Happy Sixth Matthew!

Though we were pretty terrible at documenting it, I think that Matthew had a pretty exciting birthday. After working a lot of Christmas weekend, Jon decided to take the day off for a entire day long celebration of Matthew. We started the morning with red eggy pancakes per Matthew's request.

After a two hour search for adequate footwear, we headed up to the mountains for some sledding. Matthew quite enjoyed himself, Seth on the another hand was pretty miserable. He takes after me and hates to be cold! Jon and Matthew made several sledding runs while I hung out with Seth and tried to keep him happy. I honestly was more comfortable with Seth, it turns out that I'm pretty lousy at steering a sled and felt like was endangering children every time I made a run.

After sledding we cleaned ourselves up, put the finishing touches on the cake, and met up with most of the rest of the family for dinner at Red Robin.

After dinner, the celebration was relocated to our house for presents, cake, and ice cream. Matthew requested a policeman cake this year and wore his dress-ups to match the theme.
After the evening we all were pretty exhausted. With a birthday so closely following Christmas, sometimes I find it a challenge to make it seem special. But, I definitely think we were successful this year. In fact, I fear that we may have set the bar too high!

Christmas 2010

This year we were looking forward to a low-key Christmas at home. But, as I discovered, doing a low key Christmas is really hard! I guess no matter how carefully you plan, there are always things that have to be done the night before. Here's a picture of the spread as we went to bed way too late on Christmas Eve.
The boys were pretty good about staying "asleep" until the unheard-of-ly late hour of 7am. Here are the boys sporting their "Christmas Eve" jammies and Santa hats before heading down to the presents.
So, Matthew's response to his big Santa gift wasn't exactly what we intended, but once he realized what it was he was happy to have his fish tank (with fish to be added after it had been up and running for 24 hours).


Seth's big presents were a Little People airport and a toy vacuum cleaner. I love that he's still at the phase where he wants to play with each present after he opens it. It makes present opening take a lot longer, but it's so much fun. I guess it's rewarding to feel like you actually choose something that they like and wanted.
The rest of the day was spent playing, napping, and eating at both home and grandma and grandpa's house. We didn't catch any pictures at grandma's, but the boys enjoyed opening more presents and playing with cousins, aunts, and uncles and of course, a yummy Christmas dinner.

Red Sox

A few days before Christmas a surprise package arrived from Aunt Hermana Heidi, serving a mission in Boston. The boys aren’t easily contained when it comes to opening packages, so they had it open before we even had time to contemplate whether they should wait until Christmas. The boys were thrilled to receive Red Sox’s shirts and some “Boston” cookies (as Matthew calls them, although I think that they can be found almost anywhere!). Thank you Aunt Heidi!

Merry Christmas!

SAM

Last week the brave kindergarten teachers at Matthew’s school ventured out with 40+ kindergartners to the Seattle Art Museum to do a fabric scavenger hunt. They have been studying fabric in science as a basis for learning to make observations and comparisons. I hadn’t initially intended to bring Seth along, but babysitting fell through and the Matthew’s teacher assured me he was welcome. Beside, Seth was completely thrilled by the idea of riding a school bus. While we were inside the museum I didn’t find much time to snap pictures (I’m sure that you can imagine the stress and anxiety associated with chaperoning four kindergartners and Seth among priceless works of art. We made more than dew docents VERY nervous.) But, I did catch a couple pictures of Seth and me on the bus and some of the kids safely outside the museum. It was a fun trip and I love that the kids got some exposure to art, especially in cross-curricular way.

Seattle Kids Marathon

Matthew participated in Seattle's "Kids Marathon" this year. A regular marathon is 26.2 miles. To participate in the Kids Marathon, the kids run 25 miles between the start of the school year and the weekend after Thanksgiving. The regular Seattle Marathon held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. They set up the last 1.2 miles of the course on Saturday, and the kids that have already finished their 25 miles get to run the last 1.2 miles of their marathon on the real course.

Matthew has really been into running since they started the school year. His school has a "running club" that sets up a 1/8 mile course in the parking lot for every recess, and he spends most of his recesses running. Between running at recesses and running with Jon several times in the evenings, Matthew ran over 35 miles before Thanksgiving and had more miles than anyone else in his kindergarten class.

On the day of the Kids Marathon, we showed up early and Matthew got his number.


The kids were able to have an adult run with them. Matthew wanted Julie to run with him and they each got the same number. Julie also helped him to warm up in the stadium.




Matthew's best friend from school also ran and, of the thousands of possible numbers, they ended up with numbers that were right next to each other.


There were so many kids running that we couldn't get a picture of Matthew as he crossed the finish line, but here he is at the finish line before the race.


Jon and Seth didn't participate, but it was fun for them to cheer Matthew on from the stands.


We're all so proud of Matthew for his tenacity to run so much and spend his recesses doing something that is healthy. We look forward to doing it again next year!

Snow!

We got our first taste of winter this week. People have been going on about this winter being a horrible one in Seattle. I'm always a little skeptical when I hear portents of terrible weather. But after this week, I think that the predictions are probably right on.

The snow started late Sunday night, but didn't really pick up until mid-day on Monday. Thankfully, because it was the week of parent-teacher conferences, Matthew didn't have school. Hooray for not having to make up snow days in late June!

