Ethan Turns 8

In mid-May, Ethan turned the great 8!  The year of rhymes has begun - don't be late - you are now the great eight!  Ethan has grown so much this past year - he has shot up 3 inches to a height of 4'1" and is overall acting and thinking older.  His birthday became more of a month long celebration - a grandparent party, celebrating on his actual birthday, and then his friend birthday was at the very end of the month.

For the grandparent party, he requested a "cookie buffet".  I made his two favorite cookies and then he bought 4 types of cookies that I would normally never buy!

Only Ethan would show the exact same excited face after receiving a $100 bill from Grammy....

And a chess instructional book from Grandpa!

Blowing out the candles on his cookie ice cream sandwich.

For his birthday dinner (the night before his birthday due to activities), Ethan picked Smokey Bones so that he could order a half slab of ribs!  He loves BBQ, especially pulled pork and ribs!

On his actual birthday, Ethan requested a homemade lemon cake.  He loves citrus!

So I surprised the kids with a new type of birthday candle, which you will notice the large flame scared Ethan so much he ran away from it!

After the initial large flame, the candle opened up into a flower that spun in a circle and had the Happy Birthday music playing.  

Not spoiled at all...  His gifts are primarily Legos, Skylanders, and super hero items.

The final birthday celebration - a friend party at a Springfield Sliders game, which happened at the end of the month due to the Sliders' schedule.  Here is Olivia and Ethan with Speedie, their mascot.  You will notice it is the last day of May, and all are in long pants and sleeves since it was a temperature in the upper 50s at game time!

Most of the party guests with Speedie.  It was hard to get them all in one place!

The Sliders birthday party came with tickets to the game, food, the kids could sit anywhere they wanted in the stadium, a bounce house, and many of the kids were pulled out to the field to participate in games.  Ethan was picked to say "Play Ball!" at the beginning of the game, and to announce the players for one inning.

Our party also had access to a VIP viewing booth, which the kids loved!

Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy!  The stinker blew out his candles before the end of the song, so I didn't get that picture.

The Sliders provided the knife for cutting the ice cream cakes.  Although, I use the term knife loosely since it was more like a weapon!  However, it did cut through the cake easily.

Olivia and two other birthday guests were selected to run in the hot dog/mustard/ketchup race.  Olivia placed second.

The theme of Ethan's party this year was Big Hero 6.  We all agree that the Baymax balloon is one of the cutest balloons we have ever seen.

Olivia Graduates from Grade School

In the blink of an eye, Olivia graduated from grade school.  She will be moving on to a gifted middle school program in the fall which will bring many new and exciting opportunities for her.  The final two weeks at her grade school were a blur of activities - field trips, sports day, a research presentation, and the 5th grade family picnic.

The 5th grade classes always have a fantastic field trip to the St. Louis City Museum to celebrate their graduation.  The school's PTO pays for a charter bus for them to ride in luxury, and the kids have so much fun running around the museum.  Here is a group photo of the entire 5th grade class.

Olivia climbing around the City Museum.

 

The traditional 5th grade picnic started with the class Civil War presentation.  Each student picked a topic on the Civil War (Olivia picked the women of the civil war, focusing on Clara Barton), researched it, wrote a speech, and made a mini presentation box of highlights and props.  Olivia did a great job!

After the Civil War presentation, the class and families were treated to a pizza and potluck lunch.  It was enjoyed outside on the playground.  The students then arranged a spontaneous circle dance party that was a real highlight for me to watch - all of the kids did a great job of including everyone, crazy dancing, cheering each other on, and having a great final moment with each other before middle school.  After the lunch, the families and students went into the library to watch a 30 minutes slide show of 5th grade memories.  The teachers did a great job of taking photos throughout the entire year, and then presented it in a fun show with music.  After the initial excited yelling with the first round of pictures, the students settled in to watching while singing along to the songs and dancing.

After the slideshow, it was time for fun on the playground!  They started with two games of capture the flag, with each class competing against the other.  Each won one time.

Next was a crazy relay race that included getting dressed in silly shirts and hats.

The annual water balloon fight was a lot of fun!

And the day was finished with popsicles.  Here is Olivia with her friend Demeria.

The final day of grade school!  I can clearly remember attending Kindergarten Preview Night with Olivia and being so uncertain about the changes in store for her, and now she is done with her school forever!  Olivia had some fun with her clothes on the last day, wearing her class shirt and her Freddy Frog socks (the school mascot).  Congratulations on your graduation, Olivia!  We are so proud of you and all of your accomplishments!

