Invasion of the Ninja Warriors

Having your birthday fall during the cool weather season and during a major holiday week makes party planning difficult. However, that was not what Kevin and I thought about when we had kids and we ended up with one baby born the week of Thanksgiving and the other with a birthday that often collides with Easter. Needless to say parties can be tricky as people are often out of town. Plus, the weather can be iffy that time of year and I prefer outside parties if possible as cramming ten second-graders in my house and the place might not survive. There is a lot of energy packed in those little bodies!

This year we devised a clever plan. We have learned through trail and error that we seem to get better turn-out having parties after school on Friday. So we picked two Fridays and watched the forecast hawks. Then when it looked like the first one would be rain free, Jack took invitations to school and handed them out. This year we lucked out and the weather was more than rain-free, it was a downright gorgeous day to be an American Ninja Warrior.

 

Both the kids love watching this show and are always trying to make their own elements in the house. Mom, is a bit of a killjoy about that though. It came to us that setting one up for a Birthday party would be a great way to keep the kids moving and engaged and Jack was all for it. Most of the course is made from firewood logs, pallets, and wood scraps we had lying around the place. The only board we bought was for the teeter-totter (even the pipe that acts as fulcrum was a “found lying around” piece). The kids had a BLAST!

(Author’s Note: The course pictures are not mine. An awesome Mom offered to take some picture for me with my Camera since Kevin and I were busy wrangling kids…I am eternally grateful!)

We timed them all once, but by the end they were just practicing different elements and coming up with ways to terrifying me on the teeter-totter. In the between playing on the course we did manage to squeeze in some Birthday cupcakes and a Piñata. I mean if you're going to  put them through their paces why not throw some sugar in the mix?

The only real bummer of the whole day was there was just enough breeze that I couldn’t get the candles on the cake to light. Everyone was fine with faking it…..guess we’ll save candles for his actual birthday. Here’s the whole party crew. I’ve been told that they had a great time by several Moms, and one kid cried when he had to leave so I’m going to mark this party a success. Now I just have to wrap my head around the fact we have an eight-year old……

Back to School

We made it through summer vacation! Both kids are officially back to school. Jack entered the second grade this year and Emilie is in Kindergarten. With a few weeks under our belts both seem to be having a good time.

Jack is my “old pro”he knows where to go and what to do. He’s got several friends in his class, enjoys his teacher, and is determined to do his best in class. I get detailed accounts of the day’s goings-ons from accounts of in class learning (Rocket Math is fun! Hadley made it to B side…I’m going to get to B-side soon) to accounts of other notable events (Carter C. threw up on his desk and his grammar page!). The biggest hitch for him was that he moved to the “other side” of the school building this year. That means you use then 2nd/3rd playground and you walk yourself to wherever you met Mom/Dad for pickup after school. Parent help in the classroom isn’t regular for this grade either. They’ll call if they need it, but it isn’t a weekly scheduled thing. Kinda bummed about that, but I still have Kindergarten.

I started volunteering in the Kindergarten class last week on Tuesday mornings. It has been very helpful to meet miss Emilie’s classmates and learn their names. I kept asking if she’d played with anyone new and she’d say, “Yes!”

“What’s his/her name?” I’d then ask.

“I forget…” would be the reply.

Now that I’ve met the kids I can help with specific names and that helps. Still, she’s harder to get information out of at this point. In fact, some days she’s tells me she’s “saving up” the recount of her day until Daddy gets home. Mom is a skilled interrogator though. Now that I know classmate names, and a basic idea of her daily routine I can usually ask the right questions and figure out what she did.

Fingers crossed we have the foundations of a great school year laid for both kids. It will be exciting to watch them grow this year and see what progress has been made come May.

Take Me Out to The Ballgame

Tuesday wrapped up our first season of Baseball. Jack played...the rest of us became enthusiastic spectator. I was a little nervous signing him up this year as the division for his age group is pitch machine and he never even played tee ball, but he said he wanted to play so I figured we'd give it a try. Turns out he LOVES it. First practice the pitching machine had him fascinated. The only thing better than hitting was watch the ball go "thwump" through the machine. I also had nothing to fear as the majority of his team had no prior ball experience of any kind.

