Monday, October 08, 2007
Fire saftey, Basketball, Soccer, turkey and Parties
I think this last weekend will go down as one of our busier ones for awhile. Here’s the recap:
Friday
Dinner tuned out to be challenging. Neither kid wanted to stop playing to eat. Anna was so insistent that she was not hungry she didn’t eat anything on her plate and bugged us to be excused. A discussion of Saturday morning’s upcoming basketball practice reduced Anna to tears. She insisted that she didn’t like the game and found it boring and didn’t want to play any more. After dinner, Pierce and Nora went to the library. Anna was on the tired/cranky side, so we stayed home and she played with her dollhouse. When it was time for bed, because she frenetic and clowning around, Anna fell out of the bed -resulting in many tears. She then fell asleep almost immediately.
At the library, Pierce discovered a new set of mystery books, the Box Car Mysteries. He read both books by the end of Saturday (incidentally, by the end of the weekend, he had fourteen bookslips to turn in to his teacher –and that’s just the books we knew he read).
Saturday
True to her word, Anna absolutely refused to participate in basketball practice. Even with me going on the floor with her and the coach coming over to encourage her, she wouldn’t budge an inch (no tears, just complete refusal to participate). Once again proving that when she sets her mind to something, she will not be budged. She’s officially retired from basketball for the season.
Pierce had overlapping soccer and basketball commitments, so we let him choose which he wanted to do. Basketball was his pick. Pierce’s practice went well with some incremental improvement over last week.
After lunch, I took the opportunity to finish a project I started the prior weekend. I had created wooden nameplates to hang in each of the kids rooms. The wood had been cut and sanded, with their names traced onto the fronts, but the routing still needed to be done. Two hours later, with some assistance from Anna (“Look Dad, the sawdust can be snow for my Barbies!”) the project was finished. Nora and I think they came out pretty well. Pierce and Anna are relatively unimpressed.
Pierce and I took the training wheels off Pierce’s bicycle. Within minutes Pierce was riding by himself (I was originally holding on to the seat to keep him steady). Nora managed to capture the whole thing on video. Pierce was very nonplussed about the whole thing. Nora, in her excitement, actually ran to give Pierce a hug and congratulate him without ever turning the video camera off. We have some great footage of her feet while you hear her telling Pierce how proud she is of him.
For dinner we went to a local Chinese restaurant. Pierce and Anna got a little adventurous, with Pierce ordering Crispy Chicken and Anna getting Lo mien noodles. Anna declared the noodles to be her absolute favorite and both kids demolished the Crispy Chicken –Nora and I thought we were going to have to order another serving before their tanks finally registered full.
We finished the day with a driveway movie, Polar Express. Attendance was a little low; the local Catholic school was having an auction that evening that included about half our neighborhood. The weather was very hot and muggy, so it wasn’t the most comfortable showing we’ve had. Just the week prior we’d all been wrapped in blankets and this time we sat and sweated. The heat brought out the bugs. With a little bug spray, most of us survived intact, but Anna got pretty chewed up. She’s covered in red welts.
Sunday
After a leisurely breakfast, our family split up. Pierce and I went to the Annual Fire Safety Week activities at the Olathe fire department that featured hundreds of people, about 20 fire engines, a lifeflight helicopter, free bicycle helmets (we spent about 30 minutes in line), a bicycle challenge course (we brought Pierce’s bike, but with the recently removed training wheels, chose not to have him participate), a demonstration of a truck rollover (complete with body flying out of the moving truck), and three firefighters cutting the roof and doors off a junked car to demonstrate how they free trapped passengers –complete with the use of the “jaws of life”. Pierce was in heaven.
While Pierce and I were watching firefighters, Nora and Anna went to Anna’s soccer practice. Anna was able to get her soccer ball back (another player walked off with it last week when the practice was cut short by rain) and brought a new intensity to her soccer efforts, culminating with her scoring a goal during the practice’s mock game. Anna was extremely pleased with herself.
After about two hours we headed home for a pre-birthday birthday party for Pierce and Anna. We decided to have a small party with relatives and a few adult neighbors prior to the big “kids party” to take place closer to their actual birthday. Pierce rode his scooter around the neighborhood while I got ready to deep-fry a turkey. The weather had been very overcast all day. Concerned that it might rain while the turkey was in the deep fryer, I setup a large, open-sided tent in the backyard and set the turkey fryer underneath it. Sure enough, 4 minutes after I got the turkey in the fryer a major thunderstorm blew through. It ended right as it was time to pull the turkey out.
The dinner and party were a success. We had a loud, busy house. Pierce, Anna and their cousins wrestled with Uncle Billy. Mike and Lizz, Lizz’s mother Carol, and the new twins had an animated conversation with Carrie, Aunt Nicole, and Joanne. Bill adopted Alex (one of the twins) and kept him entertained all evening. Everyone socialized and pigged out, and then we moved on to present opening and cake. There were a lot of very nice presents, but the favorites were: Anna received an animatronic Mumbles the Penguin (from the movie Happy Feet), and Pierce was split between a new HO Steam Locomotive (with real smoke) and a couple of snap-fit model cars that he and his cousin assembled –without assistance.
I had to leave early to consult with the undergrad KU chapter of my fraternity, but got back after everyone had cleaned up and left (wasn’t that great timing?). Then a little bedtime reading with Anna and the day drew to a close.
