Thanksgiving 2016

Boogs and I were out of school for the week of Thanksgiving. We played with friends, watched a lot of tv, and prepared for hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 19 people. We took time to go see the new JK Rowling movie - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Boogs LOVED the movie!

Daddy took Boogs to get his mop of hair cut. Boogs has decided to let his hair grow long. I wonder what that means to him. He is such a cutie.

Boogs took some time this week to start working on his idea for Daddy's Christmas gift. Here is a sneak peek. Yes, he is wearing shorts without a shirt because it is November in Texas. Boogs had fun using the spray paint. We tried not to get it all over us.

Thanksgiving Day was busy at our house. It was fun to have family over for a big meal. We ran out of room at the big table so Boogs, Poppa, and little J sat at the card table.

 The rest of us squeezed around the big table. We were definitely elbow to elbow.

Daddy took on the big job of separating the meat from the turkey bones.

After dinner, people split up into different areas of the house. Some watched football, some watched a movie, some played in the playroom, and some took naps.

The house felt very quiet after everyone left.  It was a great day.

Big Catch-Up

Grandmaman, it has been a long time since I posted pictures for you. So here is a BIG catch-up.

Boogs let his hair grow out all summer. It was odd not seeing him with a buzz cut.

The week before school started he had his hair "shaped", not cut. He wanted to keep the length. Top picture is the before the shaping and below is the after pic. Then we had to try out many, many different hair products to get the perfect amount of spike in his hair. He is such a cutie.

We spent a lot of time the first nine weeks of school dealing with an infected bug bite. Boogs had to sit around with moist heat compresses on his arm. It took three rounds of antibiotics to clear it up. That extra sitting around time helped Boogs make straight A's on his report card the first nine weeks of school.

 

Here he is hanging out with me at school on a Monday morning before class with his hair perfectly pointy.

 

We have a new superintendent in our school district. The superintendent visited every school in the district and had students lead him around the schools to tell him what they liked about their school. Boogs was one of four kiddos chosen at our school to tell the superintendent about our elementary school. Boogs kind of dressed up for the occasion.

As a big 5th grader, Boogs is able to participate in Safety Patrol at morning drop off.

He is very polite as he opens doors and helps the little kids out of their cars.

 

Boogs QUEST class is working on creating a community. Each student has to apply for a job. Boogs chose to apply for the position of Judge. I love his reasons: I can tell when people lie. I do not make rash decisions. I do not go easy on friends or go hard on enemies. I do not end trials just to leave. Finally, I have already had experience.  I asked Boogs about his experience and he told me he had helped judge and settle a dispute on the playground among some of his friends. (On another note, Boogs weekly occupational therapy is really improving his handwriting.)

 

We have been keeping busy during our afternoons and weekends. Boogs and I spent some time working with his building kit.

Boogs enjoyed bowling at a friend's birthday party.

Daddy took us to Fiesta Texas last month. The entire park was decked out with Halloween props.

Boogs and Daddy had to take a picture with Daddy's favorite Looney Toon character, Taz.

Spending so much time at home occasionally brought out the weird in Boogs.

Boogs and I went through a bunch of cook books to find some new ideas for dinner. Boogs chose grilled bacon wrapped shrimp one night. He found out how slippery it was to skewer the bacon and shrimp, but it tasted amazing. I love it when he wants to cook.

Daddy's friend took us out to a shooting range. Boogs was able to try a .22 rifle.

He was a very accurate shooter. He tried out the rifle with and without a silencer.

He shot the target from 25 yards and then from 100 yards.

 

Daddy and I also did some target practice. We shot several different rifles and also a few handguns.

 

Boogs has enjoyed hanging out with his friends from his old school.

And of course, we have made time to get together with the JBoys.

I love this picture of the four of them walking in a line.

We have found all sorts of ways to get dirty and worn out.

Boogs was so tired after the JBoys spent the night, he fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon.

Boogs is still playing indoor soccer and is really enjoying it.

