Third Grade Urban Walking Tour

So Andrew's class and the other third grade class took a walking tour of Portland. I signed up to be a chaperone. Of course, it was a blustery, rainy, cold day--typical Portland weather. We took the Trimet into downtown during the latter part of rush hour. Let me tell you, there were not very happy commuters sharing the bus with a bunch of third graders. I was assigned a group of 2 girls and 5 boys. They were all boys that I knew well since most of them have been playing soccer and baseball with Andrew for 4 years. In fact, when they saw who their chaperone was, the boys walked over to me and said, "Your favorite boys in the whole school." Our tour guide, Jan, was fantastic. She kept things organized and moving. She took us into as many buildings as possible so that we could get out of the cold and rain. She said that in 6 years of doing tours, this was the worst weather day she had seen. We learned a lot about Pdx as it is fondly called here. I had a great time and I think the kids did too. Although, at the end, Andrew complained that our guide talked too much. I told him that was her job, but he thought we should do more walking and less talking. Ahh, kids.

Soccer Parties 2009

Both the kids finished out the season strong. Andrew had one more week of soccer than Marin. They both had pizza parties with their teams. It is always nice to hear what the coaches say about the season in general and about your kid specifically. Marin's coach talked about what a great player she was. Andrew's coach said that Andrew was one of the most improved players from last year and talked about his versatility at playing a number of positions. He also said that Andrew was willing to play wherever the coach asked him to. I am glad that they both enjoyed the soccer season. I don't know where the pictures I took of Andrew's party are. I am wondering if they got deleted accidentally.

Halloween 2009

This Halloween was really busy. The day before Halloween, the kids' school had their carnival. I was on the committee to set up and run one of the booths. Marin's teacher also asked me to be in charge of their class party, on Tuesday. She gave me a list of names of parents that wanted to help and let me run with it. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with having double duty that day. It was also the ward Halloween party that night. We went a little late, but made it for Trunk or Treating. On Halloween, both kids had soccer games at 9 am. It was nice to get them over with early in the morning but it was a rough morning after such a late night the evening before. We went trick or treating in a village by our house during the afternoon. Then we went to a shopping center for trick or treating. We arranged to go with the kids in the neighborhood at 6:00. It was a pretty good group of kids that went together. The parents all socialized while the kids ran from house to house. Fortunately, our neighbors are really great at supporting all these trick or treaters. After going around the hood, we went over to Keri and Charlie's house for more trick or treating with Emily. One of Kevin's clients prepared one of those plastic pumpkins full of candy for each of the kids, in addition to all the other candy that they got. I think my kids ended up with about 10 lbs. of candy each. It was an insane amount. Marin kept complaining that her feet hurt--she didn't wear her ruby slippers because they weren't comfortable enough. In fact, she hardly wore half her costume--Dorothy. I carried Toto in his basket, she left her shoes in the car and her hair was not braided. Oh well, there's always next year. Andrew really looked like Harry Potter. In fact, he even wore the tie the next day to church. I think it's going to do the trick because he has balked at wearing ties to church previously. All in all, a very fun Halloween.

Minor Surgery

On Conference Sunday, we typically go to Kevin's parents' house for brunch and conference watching. This year was no different. During the second Sunday session, we broke out the conference Bingo for the kids to play with Reese's Pieces as the markers. That lasted for much of the session but the kids got restless and decided to go downstairs to play. With about 25 minutes left in the session I heard a thud and a sickening scream coming from Andrew. I ran down as he ran up the stairs. He was holding his chin which was visibly scraped up. He was crying so hard and the other kids were all talking at once. It took several seconds to get out of them that he had fallen off the treadmill. He had apparently set it on 10 mph and got thrown off. He scraped up both knees, the tops of his feet, over his right eye, his chin, and his teeth went through his upper lip. I thought it had gone all the way through. We rushed him to the ER. After two hours, we walked out with Andrew having 3 stitches above his lip. He had not gone all the way through the lip but a good chunk was taken out. We are glad that he is healing up well. Unfortunately, he had soccer pictures 3 days later, but he will just look like a tough soccer player who goes all out and gets beat up.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

This year we were actually fairly early in getting to the pumpkin patch, however it has taken me a while to get around to uploading my pictures and writing a blog post. We took advantage of a bye week in soccer and great weather and went out to Lee Farms. It was a beautiful day. We had fresh apple cider donuts, the kids went through a hay maze and down a slide multiple times, they pet some farm animals, we picked out a few pumpkins and had a good time together as a family. We still haven't carved the pumpkins but I think that may be what we do this week for FHE.

Daisy Scout Activities

Marin has been lucky to do some fun activities with Daisy Scouts. Her leaders think of things that first grade girls love to do. They did a bat walk at a park nearby. We began by learning about bats and the different sounds that they make, what they eat, which kinds are found in the park. Then we took a walk in the dark and looked and listened for bats. The girls had a great time. We did not see very many bats, but we heard several. The weather didn't cooperate and it started to sprinkle at the end of our walk, which probably kept the bats away.
The girls also built a scarecrow for the courtyard of the school. Each girl was responsible for contributing one piece of the scarecrow. Marin had the shoes. We brought an old pair of hers and an old pair of Kevin's, not sure which size scarecrow we were going for. It turned out very cute. I think all the girls had a really good time putting it together.
Last night, we went to Disney on Ice. I was not particularly thrilled to go see it but the girls were ecstatic. It featured Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Pixie Hollow. The costumes and some of the ways that they used them were pretty interesting. Marin had a blast. It was a fun excursion.

Brown Stripe Promotion

Andrew has promoted yet again in Taekwondo. His teacher, Master Brown says that for his age, he is one of the top students. It was a small promotion test, with Andrew being second highest rank that was being tested. He did really well, sparring against an older boy with a higher rank. His form looked sharp. His teacher complimented him in the following class, stating that she knew now what to expect of him in class because he did so well at promotion. As always, we are so proud of him. He is continuing to progress and improve, and it is exciting to watch.