Category: Adventurous kids

Athletes

Timothy long legs

 

We try to be athletic. The big boys take a P.E. class; Daniel has been involved in golf and tennis lessons this year; Timothy is in baseball. Paige dances 3 nights a week and Zoomer-Smasher-Dune buggy is always on the go.

 

Here’s the golf boy. I promise to the grandpas that I’ll post more golf course pictures soon.

I see so many benefits from an active lifestyle. There are fewer mood swings; they sleep better; they seem happier when we’re more active. It takes work to get ourselves out the door. For instance, the kids are at this moment in the van waiting for me to take them someplace where they can run. Computer, release me!

 

 

Dad, can you call me…

Zoomer-Smasher-Dune buggy when I ride my bike?

-Mark, age 4

This is the week that Mark learned to ride a two wheeled bike and picked up a book and read it. Blast. Next thing I know he will be telling me that he is engaged.

Richard bought Mark a bike without pedals because it’s the latest thing in balance theory. (I just made that up.) We’re believers in the balance theory, though. Without training wheels, Mark learned to balance on two wheels in about a day. We live on a hill and he walks himself up and then he glides down the hill. His wrecks are spectacular. I can hardly watch.

Sigh. My little Mark is now “Zoomer-Smasher-Dune buggy.”

And if that was not enough, on the same day he decided to read.

I committed a social faux pas last week when I told two friends who are avid preschool mothers that I haven’t been “pushing” reading for Mark. It seems like everyone wants their preschool children to read. I have known for a while that Mark was ready to read but I hadn’t prepared the little books and incentive program that my other children needed/loved when they were learning. I was waiting for a little prep time before we really got started.

Paige’s incentives were stickers and pizza; Daniel and Timothy ate candy and earned pieces of a pirate ship as they learned their phonics lessons. I was hoping Mark’s incentives would involve sharing chocolates and lots of hugs and kisses.

Somehow without the incentives and the structure he learned anyway. Perhaps his was the most powerful incentive of all: he wants to be a reader like everyone else in the house. I’m not saying he’s reading everything, but yesterday his little readers arrived in the mail and he picked one up and read several pages aloud, commenting that the word “and” was sure used a lot.

So there he goes… our baby(whimper)… off into the big world of high speed and higher education.

 

Piano Ensemble 2011

It’s our springtime tradition: a new suit or dress and the big ensemble concert at Centennial Hall. This was Paige and Daniel’s 4th year to participate in this concert.

We invited some friends to join us. Daniel didn’t hang out with us in line because he was with his piano duet partner. Yes, Paige is taller than I am in this picture. We’re both wearing heels. I’m posting this even though I look old.

We saw some Family at the concert! Bryan’s sister was in the concert, too.

Paige and her piano partner played one of the big Steinway concert grand pianos in the front. They played the Liebeslieder Waltz by Johannes Brahms.

Paige is wearing my formal concert skirt with a shimmery silver top from her own closet.

Daniel, always the brave and independent one, went up to the conductor to thank him when it was over. He played the Russian Sailors’ Dance which was just incredible.

Pinewood Derby 2011

Here’s the shiny Pinewood Derby track from last night. I filled in for our Cubmaster at this Pack Meeting. We did the cheese grater cheer, the race car cheer, the rocket cheer, and the big canary cheer. These photos were taken by Phillip Flores, one of our den leaders.

Here is Timothy with his awesome car. He has a Lego man inside.

Richard’s computer program kept track of race times and generated the order of races. We projected the race stats from the computer to a big screen. It was very cool.

Trying to contain his delight…

This boy won 4th place!

He earned his Bobcat, too!

Sweetie

Richard has been going through pictures this week and he asked that I cull oh, about most of them. This one survived the cut because it shows Timothy really enjoying his time on the bumper cars with Daniel and his cousin Ray.

Timothy will jam his tongue into his cheek to suppress a smile if he thinks he is the only one smiling. He’s a soft-spoken sweetheart of a boy. He is very funny when he feels comfortable. I am glad that he has so many cousins whom he calls friends.

Look out, Timothy. I’m coming to hug and kiss you for no reason.

Botanical Gardens and Butterflies

On Friday we went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the Butterfly Magic exhibit. We did this last year in December and loved it. This year I decided to organize a fieldtrip for one of our homeschool clubs. This way, we were able to get in at discount and see our friends.

When we walked in to the butterfly house, we were immediately aware of the tropical conditions. The cold camera lens fogged up for a while. A butterfly quickly decided to camp out on Paige’s head.

Daniel took most of the pictures of this exhibit.

Here we learned about a Citrus Swallowtail caterpillar. Its strategy for staying alive is to look like bird dung and when you touch it, it rears its head and shoots out reddish orange tentacles and an odor that will curl your hair (imagine an odor as you note the reddish orange “tentacles” on the head).

As we finished our visit, a butterfly finally landed on me. Yes, it’s on my rear end.

How silly.

This one’s for the boys

We decided that Grandpa needed to see the Air and Space Museum where he could see hundreds of planes and drink up some history.

The boys spent most of their time with this big guy (Blackbird). Its allure was power, speed, spy capabilities, and history.

Richard asked for a picture alone with the plane to remember the special moment in his life. (Richard, are you reading this?)

I enjoyed the museum, not for the planes but for the walking history inside its hangers. There were veterans and historians everywhere just ready to tell you their stories. I loved the displays about individual pilots with their uniforms, photos, and mementos. As much as I enjoyed the day, I did not experience the museum on the same level as the boys. Oh, boys in paradise…

Here are a bunch of shots of kids. This picture above shows a real plane.

This was very educational… for me. I saw my boys like I have never seen them before.

When Mark gets angry he threatens that he will not come and visit me someday in his airplane.

Daniel helped with transportation.

And since most readers of this blog are girls, here’s one for you:

Tomorrow I’ll share our gingerbread house masterpieces.