Grand Blue Mile...

Drake Relays time!!
Sam and Jason ran the Grand Blue Mile!
There was lots going at the race, including a "fake" finish line!

The sun was right in Sam's eyes...

Still in his eyes!!!

Ah..much better!
I wasn't able to go to the race...so a friend of ours was taking the pictures...no wonder it took three times for the boys to figure out to give Sam the sunglasses!! (smile)

Running the race!  Sam did really well, running his mile under 9 minutes - which was his goal!!!  I told him I would run it with him next year, but we would have to go much slower!

For a celebration, the boys headed to Fong's for pizza. Zombie Burger was OUT of the question!

The t-shirts...love the slogan!

Jim Hensen Part 2...

Sam had his Jim Hensen presentation day last week...FINALLY!!! It seems like we had been working on this for a long time!

Sam did really well.  He looks so sad in this picture.  He was SO hot.  His presentation was in the lunchroom with at least 100 other fourth graders. He hung in there though...wearing three layers and a wig the entire 75 minutes!

Here is Jim with his finished board! 

Sam had drawn a picture of Kermit...

He also brought Jack's Kermit and a couple of Muppet movies.  The little "man" in the background is Jim Hensen.  It looks as if he has a blue headband on, for some reason, the glue he used turned the brown hair blue.

He also wrote a short poem about his famous person.

Couldn't forget his favorite character, Animal!

Finally a little smile....I was so proud of him!

The whole family went to check out the Famous Person Fair.  At one point I couldn't find my sister.  She had gotten "trapped" by John Lennon.  After "John" gave her presentation, she decided to sing for Meg.  It took awhile...but instead of leaving after the song, Meg asks, "Can you sing "Hey Jude?"  Fortunately, "John" didn't care for that song!

Jim Hensen...

In fourth grade, the students are required to research and then give a presentation about  famous person.  Sam chose Jim Hensen.

 The project begins with a blank board.  We had to "decorate" the board so it could be the background for Sam's presentation and hold pictures and a written paper about Jim Hensen. We started with gluing down 12x12 brick paper.

After the bricks were glued down, we made a curtain for the top and tied it on the sides with tassels.  It is suppose to look like the Muppet stage.

Sam then printed out large 8x10 faces of some of the Muppets, put chipboard behind each character to make them sturdy and then duct taped each one to the back of the stage.

He was very pleased with his end product!!  He even did most of it on his own. I only helped him with parts! He told me he didn't want me to take over the whole thing..AS IF!!

He then needed to get a costume together because the kiddos were also required to dress up as their famous person during their presentation.  So we took the Moses wig or, according to Jason, the Jim Morrison wig (which had grown a bit longer due to the amount of wearing: all three boys have enjoyed the wig a lot this week!) and set out to cut it to resemble a 70s dude cut! 

Ta Da!! After the trim and adding the beard, we now have Jim Hensen in the house.
Part 2 of the presentation...later this week!

Spontaneous Batman...

On a rainy day Jack suddenly wanted to be...

Batman.

What an intense face for such an intense jump!

We are bummed that this one was blurry...he was just going SO fast!
(note to self: water plant!)

Zorro!  I mean Batman!

This photo scared me...it looked like he was about to lose his cookies!!!

 

"What are you doing, Jackman?"
"HELP! I am hanging off this building!!!!"

A Safe Neighborhood...

Sam has been playing a Batman video game and it seems that whenever or whatever the game of the day is, Jack ends up dressing as that character. The other day I looked outside and Batmen where wondering around.

 

Sam was a little hesitant at first to dress up, but with a little encouragement (AKA begging) from Jack he decided it would be ok...as long as they didn't go to far in the front yard where people might see him.

At times, Sam became very shy and hid behind the wall!! Actually he was hiding from Jack and hoping to throw some smoke bombs at him.  (when I spotted Sam, I had to laugh out loud, which gave up his hiding spot!)

A pose of the Batmen with their baterangs!

Off to fight evil after a quick conference on what would be the best strategy...baterangs or smoke bombs.

(Nothing like running through my freshly blooming hastas, UGH!)

 

The neighborhood was very safe that afternoon!

Let My People Go...

Moses came to visit us in REAL LIFE after Easter.
 

We headed over to some friends.  Moses thought he should have some security...so we picked up this guy to protect Moses.

I kept checking that we had Moses and not Charles Manson!

"My name is Moses.  Let my people go. Please."
His security was a great help in the releasing of his people safely.
They were then off to part the Red Sea, but not fill the Ark...that is Noah not Moses.

always thinking...

I usually insits the boys eat their lunch and dinner at the table.  Lately, I  learned that I didn't specify "which" table.

They wanted to watch TV while eating their lunch.  My response, "I don't think so..you need to eat at the table."  Well, when I came downstairs they had a table!  The took a big box (the one that Jack sat in to watch the Muppet Movie ) put a table cloth on it, some place mats...and WA LA...a table! 

They were very proud of themselves.  Jack even got a bowl of tortilla chips..just like in the Mexican restaurants. 

a good thing to remember...

wow.

I asked Jack to go upstairs to get his jammies on...

He came down with this little "monkey" outfit on.

From head to toe...it was all monkeys.

When Sam saw him, all he said was, "wow."

the easter egg hunt...

First, I must apologize for these pictures.  They are awful!  I must explain that our Easter egg hunt started at 6:15 in the morning.  Not by choice, but that was when the boys woke us up.  I was truly half asleep when taking these pictures...

The Easter bunny usually leaves a jelly bean trail from the boys' rooms to their Easter baskets.  But, that wasn't possible this year due to Moose...she would have enjoyed a jelly bean trail! 

So this year, the Easter bunny left 10 clues for the boys to follow in order to find their Easter baskets. They opened up an egg, read the clue and they were off to find the next egg and clue.

I couldn't use "natural" light to catch the boys running to the garage for a clue..that is because THERE WASN'T ANY!! It was 6:15 in the morning..notice the garage light still on?!

Jack was very excited to find his next clue...

...as was Sam!

As you can see, I had to use my flash during the hunt.  Notice they are dressed in "regular" clothes.  That is because they both slept in these clothes! You would have thought that it was Christmas morning!

They finally found their baskets in the fort...another picture I couldn't use "regular' light with!!

Ah...the light is just peeking out in the background.

After the hunt.  Jack was building Legos...as you may have been able to guess, Jas went back to bed after this picture!