-Eric (Dad)
Friday
Dinner tuned out to be challenging. Neither kid wanted to stop playing to eat. Anna was so insistent that she was not hungry she didn’t eat anything on her plate and bugged us to be excused. A discussion of Saturday morning’s upcoming basketball practice reduced Anna to tears. She insisted that she didn’t like the game and found it boring and didn’t want to play any more. After dinner, Pierce and Nora went to the library. Anna was on the tired/cranky side, so we stayed home and she played with her dollhouse. When it was time for bed, because she frenetic and clowning around, Anna fell out of the bed -resulting in many tears. She then fell asleep almost immediately.
At the library, Pierce discovered a new set of mystery books, the Box Car Mysteries. He read both books by the end of Saturday (incidentally, by the end of the weekend, he had fourteen bookslips to turn in to his teacher –and that’s just the books we knew he read).
Saturday
True to her word, Anna absolutely refused to participate in basketball practice. Even with me going on the floor with her and the coach coming over to encourage her, she wouldn’t budge an inch (no tears, just complete refusal to participate). Once again proving that when she sets her mind to something, she will not be budged. She’s officially retired from basketball for the season.
Pierce had overlapping soccer and basketball commitments, so we let him choose which he wanted to do. Basketball was his pick. Pierce’s practice went well with some incremental improvement over last week.
After lunch, I took the opportunity to finish a project I started the prior weekend. I had created wooden nameplates to hang in each of the kids rooms. The wood had been cut and sanded, with their names traced onto the fronts, but the routing still needed to be done. Two hours later, with some assistance from Anna (“Look Dad, the sawdust can be snow for my Barbies!”) the project was finished. Nora and I think they came out pretty well. Pierce and Anna are relatively unimpressed.
Pierce and I took the training wheels off Pierce’s bicycle. Within minutes Pierce was riding by himself (I was originally holding on to the seat to keep him steady). Nora managed to capture the whole thing on video. Pierce was very nonplussed about the whole thing. Nora, in her excitement, actually ran to give Pierce a hug and congratulate him without ever turning the video camera off. We have some great footage of her feet while you hear her telling Pierce how proud she is of him.
For dinner we went to a local Chinese restaurant. Pierce and Anna got a little adventurous, with Pierce ordering Crispy Chicken and Anna getting Lo mien noodles. Anna declared the noodles to be her absolute favorite and both kids demolished the Crispy Chicken –Nora and I thought we were going to have to order another serving before their tanks finally registered full.
We finished the day with a driveway movie, Polar Express. Attendance was a little low; the local Catholic school was having an auction that evening that included about half our neighborhood. The weather was very hot and muggy, so it wasn’t the most comfortable showing we’ve had. Just the week prior we’d all been wrapped in blankets and this time we sat and sweated. The heat brought out the bugs. With a little bug spray, most of us survived intact, but Anna got pretty chewed up. She’s covered in red welts.
Sunday
After a leisurely breakfast, our family split up. Pierce and I went to the Annual Fire Safety Week activities at the Olathe fire department that featured hundreds of people, about 20 fire engines, a lifeflight helicopter, free bicycle helmets (we spent about 30 minutes in line), a bicycle challenge course (we brought Pierce’s bike, but with the recently removed training wheels, chose not to have him participate), a demonstration of a truck rollover (complete with body flying out of the moving truck), and three firefighters cutting the roof and doors off a junked car to demonstrate how they free trapped passengers –complete with the use of the “jaws of life”. Pierce was in heaven.
While Pierce and I were watching firefighters, Nora and Anna went to Anna’s soccer practice. Anna was able to get her soccer ball back (another player walked off with it last week when the practice was cut short by rain) and brought a new intensity to her soccer efforts, culminating with her scoring a goal during the practice’s mock game. Anna was extremely pleased with herself.
After about two hours we headed home for a pre-birthday birthday party for Pierce and Anna. We decided to have a small party with relatives and a few adult neighbors prior to the big “kids party” to take place closer to their actual birthday. Pierce rode his scooter around the neighborhood while I got ready to deep-fry a turkey. The weather had been very overcast all day. Concerned that it might rain while the turkey was in the deep fryer, I setup a large, open-sided tent in the backyard and set the turkey fryer underneath it. Sure enough, 4 minutes after I got the turkey in the fryer a major thunderstorm blew through. It ended right as it was time to pull the turkey out.
The dinner and party were a success. We had a loud, busy house. Pierce, Anna and their cousins wrestled with Uncle Billy. Mike and Lizz, Lizz’s mother Carol, and the new twins had an animated conversation with Carrie, Aunt Nicole, and Joanne. Bill adopted Alex (one of the twins) and kept him entertained all evening. Everyone socialized and pigged out, and then we moved on to present opening and cake. There were a lot of very nice presents, but the favorites were: Anna received an animatronic Mumbles the Penguin (from the movie Happy Feet), and Pierce was split between a new HO Steam Locomotive (with real smoke) and a couple of snap-fit model cars that he and his cousin assembled –without assistance.
I had to leave early to consult with the undergrad KU chapter of my fraternity, but got back after everyone had cleaned up and left (wasn’t that great timing?). Then a little bedtime reading with Anna and the day drew to a close.
-Eric (Dad)
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