Activities Catch Up Post

Catch up post!  You will see a little bit of everything here.  Starting with breakfast at Charlie Parker's Diner where Ethan and his friend Simon thought that they could conquer the giant 16" pancake.  They did not.

Girls night out with Olivia means sushi!  

Olivia took a carnival food cooking class and learned how to make lemonade shake ups, funnel cakes, and taffy.

A fun event called Roasted at the Springfield Art Association had a luau themed "photo booth" section.

Ethan portrayed Abe Lincoln at his school music program.  He welcomed the crowd to the event and stood front and center for the entire performance.  He loved it!

Olivia was the announcer at Ethan's school music concert.

Ethan was published in the June 2015 Highlights magazine!  We submitted his poem "What is Brown" that he wrote in first grade, and it was selected for print!  He was beyond excited about this!  Now both kids have been published in Highlights, as Olivia's tongue twister was published in 2012.

Ethan after his school's Writer's Workshop family presentation.

Some soccer pictures of Ethan - his team name is the Sharks, and he primarily plays defense.  He feels very strongly about protecting the goal (although not as goalie).

First swim of the year in grandma's pool.

Ethan was selected to be the Narrator in his class's Catwings production.

A group photo of his fellow Catwings' actors.

Olivia completed her 3rd Girls on the Run 5k race in May.  Congratulations!

Mother's Day love!  The kids' school always does a great job of  making Mother's Day gifts - a bound book of poems and pictures from Ethan and a beautiful poem with handmade "seed paper" from Olivia to plant and grow wildflowers.  They also made me breakfast - Olivia made me oatmeal and Ethan made toast.  

And, finally - we attended great-grandpa Boyd's 87th birthday party in June.  The entertainment for the afternoon was the karaoke machine.  All of the cousins had a great time taking turns singing and dancing for great-grandpa, who tapped his foot and nodded his head along to the music.  Olivia and Ethan did a great duet of "UpTown Funk" which almost had great-grandpa fall out of his chair from laughing so hard when Ethan did the worm!

Marco Island Vacation

 In April we spent 5 days in Marco Island, Florida, with my extended family.  I have been vacationing in Marco Island since I was in elementary school - always tagging along with my dad during his medical conferences.  It is nice to vacation in a place that has so many memories and to make new ones with my kids!  

As you can see from the sky, our first day was very cloudy and it drizzled at times.  However, it was not a complete loss of a day as it was still warm.  The Gulf was just rougher than usual, which was more fun for the kids with the larger than usual waves.  

A bit down from our hotel (we were in the Hilton) was a giant flock of birds.  Maybe 500 of these birds.  We were guessing that they were not having good luck finding food in the Gulf due to it being very choppy, so they were just hanging out on the beach?  And they were not at all afraid of humans.  Ethan tried to run up on them a few times so they would fly away, and the birds didn't even budge!

Olivia in her own "Birds" horror movie!  

Wave jumping!

Family picture.  Both kids are getting so big!  Olivia is just one inch shorter than me and looks so much older than she did just a few months ago.  Ethan is finally starting to shoot up as well - he now brags that he is 4'1".

The kids discovered virgin dacquiries on this vacation, and drank their fill of strawberry and mango ones.  We ate lunch in a beach/pool side cafe every day - great fish sandwiches and no need to change out of our swimsuits!

Ethan taking a break from the sun.

On one of our beach walks, we discovered a man building professional looking sand castles.  He says it is his relaxation activity after spending one month in central America building schools.  He was very interesting and educational to talk to!

Our family took a break from the beach one afternoon and visited the Everglades.  We took a boat tour of the mangroves and hoped to see alligators (we didn't).  

There were 2-3 dolphins that followed our boat for some time, playing in the wake.  It was fantastic to see!

Entering the mangrove canal.  It was so peaceful and beautiful to see this!  I had never had an experience quite like this before.  If there weren't so many insects, I could have stopped the boat and just relaxed in here.

Beautiful mangroves!

So many birds in the Everglades!

We finally found some alligators down a dirt road that a local had recommended to us.  In about half a mile we saw about 10.  We did go very close to them, but that is probably not recommended ;)

For our final day in Marco, the family just relaxed on the beach and did nothing.  That is VERY unlike me for a vacation.  The kids could not believe that I didn't make them go to a museum the entire time (although I secretly believe visiting the mangroves was a bit like and outdoor museum).

Olivia attempting boogie boarding, but didn't have much success.  She would have done better on the first day when the Gulf was much rougher!

Ethan spent pretty much the entire last day building a sand castle city.  He walked the beach looking for items to decorate it, and was very proud of it.  But, he had no problem destroying it at the end of the day.

Our final meal was a restaurant directly on the beach.  We took advantage of the beautiful sunset.