Painting Daddy

The other day when Thomas got home from work feeling not-so-well, Ben decided to try to make him feel better. What is Ben's preferred method of medical treatment? Painting Daddy "in to Darth Vader."
He started off with Daddy's head which he painted all "black." Then, he had Dad flip over and "painted" his back. Wish I could say that Daddy felt better after wards, but luckily after a lot of sleep that night, he was feeling better by morning.

Braves Game, Finally!

This entry has been a long time coming. . . We finally hit Turner Field (a/k/a "The Ted") to see a Braves game over Labor Day weekend. We figured out that this game was Ben's first time in the stadium and were eager to show Ben his hometown team after having such success with him at the MLB game we attended in Washington. The Braves played the Dodgers, and ended up losing the game (which was a sign of bad things to come as September was an absolutely terrible month of play for the Braves). We had great seats courtesy of the Braves and sat one two rows behind the honorable Bobby Cox, the recently-retired Atlanta Brave manager. (I must admit that I got rather excited when he waved hello to me on walking to his seat.) The kids held up well and were eager to see the "Home Depot Tool Race" in the 5th inning after loving the "Presidents' Race" in Washington. I think they were all a bit disappointed with the end product, but it is hard to beat some famous American Presidents! After the "Tool Race", I walked Eleanor and Hayes out to "Toon Town", a kid play area behind the outfield. As you can probably imagine, they were quite thrilled when we saw "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" characters painted on the wall. The two of them had to strike an appropriate pose. All in all, it was a great trip for the family to the ol' ballgame!

Gift Wrapper

While on a sleepover a couple of weeks ago, Eleanor learned how to wrap presents. Since then, she's turned into a gift wrapping machine, requesting that she wrap any present she has to give. I let her go for it especially since she'll do it with a smile!

Goings On Around Our House

Lately, I've felt like I can't stop for a minute to rest. Life is just too busy. So the blog pays the price! But, when the kids have not been at school or at some practice, they have been having fun around the house.

I swear Ben has flipped through this Star Wars Clone Wars Character Guide
over 1,000 times. It has gotten scary how many characters he can identify! There has been lots of reading getting done, and some super hero battles to be fought. This line of characters was Ben's "team".
We make a lot of menus around our house. Here, Hayes was copying food from his September school lunch calendar onto a list of food offerings for his "restaurant". Eleanor and Hayes beg to be outside any chance they can get. Ben tries to avoid the camera all day long, especially on days when he does not get a nap!Hope you've been having some fun yourself!

When We Grow Up . . .

As part of an "About Me" presentation he had to do at school, Hayes had to answer the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Can you believe that this guy answered with, "A policeman" ?I decided to pose the question to the other two kids. Eleanor said she still wants to be an artist or singer. What was Ben's answer? "A maker." I'm guessing that this funny guy wants to build things. I always enjoy hearing how their answers change over time.

Preference for Bad Guys

Should I be alarmed that this sweet boy prefers to play the "evil" role when role playing? As we watched all of the Star Wars movies over the summer, he would consistently cheer for Darth Vader over any of the good guys. It was a bit disturbing. Now that Ben is in school, I love hearing about his time on the playground interacting with the other kids . . . until he discloses that he plays "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" with his three buddies, and that he fills the role of a "bad" pirate. Finally, for Halloween we keep throwing around Star Wars-themed costume ideas. We are trying to convince Ben that he should be Yoda (largely due to his small size), but he stubbornly wants to be an evil Storm Trooper.

Where did we go wrong with our parenting with this kid?! Hopefully, the "evilness" is just a phase.

Game Ball

This past weekend was the official opening of baseball season for Hayes. He played his first game as an Astro and ended up having a great game. This season, his new coach awards game balls at the conclusion of each game. This week, the coach began his game ball presentation by saying, "This game ball goes to the player who had some really good hits, who ran the bases really hard and made some terrific plays in the field. Congratulations on a great game, Hayes." Thomas reported that Hayes then put on his "award face" as he went up to get the game ball, though I'm sure he was a bit shocked. When he got home from the ball field, Hayes was eager to show the ball off to the rest of us, but first, he had to get some Gatorade.

Hayes's School Work

While at Hayes's school for Parent Night, I observed some of his class's work hanging on the walls outside his classroom. The first piece I noticed was this self portrait. It looks to me like the artistic side of Hayes might be coming through because this is one of his best faces I've seen him do. Next, I thought it was important to document his answers to the two open-ended statements below . . .He does love to eat pizza, but we have not been able to get him to shoot some baskets in quite some time. Right now, his focus is on soccer while at recess and then baseball or football once he comes home. Basketball does not get the attention that this sheet would lead you to believe. Still, I enjoy seeing his pictures acting out the answers.

What Two Adjectives Describe You?

