This evening we had to make a rush trip to the store on the way home from school and work (which means around 6:30 pm). Beki was presenting in lab meeting and needed some ingredients to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls (she has no data, so she need to distract the lab with delicious food). We got into the self check-out line behind an older woman. She scanned and was paying for her few items with cash, when she dropped a $20 on the floor. With out hesitating, Owen said, "I will get it for you." He reached down and handed the lady her money. As parents, we were having a "pat yourself on the back, job well done" moment. As the women left, she handed Owen a $1 from her change - you would have thought that she had given him the world. He said thank you and our faith in humanity was restored for a moment. The kind lady left and we checked out. On our way out of the store, Owen turned to Beki and said, "I want to go buy bubble-bath right now." This stems from a conversation days before when Beki was trying to explain to Owen that his hair/body wash was expensive and that if he wanted to have a bubble bath that we could buy some bubble bath the next time we went shopping. Owen, as an ever inquisitive 5-year-old, needed to know how much the hair/body was cost and how much bubble bath cost. Beki, in an effort to help him understand he could NOT dump all of his hair/body wash into the bath tub to make bubbles, said that hair/body wash was $4 and bubble bath was.......
that's right $1. He can't remember to flush the toilet, but he can remember that bubble bath is $1.
Token picture of the boy and Papa taken while we attempted to get family pictures for Christmas cards - apparently throwing rocks into a pond never gets old.
I know what you are thinking, "Where in the hell have you guys been for the last two months?" How do I know that is what you are thinking? Because you have asked me that on facebook. Anyway, to make a long story short, we have been sick...for pretty much two months. Beki and Owen went to Beki's sister's wedding and when they came back the two of them came down with some nasty virus that put both of them out for an entire week. After that Owen got better, but Beki came down with the flu. Right as she got better, I came down with it, and I am just getting over it.
So what have we been up to in addition to being sick? Well, Owen has been doing very good at school. As with the rest of you, we had Parent Teacher conferences with Owen teacher this last week, and just like the rest of your kids, Owen is the smartest kid in the world. Ok, maybe not that good, but he is one of only 2 kids in his class to score a perfect score on the big multi-day language arts test that they took. He is a little mischievous, doing things like sneaking treats from his teacher's desk when he thinks she isn't looking. (Oh, we had a talk about that, and how he will be hung from his feet in a tree if it happens again.) The only mark on his report card that was not acceptable was for "Sharing with others." The boy likes sharing... as long as it is you sharing with him. He doesn't like it the other way around so much. I guess that is one of the problems with being an only child....
While I was sick with the flu, Beki and Owen went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch. They had a great time and stayed longer than they had planned, but it didn't really matter to me because I was laying in bed trying not to die. (Ok, that is not true, when they left I moved myself to the couch and watched soccer and college football all day...tough life I know.)
Owen at the start of the corn maze.
Leading the way!
At every intersection there would be a clue that would help you...the boy likes to show off his awesome reading abilities...sometimes...
Yeah! They found their way out!
The biggest hit of the day was the hay ride.
The ride forded a stream...this blew the boy's mind!
Just looking cute...
Chicken!!!!
Checking out the old tractor...
Hey, it's a pond...I need to throw stuff in it!!!
When the hay ride stopped Owen decided that they needed to go again...
And he played on the hay ride until it was time to go again.
Climbing and hanging...must be a boy!
On the way home, Beki saw a sign for a park, and on a whim she decided to check it out. It had all sorts of neat toys for the boy to play on.
This giant plane rocked back and forth, and the Boy really got it rocking!
I know that you are wondering, "What is the big deal about swinging on the swings?"
Well see, we worked and worked this summer on the boy swinging all by himself, but he would never do it - he always insisted on being pushed. Then school started and this wonderful thing called peer pressure happened. The other children could swing without being pushed...and so now the boy can as well.
One of the treats that they brought home with them was popcorn...still on the cob!
How cool is this? Owen and mommy got the kernels off of the cob...
Then they put it in the machine...
And we had yummy popcorn!!!
Now, if you recall, I have already mentioned that the boy is doing exceedingly well in school, and so we thought we would use that as an excuse to go celebrate. Owen is participating in "Book It" at school, and he had earned a Pizza from Pizza Hut, so we partonized the local one, and probably will never again. It is not that the pizza wasn't good, it was actually better than I remember Pizza Hut being, it was more about really crappy service. We should have walked in and ordered to go, we would have got it faster, and they probably wouldn't have screwed the order up. (The positive side of them screwing up our order, we got a free pizza in addition to the one that we wanted.)
Owen with his free pizza coupon!
