gazelle

Uno, the game that brings the family together and invariably sends one family member away sad and mad.

Saturday’s version of the classic game included more attempts at skullduggery than were seen in the late 1800’s in River Gulch Wyoming.  Let’s get to the details.

You may note these cards are similar, but, not completely the same.  If you are stuck (pick, pick, pick…keep it, keep it, keep it…by the way, we are disappointed to note that Uno in Mom’s house has reverted to a one-card pick policy) with it at the end, the card on the left is 20 points, while, the card on the right is zero.  So, one hand ends, Joe claims 6 for his 3, 2, 1, and a skip, and AT THE SAME TIME begins a discussion of how the flow of cards got reversed and how he thinks HE’s been cheated.  This strategy, drawing attention to one big event while trying to float a smaller cheat through, is tried and true in poker games near and far, but, was completely unsuccessful here.  I’ll proudly wear my title as Uno Police in the face of all of this deceit.

Some may tell you that Mom was trying to play here 5 on the 5 underneath, but, let’s not be fooled by her devious attempt at playing a red 5 on a yellow 2.  Accusations, made by Christopher, of people cheating “like cheetahs cheat a gazelle” flew across the room before the game ended. 

The game ended, like all good Uno games end, with one player, Matthew, leaving the table after having more than a few points bestowed on him.  Cocky cries of “game on!” are soon followed by the Peyton Manning face as a total score for the hand of over 100 points is discovered.

At least no one ran away going “Wooooooooooo!”

Pictures Galore

Suzanne finally uploaded most (but not all) of the pictures she took before Christmas and while we were in Hawaii.

Presented in chronological order.  The first album has the family opening presents.

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The second album is mostly pictures after Santa arrived on Maui.

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Iao Valley, beach, other stuff

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The cruise around Lanai

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On Haleakala

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First album of Oahu pictures

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Eight is enough….

5 humans, 1 dog, 3 cats, 1 fish….that’s enough right?

No!

 

 

Introducing Holly, our newest springer spaniel…..we’ve been toying with this for a week or two after deciding that Christopher (and parents) weren’t ready for a lizard or gecko.

Happy enough with Wiley that we realized we wanted another springer….wanted a female to avoid any Wiley-conflict issues and wanted black and white to be a little different from Wiley.  Thanks to Oprah (who adopted two springers a few weeks ago and put them on her show) the dogs are hugely popular right now…we got lucky to find what we wanted pretty quickly.

Her Dad actually looks like Wiley, so, she’s technically tri-colored instead of black and white.  Her brown spots are limited to above her eyes and around her nose.

The boys, as you can imagine, are just thrilled with this move.  Video of Christopher walking in the door for the first time is here. 

So, how are the other pets doing with this?  Wiley, who was the biggest concern, has been largely ambivalent about the whole deal (his first encounter with Holly was marked with a sniff of Holly (who was next to Mom) followed by a move over towards Dad for a reassuring pet or two.  Rinse, rather, repeat for a few minutes.  Hasn’t been aggressive at all (aside from some barking tonight) and hopefully that will stay the same.  Cats have checked the newcomer out, stuck their noses up, and moved on.  Daphne, above, was thrilled with the return of the small crate.

Potty-training progresses; she seems to have some general idea of the deal and hopefully we can get through it as quickly as Wiley did. 

The power of a good breakfast

Saturday starts early….Kevin out the door at 7:30 am for skiing. 

Boys up later….make the executive decision to do breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Boys just demolish their meal….and I guess it showed up at basketball an hour or two later.

Christopher has gotten off to a slow start; not so much movement, not moving towards the ball, etc.  Spent some time with him before practice on Tuesday working on the fundamentals, and he was awesome in practice afterwards…stealing the ball, making his shots…just all over the place.  Reinforced this on the way home; when you are moving around and participating, you are hard to stop!

You can find about 3 minutes of Christopher awesome-ness here.  It’s his first 4 minutes on the court for the game.  Great defense, three rebounds, a steal, a basket, multiple events….it all came together, fueled by pancakes and bacon!

We’ll be going to the Barrel before the next games in two weeks!

Music

I’ve been a slacker on posting; need to get with the program.  Still need to rescue the photos and video from Christopher’s birthday and some basketball video.

But.

Last night was the music program.  I think I’ve stated my objections to the current format in the past and won’t repeat them here….Suzanne reminds me that a lot of districts in the area don’t even have elementary music classes/programs so I should be grateful to have what we have.

The boys videos are here.  Matthew is blocked quite a bit by the girl next to him; we should have done a better job of asking the boys where they would be standing…would have set up the camera on the other side of the auditorium. 

Non-boy highlight of the night:  during the kindergarten program one little boy spent most of two songs stomping on the foot of the girl that was standing next to him.  She’d try and move away, keep singing all through it, and he kept stomping.  At least until his Dad and the teacher came over and had a few words with him!  Didn’t get any video of *that*….wish I had!