I'm not you

James:  Who is this?
Teddy:  this is me
J:  Hi, me
T:  I'm not you!
J: well, who is this?
T: it's me!
J:  hi, me.  How are you?
T: No, it's Christopher Theodore Hostetler!

Birds and floods

The hydrangeas are late in blooming this year, probably because I pruned them when I knew I shouldn't, so I'm not sure when I'll start to get flowers.  We did put out a new bird feeder and loved the visits from the cardinals and squirrels!  Once it got to be time for the hummingbirds, though, I noticed that we weren't seeing many of them.  We took down the bird feeder and the hummingbirds are back.  

We also had some major rainstorms blow through at the end of April.  We've never seen so much rain so quickly here.  The drainage pipe couldn't keep up, so we even had a whirlpool in our yard!

Brady's 10th birthday celebration

Brady told me 2 days before his actual birthday that he thought he'd like to have his birthday party with his friends close to his birthday this year.  After an eight or nine year precedent of summer friend parties, I was not prepared for this change in plans!  The best we could do was a late-April birthday party.

We gave him a few options - laser tag, ice skating, rock climbing, movies - and the winner was a party at Dave and Busters.  The party package included game cards and food for 10 kids.  I think they all had a BLAST, but it's not easy getting decent pictures of ten rowdy boys intent on playing video games.

We were about to leave and Rudy had just a few credits left on his card.  He swiped this gadget, almost as an afterthought and hit the button to stop the lights (to determine how many tickets he'd win).  Wouldn't you know it...he hit the JACKPOT!  I think he ended up with almost 1000 tickets!

Civil War History Day

 We were supposed to be able to visit a Civil War 'history-mobile,' but it broke down!  Instead, the local historical society put together a Civil War history day.  The kids used flowers and leaves to draw pictures, tried their hands at embroidery, and got to sit on a reenactor's horse.

Brady basketball

Four of the six kids on Brady's team are also in fourth grade at his elementary school.    One is a pretty good buddy in his class, and one provided a particular personality challenge to many of his teammates.  (All part of the sports learning experience, right?)  Brady's team really worked on learning some plays this year and it was great to watch them get more comfortable running those plays and working together.  Basketball is one of the sports that Brady really seems to naturally enjoy.  All year long, but especially during basketball season, he will go outside and shoot hoops on his own or get a ball and dribble around the house.  (So far, I've managed to not lose my cool over that, although it's hard sometimes because it seems to make the whole house shake!)

Easter photo op

Rudy basketball

With James back in school every other weekend, we decided to try Upward basketball at a local church.  With only one gym and the convenience of practices and games nearby, I thought it was definitely the way to go.  The kids really enjoyed it, too, since they got to play with or against some of their school mates. 

 

Rudy with Coach Donny. Rudy always had practice before Brady, so we'd be at the gym for 2+ hours.  Donny would always stick around at the end of regular practice to work with Rudy one-on-one. 

 Paul has been in Rudy's class every year since Kindergarten.  He and Rudy are buddies in school, and played against each other in every game.  It was great to watch them over the course of the season.  Paul is an all-star player and Rudy really had to pick up his game to keep up on both offense and defense.  In the end, I think the competition from Paul was a big reason for Rudy's improvement!  Each boy ended up with the MVP for his team. 

Just a little trim...

Rudy's Senior Year Prediction

Rudy's class is doing a class book, and each child is writing about his/her senior year in high school.  It sounds like Rudy is planning to be pretty busy!

 

Rudyisms

Recently discovered in my inbox, a few more Rudyisms:

From September 2012:

When my pants are too tight around my waist my face really itches.

This watermelon isn't done. (not ripe)

From February 2013:

K:  What would you do if you had unlimited money?

R:  I would buy an automatic paper airplane folder. And then I'd buy a tiny ladder and a shrink machine.

From September 2013:

The boys were playing Minecraft when Cooper announced that he had gotten a “fee-ther”. 

Rudy: You mean a feather?

Cooper:  Yeah, but some people call them feethers.

Rudy:  That’s not right.

From October 2013:

At the dinner table, we were discussing what James should wear for his admissions interview to the MBA program.  The guidelines said business casual, but should he wear a jacket or a tie?  Rudy's suggestion would have made a memorable impressions:  

"An arrow through his head and a clown suit."

Visit with Grandma

We were so glad to have Grandma in town for a few days!

Arts Festival

Every year, I'm even more impressed with the arts festival that the school division organizes.  The art teachers at all of the school pick a theme, create school-wide projects to display, put together make-and-take crafts, and select and display student work.  We were lucky enough to have Grandma in town to join us for the arts fest.  She got to see the kids' artwork on display and see Brady perform with his school chorus and the all-county chorus. 

The boys' elementary school project was "Dr. Heard's Herd," with this pattern elephant.  Each kid created a "zen doodle" (free doodle, basically), which the art teacher then cut into four smaller squares.  She glued those onto the foam board elephant.  Brady even found his square on the ear!

 

UPDATE, 5/12/14 - The elementary school had a separate arts walk, prior to the second and third grade performance.  We found both pieces from the county arts festival as well as Rudy's self portrait and Brady's still life.  In addition to Rudy's class musical, the other highlight of the night was when Brady was recognized as the winner of the school Reflections art contest for his graphic design piece, "Islands."