Sunday, October 28, 2018

Art Class

Carter and Rylan are both enjoying their art class on Friday afternoons at Firstlight.  Here is some of their recent art ...

Carter


There is a photograph of founder of the art school on the wall in the room where the boys have their class.  During "free draw" Carter drew Mr. Dennis.  I instantly knew who his drawing was of - it's REALLY good!


Some pastels and watercolor ...



Another pastel with a focus on dimension ...


Rylan


Pastels with watercolor ...




Great shading and depth!


Rylan has always gravitated toward drawing birds.  I don't even know if he realizes it.



Colt Corral Recognition

Rylan got recognized during the Friday morning assembly at school (called Colt Corral).  Brian and I got this email from one of the school counselors ...

I wanted to let you know that Rylan was recognized at our colt corral today for his excellent character! Mrs. Breeden wanted to celebrate him for being a great role model and wonderful example of our character word for the month, "balance"!  She said Rylan is a great student who gives best effort each day.  He is also a talented artist, a great athlete who demonstrates good sportsmanship, he is polite, kind and helpful to others in our classroom, and he always has a quick smile.  

We are all so proud of the positive example he sets each day!

We are so proud that our boys make good decisions when we aren't around and do so well everyday at school!

NSC - Games 18 & 19

Nashville Soccer Club finished up the regular season a couple of weeks ago.  They played against the Toronto FC II on Tuesday, October 9th, which was also the night of Rylan's last baseball game of the season.

Gray got to hang out with his new best friend Hadlee.  Her older brother was on Rylan's baseball team this season but they didn't become buddies until the last couple of games of the season.  On the way to the NSC game, Gray told me that his "love order" was Hadlee, Lofton, then Elyse (a girl in his class).  Apparently Hadlee was chasing Gray and trying to kiss him :)



NSC ended up losing a 2-0 lead and tied Toronto 2-2.  NSC really needed a win to help with their playoff standings but a tie at least gave them 1 point.

Carter holding up our flag after Nashville scored ...


And Gray just hiding behind the flag later ...



The view on our walk back to the car ...



The last regular season game was Saturday, October 13th against FC Cincinnati, the top team in our conference.  We got to the game extra early because the first 500 fans received pennants.  The boys have theirs hanging on their bedroom doors.


We also did some extra special face paint.  I drew the NSC crest on the big boys cheeks.


Rylan also requested some claw marks across his face.


Carter added yellow to his entire face as well as blue and yellow hair spray.


Since we were so early, the boys waiting for the players to come out of the locker room for warmups and got a couple more signatures on their shirts.

Matt Pickens!  Yes!!!


And Liam Doyle!


It was a lot colder on Saturday than the game earlier in the week.  And it even started raining lightly.  This dude kept warm by being a "dancing machine".



Carter caught another shirt at half time.  Rylan was not thrilled but it's not like any of the shirts they catch fit them anyway!  I ,on the other hand, have a lot of new t-shirts.


The game was super exciting and ended in a 3-3 tie.  FC Cincinnati is a tough team but Nashville always plays them well.  NSC ended up placing 8th in the Eastern Conference and secured a spot in the playoffs (against FC Cincinnati).

Gray's 3rd Birthday Party

As usual, I'm finally getting in a post about a kid's birthday just before their next one!

Gray had a party for his 3rd birthday at Harpeth Gymnastics.  We invited his preschool class (as well as Lofton, of course!) but that was such a weird group of parents and we only heard back from about half of them.  Half of those had conflicts so we ended up with only two of Gray's school friends coming.  Since it was such a small group, we invited everyone's siblings.  So we had Knox, Ben, Lofton, and their siblings.  And it actually worked out perfect!

Gray wanted a Hot Wheels theme, of course!!!

The colors were blue and orange (to match the Hot Wheels brand).  I put a black plastic table cover over a blue one and added silver duct tape so it looked like a road.  I scattered Hot Wheels around the road for the kids to play with as they ate.  And I added orange cones with a "3" on them.


The juice boxes had either blue or orange tape around them with the word "Fuel" written on them.  And the plates were stacked with a silver one on top of a black one to look like tires and rims.  The kids had Goldfish to snack on as we handed out pizza (after the time in the gym) and then cupcakes.


The cupcakes had orange or blue frosting and were topped with either checkered flags I made or trophies (or a "3" candle).


I also made a banner that said "Happy Birthday Gray".  The letters had fire at the bottom of them (kind of like the Hot Wheels logo).  The flags were blue mounted on checkered paper.



I decided to try out iron-on vinyl with my Cricut for the first time to make Gray a shirt for the party.  The big boys asked for matching ones :)


Gray had only done gymnastics classes at Let It Shine before his party so the gym was new (and fun) for him!  He took classes at Harpeth starting in January after his party.

The foam pit is ALWAYS the kids' favorite!


Listening to instructions about the first obstacle course ...


Knox and Gray ...


Gray was really good at his forward roll!




And the balance beam ...


Carter had both his 3rd and 5th birthday parties at Harpeth.  Adrienne also ran his parties back then.  She's the BEST!




Everyone waiting for their turn on the trampoline or tumble track ...


Getting a little air ...


Grays loves the tumble track!



The second obstacle course was just as much fun as the first one!  Gray was a pro at it all!



A little more time in the foam pit ...


At the end of the time in the gym, Gray was presented with a shirt and medal.  He made his nervous "fishy face" the whole time :)



An attempt at a group picture (Lofton did not want to look up) ...


And then time for pizza and cupcakes!


Gray had a lot of fun and everything went super smooth.  Harpeth Gymnastics is always a great place for a birthday party!