Cooper has always been my "coloring kid." I was cleaning up in his room, when I came upon a box a drawings and artwork I had set aside. Inside, was a little "book" he had created that I had always meant to scan into the computer for safekeeping. I think he made these a couple years ago when he was in kindergarten, but I'm not positive on that timeline. I remember he went through a dragon drawing phase ... he drew SO many, with slight variations, but always the same basic shape. So better late than never, I finally scanned them in and am sharing them here on the blog.
As I saved the drawn dragon files on the computer, I came across a couple other cute kindergarten creations (that I HAD gone ahead and scanned and saved ... I'm so glad because I have no idea where the original projects are now). Below, is a short story by kindergarten Callahan ...
Years later, he still like DREBY cars *Ü*
I remember Keaton creating this short story ... I had to ask him for a little help with the interpretation, but he knew exactly what it said. I posted the translation to the side ...
When the boys went to Seattle last summer, they came home with many memories and a plethora of pictures. They brought home a need for Netflix ... and also a zest for ZITI. Aunt Jami made some, and Gray and Landon especially, urged me to contact her for the recipe. So I did. It has become a Blackham family favorite. I usually make a double (even triple) batch, and freeze pans of it for quick and easy dinners in the future.
1 lb. ziti pasta, cooked according to package directions
1 jar of favorite marinara sauce
1 lb. ground Italian sausage (cooked and drained)
8 oz. sliced provolone
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella
In a casserole dish, pour 1/3 of marina sauce. Add 1/2 the cooked pasta. Pour another 1/3 of the sauce. Place a layer of provolone slices on top of pasta. Spread sour cream on top of provolone. Add sausage (Grayson also suggested adding some pepperoni, so I do). Next add remaining pasta. Pour remaining marina sauce over the top. Add mozzarella. Cover and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees, or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.
For a few months now, our outdoor lights on our garage have been down to a solitary bulb. It's not that we were too lazy to change out the other two, it was that it was practically impossible to do! You would twist and twist, and the bulb would not budge. So Grayson decided it was time to just replace the fixtures as a whole. He put Landon to work ... and now we have light :)
You know how it is when you make one change ... you notice other things that need to be fixed or replaced as well. Grayson also replaced all the lights in the kitchen with new LED ones. They are brighter, and hopefully won't need to be changed (as they are so high, changing bulbs in them was quite an ordeal).
And not to be left out ... he also replaced the light attachment on the fan in our bedroom. He'd just replaced this one a little over five years ago, but I'd never liked it. The fixture covered the bulbs completely, which made it not very bright and very difficult to change burned out bulbs. I like my lights open ... and this new one is. I'm surprised every time I walk into the room now, it's so bright.
Gray also went around and replaced burned out bulbs throughout the house ... thanks Gray! It's so nice to have such a handy husband. Let there be light *Ü*.
Colton kept asking WHEN we were going to decorate for Halloween. I certainly wasn't going to spend the time outside during the week of rain we had, but it finally ended. I'm loving this fall weather. Cool, but sunshine. The leaves are turning. I had Colton help me pull out the decorations from the shed and now the front porch is showing some halloween/fall spirit. Unfortunately, Colton isn't terribly impressed. "That's ALL?" was his response when we were done. I guess he was expecting a full set of decorations for inside the house too. My little glass pumpkin filled with candy corn just doesn't cut it I guess (have I mentioned I LOVE candy corn ... I must resist!) He sighed ... "I wish there was just a button you could press, and the whole house would be decorated with spiderwebs, pumpkins and ghosts" ...
School has been in session for several weeks now, in fact, the quarter is coming to an end. We had parent/teacher conferences with all the boys, and an honor roll assembly for the Columbia kids. So that the assembly doesn't drag on and on, the school breaks it up into two different programs. On the school website, it seemed to suggest dividing the kids according to their track (C track and D track), but then they did it according to age. One for kindergarten-2nd grade, and for 3rd - 6th grade. I actually think the track division would work better, because for families (like ours!) with kids in all grades, it makes for a LONG afternoon sitting through both assemblies (and the break in-between). But I was happy that my three Columbia kids all made the honor roll! And thanks to friends who helped with middle and high school carpool pickup (which I usually do) so that I was able to attend.
I had been a little concerned that Cooper's weather worries might impact his learning and school performance (he's missed quite a bit of class coming home or sitting out a storm in the safety of the office). But academically, he's doing great (and while we're still working on the weather worries, I think we're slowing getting better there too).
I'm not exactly sure what it takes
to make honor roll in kindergarten ...
but way to go Colton!
All three boys also got attendance awards (for missing 0-1 days of school) and rave reviews from the teachers at Parent/Teacher conference. Callahan's conference at West Hills was a student/lead conference. I'm not totally sold on those. He's doing great and while none of the teachers requested a meeting, we went around and touched base with a few of them while we were there. Landon's conferences at Herriman were in the gym, with all the teachers positioned around and parents could visit with those they wanted to connect with. We talked with all of Landon's teachers. He still had a couple hiccups from transferring in late, but we worked out a couple of items that night and I think we're on track for good grades as the quarter comes to a close.
It's a great big sandbox ... Little Sahara. The scouts have gone camping there quite a few times. This past weekend the scouts (Fathers/Sons) went out again. Grayson took four of the five boys (can you guess who stayed home?) and there were plenty of other boys in all ages from the ward. The standard campout dinner is ribs (precooked, reheated in tinfoil). Yummy! Friday night, the boys played "Capture the Flag". Saturday, the group went to the top of a huge sand hill and with a couple of snowboards, they "sandboarded". I've included a few pictures below (more on my FB page here).
