Hayes and NFL Blitz

Hayes Carroll is the most avid seven-year-old NFL fan you will ever meet.  When he has the chance to sneak on a computer without my eyes catching him, he'll immediately go to ESPN and start studying player stats.  He knows the score of almost every game this year, if he has some time to think about it.  The highlight of his week, though, is when a new NFL Blitz becomes available on Comcast.  NFL Blitz is a weekly TV show that summarizes all of the NFL games played that past NFL week.  

When the show is on, Hayes just sits back with a football in hand and enjoys the highlights.  

He is so enamored of the show that at one point this season, he had specific portions of episodes memorized.

Who knows? Maybe one day he'll turn the love of this game into a possible broadcast career!

Peter and the Wolf

When Hayes was younger, he loved listening to the story and the accompanying music of Peter and the Wolf.   When I heard that our organist at church (Eleanor's hand bells director Miss Nicole) would perform Peter and the Wolf on our church's massive organ this past Saturday morning, I decided to take all three kids.  I wasn't sure how long their attention span would last, but all three did as well as I had expected.  Ben had even had a double-dose of the "show" since the preschoolers saw it during school on Friday, but he still sat enraptured and said he enjoyed hearing the music.  The older two agreed, giving the performance a "well worth our time" review.  

Once the music was over and the story was done, Miss Nicole allowed the children to play the organ one-by-one.  All three Carroll kids had an opportunity to play the notes or sounds of one of the animals from the story.  Eleanor chose to just play scales.

I think Hayes wanted to play the wolf so you can see his feet pressing the pedals.  

Like his brother, Ben wanted to play the music of the wolf as well so you can see Miss Nicole help him reach the pedals.  

Then, the percussionist even let the kids take a stab at the drums, tambourine and cymbals.

We try to expose our kids to cultural activities any chance we can get (the week prior we went to see the High Museum's "Modern Moments" exhibit with work loaned from MoMA in NYC) but we never know how they are going to respond.  On Saturday, I was grateful that they were willing and interested participants.  

Ben's Half-Birthday Chapel

Two Fridays ago in chapel, Ben celebrated his half birthday.  

For those children with summer birthdays, the half-birthday recognition is their chance to shine.  On the day of Ben's birthday chapel, the Preschool celebrated many other half-birthdays and then the half-birthdays of the entire 5/6 class (22 students).  Those sheer numbers made for a rather lengthy chapel.

When it was finally Ben's turn to be recognized, he was ready.  

Miss Linda asks each of the children to show the audience, using their fingers, how old they are.  

Can you see Ben's 4 and 1/2 fingers?  Happy half-Birthday Ben!

MLK Lesson

With the passing of MLK Day this week, Ben's class has spent some time learning about Martin Luther King.  I had to chuckle yesterday when I opened up Ben's school bag after school and found this portrait of the famous leader.  

We teach our kids to dream big, but they often remind us that some aspirations are rather simple.  

Ben's Car Rules

One day last week, after disapproving of Eleanor driving around in his Jeep without prior permission, Ben decided to make up some usage rules for his new vehicle.  

He finished them just in time to race outside and remind Hayes and Graham that they must be wearing shoes!

Fur Bus Birthday Party!

On Saturday afternoon, January 5th, Eleanor and her good friend Martha held a joint 10th birthday party.  (Martha's birthday is December 30.)

The girls began planning the birthday back in October when Eleanor spent the night at Martha's house.  The two girls had each and every detail regarding the upcoming birthday thought out by the time Eleanor came home the next morning.  What did they plan?  A birthday with the Fur Bus!

20 fourth grade girls met at our house where they boarded the Fur Bus (a sort of moving dance club) We had the Fur Bus at our beck and call for two hours to drive around Atlanta. It took a while for the girls to get warmed up to the idea of dancing in front of their peers.  First, they just sat around looking at each other, trying to figure out who was going to be the first brave one to start dancing.

Our first stop on our route was Centennial Olympic Park.  There, we let the girls out of the bus to run around for a bit and then pose for a picture in front of the Christmas tree.  

Then, we loaded the girls back on to the bus for some more dancing (they had finally warmed up and everyone was freely dancing in the aisle) before we headed to Mellow Mushroom for a pizza dinner.

Once the girls devoured the pizza, it was time for Oreo cookie ice cream cake, the flavor selected by Eleanor and Martha.  

I hope they both made a wish

before they blew out their candles!

Martha and Eleanor seemed to enjoy their party, I think largely because they planned each and every aspect of it.  Happy 10th Birthday, girls!  Here's to an exciting year ahead!