My other concern was that athletics don't come easy to him. He makes up for it in sheer enthusiasm and attitude, but I was so worried he wouldn't get a chance to run the bases in a game. Once again he set me straight. Turns out that though he may not be a heavy hitter he is consistent. He hit the ball almost every single time his was at bat throughout the season save for the very first game. The first time he hit and made it to first base I'm not sure who was more excite. He was out there jumping up and down on first with his fists in the air saying, "I made it to first coach!" or me who was trying reall hard not to cry in the stands (it's all allergies I swear).

 Now fielding, on the other hand, is still a work in progress. He's a right-handed hitter but fields/throws lefty which makes life interesting. Though it really doesn't matter if you give him a right or left handed glove as odds are its gonna end up on the wrong hand anyway *shakes head.* His favorite position to play was catcher. He doesn't mind getting hit by the ball either which is good for a catcher.

We've got a whole year to practice before next season I guess. He and Kevin are both loving that. We purchased Kevin a set of bases for Father's Day (Jack's idea) and Kevin barely has a chance to walk through the door in the evening before Jack says, "Wanna hit the ball with me Dad!?"

Soccer Something

Tis the season for Spring Athletics at the Filer Recreation District. Jack is currently playing spring soccer. Natural Athlete he is not, but he loves to play and he is slowly and steadily improving in his kicking and passing skills. On the flip side, he is a natural Athletic Supporter. Cheering on his teammates and friends comes second nature. There is no doubt that he is enjoying himself.

 

Soccer wraps up this week, but there is no rest for the wicked as they say. Jack asked to play baseball this year. He's never played and is looking forward to trying. His age group falls in the machine pitch category which has both Mom and Dad a little nervous but you never know...baseball might be his thing.

Happy Birthday Jack

Our ‘little’ boy is seven! Somehow we wound up with two kids whose birthdays fall within a week (and sometimes days) of major holidays. It can make planning tricky and you have to be willing to be fluid. This year was no exception.

Since we were going to be going to visit my family for Thanksgiving we decided to do his party once we got there so all Jack’s cousins could come. Still we had some plans to do some fun family things on his actual birthday, the 23rd, but most of those got put on hold because we ended up needing to leave early in order to get ahead of the weather travel-wise. We were able to hold off leaving until after school so he got to take Monster Truck cupcakes to class (this was a HUGE deal for him) , but his choice of dinner at the Hot Rod Grille was postponed until later. He did get to spend his Birthday in a Hotel near his favorite truck stop, go swimming in the pool, and get Dairy Queen ice cream though. Turns out this makes for a pretty awesome 7th birthday.

For his party itself he wanted Monster Trucks. Thankfully this is a fairly easy theme for a travelling birthday. With all his cousin’s being boys there were a plethora of Monster Trucks around for decorations and Granny was more than willing to help set up her dining room for a kid party. For the cake my sister ordered me a plain chocolate sheet cake from Costco. All I had to do was pick it up and decorate the top (Thanks to the cousins for the Hot Wheels loaners). If you are travelling for a birthday or not a cake baker but want to decorate your cake yourself….totally the way to go. This was a snap.

I mentioned he invited all his cousins to his party. That is six little boys (the oldest is almost 8) plus Emilie. We took them all bowling and that was a riot. My bowling skills are sub par and the kids were not afraid to inform me that my final score was lower than ALL of theirs (Hey, I broke 50 and I wasn’t using bumpers like some people). Just glad to be a source of amusement to them.

After bowling we adjourned to Grandpa and Granny’s for pizza, cake, and presents. Jack introduced the kids to the game, “Find the Quarter” which he learned at school and is a great party game as it has most of the kids sitting down and using fast or slow clapping to navigate the chosen ‘it’ to a hidden coin. They also tried some Simon Says.

He was very excited about his party day all around and really enjoyed all his gifts. Thank you to all for the warm wishes and for helping to make his special day just that.

Getting Our Kicks In

Fall Soccer is in full swing around here and Jack is enjoying himself immensely. We weren’t sure what to expect when we signed him up. He said he wanted to play, but I got the impression he wasn’t clear on what soccer was. The worries were unfounded though. He loves to play. He loves his teammates. He’s stoked about it all around. He even scored a goal in the last two games (granted one was more of an assist and technically in the wrong goal…but who’s counting )

Emilie didn’t make the age cut-off for soccer this year, but that doesn’t stop here. She is a fantastic cheerleader and a pretty good water-girl. There is no way Jack will get dehydrated. Every time he comes off the field, “Here Jack, here’s your bottle.” Yep, we have the makings of a pretty fun season.

