The mysterious post carder is BACK baby!

It's been about 2 years since I last heard from them. (go to the post card tag if you want to know more)

This time they are in France. They just ran a marathon (hell, I can no longer run to the fridge…got to bump up the exercise) and that I should be surprised as the folks I hung out at the dump (not the real dump...but a pizza place) with never struck me as the run (unless it was “from the law”) type…

WHO ARE YOU????? Keep traveling!!! And enjoying life - Seriously snaps to you my friend!

Thanks for thinking of me!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Best weekend EVER

So Spotty Chop had a good weekend

1. Friday night soccer practice was canceled due to rain
2. Saturday morning soccer game was canceled due to rain
3. Picasso’s birthday party at Sky Zone on Saturday
4. J-Man slept over Saturday (after the Bday party) they went to bed around 1am
5. J-Man and Spotty marched in the Memorial Day parade with their school on Sunday
6. Early dinner with J-Man & family (Chili’s) after parade
7. Hockey camp after dinner

My perfect weekend has way more sleep, but what do I know? 

Dear Spotty Chop you are 110 months old

What kind of mischief have you gotten yourself into recently? We thought you broke your finger during soccer. But you just jammed it really badly. Then we thought you might need stitches as you face planted during soccer. But Boy Toy was able to get the bleeding to stop.  You are still playing soccer. You will NOT RUN during soccer, but as other parents have pointed out. You are always “in the way”. You have been managing to get yourself in the other teams way almost always.  I think hockey has helped  your soccer skills. Who’d a thunk it?

You have decided that you like cheeseburgers, and sausage patties. You have tried asparagus and didn’t mind it. You are also drinking a juice that has banana in it  of course I didn’t mention the banana until you told us that you loved it.  You are also eating granola – that I make (we can thank Auntie Moo for this).  You are trying another strategy for eating lunch during school. You are eating when your friends are inline waiting to get lunch. THEN you talk. It seems to be working. You are actually eating your lunch (a yogurt drink, some carrots/broccoli, blackberries, a piece of ham and dried cranberries (granola if I don’t burn it.) You seem to actually be eating, so we are happy.

You are reading  “A Snicker of Magic”, The homework machine #2, and something about a bed & breakfast that involves aliens. I can’t say enough how lucky we are that you love to read. I can’t imagine (yes I can I would be devastated) what I would do if you didn’t love to read.  We are reading the 2^nd Familiar book before bed.  I ran into the youth librarian and asked him about “George and the Big Bang” the 3^rd book in Stephen Hawking’s kid series. He didn’t realize it was a series and said he would keep an eye out for it. So yea – we should be able to read that at some point!

You are still neck deep into watching Minecraft videos on Youtube. You would rather do that than anything else right now.  Boy Toy and I need to come up with some ideas on how to prevent you from freaking out when you don’t do well/are asked to stop. We will let you know when/if we come up with a solution.

The big news of the month? You watched A New Hope with me! May the 4^th be with you is a magical day! You liked the movie. You knew pretty much everything due to playing Star Wars Lego’s, but you said it was still a good movie. Now we just need to find some time to watch the first Harry Potter movie…

You created a card game to play with your friends. You have spent a huge amount of time working on it. Figuring out scoring, how different cards react to each other, a game board. I hope your friends and you have fun playing it. And even if they don’t, I think it’s pretty dang awesome that you came up with the idea. You and your dad gave it a test play. He thought it wasn’t bad at all.

For mother’s day this  year  you picked out a GREAT T-shirt

And some tea (Golden Monkey – Teavana)

Also some flowers. You were so tricky telling me you were going out to get ice cream to keep me off the track.

Well that’s about it here. We will talk again next month. Love ya 

Dear Spotty Chop you are 109 months old

You participated in a Read a thon at school. You got an award for being the top reader in your class! We think that is so awesome!  You have been getting little awards each week (pencils, erasers, thingys that go on pencils) but this feat had granted you a $10 giftcard for scholastic books. You are so excited.