Boogs decided to wear one of his old costumes for Halloween.

Daddy took him out trick-or-treating while I stayed home and handed out candy. Boogs came home with 5.5 pounds of candy.

Math Pentathlon has started back up at school. Boogs and I are practicing the math games at home.

 

Boogs is also working on learning the 50 states and their capitals. I made a concentration matching game for him to get extra practice. 

This past week, Boogs took a voice lesson. He has told us that he wants to be in choir when he goes to middle school next year. He has not had much experience reading notes or singing in front of people, so we are having him try out voice lessons to see if he likes it.

 

Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving lunch at school. Nonnie and Poppa came to join Boogs for lunch.

Boogs kept making this weird face when I tried to get a picture of him with Poppa.

 

I was able to eat lunch with him, too. 

We did not manage to get a picture with all four of us in the same shot.

It is so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in a few days. This year has sped by so quickly. Boogs and I get to enjoy an entire week off of school for Fall Break. I plan on being extra lazy (except for Thursday when I will have Thanksgiving Dinner for 20 people at my house) until I have to go back to work. Happy Fall Y'all!

Mudstacle Run

Whew! I can't believe we have been in school for eight weeks. It is crazy how fast time flies. These past two months have been really long. Boogs has spent the majority of this time doing this:

Boogs got some kind of bug bite the last week of August that got infected and had red streaks going up his arm. This has been our life since then: 10 days of antibiotics, allergic reaction rash to the antibiotics, infected spot went away, spot came back 8 days later, another 10 day round of antibiotics, bleach baths, towel/hand towel/sheet washing every single day, warm compresses, antibiotic cream, bandages, spot went away again.

We finally had the chance to get out and enjoy the sunshine last weekend at the LEEF Mudstacle Run.

Boogs was super excited! It has been two years since our last mud run. There were three race course options - Kids Fun Run, 2.5K, 5K. Boogs decided he wanted to do the full 5K and conquer EVERY SINGLE obstacle. I love his enthusiasm. What a fun race!

 

We made sure we made it to the race early before it got too warm to enjoy the day.

Boogs got super close to the Hydra Bubbler. I think he was covered in more bubbles than anyone else out there.

 The Ranger Mud Slide was our first taste of getting our feet sucked into the squishy mud.

The Up and Over spools was a good challenge. There were six spools of varying sizes.

I managed to get across the balance beam in the Punisher Pit without getting knocked off by the people launching balls at us. Boogs was not so lucky, he fell down into the muck. The next obstacle was the Double Barrel Mud Crawl. My knees did not appreciate the small muddy/rocky tunnels we had to crawl through. Boogs loved it.

Boogs had fun punching his way through Punchy Alley and NoodlePalooza. Wow, it looked like a lot of work to get that part of the course set up.

Boogs kept goofing around in the Get Wired section of the course. We had to go through 5 rope mazes. They were fun.

I loved that the course had a tiny block half way up the Wall Climb for the kids to use as a step so they could get over the wall all by themselves.

 The Cinnamon Rolls were hard to climb up but a blast to run across.

There were several more muddy areas before we made it to the America's Navy calisthenics course.

We had to do high knees, side steps, run around the cones, lunges, and then sprint down the fence line.

Look at that muddy boy! Running up and down the ravines was tough (at least for me).

The tires slowed us down a bit, especially when we got to the huge ones at the end.

I walked around the Hay! Hay! obstacle so I could get a pic of Boogs climbing over it. He told me I had to go back so I could say I went through every obstacle in the race.

Right before the finish line, there were kids throwing "snowballs" at the runners. Boogs picked up a ball and threw it back.

We made it through the entire 5K course. Boogs celebrated by jumping all the way into the vat of bubbles

After the race, we stopped at several of the booths to shoot hoops, drink green drinks, get freebie toothbrushes and snacks.

I was so glad Boogs was finally feeling better. We went to a friend's bowling birthday party later in the day. Sadly, on Sunday morning, that stupid infected spot came back on his arm. Sigh!!!

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