Adorable

I walked through the bedroom a few nights ago and saw this. Chance fast asleep hugging his build-a-bear Saint Bear the Awesome.

Chance's Christmas Performance

This photo is from way back on December 21st, Chance's birthday! His class performed Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and this video down below is the horrible yet adorable performance.

A sweet message with a drawing of Mommy.

Playing Battleship

Chance got a couple new board games for Christmas, he likes playing them both but he is a big fan of Battleship. It only took him one round to learn how to play and as soon as he did he was off challenging everyone to battleship battles. There isn't a whole lot of strategy involved in Battleship but Chance has got it and he sticks with it, winning about half the games we play.

Team and Family Math Night

Each quarter at Chance's school there is a Team and Family night each with a different theme. This quarter's theme was Math. We learned about how they are teaching math to the kids, we got to play all the math games (Chance really enjoyed teaching them to us) and we learned the things he will need to know in the future for his next assessment. He is well above where he needs to be. They are expecting the kids to be able to do basic addition and subtraction by the time they finish Kindergarten and Chance is already doing that so, we aren't really worried. Right now our job is to stay engaged and keep him interested without pushing him too hard. In the first quarter they tested all the kids to see how high they could count unassisted. Chance got all the way to 65. He will be tested again on this before the Christmas break, he's sure he will get to 100 because we have started reading the classic I Can Count to 100 Can You? again. I didn't take many pictures but I am so proud of how well Chance is doing in school. He is near the top in all his assessments and his teachers tell us he is a social butterfly with lots of friends which we see every time we visit his class. He is happy about the weekend but still excited to go to school each day and always has lots to say at the end of each day. He get's 5 and 6 stars every day and does his homework early so he doesn't have anything to do later in the week. I couldn't ask for anything better. I know it's just kindergarten and there will be tough school days ahead but if he can keep up with and build on the good school habits he is starting now he will be just fine.

Merry Christmas Time

It's Christmas time in the house. We kept with our tradition of having a non-traditional tree this year. It's a real live little Norfolk Island Pine. We sat it up on a desk, decorated it and we all love it. The lights are simple but beautiful. I am going to start operation wrap some of Chance's presents tomorrow I think.

Renaissance Fair

Today we went to the local Renaissance Fair. It was about an hour drive but it was the best Renn Fair I have ever been to. There were tons of shops with all sorts of fun things to look at and cool things to do.  We went through a Dungeon and Chance went through a maze.  We saw jousting and duels and a medieval comedy show and juggling and the royal parade. It was warm enough for short sleeves and we ran into a couple friends from the playgroup while we were there. We all had tons of fun.

One of the most fun things for Chance and what seemed to me like a really cool experience was when Chance got a mini archery lesson and got to shoot 8 arrows. He even got one to stick in the target.  He really likes archery, we watched as much of it as we could during the Olympics and he really enjoyed the Hunger Games movie, Robin Hood and the tv show Arrow.  He keeps asking for us to take him somewhere to shoot real arrows so now maybe I should look into that.



pic #1 : Chance getting his mini archery lesson. pic #2: Chance setting up his arrow. See the blue arrow in the hay bale? The one just in the target? Chance shot that one.

Jello Oranges

I saw something on Pintrest recently and though it was too fun and too easy not to try. You cut an Orange in half then eat out the inside making sure to get it all clean. Make some Jello then use the Orange halves as bowls to pour the Jello into and then let it set in the Fridge. Take it out, cut it in slices and enjoy.

He's A Robot

Chance's has been playing in the boxes that the new bed was packed in (aren't the boxes the best part?) At his request Scott turned this one into a Robot suit.

Found Objects Collage

For the past few months we have been collecting little things that we find on our walks to and from school in order to make a found objects collage. We finally found enough stuff to make something nice so we sat down this weekend and made our collage. Chance did all the design and then he ran the hot glue gun while I stuck the pieces on where his design indicated. It was a lot of fun and the finished product is really nice and is now sitting in his room. I hope to hang it up soon.