Halloween 2022

A pumpkin for Kade, a pumpkin for Brock, and a pumpkin for Moose

Halloween brings lots of treats to all the kiddos.... and work for Mom's filling all those treat bags for classroom friends.... 

The Friday before Halloween, Kade's taekwondo school hosted a Trunk or Treat. I think it served as a great dress rehearsal for the big day - they both requested to make some adjustments to their costume for the actual day. 

They are "shadows"... with red eyes. Spooky, but not quite the blood and gore costume they really wanted. I'm not ready for that yet!

Halloween day! A little sprinkle of rain right when we started, but overall a pleasant 72 degrees for trick-or-treating! I love North Carolina! As you can see, Kade adjusted his mask for most of the night - he didn't like wearing the mask. 

Okay - got Moose in the action! He was in his Bat costume too!

"Look at what I can do Momma! Take a picture!" 

Moose in his bat costume! 

The haul!

Kade drew the picture on his pumpkin and I carved it, but Brock did the entire thing by himself!! Kade is on the left and Brock's pumpkin on the right!

Three Little Pigs and a Halloween Meet

On Sunday, October 23, Kade and I had tickets to see "The Surprising Story of the Three Little Pigs" presented by the Raleigh Little Theater. 

This particular show was performed outside in the Amphitheater.  After we put our blanket down to secure second row seats, we strolled around the rose garden to pass the time. 

He's a tough cookie - would not let me take a picture with him until he took a picture of me. 

The performance was cute - most of them were kid actors. My perfectly honest Kade remarked "I liked it, but I didn't love it." Hard to instill a little culture in these boys!

Halloween weekend brought the annual Halloween Bash to the Triangle Aquatic Center. Brock swam in four total races - two on Saturday and two on Sunday. My Dad was able to join on Saturday and watch Brock compete. 

This meet was broken up into two divisions - 10 & under and 11 & over - except for one event where they combined ALL ages - his 100 yard individual medley. 

First race, which was a long wait from when he arrived at the meet, was the 10 & Under 50y Freestyle. 

He did really well - with a time of 33.12, placed second out of thirty-three participants overall. 

Second Saturday race was the Open 100 Individual Medley - he had to swim all four strokes. He did really well overall. He was seeded in the 9th heat out of 13 total. Placed 5th in the heat, 39th overall (121 swimmers) with a time of 1:28.76. 

Not too bad - he was swimming in a heat with two other of his Lifetime buddies - Joud and Noah - both 11 years old!

Sunday was a morning meet and he didn't have to wait long - his first event was the first of the day - 10 & Under 50y Butterfly. He did okay for a time of 39.14, placing second (out of 39 swimmers). 

Last event - 10 & Under 100y Freestyle. Placed Fourth (out of 19 swimmers) - someone in an earlier heat squeezed in with a better time than Brock's time of 1:17.40. Good job Brock! 

Swimming Tutorial with Lifetime Swim

Brock and Kade were requested to be the stars in a swimming tutorial video made with one of their past instructors. Mr. Eric is creating tutorials to be shown to future Lifetime swimming instructors on the correct way to teach classes. They are going to be famous! 

Here is a final product of Mr. Eric explaining how to teach a sitting dive. 

Brock showing off his dives off the block. 

And a final video of Mr. Eric showing how to teach a turn. 

I think they both had fun - and loved seeing themselves in the videos!

First Day of School 2022-23

Wow! School has begun for these two! Brock is in Fourth Grade and Kade is in Second. Kade was all excited as he now gets to play on the "big playground" at recess. They have some really wonderful - and patient - teachers this year. We love our elementary school!

They both get two electives each quarter! Quarter 1, Brock selected "Sports Fever" (language arts) and "Lifetime Sports" (PE), while Kade selected "Number Detectives AIG" (math) and "Treasure Island" (social studies). 

 

Quarter 2 begins in November with Brock's "Physics in Action AIG" and "Freaky Fractions" (math) and Kade's "Architecture AIG" (math) and "Beginning Chess."

You may have noticed Kade had a bit of a snaggle-tooth in those early morning school pictures. He ended up losing his front tooth after dinner that first day of school!

Let's do a photo shoot with Moose in the leaves too!

He's so cute!

I will also take this moment to remember how horrible our initial experience with the bus was at the start of this year. The bus driver just COULD NOT GET OUR STOP RIGHT. Finally at the 5 week mark, it has been consistent. Yuck. Just documenting our pain.