Sandbox Battles

On August 15th, Pete, Sam, and Dad were bored so they decided to wage some sand battles with all of the old action figures in their collection.

Lo and behold, one of the presents Pete got the next day for his birthday was a sandbox battle set with catapults, weapons, castles, cannons, etc.  After the party, some of the guests stayed to play with it.  Pete and Sam have also played a few times since then.

Basement Dodgeball

Sam: Can Mason, Luke, Corey, and Pickle come into our basement to play dodgeball?

Mom: No.

Training Wheels

Congrats to Sam on riding his bike without training wheels as of 9/23/08.

* Bike not pictured

** Photo taken by Sam

Childproof Caps

For our readers who may be doing research on what age children can open child-proof caps on medicine bottles, we don't know the exact answer but we can report that it is less than 8 years, 1 month.

New Tree

This past weekend we decided to put in a new tree to help screen the back side of the house.

Dad and Sam went to get the tree.  Sam helped pick it out, and got to sit with the tree on the ride home from the nursery.

You can see that Pete helped Dad finish digging the hole.

Then Pete and Sam checked to make sure the hole was deep enough.

Next time you come to visit, you will have to go around back and check out the new tree.  Hopefully Pete and Sam will remember to walk around the tree when we walk to IHOP, Fuddruckers, Potbelly's, KFC, or Bertucci's.

"Fun" Fest

It's late September, so every group of two or more stores in America will be having a "Fun Fest" sometime in the next month.  Among the most pathetic of these is the one we attended on Saturday at the Ashburn Town Square.  We stopped there after a morning of soccer, practicing for Pete's Punt/Pass/Kick competition, getting a guitar for Pete at the Broadlands community yards sale, and stopping for a visit at Ben's house.

Pete and Sam began the Fun Fest with the "hay ride", which was two horses pulling a trailer across the parking lot.  Then they decorated the pumpkins shown above.  We watched a karate demonstration, grabbed half a bagel from a basket in front of the bagel shop, and that was about it for the Fun Fest.  See you in '09!

Mystery Bruises

You can usually tell how much Pete has been skateboarding or roller-blading by looking at the cuts and bruises on his legs.  Part of the problem seems to be that the neighborhood kids come up with ideas for tricks, then go looking for Pete to see if he will try them.  

Hopefully he can get healed up over the winter.

Block Party

It seems that block parties spring up on our street on various days throughout the summer.  Here is one that took place on Labor Day weekend.  It was a bit of a "last hurrah" before school started up again.  Pete and Sam take advantage of the opportunity to run around all night like street urchins.  Pictured above is Sam wandering around at 10:00pm with no shoes, a bicycle helmet, and some sort of glow stick.

Sam's Family

Here is a craft Sam brought home one day from pre-school entitled "Sam's Family":

It looks pretty accurate. Note that Dad and Sam are smiling, Pete is mad, and Mom is clearly annoyed that everyone has taken off their shoes without putting them away in their cubby.

No Idea

Sometimes you find a mystery picture on the camera and you have no idea where it came from.

First Day of Third Grade

Pete is now off to third grade.

You can make up your own mind how happy he is to be back in school.

Cannibalism

Pete: What does it mean if an animal is a cannibal?

Dad: It eats other animals of the same species

Pete: I'm going to become a cannibal, eat Sam, and then change back

New Ramps

We bought 4 ramps and 2 rails from Taylor and Devon, who live 3 houses over on the cul-de-sac.  As you can see, Pete has been attacking his new ramps and rails with reckless abandon, on his bike, blades, and skateboard.

They say that sometimes the best pictures are captured with the least preparation, and the second picture above was such an occasion.  Just saw Pete heading toward the ramp and snapped the shot.  The timing worked out, and we now have what may be the best picture of Pete to date.

Next week we will post a picture of the cuts and bruises on Pete's legs.  (No, really, we have one)

Pete's Olympic Party - The Awards

Mom made some medals out of cookies, foil, and ribbon:

Everyone got a medal during the awards ceremony:

And they also got to take home a trophy:

Pete's Olympic Party - The Events

Each attendee at Pete's party got to take home a card detailing their performance in each of the 6 events. Here is Sam's card:

Here is Pete throwing the discus:

Here is Pickle getting ready to throw the javelin:

There was some time left over, so everyone threw tennis balls into the trampoline to try to get them in a bucket. This was not an official event.

Pete's Olympic Party - The Athletes

Pete decided to do an Olympics party this year. The timing was good since the 2008 Beijing Olympics ran from August 8 - August 24 and the party was on August 16.

Upon arrival, the athletes selected their countries (first come, first serve) and headed to the warm-up area (gazebo) to assemble their flags while listening to some Olympic music.

Here are the athletes:

And here are their flags:

A.R. Goal

Congratulations to Pete for achieving his Accelerated Reader goal on the 5th day of school. His goal for the first 9 weeks of the school year was 10 points. He took his test yesterday and scored 20/20 to get 13 points for completing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Now he is free to read anything else for the remaining 60 days.

Pete's Olympic Party - The Cake

Pete and Sam helped make the cake for Pete's 8th birthday party:

Computer Child

Based on Mom and Dad's photos, here is what one website thinks Pete and Sam should look like:

Kaitlyn Maher

Now that she appears to be close to getting in to the finals of America's Got Talent, it seems noteworthy to mention that Kaitlyn Maher goes to the same church as Pete and Sam. Being the same age as Sam, presumably they are in the same room together on Sunday morning. Hmm, maybe when she becomes a recording superstar he can ask her during arts and crafts if she would consider taking a look at his musical video from age 2. Speaking of Sam's video, the funniest comment yet was posted to it this week, which was: "Thats Very Sweet And Cute, And I Wanted To Ask What Language"

Sam Soccer Camp

Sam had fun at his one week soccer camp.

Also, check out the cool "Sack Pack" that he got:

Ice Cream Escalation

Look at the size of the items that Pete and Sam got recently from the ice cream truck on our street: