How To Eat Fried Worms

Derek finished up his book report for school this weekend. This time he chose "How To Eat Fried Worms". He did a pretty good job about working on it without too much intervention from us.

Derek's teacher distributes a pretty thorough list of requirements for the book report, but for his last book report Derek fought us tooth and nail despite the fact that we showed him how his report did not address several major requirements. He did much better this time and even typed the report himself.

For his visual prop he did a Lego diorama depicting the kids in the story in the barn preparing to eat the worms.

Basketball to Baseball

The boys still have a couple more weeks in their basketball season, but baseball is gearing up. We took them for baseball league evaluations this weekend. Derek is 8, but just missed the cut-off by a month to play in the 7-8 year old league. However, we requested that he be allowed to play in the 7-8 league since this is his first time in rec league baseball and he might be overwhelmed being one of the youngest players in the 9-10 league. The 7-8 year old league adviser watched Derek hit some balls from a pitching machine and said that Derek hit the ball too hard to be in the league. At the 9-10 year old evaluation they had a coach do the pitching and the balls were sinking much more than the pitching machine balls, so Derek missed every pitch. After watching Derek's performance a 9-10 year old league adviser talked to the 7-8 year old league adviser and got Derek placed back in the 7-8 year old league.

Adam and his neighbor buddy, Ryan, did their evaluations for the 5-6 year old league. They had a great time and were really into it. We're trying to get them on the same team.

Back in the day when I played the league provided the batting helmets, but for some reason (hygiene maybe) each kid has to provide his own helmet, so we had to shell out even more money for the helmets.

More Snow!

We had snow Wednesday night and then it snowed again on Saturday. What is this...Minnesota? The kids are loving it. There hasn't been enough to do much sledding, but there's enough to have some fun without messing up the roads.

On Saturday my tennis match was canceled due to the weather so I got to see Adam's basketball game. He hustles around, but doesn't really know what's going on. There's 2 kids that are good and they pretty much freeze out the rest of the team, which isn't a bad thing - they deserve it.

Derek's team won their first game after two consecutive ties. They're really starting to get it. I'm very proud of them. As a coach of the team we have to give out an "award" (e.g. top rebounder, most improved, best defensive player, etc) to EACH player at the end of the season. I can't stand it. Usually there's a couple kids who are best at multiple things and deserve the bulk of the awards and the other kids don't deserve anything other than "participation" awards. I was going to say "effort" awards, but some don't even deserve that.

After basketball we ran some errands and had lunch at a new pizza place. When we got home the boys couldn't wait to get out in the snow and play with their friends. They started building a snow man, but decided that snowball forts would be better.

On Saturday night Derek went to a sleepover birthday party for his friend, Jacob, and Adam went to Ryan's for a sleepover of his own. They were both excited about the sleepover's all week. Derek said he had trouble concentrating at basketball because he was so excited. We went out for a nice long dinner with our friend's, the Pope's, at J Alexander's.

On Sunday the really cold weather blew in. I made up my tennis match and it wasn't too bad once you got running around. Helen and the boys went on a walk and I asked if she saw anyone. She said, "Are you crazy? Nobody's going out in this cold". I said, "What about all the northern transplants that supposedly live in Atlanta. Why aren't they out and about?" Weather's just a state of mind. You can't let it rule your life.

Helen and the boys had Monday off for Martin Luther King day. Derek helped Helen grade some papers while Adam and Ryan played and then Helen and the boys went to see a movie. They wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, but the ticket line was so crowded that they had stopped selling tickets for it by the time Helen reached the ticket counter. After some crying from Adam, they settled on the Veggie Tales movie. Adam insisted he didn't like the movie, but then admitted that he did after Helen and Derek called him on it because they heard him laughing a lot.

Snow!

The weather people have been getting us all riled up for the past week about the "possibility" of snow. We ignored it since it rarely turns into anything. In fact, it usually only snows once the weather people have given up and decided it won't snow after all...and that's what happened this time too. The forecast turned to rain with a slight possibility of sleet and freezing rain, but they were wrong...the flakes started to fall during rush hour last night and it wasn't long before they were big and puffy and falling fast. It was really beautiful.

When I got home the snow was accumulating and starting to stick to the streets and the boys were outside playing with the other kids. They were all having a blast with snowball fights and lots of snow angels.

All the parents were letting the kids stay out later than normal because it looked like school would be canceled. However, the snow stopped here about 8:00 pm and turned to rain (why do I hear Dan Fogelberg?). Luckily it was not freezing rain and when we woke up the roads were wet, but not icy...and our schools were open. Some neighboring counties to the north were closed.

Helen was glad that the schools were open since she has open house tonight at her school and rescheduling is always a pain. Also, the first "snow day" makeup is the Monday after we come back from skiing and Helen's really hoping to have that day off.

Derek just came downstairs to tell me that snow was still on the ground so we don't have to go to school. I informed him otherwise, which caused him much sadness.

