First Grade!

Grant's first day of First Grade was today, August 7th, 2018. Boy, how time flies. He let us know how different school life would be now that he is a First-Grader...larger playground, different area of the cafeteria, and the chance to take part in the morning news show over the campus speakers. He also gets his own desk for the entire school year complete with storage. Switching desks every week is for kindergartners!

We celebrated this big step in his life with a special breakfast, photo shoot, and ended the day with frozen yogurt. 

Grant's Seventh Birthday

The Big 7. Since Grant was 4-years-old, he has used age 7 as the age he would do the things he thought were difficult. Scale that rock wall? "I can do that when I'm 7." he would say. Ride 10 miles on the bike? "Maybe when I'm 7." (His longest ride is already 16 miles) Run a mile? "That's when I'm 7 for sure." ...Well, I'm holding him to all of those this year.

For this birthday, we decided to do something at home with a smaller group of his close friends. We had a face painter who also does balloon art which was a hit. As you can see from the pictures, the first balloon sword created a trend and soon a balloon sword war in the playroom. Perhaps by instinct alone, Grant chose to take high ground on the couch with his balloon bow and balloon arrows stuffed in the back of his shirt. Each kid walked away unscathed and with various balloon shapes like a shark, jet, and even a pirate ship.

Mom had a great idea to have DumDum candies on each cupcake to continue the "Balloon" theme for the party and had an activity for each child to design their own PB&J sandwich. Note the disposable table cloth which came in handy.

All-in-all, a really fun day for the new 7-year-old in the house who feels like a big kid now and has changed to saying he will do challenging tasks when he is "double-digits...like ten".

Holiday Gingerbread House

Just a quick pic of two dudes working on a gingerbread house at the Children's Museum of Phoenix.

Summer Camp Talent Show

It's been a while since posting some fun pictures of Grant being Grant. Here we see Grant at the summer camp talent show. Several kids danced, some sang off-key. Grant's talent was push-ups while starring down the crowd with Flo Rida's "My House" in the background. He did an impressive 13 push-ups before ending with a yoga move. 

For his next act, Grant danced the Whip and Nae Nae with precision since the family practiced it together several times the night before. 

Grant's 6th Birthday!

Today, Grant celebrated the birthday he had been talking about for more than a year. For some reason, the age 6 is more than just another year. It is more important than 7, 8 and 9 to Grant. He talks about the things he will finally be able to do when he is 6. Well, Bud, you made it so let's see all those cool things.

Rebecca put in some extra effort on this one, finding all of the Pokemon (a current Grant favorite) themed activities and decorations. The Pokeball gift was a sure hit and I think everyone walked away with a better understanding of what a Charmander is. A huge thank you to Rebecca for all of the planning for a 36 person event at the Children's Museum of Phoenix (another Grant favorite).

The kids started with Pokemon Bingo, followed by decorating a take-home Pokeball Rice Crispy treat shaped like a Pokeball. Then the cake. A balloon stomp was next with each balloon hiding a Pokemon temporary tattoo. With all of those kids popping balloons and screaming, the room must have sounded like a Poke-Robbery. It was great fun though and ended with each kid walking away with these really cool Pokeballs holding all of the traditional gift bag items. That was a nice touch and good find!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Grant and Mama went on a hot air balloon ride yesterday morning and it was beautiful! We had a gorgeous view, fantastic weather, and an expert pilot.

Lost His First Tooth

Grant lost his first tooth yesterday! It was very exciting and he was a big guy about it. He just told me very calmly, while we were watching T.V. after dinner, that it came out. We washed it off, looked at it through his microscope, talked about why teeth have roots, and put it in the fairy door's little magic pot.

What's a fairy door you ask? When you put the fairy door against the wall, it tells the fairy that there's a tooth. She comes through the door, takes the tooth out of the pot, and leaves some money. Grant got a rolled up dollar.

Here he is with the door and the new gap in his lower teeth. (The silly sticker is from today's visit to the grocery store.)

Go Daddy!

Grant made his own poster to cheer on daddy during today's sprint duathlon. It says:

Go Daddy
Win a Medal
Faster Daddy

And then there's a drawing of the road.

First Pumpkin Carving

Grant had been very excited about carving his own jack-o-lantern this year, picked out the biggest pumpkin he could find, and couldn't wait to start on it tonight. However, when it came time to scrape out the slimy pumpkin guts, he wasn't so sure. 

The 30 minutes of hard work for Mama were worth the, "Ooooooh that's really cool!" when he first saw it lit up in the dark. Yay pumpkin carving! It brought back lots of great memories carving with Grandpa Ralph. :)

The Leavenworth Incident

Warning: This story may cause uncontrollable lower-jaw dropping followed by multiple OMG!s. 

The photos are not perfect due to the photographer being a dad in the Save-This-Moment-Zone. 

The Leavenworth Incident

It was a beautiful afternoon at a community park in Leavenworth, Washington during a family reunion for Rebecca's family. The trip had been a great success so far with fun times on the tree farm with Grandma Ruth before road-tripping 3 hours to the German-inspired town of Leavenworth. Rebecca and Grant explored the shops while I explored nature in a kayak on a white water trip. (Thanks Ruth! It was fun.) 

After meeting up with Judy to bring supplies, I caught up with Grant who quickly introduced us to his new friend, Braunwyn. Grant whispered to Rebecca, "She is seven!" 

We had food and exchanged stories with family while Grant and his new friend played. Grant then asked Rebecca for help gathering flowers so he could give them to Braunwyn. They gathered several, tied them together and placed them in a cup with water. Then Grant walked his gift over to her and put it in her hands. She looked at him and dropped everything on the ground and walked away. 

Grant was devastated. He tried to hide it but I could tell this really upset him. He does this thing where he goes through a made up script of what just happened (we all do, right?) except Grant speaks out his script to himself while pretending he is inspecting some toy or plant. All he needed was to regain his confidence and a second chance. 

I picked up the flowers and put them in my pocket to avoid potential PTSD. We sat on a bench and talked about enjoying the park, family and the good food everyone brought. Grant then jumped up to get lemonade for himself, but then offered it to Braunwyn when she came over. She denied his offer and he walked away, talking through his situation again. He was locked in on this bogey for sure. 

We talked about walking through the park and looking for interesting rocks. Grant said he wanted Braunwyn to look for rocks with him instead. I agreed that would be fun and told him that if she was too busy to go for a walk, I would meet him by a nearby tree. 

And then this happened.....