I hope...

I hope that when Fuller looks back on fifth grade, that he will remember all of good times. I hope that he will remember his friends and family, and the fun things we did together. I'm really going to have to hold onto this hope, because this has not been a good year, and the "fun" isn't over yet. This year Fuller was on a soccer team that lost all but one of their games, and a basketball team that lost all of their games. A hard blow for a competitive kid like Fuller. I can't even begin to describe my relief when he said he didn't want to play baseball. Then there is the whole school situation. He had a good teacher for a few months, then has had a not so good substitute for several months. Today this situation got even more interesting. Fuller came home with a letter telling us that the long term sub has resigned, and a new long term sub will be starting on Monday. To say that we are excited about this teacher leaving is an understatement, but with all of the turmoil in this classroom it will be really amazing if he actually makes any academic growth. Hopefully the new substitute will be the right person to end this year more positively. And one final blow, this week one of Fuller's very best friends announced that his family is moving to Nevada in April. I am just counting the days until summer vacation, we really need a break!

Working the land

Paul and Rowan took advantage of the beautiful weather today to start prepping the soil in our garden. The kids are starting to plan what they want to plant, and I can't wait!


Rowan really liked raking, but I don't think he was really too much help.

Blue and Gold

Last night was Fuller's third and final cub scout Blue and Gold banquet. This was a very special night for him, because he also got to cross over from cub scouts into boy scouts. Fuller has been a very active scout and has been blessed with exceptional scout leaders. Fuller was given many badges and pins for his hard work, but was most excited to have earned his "Arrow of Light". This is one of the highest awards you can receive as a cub scout. He was pretty close to not getting all of his requirements completed in time, but he worked hard, and this was a really important accomplishment for him. We are lucky that in our scout group the boys get an actual arrow and a neat carved plaque to hang it on, in addition to the patch for their uniform. Getting that arrow was a big motivator for Fuller.
Here's Fuller proudly displaying his arrow of light.



When the boys earn the arrow of light they also receive a pin for their mother, since moms have to help them with a lot of the requirements. Here's Fuller pinning on my Mother's pin.


Fuller really showed that he is a true honest scout, through and through. He was given a compass point pin that he didn't earn, and it was very important to him that his scout leaders check his requirements, and that he give it back. I was so proud of him!
The theme of the Blue and Gold was "Chinese New Year". This is Fuller's Chinese dragon mask, and Grayson's best imitation of a dragon.


Here's Fuller's entry in the cake decorating contest. He received the award for "sportiest" cake.

Now I get a five month break from cub scouts before Grayson is old enough to join!

Daddy's little helper

Rowan loves helping Paul with his yoga exercises. He adds that special degree of difficulty.

A really Grand time

Last night Paul and I went to a really special event, a birthday party for this guy, my brother Jim.

His wife Enid had planned quite the extravaganza, complete with matching shirts for all of the guests. About a dozen people showed up to help Jim celebrate turning 42, and we had a blast spending the evening with them. Sometimes a night out without kids is just what the doctor ordered.

They had a bowling party at Grand Central Bowl, which was not at all what I was expecting. This is no mere bowling alley, in fact their web site refers to it as a "bowling lounge". Let me just say, this is a very cool place for grown ups. The menu is full of delicious options, far above that of a regular bowling alley, and the posted dress code(can you believe a dress code at a bowling alley?) apparently does a good job of keeping out punky teenagers and other assorted riff-raff. Lucky for us we weren't wearing overly saggy jeans or do rags!


I used to go here when I was in high school, and remember it as being a kind of run down, stale smelling place. But millions of dollars in upgrades have changed that. They have cool wall size TV screens at the end of the lanes, and comfy leather couches to sit on while you wait your turn to bowl. No hard plastic chairs bolted to the floor here.



Oh, and we had these delicious red velvet cupcakes from "Saint Cupcake"! YUM!
The only thing that could have possibly made the night better, would have been if I could have actually bowled. Maybe next time!

I guess the boys were pretty worn out from their evening with Grandma and Grandpa, because this is what they looked like on the drive home.















Thanks again Enid and Jim!

Question of the day

Can 10 year old boys have pms? Or is there some testosterone version of it I don't know about?

My funny Valentine

Frustrating as it is, I'm just going to have to type one handed!


Rowan is such a silly little monkey! I was just cracking up watching him at his preschool Valentines party. The funniest part was watching him put the valentines in the other kids' bags. The valentines we had gotten had a special valentine for the teacher, but Rowan really liked that one and refused to put it in Teacher Jill's bag. He put it in his own bag instead.
Later that day when we were snuggling I said "I love you Rowan" and he said back,"I love you...........more than chicken!" What a nut!

