S Punches A

Sam made a little hat last week at the Pavillion. It's one of those hats where you decorate it with markers. This particular hat had a windmill and no brim (aka beanie). Sam goes to the Pavillion every day after Kindergarten for about 5 hours of playing games, crafts, and watching TV. He also wore this hat to "Donuts With Dad" at school on the morning of 11/20/09.

One of the things you may notice on the hat is something that Pete has pointed out. When Sam writes his name in cursive, it usually looks like the S is trying to punch the A.

Thanksgiving Hike 2009

The family had a fun hike on the Goose Creek trail that runs from Keep Loudoun Beautiful Parkto the Potomac River neer Leesburg, VA. It was nice to continue the Thanksgiving tradition.

Along the Northerly walk, Pete and Sam found a geocache that was in a squirrel container. They proceeded to the old stone house. Then Pete and Dad scaled a steep hill to get a second geocache. Sam and Mom played on the rocks and beach on the walk back.

The container of the first geocache:

On the path:

Pete climbed in to the old stone house:

Pete and Sam looking at the waterfall from inside the old stone house:

Pete and Sam in the waterfall area:

Pete next to the second geocache:

Pete sitting in "chair rock" that Sam and Mom found on their hike back:

Crossing the bridge heading back to the car, with Goose Creek golf course just ahead to the left:

Sam Invitations 2009

Below are the invitations for Sam's party, which is coming up on Saturday, December 5.

Helping Bob

In July, the family volunteered for a community outreach project to assist disabled or elderly neighbors in the community. So everyone headed out to Leesburg on Saturday at 9:00am to help Bob.

Bob had difficulty walking, so he needed some help with cleaning the house, and getting some groceries. The cleaning was limited, since Bob didn't want anyone to mess with his piles of papers.

Pete and Sam arrived a little early, so had to come back about 30 minutes later.

Here is the entry to Bob's apartment complex:

Sam helping clean behind the TV:

Pete and Sam went with Dad to the grocery store, looking for the things on Bob's list. They got almost everything right, but had to go back to the store a second time since they got the wrong kind of Gatorade.

Bob had an impressive collection of antique model cars in glass cases. There were about 10 cases. Here is one of them:

Maybe Pete and Sam will visit Bob again the next time they are in Leesburg, or sign up next time to help someone else.

Dulles Family Fun Fest

In August, Pete and Dad went to the Dulles Family Fun Fest at Dulles Golf Center. It was a little pricey ($20), but included pizza dinner and about 3 hours of unlimited mini-golf, batting cages, driving range, and a few water slides. The best part, as you can see below, is that there was hardly anybody there, so no waiting in any lines.

Note, this is the same event mentioned in the previous blog post about the face painter with no sense of humor.

Sam Eating Dinner

The knowledgeable reader will be able to select the correct caption below for the photo:

a) Sam has finished all of his dinner and is washing it down with a drink.

b) Sam did not want anything that was served for dinner and is pretending to drink like a dog. The drink will be his only nourishment until whatever night is pizza night. After dinner, his clean plate can go right back into the cabinet.

Spongebob Birthday at Borders

Sam, Pete, Mom, and Dad went to Borders Books in July for their celebration of Spongebob's 10th anniversary. They did some crafts and heard a dramatic book reading.

Sam actually knew one of the workers at Borders (woman in red shirt in the picture above). She was once his pre-school substitute teacher the year before.

VBS Concert

On a Friday in July, Pete and Sam sang in the outdoor concert on the last day of Vacation Bible School (VBS). Mom was one of the volunteers at the school, so she got to be in the concert too.

As you can see, like most events at this church it was a bit of a garbled mass of humanity.

I think this is the list of songs from the concert:

Leaf Plow

Dad was raking some leaves on Sunday morning. Pete asked if he could help rake to earn a little money. They agreed that if Pete could help rake for an hour, Dad would give him $5. The following is what Dad found when he returned about 5 minutes later:

If you were wondering why it takes Pete 20 minutes to write 3 sentences for his homework, perhaps this will give you some insight.

