More of This and That

 It was a quiet week.  Not much was going on around our house.  School, work, Spring, Winter, basketball, art, rocks, cooking . . . .  That about sums it up.

We had a couple of relatively warm days that gave us some basketball time outside.  We're getting to be pros at HORSE with dad, although he still wins most of the time.

Here's Sam working on his shot from his "sweet spot".  

 And then it was winter again.  We had some snow today.  Crazy ole weather. 

I enjoyed doing some cooking this weekend.  And we enjoyed some family time at the Gem Faire looking at fossils and cool rocks. 

Sam and I also worked on an art project.  It is a long art project that we're not even close to finishing yet.  Stay tuned for the final unveiling.

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone.  I made some serious progress on my art project.  We have an art fair at school in the next month and we're trying to get a jump on some project ideas.  Still lots to do though.  

Take care and have a great week!

Speech Festival 2014

Speech Festival at our school comes around once a year and we have been practicing long and hard for this year's festival.  Our hard work paid off because both Sam and I qualified for our grade-level school-wide competitions this week.  

Here I am waiting for my turn.  The 1st graders had just finished up and received their awards.  Surprisingly enough I wasn't very nervous.

Ignore the fuzzy, blurry video.  Something is wrong with mom's camera.  Turn up the volume and you can hear me recite "The Daring One" by Edwin Markham.  It's one of my favorites.

I didn't place in the top three this year, but I was very proud of myself.  I did my best and there wasn't anything I would have changed.

And Sam's competition was the next day.  Here he is waiting for his turn.  

Again - ignore the blurry video.  He chose "Sick" by Shel Silverstein.  It was perfect for him!

Kindergartner awards will be given out at the Merit assembly right before school is out in the spring.  So we don't know how he placed for a few more months.  He also was very proud of his speech - he did his best and enjoyed the process.

We each got to select a special treat for doing so well.  I chose ice cream.  

Sam chose doughnuts but we didn't take any pictures of those.  

In other events from the week - there was a lot of reading happening.  

Reading is one of my most favorite things to do!

We had a special breakfast on St. Patrick's morning - Green Eggs and yogurt in a green container!  

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  We had a beautiful warm day today.  We got to spend a little time outside again enjoying the sun.  Mason did some bug hunting.  

And I played basketball.  Here I am shooting from "my sweet spot".  I am getting pretty darn good.

Sam out!  Have a great week!

The Great Outdoors

Ah - warm(er) spring-like weather is a wonderful thing!  And we had lots of it this week.  

Of course there was homework to be done before we could go outside and enjoy some sun.

I don't look too happy do I?

Here's Sam smiling about doing his homework - although he's still at school in this picture so the lure of the outdoors isn't calling quite as loudly (yet).

On Saturday dad helped us put together our new basketball hoop from Christmas.  

And here we are with it all put together.  Thanks Santa!

There was A LOT of basketball playing this weekend.  

And there were some big smiles too!

There was also some swinging . . . .

. . . . and playing in the sandbox.

And there was more basketball playing.  Dad played HORSE with us for a long time.

Check out that form!  Good shot Sambo.

Here I am making a shot.  

There was also some bike riding.

And more bike riding.  

Oh how we love the great outdoors!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - I love school and I love my teachers.  I arrived at the same time as one of my teachers one day this week and she asked me to be her special helper.  I got to carry some fun art supplies in to the classroom for her.  I love helping!

Take care everyone - Sam out!

Time With Mom

Well usually it is our mom who travels a lot, but this week daddy had to go to a conference in Chicago.  So we got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with mom.  It was great!

We don't have a lot of pictures to prove it (and that's odd because mom is usually the picture-taker)!  But she made us a yummy "Breakfast for dinner" which is our Thursday night tradition. 

And on Friday night the three of us went out for a little In-N-Out burger treat.  Mmmm, mmmm, good!

Normally we all share a shake, but this time we splurged and each got our own.  

On Saturday we buckled down and did some MAJOR house cleaning, which included cleaning and organizing our rooms.  

And on Saturday night, we picked up our dad.  Oh how we missed him!

Sam and Mason out - have a great week!

This and That

We had a nice week, filled with learning and with fun . . . a little this, a little that.  Can't beat that!

First up - I'm in a special Robotics class at school.  Here I am working on this week's project.  It really is a lot of fun!

We do book reports every month in class.  This month's report was an oral report, in costume, with a poster - about a person who's biography we read.  I chose Jackie Robinson.  I got a perfect grade on it, with a "wow!" and a "fantastic!" on my grading sheet.  It was cool to learn about him and the impact he had on sports and on our society.

I got to go to a friend's birthday party this weekend too.  We had a lot of fun.  It was about ten 7-8 year old boys at a local fun park.  We played laser tag, played in the arcades, drove the Go-Carts . . . . 

. . . . crashed in the Go-Karts, more than once!

Drove the Go-Karts again, and again, and again!

 . . . . and drove the bumper boats.  Man, it was fun!!!

 We also took about 10 minutes the other day (in the chilly weather) and stopped at a local park/playground to get some energy out.  Aren't these two of the cutest boys you've ever met?

The slide train!  Chooo, chooo!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - I'm just loving life!  

Mom always says that "the work of childhood is play!"  

And I love to play.  I'm really good at it too.  

Have a great week - Sam out!