Winter Fun

Well, it's been quite a winter!  Lots of storms, plenty of snow and cold.   Here is the big snow mountain by the bus stop.  The kids like to climb it every morning while we wait for the bus.

 Then we have to quickly scramble down it when the bus comes around the corner

When the temperature finally went up and the snow mountain started melting the kids started throwing pieces of it at me.  :)   And it turned into a snow melt snowball fight.  We threw snowballs at each other and then tried some target practice on plastic chairs in the yard.

 Here are the kids throwing snowballs at me

Anna was really good at getting me with those snowballs - usually on the back while I was reloading.  So does the melting snow mean we're finally coming out of winter?  I don't think so, but we'll try to enjoy the cold and snow while it's here.

Basketball

Matthew is playing basketball at the YMCA this year.   This is the first time he's played on a team.  He's super excited.  He just had his first game last Saturday and they did pretty good.  He is on a 6 and under team and they don't keep score, have fouls or get too particular about things like double dribbling or traveling.  They will call it if you are just blatantly running around without dribbling, but they give the ball back to that team after a reminder that you have to dribble.  It's good for their age group.  Here are a few pictures from Matthew's basketball exploits thus far.

Matthew taking some practice shots.  There is a wide range of abilities on his team.  Some kids can't dribble at all and some can do legitimate lay ups.  Matthew is somewhere in the middle.

Here he is taking a shot.  He actually made quite a few of them.

Good job Matthew

 

And here he is playing with the ball while he was supposed to be listening to the coach.  Our coach is really nice and earnest.  He asked the kids to come up with some team name suggestions.  Matthew asked me what some good team names would be.  I suggested they could either name it after an animal, like The Tigers, or after a Pro Basketball team.  He didn't know what a pro team name was so I offered up The Lakers.  He gave me a withering look and told me no one would vote for THAT name.  So I guess "Lakers" is out of the running.  They ended up naming the team The Thunders!

Matthew has been wanting to go practice basketball at the court behind our house.  I told him we would go when we got a warm day...and luckily one came along.  I thought I would show Matthew all my sweet basketball moves, but I was pretty rusty.  After a little practice I started shooting better.

Of course the hoops behind our house are regulation height (they lower the hoops for the youth games at the YMCA) and it was pretty hard for Matthew to make a basket there.  We had fun practicing though.  He does like taking shots.

 Anna came with us and practiced too.

She also brought snacks and water bottles for everyone.  So prepared.

And here is Matthew in his first game, waving arms wildly to show his teammate he's open.  He's in the middle in a white jersey.  Way to go Matthew!  More basketball fun to come.

And along with basketball, Matthew is also doing karate this year.  Anna said she wanted to do karate instead of gymnastics this year, so we've got two little white belts now.  Anna is also doing swimming lessons.  She does karate for 45 minutes then swimming lessons for 45 minutes (while Matthew has his karate lesson).  She is usually pretty beat by the time we get home (as am I).  ;)

 

But I think she likes it so far.

John's New Words

John hasn't said many words yet and I've started to wonder if he will need speech therapy as well as physical therapy.  But over the past week or so we've been hearing a few new words from him.  He has said book, ball, no and uh oh.  And for a while he has said mama and dada.  That's pretty much all he says right now along with a lot of jabbering and pointing.  But I'm hoping the new words are a good sign and there will be more talking on the way.  Here is a video of him saying No.  I recorded it 'cause by the time Scott gets home John is usually done jabbering and talking for the day.  So I wanted Scott to be able to see it.

And here is a video of John saying uh oh.  He crawled up as I was loading the dishwasher and started climbing on top of the open dishwasher and said, "uh oh!"  That was the first time I'd heard him say that.  So I tried to get a video of him saying it.  For Scott.  Good job Johnny!  Keep the new words coming!

Student of the Month

Matthew was selected as student of the month for his class for January.  He was very excited.  We got to have donuts with him and his teacher at his school as a special student of the month treat.

 Matthew really loved the donuts!

 Here he is with his teacher getting his award

 Matthew and his certificate.  He also got a cup full of goodies.

 And all the January students of the month

It was early in the morning (before school) so Scott even got to come...although he would have already been at work at that time.  He got to go in a little late for the occasion.  Good job Matthew!

St. Louis Science Center

Where we live now it kind of feels like we live out in the country.  I drive through miles of corn fields to get to the nearest (off base) store, Walmart.  But even being out in the cornfields, St. Louis is only 25 miles away.  On our day off school last week (MLK Day) we went to the St. Louis Science Center.  Museums are a perk of living near a big city. And like the zoo and several other St. Louis attractions, the Science Center is FREE!!  There was a really cool rolling ball display at the entrance.  We had to check it out.

Programming the train.  We could change how fast the train went and for how long by setting different toggle switches to different settings.  The speed and time was all in binary.

 Changing the designs on the floor by dancing!

John had fun dancing on the floor too

 The architecture exhibit was fun too.  We got to build a big catenary arch like the St. Louis arch.

 And a little one

 And learning the importance of cross beams/supports.

Working a robotic digging arm.  This one caused some distress 'cause the line got too long and Anna didn't get a turn.

There was a walkway between two parts of the museum that goes over the interstate.  We got to look through telescopes and clock the cars on the freeway with police radar.

 There was also a little glass manhole to look through and see the cars passing below.

 At the dinosaur dig exhibit

Grant digging for dinosaur bones.  We also saw an Imax (or Omnimax) movie about the Ice Age which made the kids a little sad 'cause it talked about, among other things, a baby mammoth that died in a mud pit.  It was interesting though.  We got to see some space displays in the planetarium and had a lot of fun in the energy area and math area.  Plus it was great to get in for free...so we can go back some other day if we like.  Lots of science fun.