And one more Rowan story. Earlier this week we were having tater tots with our dinner, and while Paul and I were still in the kitchen Rowan decided to pull a Napoleon. (Napoleon Dynamite that is.) I guess he had wanted to put some tater tots in his pockets, but he already had his pajamas on so he just jammed them in around the waist band. Lovely. He learned that mushy tater tots working their way down your legs during dinner doesn't feel too good.

diagnosis

Lateral Epicondylitis, otherwise known as tendonitis or tennis elbow, that's what the doctor says I have. So that's the good news, nothing too serious. The bad news is she thinks it will take another 4-6 weeks of rest, ice, ibuprofen and wearing an elbow brace to get it back to normal. I think Paul's going to get pretty tired of cutting up my dinner for me by then!

Too hurt to blog

I've been having trouble with my right hand/arm since last Tuesday. By Friday I noticed that in addition to the pain in my elbow I can't straighten my arm, or raise all of my fingers up. As the picture shows, my middle finger won't raise up to meet the others. So, off to the doctor tomorrow to see what's going on.

Luckily I received a little joy, in the form of scout cookies, today!

I'll post more when I don't have to type just using my left hand.

The Valentine Box

Last week Fuller brought home instructions for making a box to receive valentines in. It was to be a standard shoe box, have a theme, and have at least one three dimensional addition to the box. I instantly flashed back to boxes and envelopes I made as a child; pink, purple and red creations with white paper doily hearts and shiny red heart stickers. I started thinking about how cute it would be to have curled up pink pipe cleaners with hearts attached to the ends, as the three dimensional element. And then I remembered that I am the mother of boys, and they tend to see things a little differently. Fuller instantly knew that he wanted to do a sports theme, and had no trouble finding pictures in Sports Illustrated that he wanted to put on his box. Cool theme, but not too Valentine-ish. I quietly put a sheet of heart stickers on the table where he was working, and he added a few to his design. I must admit I liked his end result, especially the addition of the Lego basketball hoop. I think one of these years I'll have to hold my own Valentine's party, so I can have a reason to buy paper lace doilies.

Two Little Monkeys

Jumping and dancing on my bed!

Good Things

Yesterday was a day of many good things!

- Fuller scored his first ever 3 point shot! And even better, he was able to focus on the positive of that moment and ignore the fact that his poor team lost-again.
- A 9 hour date with my husband.
-Wonderful grandparents who willingly sign on to entertain the monkeys all day long.
- Lunch out.
-Going to IKEA.
- Going to see "I am Legend", (which was a wonderfully updated version of the 70's cult classic "Omega Man", I really preferred Will Smith's portrayal of the lead character to Charleton Heston's!)
-Getting to spend time at "my happy place" - also known as Powell's. Row after row of books, what could possibly be better!

- Dinner at the Olive Garden.
- Having the boys in their jammies with their teeth already brushed by the time we came to pick them up.
- All three boys falling asleep on the way home!

I've been tagged

Rochelle tagged me to pick up the book nearest to me, turn to page 123, go to sentence 5 and post the next three sentences. What a silly random way to see what we're reading.
The book nearest to me is "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, which I just finished this week.
Oddly enough page 123 ended up being the introduction to the third section of the book, so there weren't any sentences, but out of context the page is kind of interesting.

mein kampf
featuring:
the way home-a broken woman-a struggler-a juggler-the attributes of summer-an aryan shopkeeper-a snorer-two tricksters-and revenge in the shape of mixed candy

Super Tuesday

Well we aren't voting today, but I'll be interested to see what folks in other parts of the country decide. The other day Fuller came home from school with his little copy of Time for kids, and announced that he thinks he'd vote for Obama if he were old enough to vote. "So what do you like about Obama," I asked him. "I like the way his name sounds," he said. Then for effect he enunciated it for me "OH-BAH-MAH!" I must admit it does sound kind of cool that way. Lets hope voters today look at a little policy too when they decide who to vote for.

Also, I don't know if it was in relation to Super Tuesday or not, but this morning when Rowan came downstairs he brought with him two very different items. Instead of bringing a blanket and stuffed animal like he usually does, he had a set of scriptures under one arm, and a sword in the other hand. Today he is ready for anything!

Colonel Mustard, in the ball room, with the lead pipe

Fuller and Grayson have recently traded in their morning chess battles for a rousing game of CLUE each morning before school. Grayson hates to lose, so he usually tries to guess way too early, thus ending the game and making Fuller the winner by default. Lately I've been waking up to the sounds of Fuller begging Grayson to not guess, and trying to convince him that there's no way he could possibly have the right answer already. This game has been a bit challenging for Grayson, since some of the words are a bit above his reading level, but he can now add "conservatory", "billiard", and "revolver" to his list of sight words. You just never know when one of those might pop up in the first grade reading books!

Once there was a snowman

These boys really know how to make the most out of an unexpected snow day!


Rowan kept asking for carrots to make snowman noses, but he never did make a snowman. He just ate all the carrots instead.

Grayson said that his snowman is me, since he put a leaf in her hair to be a bow, making it a mommy snow person.


Don't you just love those rosy cheeks!