Christmas Card 2013

(to the tune of "We Three Kings")

We three sing of twenty-thirteen

telling you how our year has been

swimmin', loungin',

Whistler mountain

that was our summer scene

 

Oh, move to Bellevue, house just right

French school days and "U-dub" nights

life indeed's quick-

ly proceeding

proven by the boys' great heights!

 

Owen's king of clever disguise

football, soccer, Lego surprise

third grade member

jacket? Never!

hoodies are all he likes...

 

"O" likes to wonder, likes to write

loves for things to be "just right"

list composing,

fact disclosing,

off the ramp, his bike takes flight!

 

Jack is working hard in first grade

cursive script and poems are his faves

math equation,

art invasion!

loving the friends he's made

oh, missing 4 teeth; hard to bite

skateboard fun and turtle fight!

great joke timing,

clever rhyming

cooking up our meal tonight.

 

We've worked hard on our Christmas rhyme

to bring some joy to your Christmas time

We hope you've liked

how we've described

a little bit of our lives!

*****

Merry Christmas

All our love!

Julie, Owen, and Jack

Whistler

trapeze

Canoeing and watching the sea planes.

Owen on the sea-saw.

luge

favorite park

crazy trampolines

Math Monkeys

Last night the boys wanted graham crackers.  There was one and a half left in the package.

Mama: Owen, if you can tell me how much of one and a half graham crackers you each get, then you can share them.

Jack (who finds great thrill in beating Owen to the punch-line of a math problem): One-half and one-fourth!

Owen: I was going to say that!

Mama: Owen, do you know how to say that in fourths?

Owen(who finds great thrill in knowing concepts that are over Jack’s head): I do, but I want to say that we get 75% of one cracker.

New Hair

I have flat-ironed my hair nearly every day for I don’t know how many years…  and before that I dried it to make it go straight.

I recently got my hair cut and my hair dresser suggested sometimes wearing my hair wavy – since it is naturally that way and I was worrying about the damage that might be caused by the flat iron.

I have tried this wavy thing one or two times, and was going this route this morning but got distracted with lunch preparation, shoe locations, and other exciting morning routines.  By the time I remembered my hair, it had moved from wavy to frizzy…

I fixed it the best I could, but it was iffy.  Still, I didn’t have time to dry and flat-iron it – I had to get the boys to school and then was out all day.

Of course, it is the day that you think your hair looks bad that you run into all kinds of people that you don’t normally see… at least 7 different people that I haven’t seen in weeks, in my case.  Oh boy.

I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t that bad.  But then Owen dropped the bomb.  I was discussing my hair with Nana and Dock at dinner (you know, to let them know that I knew that it looked bad so they didn’t go around thinking that I thought it looked good, and then they would have the dilemma of wondering if they should tell me it wasn’t a good look, or think I have terrible taste in hair…)  ANYWAY…Owen mentioned that his classmates had seen my hair and asked him about it.  (what are 7-year-old boys discussing my hair for?!?)   Owen shrugged his shoulders: “I just said, ‘I don’t know, I guess she forgot to brush it.’”

nice

a few photos

Sunday’s Game – Owen was at a birthday party, but Jack and the team won!   (Jack’s in the middle – getting ready to hike the ball.)

Cousins at “Owen’s Beach” at Point Defiance

Serious tree-climbing

and relaxing…

Oh my, can you guess who this is in the middle?

None other than the (not so) baby Grady!

Flag Football

I know nothing about football.  I have never really been concerned about this before, but today I felt a little worried.  The meet and greet for the boys’ team was today.  And I found that I had a lot to learn.  First, they have a racket going on with their photos.  Write your credit card on the line…

Second, I had no idea how a mouth-guard goes in.  “Does this go on the top or bottom teeth?”  I asked.  A kid pulled his hearing aid off his ear, and said, “Like this.”  Then he put his hearing aid in his mouth.  Only it wasn’t a hearing aid; it was his mouth-guard.  Um, is that where you are supposed to store it when it isn’t in your mouth?  It does seem better than on the ground where Jack kept his.  Yummy.

Third, some people take sports (for 6 and 7 year olds) really really seriously… Eric nudged me, “They are talking about adding practice days, you should be involved.  That’s all you.”   I furrowed my brows.  Weren’t practices and games on Sundays? 

“All of the other teams have met 4 or 5 times already!  We need a mid-week practice!” one of the parents insisted.

Why did this sound so much like, “Mom, all the other kids are doing it!”?  But, apparently we are now practicing on Tuesday afternoons too.  There goes my one free day…

Fourth, I don’t actually know any of the rules so that I can practice at home.

Owen and Jack LOVED the short practice and scrimmage that they had today.  I guess the team even won their practice game.  They had tons of smiles, and were really involved and chattered all the way home.  When we got home they ran outside to practice right away. 

Jack had been worried because he had been transferred from his age team to Owen’s because there weren’t enough kids for the younger league.  But Jack seemed to keep up just fine, and the coach couldn’t tell which boys was older…

Jack – Number 19

Owen – Number 12 (in the middle of the photo)

Jack’s Camping List

S’mores, tent, food, hotdogs, ketchup, mustard, root beer, buns, eggs and bacon.