RIP Mr. Bojangles

You will be missed little man.

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Weeerrreee Baaaccck.

We had a great time and even better visit with Evan and the T's. My biggest worry was the drive up and back, that is a long time to be in the car for anyone. As you can see from this video, I had nothing to be worried about.


Seriously, it was like the most of the way :)

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A step toward total independence.

Since the new birthday bike Alec has been begging to ride around the block "all by myself!" After much deliberation, about 600 rules, and a few nights of putting him off we allowed it.

going...

going...

gone.


Whew, that was a LONG 5 minutes!

I am not so sure I like the independence so much.

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A thank you note.

On Alec's birthday we gave him a new bike first thing in the morning. Later on that afternoon he presented me with this wrapped package.

On the inside was a card. The outside,
and the inside,

and the gift.
Funny it was a thank you from him but I couldn't help being overwhelmingly thankful myself.

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A 6th Birthday

A new bike first thing in the morning...

then a requested breakfast in bed...


a bit later, meatball subs and the golden snitch...


and finally, a pool party with all the buddies.

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Phonetic Birthday List Answers

Here are the answers:

1. Big Ball of Backugan
2. Nerf Gun
3. Boy Love
4. How to Train a Dragon Wii
5. Super Mario Galaxy 2 Wii (I am truly impressed at how close this one got)
6. Toy Light Sabers
7. Rubber Teeth

How close did you get?

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Phonetic Birthday List.

We have been cranking on the Summer Bingo which Alec loves! He has been diligently saving his tickets for the illusive lego kit. This last week one of the bingo tasks was to make a birthday wish list. Alec is very interested in practicing his writing and does just about every day so this was a good chance for him to spell phonetically.

Can you get read it? How close can you get?

Answers Soon.

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The 4th.

We had an awesome weekend! We spent all of Saturday at Roaring Point with the Kennedy's, Grimm's, Meltons, and Milad's. We were able to swim and barring one nasty Jellyfish attack, the water was perfect.


Then we packed up and headed to Ocean City for the night. Games until 2am, one kid up at 3am and the rest up at 6 was a nightmare but we still managed to get to the beach the next day and even found ourselves a couple of Mermen!

Then again we packed up and headed back to the Grimm's for an awesome dinner and some fireworks.
Despite what this photo looks like, we did NO relaxing. But the weekend was fantastic and totally worth no sleep!

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Twilight Eclipse

On Tuesday Lael and I got all dressed up and headed out to the premiere night for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. We went for the movie marathon, all three. Twilight, New Moon and then just after midnight, Eclipse. It was so cool getting to hang with Lael for the night, even though she is an Edward fan :)
Never in my life have I ever been so obsessed with anything. I have read all the books multiple times, watched the movies countless times, and it just never gets old. As most movies-from-books go, I am always kind of disappointed with how they are in comparison to the books. But, in this case, it almost adds another dimension to the books. And Eclipse was the best yet.

And seriously, what is not to like.

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Summer Bingo Starts!

Well summer is here full force in the Anderson house. We are well into our second week with no school, no need to be anywhere at any hour, and no pool to go to until this weekend. And, on top of it Alec was sick for the first week so running and strenuous exercise has been out.

It is an adjustment.

This is the first summer since Alec was two that I had him every day all day. The last three summers he was at WorWic for at least two mornings a week. As I said, it is an adjustment. Alec is a non-stop, willing helper so to keep Alec occupied and engaged we are doing a couple of things this summer. The first is Summer Bingo (thanks to Stacey Julian). The premise is that every week he gets a new card, tickets for each bingo, and then he can exchange his tickets for "stuff".

As you can see, he dove in full force. He is collecting his tickets to exchange for lego set (20 tickets).

In addition to the bingo card we created a summer notebook. In it has school worksheets, craft projects, games, and all the summer reading program information booklets. So far he has been very into both. Every morning he has taken out his book and picked out things to do.

I know it is only a bit into the summer but hopefully this will provide a bit of incentive for those "Mama I am bored" moments.

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Beaten and Bruised

The asthma attack to rival all others left Alec looking like someone had beat him with a baseball bat. This is a result of not being able to breath and coughing so hard that you break all the little blood vessels in your eyes, neck and cheeks.

This photo was taken about 10 hours after it happened and is actually a huge improvement on the original!

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Last Day of K.

