Soccer, Snow Jam

It's a new season of soccer for Grant and his teammates under Coach Luke and Coach Ed (not to mention the 10-12 unofficial sideline parental "coaches"!!  We can't help ourselves!!).  This is our third season with these awesome coaches, whose day jobs are as full-time Virginia Tech students!

Gotta love that Coach Ed is wearing a button-down

Trixie's first soccer game! She was good, but whined a bit.

Last week the VT Snowboarding Club hosted "Snow Jam" on the Drillfield. They brought in a snowboard/ski ramp with railings and a ramp. They competed with a few other schools and we were witness to all kinds of flips and twists and crashes. It was very muddy and of course Grant was wearing new shoes we'd gotten literally two hours before :-(

Grant and William with Snowball head

Gangstas. Nah, just Grant and William posing in front of the ramps.

Grant - Karate Action!

On Thursday Grant was the ONLY one in class so I grabbed some footage!

Fourth Grade Williamsburg Trip

On Thursday and Friday, I helped chaperone the fourth grade field trip to Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, Virginia. Thirty-seven kids and about 16 adults loaded on the charter bus at 5:30 am Thursday and returned at 8:30 pm on Friday. The weather was pretty mild and clear other than some drizzle Friday morning. My little group was Grant and his good friends William and Brandon.

Day 1 - Jamestown

Firing the musket - always a hit!

Day 1 - Yorktown

Grant with his teacher Mrs. Newberne

Late afternoon - starting to fade

Finally able to sit for a bit!

What 10-year-old boys do in the hotel room!

Gross!!!!  Post-chocolate fountain at dinner

Day 2 - Williamsburg

At the Governor's Palace

Blacksmith Shop

With friend Alice in the courtroom

The boys plot the afternoon destinations

The tour guides hard at work!

Harpsichord at the cabinet maker's shop - a tune he composed himself.

Kabuki

Here are two pics from our family b-day dinner at Kabuki! They put Spencer's name on the sign and brought him a cake.

Nice photo of the dirty dishes! LOL! This photo was scanned from the photo the restaurant provided which is why the quality is mediocre.

Spencer turns 12!

We've got this birthday party thing down to a science after many years of hosting the same type of thing, only the food changes and the kids get taller! This year we made a punch that Spencer enjoys at our neighbor's, the Hagman's, Christmas party. It's: frozen lemonade concentrate, orange sherbet, almond extract, and gingerale. But if you are a 12-year-old boy, you eschew a punch bowl for a more manly orange igloo cooler!

Thursday we'd had a potluck lunch at work and it included a homemade ice cream cake that was made using layered ice cream sandwiches and various toppings. Spencer created his own ice cream cake masterpiece and it was a huge hit.

Breakfast was pancakes, sausage, bacon, and fruit salad....with more punch.

In between all the eating came a lot of Wii, Xbox, air hockey, games, running around, and watching TV. We all stayed up way too late!! Here's the food chronology of the party!!!

Dinner

Cake

Games with the BIG kid

Breakfast!

Surviviorman: Winter Edition

We've had an unseasonably warm and mild winter which has meant almost no snow and daffodils blooming in early February. We did get one nice little snowfall, sandwiched between two 50 degree days, so it was truly "here today, gone tomorrow." Grant took advantage of it and worked on his igloo building skills and did quite a nice job!