We had a great weekend with Grandma/pa and Evan coming up! We did the big Easter Extravaganza put on by the city. All sorts of vendors with kid related stuff going, a yummy pancake breakfast and, of course, an egg hunt. If you've never been, it's an incredible 5 seconds!
They have 4 baseball fields and each one has eggs spread all over them! They are broken out by ages and this year Christian moved up to the big leagues with the 7-10 year olds (the highest age group). The kids at each field surround the entire outfield of the each baseball field. You see all those eggs and then the countdown happens... 5... 4... 3... 2... (oh look, 1/3 of the kids just started)... 1... Now everyone else is going... Christian runs forward, stops to pick up an egg and someone gets down there and gets it first... Then he runs forward looking for his next egg. Stops to pick it up.. Yup, another kid scoops it up... This keeps happening, poor kid. He eventually gets a couple but I look around and see a couple of older kids with 15-20 eggs. As he keeps wandering around, all the eggs are gone and he's just searching hoping to find some more. He goes right, he goes left... Nothing. It litterally took less than 10 seconds for that field to be completed decimated of it's eggs. Christian's total take - 4 eggs. You could see he was sad but he quickly got over it and opened up his eggs and was happy with what he got.
That afternoon the kids hit the pool --- at a whopping 67 degrees! They spent about an hour swimming around, playing basketball and then hitting the hot tub!
We got eggs colored (and eaten) and overnight the Easter Bunny paid a visit. Christian told us that at 2:00 in the morning he woke up and saw the Easter bunny and made sure to tell the Easter Bunny that Evan was staying at the house - and the Easter Bunny left a basket for both of them... Christian also saw that bunny carrying some golden eggs! It took a while for those golden eggs to be noticed, but they each contained money!
After a good breakfast (Omelettes, Bacon, Fruit, Eggs, Muffins, etc), snacks in the early afternoon (Meat and Cheese's, crackers, Deviled Eggs) and dinner (Soup, Ham, Carrots, Asparagus, Potatoes, Biscuits, Pineapple Upsidedown Cake) the family went home full and Christian and I got to chill out for a few hours...
This week was Easter Break for Christian, in many ways it's a break from the norm as there is no gymnastics class and no baseball games during the week. We still had the swim clinic and, yes, I still had to work.
The week off actually started off with a baseball game on Saturday - I said no games during the week, but he had one last weekend. I don't bring up every baseball game he plays in as that would be all I talk about, but this one was different in the way it ended... Christian was playing third base and the other team, a good team for this level (as is ours ) popped the ball along the third base line - with the bases loaded and 1 out. Christian managed to catch the ball and tag third base out - a double play... Now this seems like no big deal, but catching a pop fly at this age is a big deal --- and knowing to tag third base after catching it was a big bonus!
Sunday was his first trial at playing in a Water polo game... I was very proud of him. He was excited to try it but I figured he would sit on the side since he only knew 1 kid in the water with him. I thought he might want to try but might watch for a while --- I couldn't have been more wrong! He had blast swimming from one side of the pool to the other, "fighting" for the ball, taking shots, blocking. It really seemed like he took to it quite naturally and loved it! I can't wait to see how he develops when he's actually in the league in the Fall!!
Monday he went to a Gymnastics camp which he enjoys! Then he went to Brighton for the rest of the week. Brighton was new for him, but he is so easy-going in these situations that it was no problem at all and he's looking forward to spending more time there!
Have you ever thought about how much there is for a kid to learn?? If you really think about everything it might boggle your mind! And I'm not talking about the obvious things - socail interactions, manners, behaviors, reading, writing, arthimetic, history, science, why is the sky blue, etc? Think about all the different games that get played - board games like monopoly, connect 4, don't wake daddy... General outdoor things like riding a bike, scooter, skateboard, swimming, kicking a soccer ball, throwing a football, hitting and catching a baseball... Learning the rules of the different sporting activities and the list really just goes on and on...
So why do I talk about this... Well, Christian has tried several "new" things the past couple of months. And, again, I'm not talking about school or any of that.
First up, he learned some Ice Skating... Over the Christmas season the Folsom Chamber runs an Ice Rink in historic Folsom and we made it out there a couple of times. They have a few storage boxes that are used to help support kids while they learn how to ice skate and they have a couple of spiked slip-on shows that parents can wear if they aren't skating (no surprise, they didn't have skates that fit me). He had a blast each time we went.
Of course if you learn how to ice skate, then you need to take a turn at roller skating too! Christian has been roller skating before with his daycare, but I've come to find out that he really didn't do much when they went. We went skating twice this year and both times I was with him... The second time the place even had skates I could wear - I wouldn't say they fit me, but they worked. It was a blast and Christian is now roller skating on his own. Very cool!
After the skating activities it was time to kick it up a notch and during the Presidential break I took Christian up to Donner Ski Ranch to take some snow skiing lessons. I was hoping to make it up again for more lessons but so far it just hasn't worked out, but he had fun at his first try!
For swimming this year he will move into the 7-8 age group which means he'll start to swim 2 new strokes - The Breaststroke and the Butterfly - so we've been working on learning those new strokes, no pictures yet --- but I'm sure I'll get some during the regular swim season!
But the big news, as far as I'm concerned, is something I didn't think he would get into until he was a bit older --- Waterpolo! A couple of people from the swim team participate in it, including the head coaches kids. She has a daughter the same age as Christian and got info about it and she recommended we come on out and she said he would be allowed to participate in a practice... We did, he loved it and said he wanted to play a game. Well, the people at the ARWPC are awesome and without hesitation they invited him to play in a game on Sunday. Christian had a blast and we'll be signing up for the Fall Youth League. It was cool to see him take very natually to the game - playing both offense and defense and being aggressive to the ball (in a good way ).
Yes, I must admit it, my son fooled me on April Fools Day! He really surprised me with this one too... Well executed - he says he just thought of it out of the blue and did it --- I'm proud of him... So what did he do... While I was sleeping in the morning on the 1st he came in my room and removed my socks and underwear and hid them and then he replaced them with signs, so when I went into the drawer that used to hold them I saw this:
(that says, Sorry no sockse and Sorry no undwar --- okay, so he needs work on spelling, but he gets an A for effort on the April Fools joke!)
Note: This article was posted on the original website, so "recently" refers to Feb 2010... But I wanted to high-light this work as it is awesome.
We recently had some rooms artistically painted on the walls, turned out fantastic!! If you want something like this done I highly recommend contacting Nancie Chopp (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) of Art of the Home. Her website is http://www.nanciechopp.com... She does Kids and adult spaces...
) popped the ball along the third base line - with the bases loaded and 1 out. Christian managed to catch the ball and tag third base out - a double play... Now this seems like no big deal, but catching a pop fly at this age is a big deal --- and knowing to tag third base after catching it was a big bonus!
).
