Classroom Goodies for a Spooky day!

Grandma Nancy helped both Will and Xan get ready for Halloween by getting some little goodie bags together for them to take to school today. Both boys traded in the candy option for Play-dough, at Will's request. (We did that last year since I got 80 tiny cans at Costco for a song, so he wanted a repeat of the popular goodie. Fortunately I found them on clearance at Michaels!) A few things have changed since I went to school, too. No Halloween costumes can be worn... bummer. But, a $1.00 for charity allowed Will to wear his favorite crazy hat. He chose the big clown hat he got at the Barnum and Bailey's circus he went to when I was pregnant with Xan. We'll try to get a photo of the hat and all the ghoulish festivities tonight to post tomorrow! Happy Halloween!

Fruit and dinosaurs... grrrryum!

My sister-in-law, Jill, is an artist, so I "commissioned" her to create a dinosaur mural in my sons' play room, inspired by a "Think Big" metal sign with a dinosaur on it. Jill visited the boys in Florida this week and got to work. While I have not been home to enjoy it in its entirety (still in SoCal... my last scrap show starts tomorrow! Wish me luck!), here is how it turned out according to the photos she sent me:


Awesome, isn't it? Great work, Jilly! And it looks like my 2 1/2-yaer-old, Xan, isn't too sure he wants to get that close to the T-Rex! LOL... So, if you live in the St. Louis area, and need a playroom mural, let me know and I will put you in touch with Jill... :D

I also sent the boys, Jill and my mother-in-law Peggy, a fruit bouquet from Edible Arrangements. From the looks of these photos, I think everyone enjoyed it!

Nephew Brandon at play

Brandon is a big fan of cars and blocks right now, especially scattering them around or dropping them on the floor. Although, he did take a moment to hand a few to Grandma Nancy. Oh, and he paused for a kiss from his mama.

One cannot live by scrappin' alone ...

... so, I was really excited when I found out that one of my favorite comedians, Christopher Titus, was performing live at the Irvine Improv just a few hours after my plane touched down in SoCal. Since Rodney is in Pensacola, and he is usually my comedy club date, I dragged my Mom to the comedy club, instead. She was a good sport about the whole thing, I even heard her laugh a few times.

Since Rodney likes Titus as much as I do, I called home to ask him if he would like a CD or autograph or something. Rodney's favorite bit that Titus does is when the comedian talks about falling into a bonfire as a teenager. So, Rodney's response:

"Can you get him to sign a can of lighter fluid?"

I wasn't sure if lighter fluid would be allowed into the Improv, so, not wanting to get caught with a "weapon of mass destruction" and kicked out, I said,

"No. How about a 2 x 4?" Deal.

So, after the hilarious show, I stood in line to buy a CD and meet Titus, trying to hang on to my foot-long 2 x 4 as inconspicuously as possible. Titus was also a good sport, graciously signing the 2 x 4 with a slight laugh. (Side note: Titus was great with his fans, taking the time to shake hands, hear stories and chat... you have to respect a guy who apprciates his fans. BTW, if you're a fan, he is working on a new TV show and movie.)

Mom took this maniacal picture of me with the funnyman, just before he signed the 2 x 4 piece of "bonfire" wood. Nice photo of him, not so much of ME! Very fun, spontaneous night ... now, since I am on central time in a Pacific time zone world at the moment, the bed is calling!

Will got straight A's!

Rodney and I went to Will's parent-teacher conference and he got all A's... who-hoo! The only thing he appears to get into trouble for is talking. Each child had 10 pennies and when they don't behave as they should, they get a penny taken away. They have opportunities to earn the pennies back throughout the week. If you have 9 or 10 pennies, you get an A for citizenship that week. Will comes home and lets us know if he lost or gained pennies that day. If you lose one, it is usually for talking at the wrong time. In fact, the whole class was so chatty one morning last week that Ms. Perry said, "Whoever wants to talk needs to bring me a penny." Without hesitation, Will gave her one of his pennies. I don't really think that is what she had in mind, though! He is also one of the few kids with a blue sticker on his desk. That means that,once his work is complete, other kids can come to him for help. Ms. Perry said she does this to foster leadership in students who appear to have a knack for it. Hopefully Will will continue to excel.
Coach Stearns in the school PE teacher and Ms. Perry said it is tough to get a compliment from him, as he is pretty strict with his rules during PE. She said Will always gets compliments from Coach Stearns. Maybe having a Marine Dad is paying off!

Since he got straight A's, Will was allowed to eat at the restaurant of his choice. He chose Denny's of course. He had breakfast for dinner and was quite happy. Xan had his first mozzarella stick and had a little trouble with the stretchy cheese, but managed to eat the entire stick before his food came (he has pizza and Goldfish crackers - what a combo!

Xan at Waffle House

I took Xan to breakfast at Waffle House a couple weeks ago. He LOVED eating at the bar - and showing off his see-food. Is he a total boy or what? Yuck!

Soccer, seafood and scrapbooking

Saturday was full of fun in a variety of ways. Will had soccer team pictures and a game in the morning. I finally got to see him score a goal. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera ready, yet, since I had just gotten to the field, so no picture of it - sorry! But it got hot fast and the kids were looking a little wilted by the last quarter of the game. I guess the coach had them practicing quite a bit before the game since this week's practice was cancelled. Hopefully he won't do that again next week before the game. To combat the lethargy, Will scooped some ice out of the team ice chest and but it on the back of his head. Xan was busy on the sidelines playing with his hat and beads. That is one kid who can stay busy with the cheapest of toys.

The lovebugs, as they call them here, are thick right now. They were all over the place at the game. The good thing is that they don't bite.

