Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex
Slew of Pictures
I finally got around to downloading a ton of pictures from our camera. ๐
You’ll see the kids diving off Ms. Suzi’s diving board and swimming across the pool, eating at the Mariners game, a bus trip to the Arboretum, Allison’s first day of school and a Storm Game.
Katherine is holding a signed Storm ball, which she got from a player during the pre-game player announcements…on the basketball floor. Way Cool!!
No…the kids don’t use their goggles anymore for swim lessons.
Chuckee and The Jumbo-Tron
It was a very busy weekend. First, our family celebrated Katherine’s progress with her reading board. Between various trips and activities this summer, we managed to squeak in 50 books (read by Katherine, not us) of increasing interest. Her first couple dozen books were primarily Bob books. Later books included high literature such has “Fred and Ted Go Camping,” “Dora’s I Love My Papi,” “Ruby Bakes a Cake,” and “My Little Pony Tea Party.” All good stuff.
For her celebration we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We bought a bucket of tokens and tried to win as many tickets as possible. Allison also rode some of the kiddie rides and tried to go thru the tunnel, but was scared silly by a large boy perched in the tunnel entrance. Despite some setbacks, we must have earned a couple hundred tickets which bought the kids 4 bubble bath tablets, 2 plastic combs, 2 plastic frisbees, a ring and a plastic lizard. The highlight for the kids was seeing Chuck-E-Cheese himself at a nearby birthday party. Allison just stared at the party, finally turning to me and saying, “Thank you for bringing me to Chuck-E-Cheese. Can we go say Hi to Chuck-E?” She was so overwhelmed that she repeated her thanks in the car, “Thank You Everyone for Chuck-E-Cheese.”
On Sunday, we took the kids to a Mariners Game. I had prefaced the game half-joking by saying, “Maybe they’ll put us on the Jumbo-Tron!!” Well, in the middle of the first inning, lo and behold…we looked up…and Allison and I were on the Jumbo-Tron! The girls ate Dipping Dots, a bucket of popcorn. We made it to the 6th inning and finally left amid a huge rainstorm to go back home. I’ll have to post pictures tomorrow from our non-stop weekend.
The Olympics and Katherine’s Scrapbook
I’ve been watching the Olympics just about every night, which explains my bleary eyes and tiredness in the mornings. This is probably because I have many fond memories of watching the games when I was a kid. I vaguely remember something about Mark Spitz when I was *really* young. And, I definitely remember Nadia, Olga and all the star gymnasts since 1976.
I suspect that Katherine will remember the 2008 Olympics for swimming and gymnastics. Thanks to TiVo, we’ve watched the big highlights of the games, and Katherine has been so impressed. She’s taken to flipping through our Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal to find swimming and gymnastics pictures. She’s also started her official 2008 Olympics Scrapbook. It consists of a dozen pages or so in a binder. The pages have carefully cut pictures glued to them…LOTS of glue. She’s got a cover page, a final page with the Olympic rings colored with dot paint and other art too. Tonight, she insisted on giving us the narrative of her book after dinner. She proudly told us about Michael Phelps and his 8 gold medals, Nastia Luikin and of course…Shawn Johnson.
Allison has gotten into this with her own scrapbook. Her pictures are a little more ragged, and some random newspaper copy has made it into her book. But, she’s very proud of her work. Allison also told my mom the other day, “Pau-Pau, you’re taller than Shawn Johnson!”
Katherine’s First Violin Lesson
My mom said that it’s payback time for all the violin lessons and practicing she endured when Sharon and I were kids. ๐
I took Katherine to her first lesson this Monday. We brought her rented 1/10 violin and her Suzuki Book 1. Katherine was very serious and listened to her teacher explain how to hold the bow. They worked on that for several minutes. Then she played the open E and A strings – four 16th notes and 2 quarter notes – “I’m a little monkey” – over and over again. The teacher kept checking her bow hand before every iteration. Frankly, while I was proud of her progress, it was a real exercise in patience and tolerance.
The good news is that I can coach Katherine using the teacher’s techniques. My goal is to get 5-10 minutes of practicing in daily for now. Biggest challenge is fending off Allison who is insisting on her own lessons (talk about clutching that bow! I could barely pry it out of her hand.)
Swimming Continues
We’re wrapping up our second week of swim lessons this week. Despite the rain during class, the kids are getting more comfortable swimming. Allison can now swim about 10-15 feet under water, kind of like a frog. She takes a big breath, pops under water, and then re-emerges on the other side of the pool. Katherine is still working on this skill – often standing up to take a breath every 5 or 6 feet.
On Monday, Allison earned her first red ribbon which states, “I swam the width of the pool.” Katherine earned another purple ribbon, “I dived off the diving board.” It was mayhem in the car afterwards; Katherine was SO bent out of shape that she didn’t get the red ribbon tool. Today, she managed once to get across the pool without standing up and got her red ribbon.
Both kids dived (belly-flopped) off the diving board and swam to their instructor at the end of class. Very cool.
I don’t know how to swim yet!
This is our second summer of swim lessons with Miss Suzi, who is a wonderful kids swim instructor. I took the kids this morning – both were super excited to hop in the pool and get going. Because Allison is now 3, she was able to join the class for bigger kids and Katherine. They started with kick board work and ended with the diving board. Katherine went first off the diving board, falling into the pool in diving position with Miss Suzi holding her. The instructor then backed up 20-30 feet for the next two kids, who dived off the board and swam to her. Next…we all heard Allison pipe up in her 3 year old voice, “I don’t know how to swim yet!!” The instructor then swam up to her, and she fell into the pool in diving position with assistance.
