A Day of Play!

It was Play Day for Keziah today - a day where the student body is split up into teams, and then as teams, they are challenged all day with various activities. Points are handed out and then counted at the end of the day, with teams placing in order according to points accumulated. It is truly a neat day to observe, as you see the older ones become such great leaders, helping the younger ones out. Today was no exception. Every team and leader did amazing.

This was Keziah's first Play Day, and I'll be honest, I was not sure how she would do. Two factors that I thought would play a part in her not enjoying the day are:

1. She does NOT like to be hot. At all. As soon as she feels hot, there is no reasoning with this girl.
2. She can feel overwhelmed very quickly, especially if she is not sure what is expected of her and/or people are yelling (cheering) all around her.

Well, this girl did absolutely fabulous! I feel bad to say I was amazed in how well she handled the whole day, but I am! I have taught many kindergartners, and often by lunch on Play Day, they are completely toast, in tears and don't want to participate anymore.

Although Keziah can quickly become teary when those two factors mentioned above happen, not once did I see a tear! She played hard all day. And she enjoyed herself - which was the best!

Here are some of the activities she enjoyed:
Spider Web - each team member had to get through the "web" without touching it at all. Once a spot was used, it could not be used again. Here Keziah is being "fed" through the web with success!

 

Not sure what this activity was called, but once again, it meant teamwork!

Mini Golf:

High jump

50 Metre Dash

Soccer Baseball - here she is, standing in the field. She was told where to stand, and that is where she stood. She did not move, even when a ball came near her. I love this age - they listen so literally! :o)

Our school is blessed with such caring teachers, always making sure the little ones know what to do.

Running the bases!

Great kick for Soccer Baseball!!

Obstacle Course - being coached by one of her teammates:

Baseball Throw - again, being coached....

One of Keziah's cheerleaders:

Running Long Jump:

Water Game - while other little ones did not like this game, Keziah loved it! She was lucky - this was the last activity for her, at the end of the day when it was nice and warm out.

While watching the kids play, we noticed a Sun Dog - a full circle rainbow around the sun. So cool!!

Cheering is hard work! Definitely deserved a freezie :o)

Keziah's team ended up in 4th place out of 10 teams. Good job, team!!

Hockey!

If you are a hockey fan, you will know that right now we are in the midst of NHL playoffs. I LOVE hockey, especially playoff hockey. I don't care who is playing, I'll watch it anyway. It's fast, exhilarating and so much fun to watch.

This year however, we have very few Canadian teams in the playoffs. In fact, we have just one, the Montreal Canadiens. We'll see how long they last.....as I write this, they are playing the Boston Bruins.

While the NHL hockey playoffs are so much fun to watch, those teams are not the only ones enjoying the game. There are many hockey players out there, even those who play without getting paid ridiculously amounts of money. One of those hockey players is this guy:

Do you recognize him? No, neither did Lincoln. But it's my dad!

Last week, we woke up early (he plays early in the morning) to watch him play hockey with a bunch of his buddies. I don't know what was more hilarious, watching my dad haul himself back up using the goal posts, or seeing my kids in a hockey shirt:

Keziah enjoyed watching Opa play. Lincoln didn't know what to think. That goalie mask that Opa was wearing really threw him off.

This girl loves her Opa!!!

And while it took a bit for Lincoln to acknowledge Opa, he eventually did - especially when Opa let him walk on the ice (his mother wouldn't let him....remember, he is already missing a chunk of his tooth, I had visions of him chipping the other front tooth by wiping out....)

Opa celebrated his birthday yesterday and we are so thankful that at his age of 62, he is enjoying life to the fullest. You will not find this man sitting for more than 3.75 minutes unless it's on a motorbike, boat, atv or snowmobile. Then he manages to sit quite long. And often :o)

These two are so blessed to have an Opa that loves them like crazy.

Actually, they have more than one Opa that loves them like crazy. We are so thankful to God that we may see our parents as grandparents to our own children.

August Learnings

Please tell me this is not the last month of summer!!! Sigh. Time just keeps on ticking. Good thing we are trying our best to enjoy every moment, learning along the way.

Lincoln learned that the Library doesn't only have Strawberry Shortcake movies, but TRUCK movies too!!

We learned we aren't the only turkeys living on our property. We've discovered this flock of wild turkeys milling about and so far they have no plans on leaving!!

I learned that when hosting a baby shower, Keziah likes to be included. I set up the chairs, left the room to get the coffee going, came back, and noticed an extra chair was added :o)

Lincoln learned how to take his sleep sack off while he should be sleeping. Thankfully he hasn't discovered how to take his diaper off. Yet.

I learned that the number of my children grows from 2 to 3 when the Lego comes out:

Lincoln learned what an ipad is all about. He watched it once and now every time daddy enters the room, Lincoln runs looking for the ipad while yelling "ipad! ipad!"

Keziah learned that her great uncle John is a fantastic story teller

I learned it is never too late to give a birthday card. Especially when it contains money!! (I was 2 and 3 months late for their birthday. Or 8 and 9 months early....:o)

Speaking of birthdays, I learned that I will probably never get hired to wrap presents:

Keziah learned how stale the candies are from the candy canisters at the store:

Lincoln learned to hide quickly when he hears me say "Time to get pajamas on!"

I learned you can never be too safe riding a bike, baby and all!

Lincoln and Keziah learned it is hard to choose a flavour of ice cream:

Keziah is learning to "read" books to her brother. Lincoln is learning to sit through a whole book. I am learning to sneak a picture (still haven't learned how to prevent my heart from turning into a puddle....):

Lincoln finally learned how to climb down the playground steps!!

Keziah learned that having a butterfly coloured on her face isn't so bad after all. I learned that the reason why she finally wanted this done is because I didn't use the words "face painting" but "face colouring".

We learned you can make a lot of things out of sand other than castles:

I learned that the next time we take the kids for a walk by the lake, I should have extra clothes for Lincoln. Walking by the lake quickly turned into walking in the lake:

Lincoln learned that daddy is harder to pull down into the water than he thought:

I learned a very sane lesson, and that is, when it is time to help Lincoln with feeding himself, use another spoon. I've always taken his spoon away from him to use which results in a very upset boy. Now, I let him hold his own spoon while I finish up his food with him using a different spoon.

Keziah is learning to listen for particular words during Bible reading. When she hears the word, she puts up her hand:

Lincoln of course is learning right along with her (not having a clue why he's putting up his hand, but he figures his sister is, so why can't he?!)

Keziah and Lincoln learned how tasty brown sugar and tomatoes are. Me? Not. What a waste of brown sugar.

I learned you don't need to play a whole lot of soccer to earn a medal and certificate!

Lincoln learned to say "No!!!", finger and all!

And Keziah learned that duct tape CAN be fashionable!! I learned that if the poor girl needs to wear it all the time for her warts, spending the extra money on her two favourite things (pink and zebra) is so worth it!

And on to September we march. Cooler weather is in the air! Time for soups, sweaters and stampot!!