Max's Day

Aunt Carm and Uncle Mike scheduled special one on one days with the boys for their birthday.  It's so sweet of them to spend time with my boys.  Last weekend they took Max to the art museum for a special exhibit and then to Olive Garden for lunch.

 They got to check out the underwater artifacts from ancient Egypt.

 All of the artifacts were found underwater and it was pretty cool.  It was a great day for our biggest guy.  He may not always show it and he tries to play cool, but I know he felt special having a day just about him.  The Olive Garden lunch helped too :)

William's Birthday Party

We had a party for William with friends from school and scouts last weekend.  He ate it up and loved every minute!

 The party was at Skyzone.  We let Max bring a friend as well.  The boys started out at dodgeball.  Max, his buddy, and Jack, against William and all of his friends.  It was pretty fun - and those boys got sweaty!

 The second half of their jump time was spent in the ninja warrior area.  It is brand new and the boys all LOVED it!

My little man made it up that warped wall on the first try!

 This obstacle was a bit tougher - he just couldn't get to that next ball.

 The rope bridge may look easy, but it was anything but.  One wrong shift of our weight and the things spun around and flipped you off.  Max made it almost to the top.

 Before heading to the party room for pizza and cake William's birthday was announced over the loud speaker.  The look of pure joy on his face was priceless.

 Put 12 first grade boys in a small room and things get a little wild.  I absolutely loved how Jack was right int he thick of things.  Look at that little wild man standing on the bench seat and dancing!

 After pizza we had sang and had cake. It was a pretty great party if I do say so myself.

I just love this little man to pieces.  I wonder what he wished for?

Morning Snuggles

Just a boy and his cat snuggling before school.  So sweet!

Pinecone Bird Feeders

Jack and I took Duke for a walk the other afternoon.  There is a pine tree down the street and Jack came up with a great idea all on his own - we should make pin cone bird feeders!

He picked four pine cones and carefully carried them home.  I coated them in peanut butter and then Jack rolled them in birdseed.  We hung them on a tree in the backyard.  He was so proud to be helping the birds.  I love his love of all things nature!

First Grade Musical - Squirm

 Our music teacher is the best.  In addition to talent shows every year she puts together a musical for first and third grades to perform for their families.  William's was all about icky crawly things that make you squirm! Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, Max, Jack, and I all got to go the the performance and we were so impressed.

   The songs were so fun - my favorite was when the kids all pulled a black sock out of their pocket, put it on their arm and sang a song about the worm.  Each child also gets to say one line on their own.  Will knocked it out of the park!  

So proud of our little man in the middle!

Easter

 Better late than never, right?  It was a super chilly Easter this year.  The boys put on their winter coats and headed out into the yard for an early morning egg hunt.

 Each boy had a color and they did a pretty good job finding them.  Although I will say I was freezing as I ran around hiding them, so I didn't put too much thought into placement.  It was cold!!

 Counting their loot :)

Jack didn't count too well.  We found a couple orange eggs in the yard a couple weeks later.  He sure looked cute though!

We ended the day with another egg hunt and a fabulous dinner at Aunt Carm and Uncle Mikes. The boys had a ton of fun playing with the other kids and we even got the egg hunt in before the rain/ice started to fall.

Sea Perch

I know I said it a million times, but I love our school district.  Max's MOSAICS teacher asked if he wanted to be part of a small group of kids to participate in Sea Perch.  It is a program run by the US Navy to encourage kids to get into engineering.  The boys worked in a team of four on two different Saturdays to build a robotic submersible.  Last month was the big day when they put their submersible to the test to complete two different obstacle

 Unfortunately they weren't able practice in a pool as planned, so the day of the event the boys had to make a few last minute changes.

 The first task was to remove items from one table and drop them on another about six feet down.  The boys got so close!  The second task was to drive their submersible though a set of rings going different directions.  One of their motors kept falling off on this one.

Between their two rounds the boys actually had he honor of meeting an admiral in the navy.  He talked to them briefly about how important engineers are to the navy as well as the entire country.  He awarded each child a special military coin.  I don't know if Max quite got it, but my cousin that served in the navy told me he was once yelled at by an admiral and felt honored.

Max has been fortunate enough to work with this amazing woman since first grade.  Max has learned so much from her - how to solve conflict, how to listen to others' ideas, how to persevere when things aren't easy, how to work in a group effectively.  The list goes on and on.  The skills she teaches will serve Max for many years to come.

The entire day was actually pretty incredible.  They had lot of different demonstrations going on and the little boys also had a blast.  They saw lots of cool tricks using electricity, they shot of paper rockets they made themselves, and they even got to make slime!

I'll say it one more time - I love our school district and the opportunities they provide!