Magic Screams

Robert got some free passes to Magic Springs, so we went Sunday afternoon. So much fun! Our favorite part was the Plummet Summit. It was a beautiful day, so it wasn't bad that we got totally soaked! After we had ridden a couple of times, kiddo asked me to stand on the Splash Bridge with him. I agreed to stand there and get soaked with him. He then ran off last second to try to ditch me and let me get soaked alone. What a stinker!

Book It!

Eric earned his first Book It award from Pizza Hut. He had to read 400 minutes in October. He was very excited to earn it. We went with Nate and Hannah on Monday to celebrate.

Ahhhh....soccer!

We are so glad soccer is back! Eric is loving soccer again this year. This is picture I snapped of him relaxing during a brief break at practice.

Faces of E

Yeah, that last one was new to me. I have never seen that one before.

Park Play Date

We have had some beautiful weather lately. We took advantage of that recently with a fun play date at the park with Lauren.

Bug Catchin Fun

What a beautiful day we had at Pinnacle today. Today was the first homeschool day for this school year, and there was a large turnout.



Eric was desperately trying to catch a yellow butterfly, but it wouldn't land at all for him to even get close. So, he moved on to other bugs. Once he did, he caught 5 bugs - 3 crickets, 1 moth, and 1 dragonfly.



Here is a close up of the time he caught two crickets at once.

Jump, jump, jump

Saturday night we had the pleasure of going to Braden's birthday at Playtime Pizza. We have only been there once, two years ago, but it is a pretty cool place. Eric fell in love with this Jump-rope game and played it all night. The lights would move around faster and faster, and the object was to jump over them as you would a jump-rope. I love that he he had his tongue out the whole time. He always does that when he is really concentrating.

Today's meet

Eric did so good today! He again competed in kickboard, freestyle, and backstroke. They did not time the kickboard (I don't know why), but he was very fast. He did his freestyle in 44.07, which is 4.42 seconds faster than last week. And he completed backstroke! He got a time of 53.40 in backstroke. So very proud of him. He worked very hard in practice this week.

First Swim Meet

Eric did great at his first swim meet. He was entered in three races - kickboard, freestyle, and backstroke. We were pretty overwhelmed by it all at first. It was incredibly chaotic and crowded. But, I think we know how it all works now and will be ready for next time.


Here he was preparing to enter the pool for his first race - kickboard.



If you receive your best time (which he did, since it was his first time), then you receive a token that we learned you could turn in for a little tattoo. He was so proud of this token. I think he thought he had won some kind of award. We didn't tell him it was just for a tattoo.

He did really well. He got a time of 39.15 in kickboard (these are all 25 yards) and 48.49 in

freestyle. He disqualified in backstroke because he flipped over right before touching the wall. He was a little disappointed about that, but handled it well.

Becoming an old pro at finding his place in line.



There is a lot of waiting around between events.

Fun in the Sun

We were at Nate and Hannah's today. The kids had a great time playing out in the kiddie pool.

Yippee! All the way!

At practice tonight Eric swam all the way across the lane in both freestyle and backstroke! Big, big deal for him!

Telephone Chasing Shoes

Last Wednesday while driving to LR, Eric was playing his Sonic Leapster game. He looked up and asked me "What are telephone chasing shoes?" What in the world? I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought about it for a few minutes then asked him what he was talking about. He said it was some kind of pipe. Then it hit me - teleportation chutes . Oh the things kids hear...

Christ's Kids

Well another year has ended. Eric said a verse in the program again this year. He said "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right" Ephesians 6:1. (that is his favorite verse in the Bible)

Swim Team

Eric is on the swim team this year. Wednesday was his first practice, and he swam 3/4 the length of the pool! We were so proud of him.

More from Petit Jean

Our room at the lodge was great. Eric loved it.

Playing Bakugan with Dad.

Baseball

Baseball is back. This year we are playing on a much more laid back league. The difference is night and day. Eric is on the Angels. His first game was Tuesday night, and he did great. He scored 4 runs in the game.

Our Vacation!

We just got back from a wonderful weekend at Petit Jean. It was so much fun. We took tons of pictures (of course). I wanted to post this one, but I will try to get up more in the next few days.

On to Level 3

Eric completed Level 2 on swimming and is hard at work on Level 3 now.

Whoo-hoo! Tooth is finally out!

Tonight Eric's tooth finally came out. It is actually the second one that became loose, but it came out first. He is so excited! He put it under his pillow along with the letter to his tooth fairy. He wrote that letter the day his tooth first was loose.

(If you look closely you will notice a black eye forming on the right. His goggles were too tight today, but there was no way he would ever tell Ms. Jeanne that. She fixed them for him, so they must be right. Oh my poor pleasing boy! Also, the poor kid bumped his nose on the edge of the pool, so he has some bruising on that as well)
He has the teeny tiniest little teeth. Here is his little tooth in his hand.

18

Eric has been working on writing his number words through 20. He has number cards that he can reference if needed. He usually needs to look at 8/18. Today he was counting and writing the number words. He went to write the word 18, and paused and looked at it for a minute or two. Then he said "Hey, this says eight-een, not "eight-teen". He knows that the teen words end with teen, so he was surprised that 18 only had 1 "t" in it instead of 2. Just a fun little observation he had that I wanted to share with you.

Winter Wonderland

I love living here! We get just enough snow to make it absolutely magical, but not so much that it affects our daily lives. I had no idea it was supposed to snow, so when we woke up to a thick blanket, it was a fabulous surprise! The snow continued to fall heavily all morning. It was so beautiful! Eric loved it and we had the best time having snowball fights. There was such an abundance of snow (and our yard is huge) that we were able to run all over pummeling each other with snowballs.