Angry Bird Star Wars Ultimate Battle

For about two and a half years Drew has been obsessed with Angry Birds, and then last Fall Angry Bird Star Wars came out.  That has taken his obsession to an all new level.  With much of his Birthday money this year, Drew has collected various Angry Bird Star Wars figures and games - it is his personal mission to beat out Evan from EvanTubeHD for the most characters.  For those that didn't know there is now an Angry Birds Star Wars II app, in which you can "teleport" your characters into the app.  He loves it!

So feeling guilty for neglecting Drew during baseball playoffs generous, Dave assembled every single Angry Bird set for Drew to knock down the pieces.  I'm talking maybe 10 sets!

Drew of course had to line up the correct figures that should knock down each "building".  While it no doubt took about an hour to build all of it, Drew smashed through them within 15 minutes.

He loved it though!  He is forever asking Dave to do it again. 

Reading Assessment

Earlier this month Drew's Kindergarten teacher asked me if she could keep him after school for one hour to do some reading records with him.  She wanted to get a more accurate picture of where he is reading level wise.  While I know she was planning on doing an assessment of all kids I got the impression she bumped Drew's "testing" up a bit.  I just heard back about how things went:

"He’s at a level 16 DRA – end of first grade.  His reading is quite
fluent and often reads with voice :o) (not monotone).  I know he can
decode (read the words) beyond that level, it’s the comprehension.  He
got to a point where he missed a chunk of retelling in a non-fiction
book.  He could interpret the chart located at the end of the book, but
he couldn’t remember details of what he read overall in the pages and
also was challenged with the skill of compare and contrast – he could do
this a little bit but not to the depth that would support him beyond
that level. SO, at this point, this is where I have him at and I’m in
need of locating him books at that level to borrow from class (“just
right books”) we call them."

She went on to say that she is going to have him doing some online reading and comprehension at school and at home using a program the District has to keep advancing and challenging him.

We're so proud of him.

Just for fun, here's a picture of him doing a tricycle race at the Pumpkin Patch last weekend.



He looks so little/young there.  Let me tell ya, he's growing up faster than you can blink!

Patch and Petting Zoo

We had to make a run to the fruit stand and low and behold, they had the pumpkin patch and petting zoo open at the end of September.  So while Dave was getting the food, I took Drew to the fun stuff.

Drew was feeding the goats.  While he was nervous about it at first, he loved it and asked for more.

I see more pumpkin patches in our future this year.  In fact yesterday we went to the big one and I'll post pictures ASAP.

The 60/40 Party

Last month we had a 60/40 Party for my parents at my Brother and Sister-in-Law's house.  What's a 60/40 party you ask?  Well it's a 60th birthday party for both my parents who turned 60 in September, and an anniversary party honoring their 40th Wedding Anniversary coming up later this month.

We asked them what they wanted to do for their Birthdays/Anniversary - since clearly it's a big one for both celebrations.  They came back with they wanted to have a nice dinner with the entire family.  So what did we do - we threw them a fancy dinner party.  Surf and turf - Filets and Lobster, and who can forget the wine?

There was one little surprise in store for them though.... a special guest that they didn't know about.  Here's the video surprise courtesy my sister-in-law Rana's cell phone.



That's my Mom's Cousin Jodi who flew in that day from Minnesota/Wisconsin.  And here's the photographic proof of the surprise...

 

We took a plethora of pictures that night... here are the highlights.

My sister Lisa and her youngest Chloe

Dave and my brother Matt hamming it up

Jodi and my Mom (aka Grammy)

My Grandma (aka GG) and Aunt Connie (aka Jodi's Mom and Grandma's Sister)

Drew

 Aunt Connie and GG

Dave and I

My brother Matt and Rana

Dave, Jodi, and my Dad (aka GrampC) - I think my Dad is trying to do Dave's "eyebrow" thing.  At least I'm hoping he's trying to do something other than look like a big dork...

Matt photobombing the picture of Dave and my Dad.

One of the bottles of wine we drank - I think it was a double magnum.  Gone in about 15 minutes :)

I believe this was the third bottle of wine opened... I liked the name of it.

Rana, Avery (Matt and Rana's youngest) and Jodi

Jodi (aka the baby hog) and Avery

One of the dinner tables (we had a total of 3).  

Matt and Avery - she was a happy girl that night!

It was a great night and I think my parents had a great time - which is all that counts.  Hard to imagine those days when we were living in California just the five of us, while everyone else was back in Minnesota and how small our dinner tables were.  Now we stretch into 3!  Wonderful time with family.

Devils vs. Cardinal

On September 21 - yes my mom's birthday - Dave, Drew, and I decided to go to the ASU vs. Stanford Cardinal game, Drew's first college football game.  So the drive down it was pouring. And by California standards it was torrential downpour - by Eastern/Midwest standards it was pouring!  I looked at the weather reports for Palo Alto and they said the rain should stop around 1:30 - 0% chance of rain after that.  Sweet.  So we arrived a the parking lot to do some tailgating around 1:45pm and the rain ceased....

 The boys with their beverages...

And then we handed the camera to Drew... here's what he came up with.

 

He's just so cute, even if he's not a great photographer yet...

 

No that wasn't his "sippy cup". LOL

So I ran to get the tickets at Will Call while Dave and Drew stayed back at the car, only Mother Nature decided to let loose one last time.  I came back as a drowned rat as the clouds dropped everything they had for about 30 minutes.  I found some cover under a tree with some Stanford fans for about 15 minutes while I waited out the worst.

Drew literally laughed at me when I came back to the car as the rains let up.  I got the sympathy chuckle from Dave when he saw me.  The good news, I dressed in layers so I could shed some and throw my hair up for the game.

We had great seats in the ASU section.

I don't have any explanation for Drew's crazy faces lately.

And here's our first touchdown right after the 2nd half...

We had to force Sparky to do his 7 push-ups.

We taught Drew how to make the fork...

And  Drew lost interest in the game shortly after the game started.  We managed to keep him around until the middle of the 3rd quarter when we decided to bail.

When we left the Devils were getting slaughtered 24-7... but then ASU came back some and we listened to the remainder of the game on our drive home.. the final was 42-28.

On to USC this week... (we're digging on the fact the local viewing of the games in the East Bay is right down the street).

Soccer Fun

Just some random fun from our 3rd soccer game of the season.

Drew is #2.

 And here's a video of Drew playing shortly before his really aggressive moment.

Race Bug Bites the Family

On the morning of Drew's Birthday Party my parents and neighbor joined me for their first 10K race - the Delta Harvest Run.  I've done this 10K for the past 3 or so years.  It seems to be doubling in size every year which is great since it raises money for the local food bank.

Here was Grammy and GrampC before the run (all photos are from my cell phone)



My neighbor Julie and I

Still Pre-race - my Dad and I.  I have to add this was not only his first 10K, but his first ever race!


The whole family - Mom, Dad and I


This is the first time I've done a 10K and run the entire distance, I'm usually sick in September and thankfully I was healthy for this one and ran the entire time.  Admittedly my training wasn't where it should've been and I finished with a final time of 1:09:41.

Here is Grammy coming into the finish giving a friend a high-five.

Her final time was: 1:47:41
Dad's  time: 1:44:40
Julie finished about a minute ahead of me.

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