Summer Fun!!

11. June 2012 · Comments Off on Summer Fun!! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

The kids are definitely enjoying their summer vacation so far!  Apparently Jacob was working extra-hard this school year because I hadn’t seen him this happy in a long time.  School and baseball just wore him out, I guess.  They’re enjoying sleeping late, staying up late at night and not having to get dressed until lunchtime.  Oh, the summer life!

Since school ended last Thursday, the kids have been doing little else besides playing games, riding their bikes and playing catch in the backyard.

Sadly, our area was hit with that Gulf Coast deluge of rain over the weekend so we were quite literally stuck in the house all weekend.  Our rain gauge is broken, but I’d estimate around 8-10″ of rain at our house all weekend.  We have good drainage so our house and our property was okay.

While under our virtual house-arrest, the boys got along GREAT and Dave and I could catch up on several household tasks.  We had visited Target on Friday and let the kids choose one video game and one board/card game each.  We enjoyed all of that and then some: Uno, Phase-10, Rummikub, chess, Monopoly, Guitar Hero and even our new “Go” board game.

I also helped out with this week’s Cub Scout Day Camp.  Even though my boys can’t go (because of our upcoming Road Trip), I had received a request to help out with some craft preparations.  I offered my assistance and I received a task that was PERFECT for this past rainy weekend: FiMo clay Star Wars action figures.  You press the clay into the molds, then bake a pan full of them at 230F for 30 minutes to harder.  They are to be used in snow globes (Hoth?) that will be made with baby food jars.

Here is a picture of what I was working on.  Cute, aren’t they?  They weren’t easy but with the rainy weather, we had all the time in the world!  I had to make 150 of these.

Of the dozen-or-so characters to choose from, there are the only ones that will fit through the mouth of a classic baby food jar. These were among the best of the batch. Most of the Yodas looks more like Gizmo from "Gremlins", and most of the Obi Wans and Chewies had no discernable faces. The molds for these were made by "Kenner" years ago. I tried to find a link to the mold product but can't find any.

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Spring 2012 Piano Recital

31. May 2012 · Comments Off on Spring 2012 Piano Recital · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

The boys performed at their Spring piano recital this week.  Most of Ms. Herbstreith’s students are beginners, so we had perforances as simple as Old McDonald, but she also has a couple middle school students who play more advanced sonatas.  The songs are short, but you can get an idea of the skills the boys are developing!

Dave has been very busy this week: wildfires just north of base came very close to the north end of the base and the hazard caused the Air Force base leadership to have to prepare for evacuations from housing and nearby neighborhoods.  Dave was able to break away from work just long enough to come to the church and watch the boys, and then had to leave right away to return to the base.

Enjoy the videos!  First is Timmy, then Jacob.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? — What to Do With School Papers?

13. May 2012 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I know...the top of this plastic rack of drawers is sagging terribly.

As the school year wraps up around here (my boys finish on June 8th) I’ve started thinking about sorting and storage of the boys’ school papers. I’m sure other school systems are similar in that the kids bring home volumes of paperwork: completed worksheets, tests, readings, PTO newsletters, classroom newsletters, announcements about summer camps, sports, and special charity events in the community. This all takes PAPER!!

I can’t keep everything obviously. In part because I have enough “stuff” in the house, but mostly because when it’s time for us to move, we have to account for any extra weight over and above the allowances the Air Force gives us. So I have to pick and choose what’s worth keeping forever, and what’s worth tossing — also forever.

Trying to figure out what stays and what goes....

When the boys were in preschool, my friend FotoMom taught me I could staple together two pieces of posterboard to make a portfolio-like envelope. This easily held the papers as well as the larger pieces of artwork. I have these stored in our shed in the backyard, and we’re toting those from house to house. To be honest, I haven’t accessed a single one of those envelopes once the boys’ school years end…but I’ll continue to carry them from house to house.

What say you? Help me strike a comfortable medium between keeping the special stuff and not overwhelming the moving folks with seemingly extraneous paperwork!!!

Florida Discoveries 22: NYSA Baseball

06. May 2012 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 22: NYSA Baseball · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

Yesterday was one of the baseball-iest days I’d ever experienced.  Each of the boys had their own baseball games during the day, then we headed out to Pensacola and enjoyed seeing our new local AA minor league baseball team, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, in their brand new stadium right on Pensacola Bay!  More on the Blue Wahoos later.

Our boys here play for Navarre Youth Sports Association’s baseball league.  As is typical in Florida, they’re serious about sports here.  And they start those boys EARLY!  Our own sons had never played baseball until we moved here, and it turns out there are several hundred boys playing baseball here, and several hundred more playing soccer in the same club.  And come this fall, ALL those boys (except my two) are playing football.

