Tyler turns 5!!!

Today was Tyler's 5^th birthday… but the festivities started yesterday with his joint party with GiGi at the MAC. Almost all of his preschool classmates attended. After an hour in the gym with a couple bounce houses and a miniature golf course, we all went upstairs for some pizza, juice boxes, cake and a book exchange. Ty scored a great collection of Curious George stories in a nice hardback (8 stories!) which I think he's already plowed through.

 

We then had a good dinner at GL/Fred's place Sunday evening.

 

Today (the actual birthday), Annabel took all three boys to Chuck E Cheese after school, then they picked up some sushi from S-ville and we ate at home. Followed by yummy cake that A made, and some presents.  I think Ty enjoyed his big day!

 

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A few video links from Tyler's 5^th birthday celebration!

 

Nana's present (aka, Jackson, keep your hands off my present!)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17lq45jekqQ

 

 

Bubble Bath fun… (with some new bubbles from Uncle Nut and AE)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGOYCrhs2Io

A Poem (out of chronological order; from last spring)

Living Life

By the 1st graders of Mimi

3.1.11

 

 

 

Life is a good thing to have in this world.

Play at the park every day.

Be careful. Don't eat with forks until you're old enough.

Jump high in the sky.

Make sure you go to Mars in less than a year.

Plant a tree.

Laugh when someone's telling a joke.

Always wear earrings.

Take care of the environment.

Be nice to each other.

Eat pasta until you're old.

 

Tyler likes AC/DC

As Ty and I were driving to Nike this afternoon (I had to do a bit of work/organizing before the upcoming week), Tyler asked me – out of the blue – if I could play "Thunderstruck" or "Highway to Hell" in the car. Me (laughing) – "No, I don't have those songs with me. Do you like those songs?"  T – "Yes, I really like them a lot."  Me – "where have you heard them before?"  T – "Last night when we were watching Percy Jackson, they played Highway to Hell when Percy and Annabeth and Grover were driving in their car in Nevada to go to Carson City. It was cool."  Me – "Oh. And what about Thunderstruck?"  T – "I listened to that on the white ipod at home."  Me – "So you like AC/DC, huh?"  T – "yeah."

 

FW: Things Ty wants to do:

Tyler has figured out how to go into Annabel's iphone, go to the "notes" app, and email a note. So he dictates lists to Annabel (example below) then sends them to me.

-----Original Message-----
From: Annabel George [mailto:annabelgeorge@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 4:26 PM
To: George, Chris
Subject: Things Ty wants to do:

Things Ty wants to do:
- ride tram
- puzzles
- games
- ride plasma car
- play cat

Sent from my iPhone

Hopefully ... more updates to the blog!

It's one of my 2012 new year's resolutions ... to try to post more frequently to this blog! i'm off to an OK start with some postings here on the night of the first ... let's keep it up!

Looking for Leprechauns

Nothing better to do on the first day of a new year than to head up into the woods to hunt for leprechauns. It was a nice day here in P-town ... clear skies, low 40s (a bit chilly with an east
wind). D, J, T and Jude were all in tow. While we didn't spot any leprechauns live and in the flesh, there were numerous signs of their activity...

Ringing in 2012!

We spent the final day of 2011 up at Mt. Hood Meadows for the final (race) day of the MAC ski camp. It was a beautiful day - clear skies, no real wind - with pretty good snow after ~16 inches the day before. Much better than the start of the camp, which was just warm enough to be raining on the mountain, but windy and cold once everyone's gloves got totally soaked. They even cancelled the second day of the camp (it rained 5+ inches at the mtn. that day).

J and D were much more comfortable on their skis after a couple of days under their belt and both did a good job with their races (2 runs). I went with them for the first run before lunch, while Annabel was with Ty on the magic carpet and buttercup. We then switched for the afternoon.

In terms of results, the boys came in at the end of the pack for the MAC team, given that most of the other participants are much more active skiers. That said, they are much closer in terms of time to then next group of kids in their age group ... if they got 10-15% faster (from a race time of ~43 seconds to 37-38) they would be in the middle of the next ~6 kids above them. I think they could make that kind of improvement over the course of another 8-10 days on the mountain. [as comparison to the really good kids - who have skiied a ton - that are doing the course in the 30-32 sec range]

Ty had a good time, although he was driving both A and i a bit crazy. he really needed to stay on the magic carpet and just practice staying balanced and making a wedge, but he insisted on heading over to Buttercup after a few carpet runs each session. He showed some signs of improvement/comfort though - even over a few short runs.

A great quote he had to Annabel that highlights his current independent streak ... after she told him to stop eating snow, he replied: "I WILL eat snow! You are not the boss of what I eat and don't eat. End of story." Classic Ty right now.

After we got back, our wild and crazy new year's celebration consisted of A falling asleep on the couch while the boys and I played Ticket to Ride on the ipad. Nick and Elise and kids got home a bit before 9, and we all toasted the new year, Eastern time zone, before getting the kids to bed around 9:15.