The Team
In this picture, the kids on Jackson's basketball team are
having their end of season party at Peter Piper Pizza. I
was the coach of Jackson's team, which was a challenging
experience. Basketball is a hard game to teach to a bunch
of eight year olds, most of whom had never played before.
Zachary turns 5
In a much anticipated event (from his perspective
anyway), Zachary turned 5 in May. He decided to have his
party at Fiddlesticks, a miniature golf and arcade. We
were lucky in that it wasn't an oppressively hot day.
Zachary chose a Spiderman theme for his cake and
decorations.
The kids each got one round of golf as part of the party
package. Zachary is standing with Devon before the beginning
of his round. He looks quite confident and appears to be
"adjusting" himself before his first tee shot.
Summer Learning
Zachary officially graduated from Daycare in May. Here he is
proudly holding up his diploma next to his favorite teacher
Ms Jennifer. Zachary is very excited to start kindergarten.
He would ask me every couple of days when his "real" school
would begin.
Even though school was out, we tried to keep the kids reading.
Jackson and Zachary read for at least 15 minutes every night.
Well, almost every night. Jackson still prefers nonfiction,
mostly science books. Zachary is disappointed that he can't
read by himself.
The boys wanted to earn a little extra money in the summer, so they
set up a lemonade stand on a nearby street corner one Saturday
in June. It was probably 110 degrees outside (good lemonade
weather), but the boys and I stuck it out for over an hour.
Business started a bit slow, but eventually the boys made
over $13.00.
Our friend Marie is a yoga instructor and one night when
she and her husband Todd were over for dinner Marie gave
us an impromptu yoga lesson. Lisa's mom and her 79 year
old grandma joined in as did Zachary. Zachary is a
flexible little monkey and enjoyed doing the downward facing
dog pose.
Disneyland
Grandma Carole was quite brave in that she and Grandpa Ray
took the boys to Disneyland in June. Apparently the boys
liked the Pirates of the Caribbean and Zachary liked riding
on this ship, which I think is the one that takes you
to Tom Sawyer's Island. Luckily, Zachary is tall for his age,
so he was tall enough for most of the rides.
Grandma later told us her secret to keeping the boys happy
was to keep stuffing them full of candy. Filling Jackson and
Zachary with sugar sounds like a
risky plan to me, but I guess it worked.
I'm not sure where this picture was taken, perhaps at the Small
World ride, but here Jackson, Zachary, and Grandma are standing
in front of a large shell.
In addition to letting them eat candy for lunch, Grandma also
let the boys stay up to see the electric parade. The boys liked
it quite a bit.
A New Year at Jacobson Elementary
You might think it strange to show a back-to-school picture
in a Summer photo gallery, but the boys' school started on
July 30 this year. Zachary was very excited that he was finally
starting Kindergarten. Jackson was placed in a CATS classroom,
a split 3rd-4th classroom for gifted students.
Zachary was really ready to go to school. He stayed home all
summer and had lost a little of his social confidence. We were
lucky in that, with a little negotiation on my part, we were
able to get Zachary into the one all-day Kindergarten class
offered this year at Jacobson. In this picture, Zachary is
proudly standing in front of his desk. He didn't seem nervous
at all when we said our goodbyes and left him in the
Kindergarten playground.
School means homework, even for Kindergarteners. We didn't want
to put the kids in after-school care, so I would pick them
up at 2:40 and we would walk home. I told Jackson he couldn't
watch TV until he finished his homework. He would always work
very fast, so he wouldn't miss the start of the Kids WB cartoon
series at 3:00. Zachary would get a packet of homework every
week. In this picture, he is practicing writing some letters.
It can be hard transitioning from the carefree life of summer
vacation to the relentless grind of school. It was particularly
hard on Jackson because he was isolated from most of his 3rd
grade friends. His class ate lunch and went to recess with
the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, which was a bit daunting for
Jackson at first. One afternoon Jackson was so tired out from a long
week at school that he just fell asleep on top of the
living room couch.
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