More Holiday Pictures

Derek and a Lego bug

Derek and Lego City Hospital

Adam and his Lego Knights

Assembling the activity table in the playroom

Adam and his friend Patrick decided to chalk their faces instead of the pool cues

GI Joe's

My dad opens presents while Derek talks with Aunt Laine and her mom, Judy

Our dogs make themselves at home with my brother, Jason, and sister, Katie

Derek and Lego City Harbor

Derek and Lego Exoforce

First glimpse of the toys that Santa left on Christmas morning

Working through the piles

Adam and cousin Lindsay play the organ at Helen's parent's house

Derek and his pocket knife

Holiday Recap

Adam wades through the gifts at my Mom's

Derek shows off his new toys

My mom (Nini) watching everyone open presents

Adam writes a note to Santa and puts out some cookies and carrots (for the reindeer) after we returned from my Mom's late Christmas eve

The boys running downstairs on Christmas morning

Well, we're back from the holidays. We were all off from the Friday before Christmas until after the new year. We have that "we've done a lot, but accomplished little" feeling. We're always irritated that things are in such a rush that we don't have time to fully engross ourselves in the holiday season. We've realized that it's important to have as many days off from work as possible before Christmas in order to decompress and get in the holiday spirit. This year we had several days off before Christmas and it was nice. Next year will be even better when Christmas falls on Thursday.

We did a lot of shopping online, but got out into the "real" world a little for some shopping as well. It wasn't too bad and it does feel more like the holidays as long as it's not too much of a zoo.

My sister Katie came up from Louisiana. We all enjoyed catching up with her. We also got to see my sister-in-law's mother, Judy, from Oklahoma. She's always so nice and is kind of like another grandparent to the the boys in that she always brings presents for them. Katie and Judy joined us for a nice big family dinner out at Ippolito's with my dad.

It was nice to catch up with friends and family. My brother and his wife, Laine, took the boys to see "Enchanted" for their annual holiday movie outing. They were originally going to see one of the other holiday movies, but after I showed Derek the "Rotten Tomatoes" review site where those other movies got bad reviews, he decided on "Enchanted". Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

We did the usual Christmas with my Mom, then our immediate family, then Helen's family, and then my Dad. By the end, we were "done" - put a fork in us. Unfortunately, we had loads of "stuff" to deal with. It took a couple days to find the floor.

Derek got a nice skateboard, 2 remote control dragon fly's, a few Lego sets, Stratego, Mad Science, and BattleGround board games, laser tag, Nerf crossbow, a pocket knife, a Calvin & Hobbes book, clothes, Mad Libs, Rubick's Cube, Electronic Sudoku, and more. He was obsessed with putting together the Lego sets. So much so that he woke up early on Christmas morning and quietly worked on the City Harbor set, that he had gotten at my Mom's the night before, in his room without even bothering anyone else to go downstairs and see what Santa had brought.

Derek woke up early the day after Christmas to whittle with his new pocket knife that he got from Uncle Mike and Aunt Chris. He came upstairs to wake us and had a band-aid on his finger, but was quick to reassure us that it was just a little cut. He initially had a lot of trouble opening and closing the knife and was thinking about returning it for another knife, but with a couple days of practice he's got it mastered now.

Derek has also spent a lot of time riding his skateboard. He's trying to work on his "ollie", which he informs us is the basic skating trick.

Adam got an air hockey\foosball\pool\etc 16 game activity table, knights and army men, GI Joe's, Lego's, a WWF (wrestling) game from Uncle Paul and Aunt Agatha with all the hokey props like breakable folding table and chairs (Adam loves it), Piratology book, Pirate treasure chest, Nerf "Long Shot" gun, Power Ranger walky talky's, books, board games, clothes, and more. But he loves Derek's skateboard and doesn't know why Santa didn't bring him one. He's grown tired of people telling him that he might get one for his birthday or next Christmas.

The boys and I had fun assembling Adam's new activity table and all the kids on the street have been over at one time or another to play with it. The kids seem to run around in groups of 3 or 4 and when they descend on your house you know you're in for some cleanup afterwards. It seems that Adam and his friends can trash the house in about 20 minutes, but it takes Adam hours to clean up. He's resistant to our suggestion of playing with one thing at a time.

We finally got some rain. Since we've been in such a terrible drought, nobody seemed to mind the wet holdidays. The rain did let up several days and I got to play quite a bit of tennis. Helen and I also worked on a number of home projects. We cleaned the carpets, repainted the downstairs bathroom, and re-caulked the boy's bathroom among other things. It's always a bonus when you can make progress against all those "to-do" items. It seems like we never can during our regular work weeks.

Helen was not happy at first about having to go back to school at the end of the week after New Year's. But after the short week, she changed her mind and thought it was a nice way to ease back into things.

Happy 2008 to everyone!