Book Fair

The other week, the school had the Welcome Back Ice Cream Social and Book Fair.  The boys picked out books lickety-split, and then couldn't wait to run around the playground with their friends!  (Mattie did make it back in for ice cream toward the end of the evening, and James joined a big football game -- but was a bit disappointed that no one threw him the ball.  Mike told him not to worry, once he got one ball and showed he could catch and run, more would come his way!)

Pumpkin Fever

 Our plan for Saturday afternoon was to go apple-picking.

James was fine in the morning for gymnastics, fine when he was running around playing tag with his friends, but as soon as he got out of the car at the orchard, he said he was cold, and he was visibly shaking and shivering.  Mike took him back in the car to see if some milk would help, but it quickly became evident that he had a fever.  So, while that was happening, Matthew had enough time to play a little on the hay bales and pick out a few pumpkins, but then we just turned around and went home!  We'll try again another day.

Jamesie perked up after some Tylenol, at least enough to cheerfully watch some football at home.

Karate, Round Two

Mattie wanted to try karate again this fall.  So far, so good!  (He is much more coordinated now than when they did it as kindergarteners!)

Wall, Beaten

 James made it all the way to the top of the Warped Wall at ninja practice this weekend!  (Unlike on the show, they have some footholds on the wall for kids.)  Of course, once he was up there, he didn't know how to get back down!  But Ninja Patrick was there to help him out.  :)

Second grade is still going well.  Matthew's teacher said that their class is the best one she's had since she started teaching.  And James says the math is less boring this year. :)

The Place to Be

 Our house has been the place to be recently, with hordes of children playing dodgeball and tag. :)  (Well, mainly just the neighbor kids, but a couple of times the friends have brought their other friends over!)

There has been a big improvement in the school schedule this year -- they have recess every day, before lunch (as opposed to last year, when recess was at the end of the day, and seemed to frequently be cancelled if they ran out of time or kids were misbehaving).  Nonetheless, they still have plenty of energy to run off when they get home!

First of Second

 The boys had a good first day of second grade!  They are in separate classes this year (across the hall from each other), and we were a bit disappointed that none of their best friends were in their classes.  But they each had a few familiar faces from kindergarten and first grade, and so far they like their teachers!

WingFest Junior Ninjas

 This weekend the boys did a Kids Ninja competition at Wingfest (the Buffalo Wing Festival).  The guys who run the gym have been working overtime getting it all set up! Fortunately, the weather cooperated.  :)

It was a fun morning, although a lot of it was hanging around before the competition.  (James was pleased that he got to test out some of the obstacles -- since he was the smallest competitor, they wanted to make sure the obstacles were possible for the little guys.  Mattie also got to test out the quintuple steps.)

The boys were competing in the 6-8 year old division.  The top three finishers got to go on to the National Ninja League finals.

James had a great start to his run, but in the middle of the course was the Feeter-Totter -- an obstacle that he's either never completed or only done once or twice.  (He's getting the hang of it, but just isn't quite there yet.)  So, although he made a great effort, he didn't make it past that one.  (When he finished, one of the moms standing near me said to Ninja Darren, "I love that kid!" and Ninja Darren said, "I love that kid!"  So say we all!)

The order of the obstacles was even tougher for Matthew -- he has a hard time with the Skyline (another balance obstacle), which was the second one in the course.  So, he fell off and his run ended there, even though he could have done some of the later obstacles.  But they both gave it a good try!

James came in fourth, and he was really disappointed that he wasn't getting to go to the championships.  He handled it very well, though -- I was proud of him for being a good sport.  (Also, the finals are in Connecticut in February, and going to Conn in the middle of winter is not Mike and my idea of fun -- so while it would have been cool for James to be in the Nationals, we weren't too sad that it didn't happen.)

After that we went to have some wings, but ended up only trying one place (but three different kinds of wings), since it was hot and the lines were long.  Since a lot of the places were local, it was a little hard to get motivated to stand in line to get wings that we could just go to a restaurant and enjoy in air-conditioned comfort. :)  They did have one place that came all the way from Australia, but the line for that one was crazy!

Buffalo is a small world -- a wine company had a booth giving away fans and sunglasses, and lo and behold, the guy working there was one of the boys' teachers from Rolly Pollies!

Taking the shade where we can find it

I cannot get over the celery and blue cheese hats.

Plates with a spot for your drink! Genius!