World of Coke

The last weekend in December, we decided to play Atlanta tourists and visit the World of Coke for the first time.

I know it is sacrilegious to say here in Atlanta, but our kids have had very little exposure to Coca-Cola in our house.  We really don't drink Coke (or any other soda) and don't allow them to drink any soda products either.  Because they don't see the Coca-Cola brand in our household, Thomas and I found it difficult to explain to the kids the worldwide history and appeal of this brand.

The two of us found the overall museum to be fascinating, especially in the areas detailing the Atlanta history of the drink.  The kids largely focused on the visit to the tasting room where you can sample Coca-Cola beverages from countries around the world.  Some of our favorite flavors came from the African nations as they had fruity mixes made from fruits that we were not familiar with.

As a parting gift, each guest at the World of Coke takes home with them a traditional glass bottle of Coke.

A few days later, I let Hayes actually try his since he'd never tasted Coke before.

At first, he told me it was too "spicy" which is how all three kids always describe any drink that is carbonated. Then, after he got used to the carbonation, he had no problem drinking it to the last drop.

Ben's Random Act of Kindness

As I think I've mentioned before, I generally ask the kids at dinner each night to tell me what act of kindness they performed during the day. Yesterday, the minute Ben got into the car at afternoon carpool, he said to me, "Guess what, Mom?  I did something nice for someone today!"  

Ben has always been eager to share how he was nice that day at dinner. . .  but he's never been so eager that his story couldn't wait until dinner so I was intrigued.  Our conversation continued something like this . . .

- Great, Ben! Tell me about what you did.
- Well, I rubbed Mary Everett's back.
- You did what?!  Where did you do that?
- I started to do it walking back from the playground, because she was in front of me in line.  Then, when we got back to the classroom and it was circle time, I did it some more because I thought she really liked it (all said with a huge smile on his face).
 - Did you get in trouble?  How do you know she liked it?
- Of course I didn't get into trouble! I know she liked it because she didn't tell me to stop!

Not exactly the type of random act of kindness I had in mind, but at least he understands the concept. 

French Holiday Programs

Both Eleanor and Hayes had French Holiday programs in December to showcase the French they have learned so far this school year.  Five first grade classes performed at H's program.

 

Most, if not all of the songs were in French.  The first graders sang "Mon bonhomme de neige" aka "Frosty the Snowman", "Mon Dreidel", and "Une Boule De Neige" aka "Snowball". Then, each individual class displayed their instrument-playing skills when they performed a holiday song using a specific instrument.  For example, Hayes's class played "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" using the xylophones.  (See H in the big chair?)

 

Another class used kazoos to play "Up on the Housetop".  As an audience member, I found this program to be the most amazing one I have attended in my five years of seeing school programs.

Eleanor's holiday program was of a different variety.  Her class as well as about 15 other classes from the 2nd - 5th grades sang for us in the school gymnasium.  It was a mad house!  I've learned to not even bother bringing my camera because Eleanor is usually so far away for any decent picture.  When it was the fourth grade's turn to perform, they sang "Moi J'aime Skier" and "Jingle Bell Rock".  You could tell by their enthusiasm that we were just two days away from holiday break!

E's Birthday Questionnaire

As Eleanor turns 10, it is time for her to complete the Carroll Family's Annual Birthday Questionnaire.  Here are her responses for this tenth year of her life:

We started having E fill out this questionnaire when she was eight so I was eager to go back to see what she said two years ago.  Below are her answers:

It sure is hard to believe that we have a ten-year-old in our house! 

Happy 10th Birthday Eleanor!

It is hard to believe that our New Year's Eve baby is now 10 years old!  E began the countdown to her birthday a week or two into December as she kept track of the days remaining before she turned "double-digits".  When the 31st finally arrived, she had her day all planned out.  We went to Einstein Brothers for a bagel breakfast and then ventured out for lunch to Mo Mo Ya, a Japanese Hibachi restaurant, for the first time.  After all of that eating, it was hard to imagine even thinking about dinner!
Lucky for Eleanor, that night we had two family parties to attend, and she was serenaded with boisterous versions of "Happy Birthday" at both gatherings.

We went to the Maske's house first where the kids battled over the trampoline and the Nerf guns most of the time.  Then, around 9:00, we returned to Beaverbrook and joined our neighbors at the Tuckers.  There, we counted down a little earlier than midnight.

We all agreed that it was hard to beat celebrating a birthday on New Year's Eve!  Happy 10th Birthday sweet E!

2012 Summary in Headers

The blog headers from each month of 2012 provide a great retrospective summary of our family's year.  2012 will be hard to beat, and we count our blessings each and every day. 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us!