Allison’ sense of humor continues to be very quirky and unpredictable. The girls and I were working this afternoon on their workbooks. Allison flipped to a page that required her to know her vowels. The conversation went like this:
Mom: Allison, you know your vowels right?
Allison: No…
Mom: <starts to sing the AEIOU song from Leapfrog> AEIOU, we’re the vowels, we’re the glue, we stick words together, we’re very sticky letters
Allison: AEKIOU, We’re the vowels, we’re the glue
Mom: You mean I not K, right?
Allison: I can change the vowel song, can’t I?
Mom and Katherine: Uh No!!!
What else? Allison and Katherine are so excited to play with the neighbors’ kids. As a result, they can get rather zealous in their recruitment of other kids for playtime. Case in point…I was cleaning up after dinner tonight while Steve was watching the kids. I went outside to find Steve in the garage, Katherine on the driveway, and Allison’s bike next to the neighbors driveway. I ran across the street and found Allison standing in front of the neighbors door asking, “can you come out to play with us??”
Their favorite activity is biking up the cul-de-sac near our house and then zipping down the hill at full speed. Katherine is thankfully in control of her bike and uses her brakes well. Allison has decided the best way to descend the hill is to barrel down the hill full speed and then come to a screeching halt at the bottom of the hill. It’s just heart stopping…
Lake Wenatchee
This was our third year camping at Lake Wenatchee. Overall, the kids loved the camping experience…
– They rode all around the North Campground at the State Park with their friends.
– They walked then rode down to the beach on their bikes.
– We popped popcorn and made smores.
– We watched Leapfrog DVDs and ate snacks to and from the park.
Despite the lack of sleep and packing/unpacking/cleaning process, it was another successful camping trip. The kids are already asking if we’re going to go again next year!
Allison and the Bus
Katherine had mini sports camp last week in the mornings. As a result, Allison got to run around with Patty and her choice of activity? It was riding public transportation around Bellevue. ๐
Allison’s Summer School Adventures
Allison wrapped up her two weeks of summer school last Friday. I was very thankful that these two weeks were relatively uneventful, with the exception of a couple teary goodbyes the first week and a bathroom incident the second week.
As Allison’s teacher observed, “she seems fine when you drop her off…” ๐ After talking with her, Allison told me somberly, “I’m not going to cry,” and she didn’t.
What did she do? Lots of practical life works, some stencil drawing, letter writing, and sensorial. Allison was determined one morning to “write her letters” and exclaimed to her teachers, “I know my letters.” She came home that afternoon with her name on paper and was very proud.
One day, she told my mom a reassuring story. Apparently, my mom asked about the other kids. This prompted Allison to tell her how one boy in the classroom wasn’t very nice – and had been a bit physical with her in the playground. But, the teacher told him, “You need to be careful with Allison. She’s very little.” (Yes – she was the smallest kid in the class.)
Eating her snack pre-pickup with the other kids was a very big deal. Everyday I would pack Allison several snacks, like fruit, crackers and a bar, and water bottle. She dutifully put it in her locker and would pull it out before pickup. At pickup, I would find her sitting with her snacks carefully arranged in front of her on her placement. When I would ask her to pack up, Allison took great care to put everything back in her lunch bag and clean up.
After her last morning of school, Katherine and I picked up Allison who was sitting on the grass eating lunch with the other kids. The teacher said, “Goodbye Allison; we’ll see you in September!” at which point all the other kids chimed in with “Bye Allison!!” It’s good to know that she made friends this summer and had a good experience.
Katherine and the “Redmond 545”
What did Katherine do while Allison was in summer school? She became acquainted with all the places that the Redmond 545 bus would take her with Patty. For a whopping $2.50 each way (for Patty), they rode to the Pacific Science Center one day. Another day after Katherine asked Patty to take her on the bus, they visited the Arboretum. Apparently, the bus driver was very nice to Katherine on the return trip from Seattle, even letting her sit in the driver’s seat while they waited for the passengers to arrive and board the bus.
Allison was a bit bent out of shape to miss the adventure. But, Patty reassured her that they would try the bus someday and have an adventure too.
The Company Picnic
Every year, we head out to the Company Picnic to check out the rides and entertainment. And, like every year, there were ups and downs for the kids.
They loved the popcorn, the lemonade and ice cream. The bouncers that they did ride were fun, and we watched a very exciting motorcycle show.
The biggest bummer: Allison was about 2″ too short for almost all the kid rides. She couldn’t ride the Ferris wheel, almost all the bouncers…just about everything she wanted to do and probably could have easily done. The helpers told her to go to the toddler section, which was really too young for her. So, after walking Allison around 6 rides, comparing her to the height bar, and realizing she was too short, we headed home. :<
“Wollipops”
One of the biggest attractions for getting their haircuts is the post-cut lollipop bin. Given their long manes, haircuts were long overdue. I took Katherine last week while Allison was in summer school. This caused a ruckus, especially when Katherine painstakingly described her lollipop to Allison. Well, turnabout was fair play a couple of days ago. Katherine and I took Allison to get her hair trimmed up (looks very cute now). Allison got the lollipop and sucked it all the way home – which drove Katherine just nuts.
Storm Game
Thanks to some friends, we attended the Storm game last night. Before the game, the kids and I went to Dick’s for the first time. Despite eating their entire burgers, the kids were hopping up and down for popcorn, pretzels, dibs and thunder sticks once we got inside. Allison was sooo excited to wave hers around, with Katherine and I ducking whenever the sticks would pass by. Oh yes…We also watched the game, which the Storm won. ๐