 

Back to School

Friday marked the end of the first week of school. So far, we are off to a good start. Jack is in first grade and Emilie is in the Lion class at preschool.

Jack has a set of team teachers this year. Mrs. Mai and Mrs. Sligar have been doing such for seven years now and it has been working well. One teaches Monday/Tuesday they other is Wednesday/Thursday and they switch off Friday. Jack says they are both alright. I’ve been peppering him with question about what First grade is like, what the routine is like in his class and things they do. So far most responses fall in the realm of, “yes,” “no,” “good,” or “alright.” Things I have learned so far.

• He has a new friend named Cody who also went to the Monster Truck show at the fair. Cody is a girl. He made a warm-fuzzy (a school project of some sort) for her or with her (I’m not clear on that). Her favorite color is blue.
• Luke, Alyx, and Alondra from his kindergarten class are also in his First Grade class. Wyitt & Cason are also in his class, but it’s not the same Wyatt and Cason from last year…
• He has his own desk with his extra pencils “and stuff” in it, and its pretty cool.
• There are THREE recesses
• You can have chocolate milk if you eat hot lunch (so far he’s had hot lunch once…yeah for Mom’s cooking being preferred )
• There was a snake on the playground last week (oh Joy…)

Emilie, is in her final year of preschool this year. An era is coming to a close. In a great moment of parenting, I managed to leave her in the wrong classroom on the first day….which she has not let me forget. It was an innocent mistake I assure you. When I’d talked to Miss Rosa (the director) a few weeks back she said Emilie would be in Miss Kolayna’s class this fall. What she didn’t tell me was that Miss Kolayna had moved from teaching the Tiger class (4 year olds) to the Lion class (kids in or headed into kindergarten in the next year) over the summer. So, first day back I took her in and dropped her off in the Tiger class. One of the floating aides was in charge of the room at the time and didn’t pick up on the error since there is an overlap in ages for Tigers and Lions. Thankfully, when Miss Rosa came through about half an hour later she spotted Emilie and got her right down to the Lion class where she belonged. Now every morning Emilie reminds me to put her in the Lion class and not the Tigers. Things I have learned about the Lion class.

• Last week’s special letter was “A.”
• They get to be princess ninjas
• They are ‘big kids’
• Her friends Corbin & Mendi are in her class. Bimini is not.
• They take their own lunches to school (not actually true as they serve lunch at preschool, but since I’ve been packing lunches for Jack, Emilie wants one too. Miss Kolayna’s youngest does the same thing and is understanding. She’s fine with Emilie bringing a sandwich to eat if she wants…as long as she finishes the main meal before eating dessert items)

Bowlin’, Bowlin’, Bowlin’

Nothing says “Field Trip” quite like an outing to the Bowling Alley. Not sure what exactly they were intending to teach the kids on this outing, but it sure wasn’t physics . My goodness, I feel lucky to have come out alive. I only got one ball dropped on my foot and that was courtesy of my own child.

Jack was up at the crack of dawn….he’s been waiting for field trip day and riding the School Bus all week. We had to drop Emilie off first today and at a slightly earlier time than normal. In my rush to get out the door I forgot my camera. All these photos are from the cell phone. They’re a bit grainy, but they’ll do.

 

In all honesty they did pretty well for a bunch of 5 year olds with heavy balls. The kids were divided up four to a lane with one ball for each lane and they were pretty good at taking turns. After the first few frames they had figured out which order they were bowling and things went fairly smoothly. Since the ball return was shared with another lane there were a couple scuffles over who got what color ball (Jack would only bowl with the green ball and would wait if it wasn’t available) but other than that all the kids got on pretty well.

I loved watching all the techniques. Granny bowling was popular, Jack tried kicking the ball once (only takes once to figure out that’s not a good idea), a few tried to emulate the proper technique of sliding one foot back behind you (this usually resulted in a trip and splat). A lot of them bowled like they were throwing a shot-put. It was quite exciting. The ball return was even more exciting and there were several reminders issues not to stick your hands, or head, down the return….

I did take a couple of videos, because the camera does that, and even managed to catch Jack bowling the worlds sloooowest ever spare. I think this is called dumb luck since there was no aiming whatsoever and it was pretty impressive that the ball even made it all the way down the lane without stopping.

The worlds slowest and most unintentional spare….