This fall, Eleanor has started participating in Girls on the Run, an after school program that gets girls running for exercise, while inspiring them to be joyful, healthy and confident. Eleanor has loved her first few meetings. At one of the meetings last week, she was asked to write down two adjectives that she would use to describe herself. What two did she come up with? Artistic and caring. I like this activity because it gives me, her mom, a glimpse of how Eleanor sees herself. I'll take artistic and caring any day of the week!

End of Summer

Well, summer has drawn to a close. Over Labor Day weekend, we revisited our "Summer-to-do" list. Here is what we accomplished this summer . . .It is hard to believe that we did not catch fireflies, but they were not as prevalent this summer as in years past. I do wish we had done some sort of community project so I will strive to get that accomplished this fall. Overall, I think we did well this summer doing what we wanted to do, and I know we had fun!

DragonCon Parade

Over Labor Day weekend, downtown Atlanta plays host to DragonCon, the world's largest science fiction and fantasy conference in the world. Why does this matter to our family? Because on the Saturday morning of that holiday weekend, many of the conference attendees parade down Peachtree Street in their amazing costumes. It is truly a sight to see!

The parade officially starts at 10am, but this year, the sidewalks were jam-packed by 8am. Thomas and the kids wiggled their way to a spot shortly after 9:30am while I was getting my haircut. :-) The kids all brought their light sabers, and Hayes wore a Star Wars shirt to show off their Star Wars allegiance. Thomas sent me pictures from his phone throughout the parade's progress. Below you see Spiderman and Carnage. Hayes interacted with many of the parade participants by fighting them with his light saber.
Thomas said that everyone played along and "fought" back. I was a-ok with Hayes going after this terrible-looking creature.
Hayes even got the best of this guy.
The Star Wars characters were the hit in our family. Here come the Storm Troopers! Look out for that young Jedi extending his green light saber.
Chewbacca even walked the parade route and was giving high-fives.
Hayes was thrilled to have his picture taken with one of the top Jedi's, Obi-Wan-Kenobi.
Towards the very end of the parade, the kids even spotted Hans Solo trapped in cement as he was in the movie Return of the Jedi. You can even catch Darth Vader with his back to the kids.
In the end, the kids were thrilled to have attended the parade. Hayes even spoke in hyperbole when he said it was one of the bestest, bestest things he's ever done.

Ben's First Day

Each morning over the long weekend, Ben would wake up and ask, "Do I go to school today?" Well, that day finally came on Wednesday of this week. Ben has been waiting for this day to come since his two older siblings left for school on August 8th. I tried taking his picture before we left the house. As you can see, he was less than cooperative. He started off with a decent smile. Then, he decided he had an itch. And the itch extended throughout his back.
Then, he decided he needed to change his hand's placement . . .
to his head, where, of course, he had another itch.
And then he gave me this look saying, "Come on! What are you waiting for? I've given you tons of poses."
Luckily for Ben, I think he was more cooperative with his teachers that first day. He did carpool for the first time without a problem, and seemed to have enjoyed his day.

New Bike Rider

We have another bike rider in our midst! Literally, a day before we left for the beach in July, we found a bike that was the right height for Hayes and took him over to his school's track to practice riding. After a few, "I don't want to do this!" lines, we eventually bribed him. Wouldn't you know - it worked! We excitedly packed his bike, only to have it ridden maybe once or twice over two weeks. When he did ride it, he was very reluctant about it.

This weekend, before the rain hit, we decided to take the bikes back over to the track to see if Hayes still had the riding touch. Thomas buckled up Hayes's helmet, helped him steady himself on his bike, and away Hayes went. He still needs to build up some confidence in his stopping skills as he just kept riding around and around again, fearful of what would happen when he tried to stop. You can tell by the smile on his face, though, that he was having fun by the end.

For the Love of Star Wars

This summer, one of our family's goals has been to watch all six Star Wars movies in order. After barely making it past the third, extremely dark movie (when Anakin Skywalker turns into Darth Vader), we were able to persevere through the final three. We finished "The Return of the Jedi" last night. All summer long, in the spirit of the true Star Wars force, there have been light saber battles in our front yard.I must admit that I've learned quite a bit about Star Wars through this whole process. For instance, the color of the light saber is very important. Darth Vader's light saber is red. Yoda used a green light saber while Luke, Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker (before he went to the dark side) all fought with blue light sabers. There is one purple light saber in the movies, and that belongs to Mace Wendu, who is the best light saber fighter in the galaxy.
It has been a fun journey with the kids. As they say often to each other now, "May the force be with you!"

Piano Lessons

Eleanor's efforts to be the next Taylor Swift took a step forward last week when she started piano lessons for the first time. She will taking weekly, 30 minute lessons for the next year. So far, she's been an interested practicer. Let's hope the excitement does not wane as the year progresses; otherwise, we might have to re-think the Taylor-Swift-like aspirations.