Rush Rocks!!!

Rush Revere had a contest on their facebook page with the picture below.  It was taken from the first game of the World Series, but Rush had a similar picture in his newest book. You had to email in the page number.  Eric had just received the newest book the day before, so he rushed off to get the page number.  

Well, on Tuesday we had a package at our doorstep.  He had won again!!!!  He received a different plush this time and a different book on CD.  

Thanks, Rush!

Tuesday was also our last day at Timothy for this semester.  I wanted to take a picture of Eric's table at lunch each week.  Here is the group he eats with. 

One fella (the one at the top left in red) dove in at the last minute.  

Then several more came.  

E and I both love it there.  It's a great place!!!

Holocaust museum

The Holocaust museum had a homeschool day Wednesday about WWII and the Homefront.  We started by watching a video called V for Victory.  It's interesting that the peace sign that everyone holds up with two fingers was used during WWII to stand for V for Victory.  The movie was a little rough.  But, it was incredibly educational also.  Then we moved into a room to learn about Georgia's role in the war.  Eric teamed up with a couple of other fellas to analyze some pictures of the Bell Bomber plant in Marietta.

Then we learned about propaganda during the war.  This was far more interesting to me than it was to E.  Primarily because this is still a huge issue today.  We are given the information in certain ways to make us react or behave a desired way.  

We then heard Ed Francell speak.  We heard him last year, but we still really enjoyed his talk.  It is always our favorite part of the day. 

And of course, here is my reader on the way home.  He has read this book at least a couple of times at the library.  I found several used books for 50 cents, so he was happy to add to his collection.  

Jump rope machine

E has become a fast jump roper.  They have contests now at dry land to see who can jump the longest, and he has won more than once.  Here is a video of my little man jumping.  He got 108 jumps this time.  Craziness!  I wasn't sure he would ever get this jump rope thing.  I actually made him this video to show him how much faster he was going than the girls who were left in this round of the competition.  The owner's wife coaches dry land sometimes, and she will not let anyone "skippy doodle" as she calls it.  She wants one jump per rotation.

Service project

Yesterday we had another service project with the 5th and 6th graders at church.  It was fun but completely exhausting.  I fell asleep last night before either of my boys were even in bed.  Those who know me know that I always wait until E is asleep before I can settle in.  He was downstairs, wasn't even in bed yet.  That shows you how very, very tired I was.  :)

We started at 11:05 by decorating cards for the 66 residents of an assisted living facility.  Then the kids decorated 66 boxes to put treats in.

Here are the cards Eric made.  I thought they were sweet.  He came up with a different little saying for each one.  Most of the kids made one card 8 times.  But, you know Eric...

Decorating boxes.

We ate some pizza.  

Then the kids broke into small teams and baked goodies.  Most of the kids did not have experience following directions on the back, so this was interesting.  Eric's group was the only one that didn't flub the recipe.  (He was the recipe reader.)

The kids loved the baking.  

We packaged the treats and put those into the boxes.  We also included a bag of lotion and other little hygiene items.  Then we headed out to the home.  

However, we had left too early, so we went to the Roswell Mill for an hour first.  It was a neat place.  A terrible place for me to hike in my church shoes though.  But it is definitely a place I want to take my crew back for some pictures.  

This young lady got her feelings hurt when I was going to take a selfie with just Eric.  I wonder if she realized he is mine?

We then headed to the assisted living home where we played Scattegories with the residents in the activity room for an hour.  Then the kids asked questions and got to know their partners.  It was fun.  

We got through around 4:30.  5 and a half hours with some hyper middle school kids wiped me out.  

Soccer ended

Well, our soccer season ended rather abruptly.  We were scheduled to have a tournament last Saturday.  They postponed it until Sunday afternoon due to the rain.  Then they cancelled Sunday as well due to the rain.  They said they would meet to reschedule it, but they decided just to call the season over.  It was a super bummer end to the season.  E got better as the season went.  He was very aggressive in their next to last game.  The kids on the other team were blocking him very physically because he was all over that ball.  He scored one goal in that game.

This picture made me giggle because that fella was determined to hold Eric back.  He would have scored another goal, but a girl took both hands and shoved him in the back, knocking him off balance.  He should have had a penalty kick at the goal, but the ref missed it somehow.  Oh well.  We actually won that game. WOOHOO!!!!  It was our first win.  

The last game was on a Sunday afternoon.  In the pouring rain.  It was the day after Halloween, and we only had 6 kids show up.  Well, you have to have 8 to play.  The other team graciously gave us two players (and two amazing players at that).  I was very impressed with their sportsmanship and made sure to tell them so.  They were nothing like the team that let us play short while they played with a full team plus subs.  

Isn't this how everyone spends a rainy Sunday afternoon?

He had a great season.  He was very disappointed when it ended so abruptly.  And again, this coach will not be returning in the spring.  So, we will be looking at our 4th season with another entirely new coach and team.  Sigh.  He is going to do a soccer camp over the winter.  We have already signed him up.  That should help keep his skills up.