After nap time, we headed to the annual Pensacola Seafood Festival. I think nearly all of Pensacola showed up. It was crowded, but the food smelled great, the vendors were fun to shop and the live music was good. There was even a kid section where Will and Xan got to slide, throw and fish to the hearts' content.




We, of course ate seafood from the vendors there. Well, at least Rodney and I did . The boys preferred corndogs. Rodney had the fried calamari basket. I went with something a little more healthy: beef and shrimp kabobs. Very tasty.


After supper, the boys found bow and arrow sets they just had to have. They will take them when they go with Daddy practice their bow hunting skills in a nearby empty lot.

Once we got home and the boys were bathed, Will "scrapbooked" on his desk for awhile. Xan made room alongside him, using Will's computer's CPU as the table.


This morning, Will learned how to tie his shoes, thanks to Dad's "10 minutes and a Tear" method of instruction. (Rodney called it this himself.) Apparently it took only 10 minutes to teach Will how to do the bunny ears and he only cried in frustration once. Will, not Rodney...

We're on a roll!

I drove by the local skating rink Tuesday and was reminded of how much I loved to skate in elementary school. We had Skate Nights to raise money for PTA at least once a month and I always went. I was so bummed when our local skating rink closed.

When I saw that Pensacola had a skating rink, I thought it would be a fun thing for all four of us to do. I called and it turned out that they have open skate nights on Wednesdays, as well as throughout the weekend. With Xan just starting to skate, I thought a Wednesday night might be quieter for him to get used to the idea. It cost us each $3.50 to skate for up to four hours, way cheaper than the movies! What a deal! We got there and noticed there weren't any cars in the parking lot, but the sign said OPEN, so in we went. Not only did we get to skate, we had the WHOLE rink to ourselves! Apparently this is their slow season, since the weather is so beautiful right now and school is in session.

We had a great time, even Xan, who, as usual with new experiences, cried for the first 15 minutes. He got little skates where only the front wheels rolled, so he stepped more than skated. By the end of the session, he was having fun and requested "roll 'kates." So, we'll work on getting some rolling skates next time. Despite the earlier crying, Xan had fun playing "tag" with us and "yiked" skating.



After getting his skating legs, Will took off and was tough to catch for a photo. He did fall a couple of times, once bad enough he said he "sprained his body." But, he skated it off and did just fine. Actually, we both fell at the same exact time (my wheel locked up, see below for details), so we both rubbed our knees and skated it off. He LOVED the disco ball in the center of the rink and thinks he prefers in-line skates to the traditional ones.




Will took this photo of us. Rodney and I are old enough to appreciate decent skates. We're thinking that he and I might invest in some of our own skates if we end up skating a lot. My wheels wouldn't turn smoothly and kept slipping because the rubber was worn down to much. Rodney's racing skates had a part of them that bowed for sharp turns and they bowed a little too much due to loose washers. The kids' skates seemed just fine, though. Rodney said he had fun, so I might actually get to revisit my youth a couple times a month, family in tow!

Oh, and Will said he wants to do this "when the Grandmas are in town." That should be fun...

Solving the world's energy crisis one blade at a time...

Will and Xan were outside riding a tractor and tricycle while I planted some flowers in the front yard this evening. Xan apparently noticed that his tractor's gas tank looked a bit empty, so he walked over and yanked out some grass and started stuffing it in the gas tank, slamming the lid shut when he was done. He was very proud of himself. "Gas (or was it grass? - can't tell from his speech), Mommy. Filled it with gas." And then he got on and drove off. Poor kid... I was laughing too hard to explain the difference between "gas" and "grass." Hopefully we won't be finding blades of grass in our vehicles' tanks anytime soon, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could? Sod farms: The fuel of the future.

A busy Saturday and restful Sunday

We picked up the boys from school Friday afternoon and headed off to see the Star Wars cartoon. Will was riveted to the screen and Xan did pretty well until the last 15 minutes. Then he started squirming around. But the movie was a success overall and Will just saw commercials for more of these Star Wars cartoon episodes coming out. How soon can you start leaving a kid alone at the theater? Ha!

Friday night the Binki Fairy came and took all of Xan's binkis... He screamed for his binki for about a half hour. Strangely enough, Will was able t fall asleep through the ruckus. I finally went in to Xan's room (Rodney said I was the one who took them away, so I had to deal with the aftermath) and told him that I knew losing his binkis was tough, but that the Binki Fairy decided he was a big boy like Will and that his whole family, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles included, were very proud of him for being such a big boy and loved him very much. I really didn't think the pep talk would work, but it did. Xan fell asleep without another peep.

Saturday was Will's first day of soccer. There were the opening ceremonies in the morning, with a Navy color guard and everything. Will's team is the gray Sharks.







Their game was at 12:30, the last one of the day, and since only two people on the other team showed up, they gathered up a group of kids willing to stay longer from other games so they could play. Rodney was at a high school ROTC event, so he wasn't there, so Xan and I headed over to the field with Will to watch him play. He seemed to have a good time. His team is one of the most organized, which I think has a lot to do with the coach. He is very good at directing the kids and keeping them focused.








Will didn't score a goal, but he was intent on chasing after the ball. It's just when he did get to to it he tended to back off and let the other kids have it. Hopefully he'll get the confidence to be more assertive in his play soon. But, like I said, he seemed to have a good time, although he was quite overheated by the time the game was over. It was hot, about 88 degrees, and sticky, about 45 percent humidity, and I got a fabulous sunburn on one shoulder. I remembered to put sunscreen on the boys, just not myself. I think we will need to invest in an umbrella.

Sunday we all slept in, Rodney made breakfast and the boys played in their pajamas for most of the day. Here is a photo of them dressed up like hunters.



Later, they were firemen. And Xan started wearing a plastic Power Rangers mask, so maybe Halloween won't be such a scare-fest for him after all.