Well last week was it - Alec's last day of Kindergarten. To mark the momentous day the school hosted a small reception and the kids put on a presentation. They sung songs, played their recorders, and signed the whole Brown Bear, Brown Bear book by Eric Carle.

Then they were individually called up to get their summer "graduation" packet. It was, as I am finding all milestones, bittersweet.

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Pizza Please.

In Alec’s kindergarten class they have been learning about money and the value of the various coins in our monetary system: penny, nickel, dime and quarters; then how to count the money. We have been loosely giving Alec an allowance of $3/week over the past few months so he could buy the small things he wants, and to begin appreciating the value of saving up his money for the items he wants. He has a bank for savings, and a bank for checking if you will. We advise him to take $1 of the $3 to go in his savings, and keep the remaining $2 in his checking bank. This applies whenever he gets a monetary gift or if he chooses to sell any of his toys to put a small amount in the savings. Since this is Alec’s money, he can buy pretty much whatever he wants. He had saved up about $30 and was craving some Papa John’s Pizza for dinner one night, so Laura and I told him, since we had not planned on eating out tonight, if he wants pizza, he has to buy it himself; and so he did. As seen in the photo, Alec purchased his first Papa John’s pizza and insisted that we all eat it for dinner. He was very proud of himself for providing dinner for the family himself. In addition to the experience/practice of counting the money for the pizza and counting the change back from the $11 he gave the cashier ($10.60 - thanks Papa Johns for the $10 deals), Alec also learned the value of contributing towards the daily dinner process. Nice work Alec!

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So much since we last posted.

We have done so many things since we were last together. I hope to get more consistent in my postings again but for now, a recap will have to do.

We have been to Florida,

dressed up like Ninja's,

and played at the beach.

We celebrated a 37th birthday with friends, cupcakes, wine margaritas, and

my new love, Jacob Black!

And, of course, the Easter Bunny made her annual appearance.

See, I told you, busy-busy.

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Earth Day 2010.

I have to apologize for being gone so long, busy life got in the way. To get back into the swing of things easily I thought I would share an awesome quote to celebrate Earth Day today.

"The only measure by which we will be judged by the people who come after is the health of the land base, because that is what is going to support them. They are not going to give a shit whether or not we were pacifists; they are not going to give a shit if we supported Israel or we didn't support Israel; whether we voted green or democrat or republican or not at all. What they are going to care about is whether they can drink the water, whether they can breathe the air, whether the land can support them." -Derrick Jensen

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100 Days

Our school had a big celebration for the 100th day of school. All the kids were asked to do a project displaying 100 items in some way. That's all the instruction they got - 100 items. Not a problem for Alec, he knew from moment one that he wanted to do 100 volcano's. He is still totally fascinated with all things lava and after our Imax presentation on the ring of fire that is exactly what he wanted to do.

A trip to the education store was all we needed. And, can I just say WOW, that place makes me want to homeschool, or at least buy all the stuff for homeschooling :) We got a map, poster board, and 100 little red pins. Pacific Ring of Fire... here we go.


And what a cute little presentation they all did...

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Snow Days

Alec has had 1 day of school in the last two weeks. And, I am betting the rest of this week we will be off as well. I seriously should have just homeschooled this year, that way at least I would have some plan of occupying our time trapped in the house.

With no plan, we have played in the snow, made some random trips to the grocery store and library, and had a couple of play dates. But, mostly, we have spent our days at the table listening to Magic Tree House audio books and doing art work.

which he loves to wrap up and give to us...

Magic Tree House books are just about his favorite thing in the world and he would (and does) listen to these books all day long. He even likes to make his own version of the books....


I think that is a pretty good way to spend the day :)

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This week: Write a Love Note

Valentines Day. This week, resist the retailers full-court-press of spend, spend, spend, and instead write, write, write. Read about the history of Valentine's Day and instead of purchasing the obligatory chocolates, cards, and candies take out a sheet of paper and write an "old skool" letter. Address it and put it in the mail to a loved one. Doesn't matter to whom you write just make it a true confession of love, acknowledgment or heartfelt praise. The art of letter writing is gone, it is time to rekindle an old love.

As a very significant side note, today is Averill's 36th year of life. I can think of no other man more deserving of total and complete acknowledgment. You Rock Sweetie, Happy Birthday!

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Plumbing Problems.

These photos don't even show how the shower now has no ceiling.

Studs, headers, and drywall all soaked. Took three hours to find the problem and still is not fixed.

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