Books read:

• Timmy Failure – now look what you’ve done by Stephan Pastis -- you love this series
• Princess Lablemaker to the Rescue – an origami yoda book – by Tom Angleberger -- this may be one of your favorite series ever
• The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great – Gerald Morris -- you really like this and want more of the series
• Alvin Ho – Allergic to camping, hiking, and other natural disasters – by Lenore Look -- you liked t his enough that I bought you the first in the series (BAD ME for getting the 2^nd book in a series first)
• White Crane – Samurai Kids – by Sandy Fussell --  I was very happy you liked this book. The premise is that a bunch of disabled kids (that no other sensei wanted) are all being taught by one sensei. The book came at a good time as your father had taped a lot of the para Olympics and many of the commercials during the event showcased disabled people that sort of freaked you out.  
• Ordinary Boy –  by William Boniface -- you liked it, but it wasn’t a Fav
• Astronaut Academy - Re-entry - by Dave Roman - this is another favorite series for you
• Stuart Little - by E.B. White -- YOU LOVED THIS  I was surprised by how much, but I guess I shouldn’t have been as last year your teacher read Charlotte’s web and you loved it.
• Almost Super – by Marion Jensen – you have also joined a group at the library where you commit to reading 10 new books (that the child’s librarian chooses). In January you will all get together and vote on things like best male character, best female, best cover, best ending etc. You weren’t crazy about the book when you first started reading it. But you have in fact decided that it just might be your favorite of the year
•  I’m reading you Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by J. K. Rowling -- This is the series that has you asking me to read during the day
• Your dad is reading you  Lawn Mower Magic - A Stepping Stone Book - by Lynne Jonell  -- your dad hasn’t read to you in awhile so I made sure to grab something for him to read you for your birthday. I think he missed reading to you (even if you drive him MAD when you correct him. I had to reassure Boy Toy that you do that to me too.

You recently tried: asparagus – like it; sweet potatoes (in non fry form) – like fries better; peppers & onions (cooked with sausage) – onion you said didn’t taste like anything, red pepper mad the sausage taste sweeter.

You also helped us pick out a new (to us) vehicle. We are now the proud owners of a red 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe. It’s selling points (for you) the rear seats recline, you have your own arm rest and cup holder. You have air vents in back, but most importantly, you have your own plug to charge your games.

We hosted our first sleep over. JMan came and the two of you had a blast. You unfortunately had hockey the next morning so I did have to ask you guys to go to bed. But I promised that once hockey was done we would have JMan back and then the two of you could stay up as late as you wanted.

Love ya little dude (who is 4 ½ feet tall and 70 lbs)

Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have my parents?

They are spending a week in Nantucket. They invited us along, what they didn’t know was we were bringing a guest. 

Say hello to Shadow!

  

In Spotty’s class Shadow goes home with the students for a few days and the kids write in a journal what they did together. As Spotty is not a “stuffed animal” kid, it was really cute to see him carrying Shadow around.

Getting to the island was an adventure. My parents were taking their car and told us not to bother taking ours (which was good since we couldn’t have afforded to bring it). Did I mention that my parents have a 4 seat car? Or that Spotty gets very uptight if he isn’t wearing a seatbelt? Want to guess who sat on plastic the entire trip? They also missed the ferry and were not going to get into Nantucket until 10pm (they were supposed to get there at 5).  We were taking the fast ferry and were going to get to Nantucket at 8pm. Luckily we were able to set aside the fast ferry tickets (we couldn’t cancel as it was same day, but we can use them anytime in the next year.)  The ferry over was uneventful. My dad realized that he was going to have to go to the rental place drop all their stuff off and then come back to get us.

I should note that I get my sense of direction from my dad. When we got off the ferry. My dad had talked to a cab driver. It was pretty cold out at 10pm and he didn’t want Spotty to have to wait. THANK GOD. My parents followed the cab to the rental office and then to the house. Boy Toy and I laughed and laughed when we realized that my father would have NEVER FOUND THE OFFICE, and if by some miracle he did find the office HE WOULD HAVE NEVER FOUND THE HOUSE. The cab driver couldn’t find it and he was a native. (well both the cab driver and my dad thought the number on the key was the house number. It was one of the Funniest evenings we had had in a long time. When we got into the cab Spotty was coughing really hard. I said “dude, you weren’t coughing AT ALL on the 2 hour ferry ride.” His response? “I was distracted by video games”.  After a few minutes of listening to him cough up a lung Boy Toy gave him his DS. I swear to god within 2 minutes he stopped coughing. The cabby couldn’t stop laughing. When we thanking him for saving us and laughing over how ridiculous the night would have gone if my dad had to find anything, Spotty chimes in with “ya, that’s her side of the family.”  The cab driver thought he was hysterical. When we finally got to our destination, my mom came over to the cabby and said “have there been any murders in Nantucket recently?”  He very reassuringly said “oh no”. She then told him that if he had not been there to find everything, there would have been.

  

Papa and Timmy had an ok time

We celebrated Spotty’s birthday

And had a blast in the whaling museum.

Spotty also has another school project coming up. In this one the kids have to create a book on geometry.  We had fun looking for shapes and angles.

Spotty was very sad to leave my parents, but we reminded him that we would get to spend a whole week with them down the Cape (in August)