Soooooo muchhhhhhhh pizzaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!
After pizza we thought that we would do something extra fun, and we walked across the parking lot to the bowling alley. Now, I think I have talked about the strange things that they do out here in the name of bowling - and this alley had the strange "duck-pin" bowling, but they also had regular ten-pin bowling as well.
Owen was able to pick up his 6 pound ball and throw it down the lane all by himself. (The frame before this one he got a strike!)
His poses all night were awesome!!!
Notice that after 2 frames the boy is beating papa...
Halfway through the game and the boy is still beating papa...
I picked it up in the end, but Beki still beat me, which is really good because she usually hates to play aby kind of game with me because I have a tendency to be competitive...(Wait till you read about soccer below...)
At the start of the second game the boy figured out that the floor was slippery and he would follow every through with a running slide.
Good times!!!
Owen played even better in his second game, and Papa managed to beat mommy (and if you are keeping score at home the two game series finished 280 to 269 to 191 in my favor!)
Family picture!
In the following three posts you will find more pictures and stories about Halloween, Owen's Soccer Team, and the Renaissance Festival the remainder of this post wil be dedicated to me ranting about anything and everything that has been on my mind lately.
Ah the joys of Halloween. To me Halloween is the official start of the Holidays. You get to eat Halloween candy for three straight weeks until you get to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is 4 days of gastrointestinal bliss and after dinner on Thursday the lights and tree go up. The entire month of December is made up of a myriad of tasty delectables, highlighted of course by spoiling the boy rotten. So we set out to get the boy his costume and get the holidays under way!
This year the boy really wanted to be a bat...not Batman, just a regular creepy bat. Well they don't really make bat costumes, and so we went to the halloween store where Owen had dozens and dozens of possible choices. He saw this one tucked in the back, and he had to have it...
Look at him admiring himself in the mirror!
In case you couldn't tell, he is a race car driver!
One of the best parts of the holidays are the packages of goodies that come from family.
An entire box of Life Saver Gummies!!!
While mommy was sick, Papa and Owen made cookies. The boy decorated all of them...though his attention span was pretty much expired at the end!
Because the boy goes to Private school, he gets to have a Halloween party and parade.
All of the K-5 students get dressed up and parade around for the parents and the 6-8 graders.
Strutting his stuff!!!
Mommy was home sick, so I took a lot of pictures...
Look closely, he is winking at you!
Monday, after his party we carved his pumpkin, and then it was time...
To go Trick or Treating!!! Owen and Harmony (who lives two houses away) went around the neighborhood together. Now, our neighborhood has 10 houses, but only 4 children. 8 of the houses had treats for trick or treating, but since they knew that they were only getting 4 trick or treaters, they loaded the kids up with candy. The boy's bucket was half full just from the 8 houses. (We bought full size candy bars because I knew we would only have 4 trick or treaters.)
However, our neighborhood was not going to be enough for the boy this year. When we finished our neighborhood we got in the car and went over to Dean's house to Trick or Treat with his family! Their neighborhood actually felt like a real neighborhood, people were out having parties and there were so many trick or treaters out. (You have to realize that out here you stay inside and don't get to know people, because you don't know who is going to shoot you, so it was amazing to see people behaving civilly to each other.)
Dean was R2D2, and Scottie was Yoda.
Their mom, who is 7 months pregnant, was the Death Star!
His poor little pumpkin was so full that the little plastic handel broke!!
We counted and he had 100 pieces of candy!!!!! (Then we taught him a life lesson about taxation...the man has got to keep you down!!)
Before our blogging hiatus we introduced you to Owen and his soccer team, Team 4! (I know, not the most original name, but that is what they called us on the sheet, and so instead of thinking up some new name, we went with Team 4.) Well Team 4 ended the season a perfect 5-0 with a goal differential of +35, so even though there were 3 teams in the league that we didn't get to play (because of rain-outs) I am pretty sure that our goal differential makes us top of the table. (Yes, I understand that this is under-8 soccer, where we technically don't keep score, but the kids know the score, and my little warriors played so hard that they deserve some praise.)
Running a little scrimmage game in practice. Not to brag, but I think one of the reasons that we had such success this year is that our practices were just more fun than everyone else. While their coaches were blowing their minds trying to explain how to dribble and what not, we just played. Not a lot of talking.
If you recall, during the first game Owen wanted nothing to do with the ball or with the other kids, well we changed that in practice, and he would get right in there and kick the ball with the other kids.
Our second game was against another team from Holy Redeemer, and while we didn't score 16 like in our first game, we did beat them 6-0.
If the boy looks like he is cold, it is because it was cold!