The boys and I headed out early Monday morning to make fresh tracks. Matthew had a blast; Seth not as much. He found mittens quite hindering and bare hands on snow much too cold. So, we didn't last too long outside.
That afternoon and night is when the snow actually started accumulating. Jon and I snapped a few pictures of our backyard Monday night, for the record.
By Wednesday, Matthew had begun to miss his good friend from school. So we arranged for a playdate at our house. No playdate would be complete without a little trip to the park. So we headed out to make snow angels,
gather wood for a fire (not really),
and have a general good time.
By Thanksgiving day, we were ready for a little warmer temperatures and Matthew was tired of staying home, so it wasn't to sad to see the snow melt away. Besides, it seems like we'll probably have more snow this winter.

Return of the Adventure Day

Sort of.

With no school on Veteran's Day, we decided to venture out to do some letterboxing. The previous day's weather had been exceptional and when I woke up to mostly clear skies I felt optimistic that the predicted rain wouldn't come. So, we tempted fate and headed out to a nearby park with lots of trails and at least three letterboxes.

Although the sun had tried it's best to dry the previous day to dry out some pretty soggy ground, we still ran into quite a bit of mud. Oh, and we had to ford a small stream (I didn't pre-read the clues very carefully). Thank goodness for the way-too-expensive boots I got the boys in a moment of weakness.

Fortunately, with all the kids and the intricacies of stamping, we only ended up with a couple pictures of documentation, none of which I took. I know, I know. I need some serious reforming.

Here is what we ended up with. Special thanks to Andy for being our photographer.

Getting ready to stamp after our first find!
Group photo at the second letterbox's hiding spot.

We didn't end up finding all three; the rains, tireds, and orneries had began their descent. But I'm kind of glad . . . it gives us a reason to go back.

Halloween

This Halloween has seemed more like a 2-week holiday season than a mere 1-day holiday. It didn't help being involved in two PTA groups and helping out with two fall festivals and having so many school parties. Plus, Matthew's costume came in the mail about 3 weeks ago, and he's been wearing it every chance he gets since then. So, if feels like we've been dressing up and partying for several weeks.

We had so much going on that we did not get our pumpkins until the 29th. At that point, the only pumpkins left at the store were organic pumpkins. We're all for the organic thing when it comes to eating healthy, but overpaying for carving pumpkins weren't exactly what we hoped for. We got them anyway, and we carved them. Matthew wanted to have a scary pumpkin, and this is what he came up with:


Jon wasn't going to carve his, but decided at the last minute to carve out exactly what has been on his mind recently:


The boys went as a policeman and a frog. We tried to get some pictures of them in their costumes, and they were completely goofy as usual.





We mostly did our trick-or-treating at the ward party, but we did make it out to our neighbors tonight. We wanted to get some pictures of them out trick-or-treating, but we just got pictures of them approaching our house.

Matthew's Class Halloween Party

On the Friday before Halloween, Seth and I went to participate in the Matthew's class Halloween party. It was a pretty causal affair; the kids did a few crafts, played a few games, munched on some treats, and had a whole school costume parade. Credit for the photos once again goes to Yutaro's mom, Rie (Have you noticed a pattern, yet?).
Matthew made a coordinating policeman mask, inspired by police sirens. Seth, the frog in the background.Matthew and Yutaro, in his robot costume. Matthew felt a little envious of Yutaro's costume, although some of that envy wore off Yutaro's mom had to feed him his snacks because his robot arms couldn't reach his mouth.

I didn't get a picture (are you surprised?) but perhaps the most poignant moment of the day was when Seth accidentally lost grip of his helium balloon while getting in the car. As luck would have it, it was a perfectly clear day and Seth cried and cried as he watched the balloon grow smaller and smaller as it floated away over Wallingford. So hilariously tragic.

Hatchery Field Trip

Matthew's class had there first field trip this Tuesday. I had planned to go, but I quickly reconsidered after a late Sunday night trip for me to the ER. Thankfully, Matthew's friend's mom (yes, the same one that saved my bacon on the walkathon) took some pictures of the outing. The captions on these pictures are based on a five-year-old explanation and memory of the trip; sorry the details are sparse! Despite some pretty miserable weather, Matthew really enjoyed the trip; especially the bus ride. Are all kindergarten boys so enamored by buses?
On the way to the hatchery.
Getting fish food to feed the salmon(?)
Watching the salmon.
Listening intently to the guide.
Unwinding on the bus ride home.

Weekend of Running

This weekend was a big running weekend for our family. Jon, a very reluctant runner, decided about 6 months ago that for his 30th birthday he wanted to run a half marathon. Please note that this was without any prodding from me. He approached his training like he does everything, very methodically. He worked hard and we decided to make a getaway out of his Saturday, Eastern Washington race. We left the boys with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) and didn't come home until Sunday.

Unfortunately, that meant we had to miss Matthew's big running event on Friday; his school's walkathon. Matthew too has been training for this event, running most recesses with the school's running club. The club was founded, among other reasons, to help kids earn mileage for the Seattle Kids' Marathon in November. Unlike Jon, Matthew has really fallen in love with running. Long distance running is a perfect fit for Matthew because he lacks foot speed and coordination (remember his soccer skills?). Matthew completed 3.0 miles during the hour walkathon, just a few laps off the kindergarten "most laps" winner. I was super sad to miss the event, but thankfully, Aunt Rachel and his best friend's mom were there to take some pictures!
Jon's race also went well. He consented to allowing my to run the race with him. With a bunch of adrenaline and a unfamiliar running partner, he started the race a little faster than his normal long runs. Despite how it looked at mile 6-8 to Jon, it all turned out well and we were able to finish 15 minutes faster than his goal time. And while Jon hasn't grown to love running, he has been talking about participating in future races. I count that as huge victory.
Before.
During.
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