two weeks of fun: part I

this week much of our time was spent on the pier ~ the wind was blowing, the lake was white-capping, the air was chilly and the water was frigid!  how is it that children don't feel the cold like us older folks?  although they did have to keep getting out to warm up only to climb right back in  ~ crazy young'ins.   little man and dude played "jump from float to float" in order to not touch the chilly water.   m2 played with her bucket; she poured water from a ketchup container into a mustard jar and then into larger buckets continuously.  towels were used as blankets to keep everyone warm when not in the water.  sister and i sat on the pier bundled up, longing for the sun to shine for more than three minutes at a time. 

sugar and charlie got lots of attention! charlie gets some loving from granddaddy. 

micadoodle and sugar love to hear m2 giggle. 

how cute is she?

we took the boat out and all ended up soaked and cold.  yea for john david driving the jet ski (so sister and i could sit on the pier dry and bundled up).  micadoodle has a ball on the airhead.    

it was so windy that when micadoodle hit a wave the air caught the underneath of the airhead and took her airborn; so fun that i caught the picture!  a later wave knocked her off.  she came up laughing.

sister, sugar and charlie

sister and her rescue dogs ~ and my middle child who adores animals.

picnic at opsail 2012

  the children and i packed a picnic and headed to opsail to watch the tall ships come into the harbor.

other than being extremely warm we had a great time.  touring the columbian ship was amazing.  they were such wonderful hosts.  afterwards we headed straight for sonic and barely made it by 4:00 for happy hour and 1/2 price slushies.  yummy and brain freeze all at the same time!

i taught her everything she knows...

except for this... seriously, what is that?  i was proud of m1 for doing her flips at the second grade end of the year pool party.  she was the only one that could!  some of the boys started trying but they all landed on their backs... wimps.  now, let's start working on perfecting that pike.

laundry room essentials

i'm afraid...

that her school pictures next year will look like this.

when you say *smile* to this chicka, this is what happens.

field day

we had a gorgeous day for little man's field day.  only the 3rd - 5th graders participate which makes it very competitive.  during the morning hours they had individual events ~ he competed in the soccer dribble, mile run (it was a photo finish with him coming in second) and jump rope challenge.  there were more events, but i was helping and missed some. 

little man and his buddy nathan tied in the jump rope challenge so they celebrated with a chest bump.  when the boys saw the picture, they each said the same thing, "hey, our shadow looks like a dog".

after lunch little man and a classmate won the wheelbarrow race for the purple team.  the fourth graders participated in the three legged races and the fifth graders do piggy back races. 

the tug of war challenge is the highlight of the day.  each team (purple, white, gold) compete with several pulls.  then each grade competed against the other class (little man's class won the third grade pull).  below is my other son, christian (he calls me his other mother) doing a great job as the gold team anchor. 

mr. hardy's fifth grade won... seriously, they did have a slight advantage.

little man and his classmates working together to defeat the other third grade class.  mrs. chaplain even got in on the action. 

elana and m1 looking on.  her class had a field trip this morning and when they returned they watched a few team events in the gym.  when the tug-of-war started all of the non-field-day classes were brought out to watch and cheer for their favorite teachers and students.  i like the way they do this... something for the younger grades to look forward to.  in the end the gold team prevailed in first place and little man's purple team came a very close second.  coach rose always works hard to ensure fair teams and a fun but competitive day.  m1 can't wait until next year.