Pete's hand was hurting, so Dad agreed to give Pete $2.50 after he worked for 30 minutes.

Allergy Testing

Results of Pete's allergy testing (2/18/09):

Airborne Allergens

1. Saline - 0

2. Histamine - 4+

3. Tree Mix - 3+

4. Bermuda - 0

5. Grass Mix - 0

6. RW Mix - 2+

7. Plantain - 0

8. Weed Mix - 0

9. Dock/Sorrel Mix - 0

10. Aspergillus - 1

11. Alternata - 3+

12. Clad. Sphoer. - 2+

13. Fusarium Mix - 1

14. Aspergillus Mix - 4+

15. Penicillum Mix - 2

16. Phoma betae - 1

17. Epicoccum nigrum - 0

18. Mouse - 0

19. Bipolaris sorok - 1

20. Dog - 2

21. Cat - 4++

22. Mite: Farinae - 4+

23. Mike: Pterony - 3+

24. Cockroach - 0

Foods

1. Milk - 0

2. Egg White - 4+

3. Egg Yolk - not tested

4. Wheat - 1

5. Orange - not tested

6. Corn - 2

7. Casein - 0

8. Fish Mix - not tested

9. Shellfish - not tested

10. Rice - not tested

11. Banana - not tested

12. Soybean - 1

13. Beef - 0

14. Chicken - 0

15. Oat - 0

16. Tomato - not tested

17. Potato - 0

18. Pork - 0

19. Carrot - not tested

20. Turkey - not tested

21. Apple - 0

22. Peanut - 1

Monster Ballad

Pete wrote a monster ballad which is actually pretty good and quite catchy. Sam and Dad will sometimes be heard around the house, singing the climactic chorus.

Below are the lyrics to the climactic chorus. One of these days, Pete will need to record a version with the music. One challenge is that the background vocals really need to be a chorus of about 20 people doing harmonies.

In The End, by Pete

In the end, we all are happy again

In the end, none of us are oh so dead

In the end, we all are still alive

And we get reunited with our friends

Skate Camp 2009

Pete and Sam got to go together this year to skate camp. Pete was apparently the first camper to execute a certain type of handplant. Presumably this was followed later in the week by some sort of faceplant.

A List

Here is a scrap of paper found one evening on the kitchen table:

Car Land

Car Land is one of the greatest games ever. It was invented one Saturday by Pete, Sam, and Dad. Here are the instructions for playing car land:

1. Cut out the letter "R" from construction paper

2. Take out the game Candy Land

3. Tape the letter "R" over the letters "ndy" on the game board

4. Get a pile of about 30 matchbox cars

5. Cut out 10 small squares of construction paper in each person's favorite color

6. Conduct a draft in which each person, taking turns, selects 10 of the 30 cars. Cars should be selected for maximum stability.

7. Each player tapes his color square to the top of each car on his team

8. Each player places his 10 cars on the game board (preferably on their colored squares, but not required)

The game board should look similar to this prior to starting the game, except there should be more cars and the cars should just about cover the entire board:

9. Players take turns. On his turn, each player drops or smashes a basketball on to the game board.

10. Remove from the game any cars that did not remain upright (i.e. flipped over)

11. After each round, move all cars back to the center of the game board

12. Last player with a car left wins, or player with the most cars left after 10 rounds

Pickle joined the game and played on Pete's team. Below is a picture taken during the game:

Helper

Meet Helper.

Helper has a blue name tag which says "Helper".

Helper was helpful in running Pete's Random birthday party in August, which featured a lot of children and not so many adults.

Helper was helpful in dismantling the high jump at the end of the obstacle course. Actually, this was somewhat unintentional, but that's ok since it was after everyone else had run the course.

We hope that Helper will come to help again next year.

Pete's Random Party - Games

See if you can match the games listed below to the randomly-ordered photos from Pete's Random birthday party:

• Ball Toss
• Candle Blowing
• Mad Libs
• Start of Obstacle Course
• Cake Eating
• Random Tag
• End of Obstacle Course
• Sponge Squeeze
• Water Balloons
• Street Tag