it's field trip day!!!

on friday, gabe's class had their end of the year field trip. this year we went to the woodland park zoo in seattle! fortunately, there were about 10 parents that volunteered to chaperone, so that meant each parent only had 2 kids!! that made for a really enjoyable field trip! i had gabe and one of his friends, gunnar, who is always very hyper - but creative amanda came up with an energy blaster game that wore poor gunnar out pretty quick! during the last few weeks the kids had been researching a specific animal, doing a report, and presenting their information back to the class. so the idea of going to the zoo was to not only have a fun day, but to view the animal each child had researched and then the child would fill the chaperone in on the animal! gabe's animal was the komodo dragon and gunnar's was the bear. both boys did an excellent job presenting their facts back to me--i never knew there was so much to know about the komodo dragon or bear! we had a great day! while gabe and i were busy at the zoo, grady had an exciting day too! he went to josiah's house for a day full of play!! after we picked up grady, all we heard for the rest of the day was jojo this and jojo that!! he had a great day too!!

maestro gabe in concert!

on thursday evening, gabe and his first grade class had their end of the year concert! they sang and played instruments! gabe played an instrument called a thunder instrument during the song, "i hear music everywhere" and the whole class played kazoos during the song, "a beat in my feet." the first graders last musical number was one titled, "the parade came marching". in that song, the beginning started out soft, as if the parade were far away and then it began getting louder and louder (the closer the parade came) and finally back to soft as the parade left. that was pretty impressive for a group of first graders! we are now to the countdown--only 2 1/2 more school days left!!! we can't wait!

our little picasso

go find your creative thinking caps....you may need them today!! the assignment for art class today was a sea monster. now think back a couple of months ago to fishy in the water--same scenario, grady's sea monster seems to be hiding in all of the water!!! i think we have a case of loch ness monster here, grady's sea monster seems to be elusive! they also made a father's day card, which grady was very proud of. however, he did not want me to take a picture of the card...daddy might see it!! next week is the last little picasso class - grady is going to miss this so much, but when they start up next fall he will be in preschool....oh how we are growing up!

and the painting went down!!!

so, we held off for it to stop raining, but it has yet to cease, so we opted to paint in the garage this morning! i am still not brave enough to paint in the house. it seems that our little picasso gets a little crazy with the paint! just as master grady had said last week, that little pudgy penguin received a nice coat of blue paint. he also streaked the front of mr. popper penguin with some white. the hat ended up a light orange hue!! he so enjoys painting--it is so much fun to watch him create!!

game's over-- now it's party time!!!

after the game on saturday, the red sox and their parents all gathered at spiro's restaurant for an end of the season party and awards presentation! the kids all had a great time feasting on their pizza and cupcakes and the medals they received were pretty cool! coach gary presented the medals and had a special little something he said for each kid! he said gabe had made vast improvements over the season and his ability to consistently hit into outfield towards the end of the season was wonderful. coach gary and coach wayson were both very sad that gabe would only be around for one more season--but that kansas was getting back one heck of a ball player!!! i told them maybe he would come back and play for the university of washington!! that made coach gary smile! (he is employed by the university of washington!!!) they said they would watch for his name! what a super compliment! they also presented the official unofficial red sox scorekeeper with a starbucks gift card! i felt kind of bad taking it -- after all i ended up sort of enjoying my little duty!! although we complained a little about the weather, we had a wonderful time watching gabe and the red sox during their season--it will be nice to have our weekends back though!! for now--soccer is right around the corner and i think we will have two little fellas playing, yep it's just beginning!!!

one last game in the rain!!

the red sox ended their season on saturday afternoon. it was a wonderfully rainy and cool day for a baseball game--yes, you are sensing some sarcasm there!!! depsite the kids freezing their tails off they came out winners of the match up between them and the white sox. gabe had 3 great hits all with him ending up on base and with 3 rbi's! he assisted with an out at 1st base, andrew and him made a pretty awesome paring with gabe at pitcher and andrew playing first base!! each time they were playing those positions they almost always had at least one out! overall the red sox ended their season with 7 wins, 0 losses, and 3 ties! i would say that is a pretty great season!!! go red sox!!!!

our little picasso

today our little picasso used clay to sculpt a masterpiece! the assignment was a popper penguin sculpted by the kids and then miss christine helped them "personalize" their penguins. grady made a fat little penguin all decked out with a baseball hat and 2 baseballs! couldn't possibly be inspired from all of the baseball we have taken in the last few days--poor kid is being brainwashed!! and just like the duckie sculpture, we get the opportunity to paint the penguin after he dries for a couple of days! on the way home from art class, grady and i were dicussing the color palatte for the baseball penguin. he said blue, orange, and yellow just like my duckie! i guess we will wait and see where all these colors end up in a few days! we'll keep you updated!

it's a baseball kind of weekend!!

gabe's red sox team had another game on monday evening, and thanks to my prayers.... we stayed dry the whole game!! gabe's team pulled out the win 20-18! the kids played very well last night, gabe had 4 awesome hits. all went down the 3rd baseline into outfield. with him being a leftie, it is amazing he has already mastered the technique of getting it to go to 3rd base. last year most of his hits went right to 1st base! he helped the team with one out and what i call an almost out! he stopped the ball at the pitchers postition and threw it to first base where it bounced off of the 1st baseman's hand--bummer! but being the optimistic mom - it is an almost out! we have one more game on saturday afternoon against the white sox--i would have to check but the last game against the white sox, i am pretty sure we won!!! so hopefully we will end our season with a win!

tigers 7 -- mariners 5 -- but we still had a good time!

the fox family had the opportunity to take in a mariners major league baseball game on sunday afternoon!! the south mukilteo little league participated in "little league day" at mariners stadium. the teams got to parade around the field before the game, all of the kids received great mariners bags, and then everyone got to watch an exciting game! the game was tied 3-3 going into the ninth inning when the tigers pulled ahead with 4 runs in the top of the ninth--the poor mariners were only able to come up with two!! even with the loss, we had a great time. the boys thought it was so cool to get to march around the field and the snacks just could not be beat!!! grady and gabe both enjoyed blue cotton candy--wow that was a mess!!!! shawn took part in the mariners world famous garlic fries--wow now those are potent!! we all got our fill of snacky foods! and you will never guess what else happened--shawn got on the fan cam--the one they play on the big board. now you may ask "how is it that shawn got on there without the rest of you?" well we all decided it was time to hit the bathroom and the snack bar again--go figure! at first i was sure he was putting me on-but there were others to confirm it had happened!! man, was i bummed, i have always wanted to be on the big screen, and when my chance finally comes, where am i?? why the snack bar, of course! oh well, maybe next time!!!

a rainy game for the red sox!

on saturday, the red sox had another game!! and just as the two before, we got to sit in the rain!! i usually don't mind the rain, but i must admit, i am a little tired of sitting in the rain at baseball games! the red sox played the blue jays ending in a tie-- they are pretty equally matched teams. we played the blue jays at our first game of the season and tied them then as well!! gabe assisted the team with two of their four outs. the first was a line drive to first base with him getting the player out there and the second was an out at second base, stopping the lead runner!! he had 3 great hits with all three going into the outfield. we have a game again tonight, monday, and the clouds look full again!!! guess we'll pull out the raincoats!