Natalie's 3rd grade class competed in a film competition against all the classes in our Beaverton School District. They made the attached movie and won 1st place for the best Elementary Music Video.
We are all so excited that her class won!
So lacrosse has hit our family. Before April, we had never seen played, or even knew what equipment was needed, but for whatever reason, we decided to put Natalie and Brendan in. I even signed up to be Natalie's assistant coach, but one weeks before the season started I was asked to be head coach. Makes it a little tough to coach a sport if you don't even know the rules, but we've had fun.
Natalie has done fabulous and one of the parents took this great video of her playing today. I can't say how grateful we are for it. Lisa hasn't been able to watch a game due to the little kids short attention span, so now finally we can watch it over and over!
Natalie is #14.
Note that in the last play she actually scores!
With the change in cool weather comes soccer season! It seems like Natalie enjoys the game, but is starting to enjoy the socialization even more. Do other kids always go through that "I don't want to go tonight" and then dance around and be a clown at practice stage?
Brendan is playing too, but since I coach his team that leaves Lisa battling the two younger kids on the sidelines. I wonder what the parents would say if I took pictures while coaching the kids at the same time.
On second thought, I should record what they say. That would be much more funny.
Any tricks to helping the tooth fairy remember the pick up and delivery?
Natalie turned 8 in February so she decided to be baptized and become a member of our church. It was a very special day for the entire family, especially because Grandma and Grandpa Heath were able to attend as well as Grandma Jean.
Natalie played on the Purple Panthers team this year with a crew of her friends and did great. \
Check out the war paint she put on to keep the sun out of their eyes...wait...this is Portland in October...there is no sun in your eyes!
(Hint: You can click on the picture for a larger image)
Two pioneer girls, one pumpkin, and one Boba Fett with a laser gun (that makes an awful noise). The funniest event of the evening was seeing this 8 year old pioneer girl run around with a laser gun...
Lisa made the pioneer costumes, don't they look great!
And AJ had a great time.
We originally planned to go the pumpkin patch, but after unending weeks of soccer, we were exhausted. On the way out of the last soccer party we saw a pile of pumpkins at a grocery store and offered root beer floats and one pumpkin each if we could just pick one out and go home...boy I'm sure glad the kids like root beer.
As can see, the kids designed them and then we helped cut them out. For the first time, Natalie scooped everything out by herself.
Today we drove by a local shopping center and saw a big crowd of people all waiting in line to meet and get their picture with Amy Yoder Begley. She is running the 5000 meters (10k) at the Olympics in a few weeks. She was super nice and signed pictures for the kids. She runs about 70 miles a week and cross trains a ton. Even more impressive...her mile pace is about 6 minutes. Geez I feel like a slug.
Go Amy!!!
Does anyone else have their kids pumped up about the Olympics?
Because we were confined to the house during Spring Break, we decided we had to do something interesting to keep the kids entertained and make up for the loss of the missed trip to California.
So what did we do? We went camping inside. Yes, we set up the tent, made smores in the fireplace, and ate tinfoil dinners by flashlight. The tent was a tight squeeze, but it fit! We'll have to test it out during the summer!
As usual, Natalie has tied to a book and could hardly finish dinner.
Can I just say the trampoline has been a hit with our kids. Nothing like telling them to go burn off some energy outside before dinner. I can't wait for summer!
Since we couldn't go to California, I thought I would post a few quick pictures of things we've done over the past several weeks.
This one is of Natalie's Science Project. She did a great job!
Just a quick, funny story. She did all the typing in MS Word and of course there were a few misspellings. At one point, she asked me what the green squiggly line underneath many of the words meant. I told her it was a grammar error. I then started explaining that the red line meant a spelling error, but she quickly stopped me by saying with a smile "oh, I already knew that!" She also figured out that if she forgot to capitalize a word after a period, the computer would do if for her. Pretty soon she just started letting the computer do all the capitalizations.
