Jamestown Field Trip

Dad had the honor of being selected as one of the chaperones for Mrs. Staub's class on the 4th grade field trip to Jamestown, Virginia. So he headed over to school with Sam at 6am for the long bus ride.

Here is Sam hanging out on the bus with Brett and Jackson. 

Dad got to sit with Arman. He also got to call Arman's Mom to ask if he should loan Arman money since he forgot to bring his.

Here the kids learn how to fire their muskets:

Lower quarters of the slave boat:

And the best part of the trip; lunch:

Rejected Halloween Costume

Not all of Sam's Halloween costumes live to see the light of day (or night in this case). Often the topic doesn't come up until about October 30th, and then there is the desperate scramble to come upp with something. Below is one such example -- I believe this is actually three pairs of shorts:

The above idea was scrapped, and Sam settled on this:

We don't have a picture of Pete in his costume, but imagine Sam's costume above but replace the green with red, and replace the Dodgers hat with a large horse's head.

Mall Night

There were a few days that Sam and Dad had to take Pete from flag football practice to play rehearsal, while Mom was off doing something. You would think this would be a chore, but they made a little "Mall Night" tradition out of it.

Step 1: Pizza from Sbarro:

Step 2: Ride on carousel (Dad rides free for "safety" purposes):

Step 3: Massage chairs in Brookstone

117 Hours

Here is  a screen shot of Sam completing one of his Pokemoon games. Note the caption in the lower right. Yes, he spent 117 hours and 5 minutes. Of course this is only one of his Pokemon games. There was plenty of time spent on the others as well. 

And then of course there is League of Legends...

Math Team Sombrero

Sam did the Math Team in fall of 2013. Dad would pick him up at school twice a week around 4:00. One time, for reasons still unknown, Sam was wearing a tiny sombrero.

Columbus Day

Pete and Sam were home from school on Monday for Columbus Day.  They went with Dad to Ledo Pizza for lunch.  Dad had been telling Pete that he needed a haircut, even more so after seeing how much longer it had gotten over the long weekend that he spent with Mom in Las Vegas.  When Kimberly said to Pete: "I see that your growing your hair out", he decided that maybe it was indeed time for a haircut after all.

On the way home from lunch, Dad asked Pete to pick up the stick on the floor and give it a name.  Pete decided on "Stan".  Then Dad drove around until he found a suitable playground for a game of "Find Stan".  It was a perfect day to hang out outside for a while.  The boys played quite a few rounds of the game, as well as some "Swing Olympics", and then it was time to head home.

Later in the day, they would need to head back to the park with a flashlight to retrieve Pete's Farmwell sweatshirt.

Dominion Trail Tribune

Sam chose to do the "Dominion Trail Tribune" as an after-schoool ASEP activity. He looked forward to joining a staff of tallented writers and helpful editors as they crafted a Pulitzer-worthy newsletter. The reality fell a bit short of these expectations.

But Sam did write a killer article about socks.

Star Student

Congratulations to Sam on being named star male PE student in his grade for September:

And congratulations to Dominion Trail Elementary School for finally realizing that you can put full last names in a newsletter and the world will keep turning.

NFL Flag Football

Pete is playing in a different flag football league this year, NFL Flag Football.  He is on the Redskins, which Dad is not very happy about.

Below is a picture of his team, getting ready for a game after their one hour practice.  Left to right is Kevin, Adam (back), Aryan, Pete, Anthony, Elson (back), Colby, Coach Brea (offense), and Scott (seated).

This was quite an entertaining game, including the fact that Pete caught and threw touchdown passes.  Pete's QB stats were 1 attempt, 1 completion for 65 yards and 1 TD.  He also got a chance to play defense in this game, because they were ahead by 26 points.  He had a nice pass defense where he batted a ball in another zone right before it was caught.  This also was the only game that Sam didn't come to (for unexplained reasons).

Pictured below is Pete getting ready to run a pass route in the 1st half.

The Redskins are starting to peak, which is good since the playoffs are coming up.  They have a rather sophisticated offense, with about 40 plays.