Proof that the boy actually kicked the ball during a game!!!!!
Owen and Beki went to Aunt Rachel's wedding and so Owen was absent for our third game, which ended up being the greatest Under-8 game ever played. We only had 4 players at the game, and so they were going to have to play the entire game against a team with 9 players. (We play 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 depending on the numbers, so don't think we played 4 on 9.)
The game started rough for our team. The other team had two second graders who were pretty good, and it was the first time we had played anyone else who was big and fast. They scored two quick goals, and we were down 2-0. After they scored the second goal, one of their good players, the one who had just scored, started trash talking to one of my players, who started to talk back. Seriously, 2nd graders talk smack. (They are in the same class at school, and I have been told that they actually are pretty good friends.) I blew my whistle at them, separated them away from everyone else, and gave them a pretty stern talking to, explaining that we don't have yellow cards in our league, but they both just got one anyway. The parents were happy with how it was handled and it ended the problem.
However the coach side of me was now determined that this team needed to go down. We made it through the first quarter down 2-0, and that meant that they had to sub their players so that everyone got to play. The other 5 players (we did play 4 on 5, which my kids weren't too happy about, but oh well) were not anywhere as good as the starting 4, and so we were able to score and get back in the game. We let in a silly goal, so at halftime we were down 3-1, and were facing the super two at the start of the second half. This is where awesome coaching happened. I explained to my four that we needed to play defense and not let their two good kids score, and if we could do that, we could beat their second team in the 4th quarter. We defended the entire 3rd quarter and drove the other team crazy. Their two good kids couldn't get away and so we started the 4th quarter down 3-1.
We should have scored early in the 4th, but they had a player standing in the goal circle (where no one is supposed to be able to go) who blocked the ball. The rules state that if someone goes in the goal circle (it's a semi-circle right in front of the goal where no one can go in.) then it is a corner kick, so we go from having a sure goal, to having to deal with trying to kick the ball from the corner. Now, it just so happens that as a team we had practiced corner kicks, and so Nathan kicked the ball across the front of the goal circle as hard as he could, and Allison slammed it home, just like we had practiced. 3-2! By this point my four were dead tired, but the goal made them believe that they were still in it, and they went into beast mode. They ran down every ball, contested every kick, and it wasn't long before we tied things up 3-3. At this point the teacher part of me was saying, "There is only 3 minutes left...this has been a really good game, we should just run the time down and end in a tie." However the coach part of me was remembering an 8 year old screaming 2-0 in the face of my player, and there was no question what had to happen.
With about 30 seconds left their same player blocked yet another shot inside the goal circle (This really annoyed me, because we had already been over the fact that you can't go in there.) and so Nathan took the ball to the corner for one last corner kick. Now the good thing about teams that don't learn from their past mistakes is that they don't learn from their past mistakes. Nathan sent the corner in, and Allison won the greatest Under-8 game ever played! It kind of went down like this...
Back to pictures of the boy playing soccer:
Getting a little 1 on 1 work before practice...
Cone drills are more fun when the cones are as big as you!!!
Can you say spaz!?!?
Practicing our shooting before our 4th game. Yes, I am wearing yellow soccer socks.
This game ended up being more difficult than it should have been because they had a player who could kick the ball really far with accuracy. He scored two goals from midfield, and suddenly we were down 2-0 again. Luckily my team was like "No big deal, we've done this before," and they came over during the first break fully expecting me to have all of the answers. I had one of our players, the one girl who for some reason really liked to play defense, and I told her that she had to stay back and stop those long ones. She did an awesome job of always staying between the ball and the goal, and she stopped at least 5 more long shots from going in. We managed to claw back and tie the game at 3-3 behind the ridiculous play of the other boy on our team Nathan. Nathan's parents tell me that last year, when he was Owen's age, Nathan would run away from the ball, so I am hoping that Owen has a similar jump in ability from Kindergarten to 1st grade, because Nathan was unstoppable. And his winning goal seriously looked a lot like this one, without the tearing off of the shirt:
I know you think I am overexagerating, but Nathan dribbled the ball through their entire team, their last player was pushing him with both hands, and he scored.
Owen kicking the ball into play.
If you are keeping track at home - and I doubt you are because I know that you are not nearly as excited about Under-8 soccer as I am - you are thinking, wait, you said that they played 5 games, but you only told us about 4! Well, I had the flu for the last game, and so Beki coached them. For some reason we ended up playing the team from the first game of the season...with the same result...including the crying. Oh well, we made the kids all little certificates because I thought that it would be a little pretentious to have a giant trophy made. I might get one for the house though...5-0, INVINCIBLE!!!!!