The Rock Score:
Natalie: 5 buckets
Brendan: 1 bucket
The kids raced outside this morning in the pouring rain and each filled a bucket. When the rain stopped, Natalie went back out with a vengeance and was still working when I came home. She even had another bucket that was almost full, but she was too tired and hungry to finish it.
Some interesting observations...
1) Brendan started fast and furious but petered out quickly. I don't think he really understands the value of a dollar yet. He doesn't really have a toy that he is drooling over (or should I say he just wants every toy?), so he really isn't yet motivated by a few extra green papers in his wallet.
2) Natalie was thinking about all the money she was earning the entire time. When I came home from work and asked her about what she was going to buy, she said a CD player, a Hanna Montana CD, and stuff for my room. So she must realize that with money you can buy cool stuff and that to get money all it takes is a little work. One of the neatest things to see was that Lisa didn't have to bug Natalie to do the work....she just went out and did it.
3) The kids quickly learned that if you used the rake, you could fill the bucket much faster. They apparently also learned that if extra leaves and dirt were put into the bucket, the bucket filled up even faster. We weren't sticklers on the amount of dirt and leaves in the bucket, but the kids found a flaw in the payment process and took advantage of it. Good for them! But next time I'm going to set a stricter rule.
Just so you know, we don't pay the kids for every job they do. They have a very long list of regular chores that have to be done or they can't do certain activities. We only pay for money jobs that are above and beyond the normal call of duty...or Lisa and I just don't want to do them.
Either way, I'm very proud of Natalie. She did a great job and worked very hard. Now if I can just find the right incentive for Brendan... Any suggestions about what works with boys?
BTW: Dr. Pope was my Econ 110 Professor...I loved that guy.
Much to our chagrin, the previous owners of our house filled the flower beds up with lava rocks. Of course the rocks are grenades, lawn mower missiles, and flower killers so they had to go. Unfortunately, quite a few still hide in the bushes and in the mud.
Anyone remember Econ 110? I loved it because I think all people are motivated by self interest--even irrational 5 and 7 year olds. So I ran an experiment (don't tell the social workers) using my ki..., I mean guinea pigs.
On Monday, I offered $2.50 per bucket of rocks that the kids found. It worked pretty well. Brendan was the first to fill a bucket and then Natalie persisted and filled two buckets. Of course, we heaped the praises on them and gave them the money as soon as possible.
Now I know for a fact that there are still quite a few rocks out there...so I offered them this.
It is supposed to rain tomorrow but Thursday and Friday we have other plans... I guess we'll see how much Natalie wants that Hanna Montana CD and how much Brendan wants another transformer.
I'll post their earnings tomorrow.
So Ezra had Endoscopic Nose Surgery on Thursday and is home recovering quite well. Lots of naps, tissues, and pain killer has kept him quite passive. The kids have been very patient and helpful. Look at the cute note Natalie made for him on the day he came home.
Click on it to see a larger picture.
Let me point out a few things...first he just finished reading the book "Ender's Shadow". Can you see the book and words in the lower left hand?
Second, Ezra works for an electric company that builds lots of power lines. Can you see the spelling of Electricity and the power lines?
Lastly, we were looking at stars last night as we drove around.
What a thoughtful kid!
So I don't claim to be any good at checkers, but I thought I could at least hold my own against a 6 year old. Today, Natalie jumped four of my pieces all with the same piece. I'll admit I set her up to jump two pieces, but I didn't see the other two. The little stinker then had to laugh and gloat about it. Lets just say I won the game.
Lately Amanda has reminded us of Natalie at about the same age, so we decided to do a bit of comparison. The top 3 pictures are of Amanda and the bottom 3 are of Natalie.
The funny thing is that their personalities are exactly the opposite. Natalie couldn't hold still (and still can't). Amanda takes a few crawls away and then just stops...puts a finger in her mouth...thinks...goes back to where she came...thinks again.
And Brendan, well he's in a league of his own.
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