the beginning of the end....of another travel basketball season

Well, we have come to that time of the basketball season.  The start of the final tournament was Sunday.  Play to advance was the name of the game.  We had two pretty excited players, ready to go.

Ha!  Tried to get their numbers:  Cale-42 and Ewan-4

Game on.  There's Ewan working on some defense.

And, offense.

The results:  Ewan's team won both games.  Cale's team won their first game and lost their second game.  Cale's team is done for the season.  Ewan's team could advance to the end if they continue to play well.  We shall see.  I made it a priority not to take pictures during the games.  I just wanted to enjoy the moments and watch the games.   That was my philosophy this whole basketball season.  Hence, the lack of photos.

Part of the fan club.  Pretty sure by the end, Liam had seen enough basketball for the day.  

Until next Sunday.

Happy Valentine's Day!

From: Ninja Liam

Getting crafty for Valentine's Day-thank you Pinterest!

I was tired. 

Tired of our collection of leftover valentines.

Tired of seeing all the valentine ideas I pinned on Pinterest.

Time for some change.  

Now, before I could figure out exactly what kinds of valentines to do, Liam got motivated and filled out his using the random collection of valentines we had accumulated.  

So, then I went searching, and found these two valentines.

For the girls....

http://www.popsugar.com/moms/DIY-Noncandy-Printable-Valentine-Day-Cards-Kids-13791428#photo-27420908

Cute.  Simple,  Pink. And, glowsticks.

And, for Ewan...

http://www.stitchcraftcreations.com/2012/01/30/forceful-valentines/

Glowsticks!  Who doesn't love glowsticks?  And Star Wars to boot! 

Our printer totally came through and printed the valentines out on some cardstock.  I used purple and pink for the girls and plain white for Ewan.

Ewan was excited to do something different.  He likes Star Wars and glow sticks.  And, his teacher had decided on no candy valentines.  So this was something fun to give out in place of candy.

The finished products.  They turned out pretty well and I will be searching my pins again next year for more ideas.

a vacation journal entry

I use the kids extra notebooks from previous years for my notes and lists.  This writing is at the back of the current composition book that I am using.  It was written by Cale in the 3rd grade and details our first trip to Tennessee.  I love seeing that vacation through Cale's eyes.  All spelling and punctuation were kept as Cale wrote them.

"When I first arrived at Tenasee at pigeon forge it was an awsome place iwth tons of fun things to do.  Like going to a arcade, a dinner show, aquaireum.  Even though we were only staying for three days we wanted to stay forever like we were never going back.  Even though we still needed to find our hotel that called.  So we went searching until we fond it. I was reliefed that we found our hotel when we were in our room I fell face down on a pillow I was tired I was extremly weak and drowsing.  Then when i was all ready in bed I fell fast asleep."

A genius among us

It's common knowledge here that Liam knows way more than what is common.  Just the other day, we were studying up on the different types of dimensions out there.  Oh, you know, like length, height, depth, time all the way to the 11th dimension.  This guy was able to follow along to some videos explaining the dimensions and then come back and explain them to Andy.  

It's always fun to get Liam's progress reports and see how he is doing.  

And, the comments from his teachers are nice to read, too.

"Liam is just doing wonderful in reading!  He thinks from a different perspective and shares insights that his peers might not have made a connection to through discussion.  He is eager to help others in reading."

"Liam continues to excel in a faster paced math setting." (And, thank goodness he is starting to pass his math facts timed tests! (says his mom))

Liam is such a sweet, gentle boy with a caring heart.  I am excited to see what the future holds for my "professor".

If Kella named a planet...

(This a perfect representation of Kella.  She loves pink things, so, of course her planet is pink.  She also loves the name "Lucy", the name of Grammy Linda's dog.  It only makes sense for her to incorporate that name into her planet's name.)

another solo/ensemble contest in the books

January was a busy month and February promises the same.  We started out the first weekend with basketball games and Marcus's solo/ensemble contest.  Throw in some work for the adults and you have our typical schedule. 

I had the privilege of accompanying  Marcus for his solo piece.  I just thought it would be a fun thing to do and a way to encourage both of us to practice our instruments: trombone and piano.

Marcus did great!  Gold for him!  From behind the piano, I thought he sounded fine and played the piece well.  The judge's comments were kind and encouraging.  With our schedule, I left Marcus and the school with some money and instructions to go listen to other trombone players.  I had basketball games to get back to.

After games and a quick bite to eat, it was time to go hear the ensemble play.  Unfortunately, we made it to the room right after they shut the door.  Then, Kinley, who had been hanging by a thread for a while, decided that was the best time for a meltdown.  So, I couldn't even listen outside the door since I had to remove Little Miss from the hallway.  Oh well.

But, I guess they played well.  They got a gold, too!  So, all's well that ends well.