First Grade Fun Run

Tab's school had a Fun Run type of event for all of the kids.  We of course went to support Tab.

Here they are all, lined up.

 And they're off.

 Almost there buddy.

 Finishing

 Ahh,  he did get something from me... he sticks his tongue out when he is running hard. (In high school my coaches always got after me for it, especially when I was pole vaulting.  They were always worried that I was going to bite my tongue off.)

 So Proud!

He is the funniest kid.  He doesn't really have a competitive bone in his body.  It absolutely kills Jason and I to watch him participate in sports.  We have to remember that it is just important that he is participating.  So, that being said,  He would be running along and would pass someone that he would quickly slow down so that person would catch back up to him and he would strike up a conversation and then he would speed off to the next kid and do the same thing, THE ENTIRE RACE.  He didn't even know the kids that he was stopping to talk to.  Even with all of the crazy stuff he finished in about 6 minutes, not bad for 3/4 of a mile.  About 5 minutes after the race was finished, they had an un-timed run, where parents were welcomed to run with their kids, so Jason and I ran with Tab.  Still ever the space cadet, he kept up a pretty good pace for having already just run 3/4 of a mile.  It gives me hope that I may have a running partner some day soon.  (Really my pipe dream is to get all of my kids to the point where we can run 5k's together as a family.)

But, I Did What the Directions Said!

Tab Came home with a math test that really gave me a good laugh.  I could help but share.   The last question is just awesome.  To the left of the question he started his answer with 40, 50, 60, 70.  Then immediately about the question, he began the next portion 5, 10, 15 ... 85, 90.  Then under the question he began the last portion, 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 80, 81, 82,  then he ran out of space and drew his arrow up to where he finished counting to 94.  In the top right, where the large arrow leads you, you can see that his teacher must have stopped by his desk while he was taking the test and showed him what she meant for him to do, and then he finished filling in the rest.  Poor kid.  I would have been seriously annoyed having spent all of that time writing out my answer only to learn it was much more simple.

Spring Break

 So as to avoid boredom over spring break, I gathered together supplies for the kids to do a bunch of various "science experiments" for whenever they were bored.

Here the kids are posing with their Tornado in a Jar.  They really had fun shaking this up time and time again.

Later I put a bunch of baking soda on some plates, colored some vinegar and then let the kids have at it with some medicine droppers.

Benton really poured it on.

 While Paisley used very small amounts at a time.

 Tab experimented with designs. 

 The kids LOVE to play Star Wars, but we don't have any Star Wars costumes.  No worries, they come up with their own.  Tab is of course Darth Vader.  (He really had a thing for the "bad guys").  His costume consists of a black blanket, a bandana and his light saber.  Benton Was Obi Wan with another blanket, bandana, belt and light saber.  Of course Paisley was Princess Leia.

 I thought they looked pretty great.

 We also made some straw airplanes.   After some experimenting with the structure we were getting pretty good at flying them.

And because Mom couldn't be bored, (Ha! is that possible) I had some fun playing with Paisley's hair.  I wish I had a better picture of this, it was pretty detailed with some weaving and such going on.

Easter....yikes

Our Easter Celebrations began with a little egg hunt at Benton's preschool.  Benny and Paisley both enjoyed the hunt.  The big prize was the egg with a quarter in it.

 Why do these two never want to look at the camera?

 Benny's preschool class as well as another class along with all of their siblings.

 Next up was the Primary Egg Hunt.  We also had a few games.  Benton and Paisley tried the spoon race.

 They were big cheaters holding their egg on the spoon, but so did pretty much everyone else also.

 Next up was a sack race. Tab is in the florescent yellow jacket.

 Paisley, slowly but surely made it across the field.

 Finally the hunt, itself.

 The Easter Bunny hung some eggs in the trees and Tab was jumping to try to reach one.

 Grandpa came up to visit for Easter.  I can't remember why, but my mom was out of town, so he came up.

 The kids woke up and went to work looking for where the Easter Bunny hid their basket. (And yes, Benton's shirt is on backwards.)

 Per Jason's request, the kids follow a trail of jelly beans or candy filled eggs which leads to their basket.

 Sharing the wealth with their sister.

 Tab was quite pleased with finding the eggs.

 They finally located their "basket".  Since my dad was coming up, I had him bring one of my mom's ginormous stainless steel bowls.  This is what my parents always put our community Easter Candy in.  It was kind of fun to do the same for my kids.

 Jason was working nights, so when he got home he ran out and hid the eggs and then we sent the kids out.

 Paisley really had a blast finding the eggs.

 As did the rest of the bunch.

 

 

 Then came the discovery of the final egg.  Paisley beat Benton out by a milisecond.

 Which didn't go over well.

 It was quickly confiscated.

 And happily placed in his egg carton.

 As you can imagine this didn't bode well.

 She was quickly won over by being allowed to eat as many eggs as her little heart desired.

Bikes

 We tried and tried to convince Tab to get rid of his training wheels but he wouldn't.  He has a hard time trying new things.  If he thinks there is even the slightest chance that he will fail he will do his best to not have to try at all.  So removing the training wheels was a tough one.  With Jason's sporadic schedule, it wasn't all that easy to go about it either.  One evening we made a go of it.

We went with the traditional hold on to the back of the seat and chase them around method. 

 Which was all fine and good...

 Except that Tab kept turning around to make sure that Jason was still holding on and would of course crash as a result.  He gave up but Benton was more than happy to give it a go.

We have since discovered a much more brilliant method.  We (when I say we, I mean I) removed the pedals from the boys bikes and they used them like those strider bikes.  They just scooted along until they got the hang of balancing their bikes.  Then I put the pedals back on and gave them a steadying push and they were off.  Start to finish, it took about 1 hour for them to figure it out this way.  Both Tab and Benton now ride without training wheels!