In this particular club (and I’m not sure who the national level organization is that this club now follows — last year it was Dizzy Dean, but this year it isn’t) the boys’ teams are simply named after the coach’s favorite major league team.  Last year Jacob was on the White Sox, this year he’s on the Tigers.  His current coach is indeed from eastern Michigan.  Timmy is on the Braves and he couldn’t be more excited about that.

I captured some pretty good pictures of the boys at their games yesterday.  They’re both respectfully among the youngest on their teams, and this is Timmy’s first year playing baseball.  It’s remarkable seeing their skills develop over the course of the season!

When my boys' teams are the "visitors" here, I'm sitting on the side that gives me a good view of the batter. Here's Timmy hitting a foul ball. He's become a VERY good hitter this season...

Two hours later, we were at Jacob's game. I haven't taken many pictures this season because I always fear I'm going to miss something while looking at the screen on the back of the camera. And in this case, I took this picture right before he hit this ball for a single! Do you see the ball in motion? It's hovering between the third baseman and the shortstop.

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Our Math-Magician!

05. May 2012 · Comments Off on Our Math-Magician! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

We couldn't be more proud!

This past week Jacob’s school had a competition for a program they’ve been doing all year: Powerhouse Math.

Strangely enough, I couldn’t find much about the program when I Googled it.  Just a blog post by someone else in my neighborhood whose son earned a medal last year. But based on what I had learned earlier this year, it’s a program that teachers may choose to perform…or not perform…with their students.  Jacob’s class opted into the program.  Based on some of the examples Jacob described to me, it seems to work with kids’ logic skills more than the traditional math curriculum.

I had signed up to be a parent volunteer for this program, but my time requirements conflicted with other obligations I had on base, so I sadly had to say “Sorry, I can’t assist.”

Jacob brought home a medal and a trophy yesterday!  He was on a team that took first place for all of the 3rd grade classes (that opted into the program) and he also took the individual first place prize!

Jacob wore the medal on the school bus home. I’m tickled that he did this with such pride, since in my day I’d have probably been given a wedgie or had a sign stuck to my back if I wore a big medal that read “Mathematics”.

A close up of the medal. Jacob wanted to point out to everyone that the calculator is showing Pi.

Memories of My Babies**

27. April 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

**This doesn’t mean I want another baby.  It’s just nice to look back on my boys’ super-dooper cute baby pictures!

Today a fellow Air Force spouse friend posted pictures of her daughter on Facebook — portraits taken at the beach just after her first birthday.  There were some family portraits also.  In one of the pictures, the photographer did some really nice post-processing that really brought out the blue in her eyes.

Since the family will be moving away from the beach this summer, they were glad to get a nice portrait session before leaving.

Seeing the baby with her big blue eyes brought back memories of when Timmy had blue eyes.  Which was up through his first birthday — then they turned hazel.

Timmy was about 10 months old here, we were visiting Dave's parents on Long Island for Thanksgiving in 2005. The sun was shining brightly so his irises were HUGE!

And because I can’t put up a cute picture of one of my babies without giving props to the other, here’s one of my favorites of Jacob.

April 2003. Jacob was about 7 months old and this was his first trip to the local pool.

Please Keep Up the Great Comments – Still Troubleshooting!

14. April 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I now have LiveFyre itself on board to help me troubleshoot things.  I have flipped an additional switch in the LiveFyre settings and if you could continue to leave FB and blog comments I can see what is working and what isn’t.

I’m now about to try some Twitter testing…so hopefully you’ll see comments from Twitter come in on this post, thanks!

In the meantime, here’s another picture for you to enjoy!  Jacob’s team won their baseball game today.  Timmy’s team didn’t win, but they only lost by 3 runs, and Timmy scored a run!  We’re so proud of our guys!  This was taken on the way home from baseball today.

Timmy was happy about (a) doing well at baseball and (b) riding in a convertible on this beautiful day!

My Handsome Boys!

11. April 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Enjoy the boys’ Spring school portraits.  I opted for the CD with a large digital copy this year.  Grandparents, I’ll be printing some up for you, I promise!

The boys go to different schools so their sessions were on different days, but I tried hard to put them in complimentary outfits and chose the same background.  It turned out really well.

Relatives: click each image and a new website should appear with the full picture, suitable for download and printing.

My handsome Timmy! There's dirt on his nose. Typical.

My handsome Jacob!

Another Test Post

06. April 2012 · Comments Off on Another Test Post · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Here’s ANOTHER test post, testing some publishing-related plug-ins.

Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, I’ve included a random picture for you to enjoy.  This is a “stained glass” project that Timmy did in art class.  Sharpies on a piece of transparency film :-).  This was shown in a Santa Rosa County Public Schools art show 2 weekends ago.

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