A little hacky sack action
Food and drink for Colton
I always get a little nervous sending my baby out camping without me, but he LOVES camping, he was SO excited to go. We were only packing for one day really. I gave him the overnight bag and told him to pack pj's, and extra outfit, and some extra underwear and socks ... when I checked his bag, he had put in seven underwear and eight pairs of socks! I added a jacket and some jeans :)
The boys brought a LOT of sand home with them (in their shoes, in the car ... and into the house).
While Cooper's soccer season was stressful, we did have a lot of FUN soccer memories with little Colton. We signed him up with Gene Fullmer Rec, putting him on the team with buddies Bradley and Randon. I didn't originally sign up to be coach again, but after being asked if I'd be willing, I went ahead and said ok. We ended up having two little girls that been on the Spring team as well, plus a couple new boys that really knew how to handle the ball. We were the Blue Sharks and we had a very successful season, we only lost one game.
Colton was enjoying soccer so much, that when Uncle Clay said he was putting together a kindergarten team at Marv Jensen Rec, we decided we'd put Colton on that team too. Gene Fullmer had started really early in the season, and with mid-week games, it only lasted four weeks, ending in September. There was about one week of overlap, one Saturday Colton had TWO soccer games, then the Blue Sharks ended and the Green Monkeys had their season.
The Green Monkeys won their first few games, I even stepped in to coach one games as Clay and Courtney were in St. George. Then we hit some harder teams (and colder days and nights, brrr). So, soccer season is now officially done ... it was fun. Here's a couple videos ...
Soccer seasons are Spring and Fall... at the start of the season last Spring, Cooper broke his arm. The signups for the next round (Fall2011/Spring2012) were in April, and I went ahead and signed up my little broken-armed boy with his team (and his best bud Ridley) and also got his good friend Marc to join the team as well. His arm would be healed by Fall.
... I didn't anticipate Cooper's anxiety ...
He was very worried about breaking his arm again ... combine that anxiety with his weather phobia, and soccer became a very stressful situation. Cooper did NOT want to play. I could have just bagged it, but ... I didn't really care about wasting the money, and I think the team would have been fine without him (we had a couple additions to the team, so there were enough kids which is sometimes a problem in the spring half of the season) ... I just did not want to let the fear win. If I left it up to Cooper, he would spend almost all his time in the bedroom under his covers, and I didn't want that ... so I pushed him a little.
Every game was a struggle. He would cry and cry. We did miss a few of the games, some we just played for a bit and then went home. There was some success ... he totally got into one of the games; he was excited to play, played well, even got a couple of goals! I hoped we had turned a corner. My smiling soccer Cooper was back ... but he was gone again by the next game.
Everyone was very supportive, really trying to cheer Cooper on, making him feel needed and wanted. At the first game, Cooper took a fall and everyone on our sideline gasped and held their breath until he got up again, shaken but unhurt. Cooper seemed content to just stay back and play defense most of the time, and as I'd pushed him just to get to the game, I let him do what he felt most comfortable with on the field. He did get a couple of fast breaks, running up the field and got some great goals.
We were both ready for the Fall soccer season to be over ... Cooper still says he doesn't want to play in the Spring (which he's already signed up for, from the signups last April). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when the time comes he'll want to play. I won't be signing him up again unless HE ASKS for it ... I hope he does. I love watching him play. Here's a little video from a couple of the games from fall season...
So ... school back in session, back to the routine.
Homework, carpools and school pictures!
Five Blackham Boys :)
Here's a few school updates ~
School Switch: A week or so into the school year, a friend of Landon's transferred from West Jordan to Herriman High School. Landon decided he really would like to make the switch too. After taking a look at all the pros and cons, we went ahead and instigated the transfer. Landon seems to be enjoying his new school.
Carpools: One thing that made the school switch possible, was the Landon found a carpool that would get him there in the morning if I could pick up after school. In the mornings, I'm taking Callahan to school, then I get home in time to get the Columbia kids off in their carpool. The afternoons are spent driving ... Highschool carpool, MiddleSchool carpool, then elementary school ... But luckily I haven't been having to make the trip to the school in the middle of the day because of the kindergarten carpool!
School Carnival: The school hosted a fundraising carnival. It had to be pushed back a week after the plane crash. The new date was already completely packed. Grayson and Landon had a pinewood derby, Callahan and Keaton had basketball practice, I needed to take Colton to a soccer game ... which left Cooper really wanting to go to the carnival, but no one to take him. Luckily, we had some friends who were willing to have a tag-a-long, so he went and had a great time. Colton and I hit the last 30 minutes, getting in some games and treats and bringing Cooper home.
Dress-Up Days: It was Red Ribbon week at school, with dress up days...
Hat Day
Sports Jersey Day
There was also "Dress like your twin day" ... Cooper and his buddy Ridley both wore their soccer jerseys, and Keaton took a complete outfit for a buddy at school to wear (he said they looked SO much alike, I wish I had a picture). The final day was to wear a shirt with a geographic location on it ... we had a couple "Utah" shirts for that.
I remember years ago (in 2005), the school had "crazy hair day" ... as the boys needed haircuts, Gray cut them into mohawks just for the day. As soon as it was over, it was back to the Blackham buzz!
I guess it's my fault really ... a few months ago, I was shopping and I found some Nerf Dart Tag sets on clearance. I picked up a couple of boxes, thinking they would be good to have on hand for birthday gifts. They stayed in the gift closet for most of the summer ... then Landon stumbled on them. He bought them from me, opened them up and ... Nerf mania began ...
That first day, Landon's playmates were Colton and his buddies. Then when Callahan and Keaton returned home, I think it was probably just a day later before the boys talked me into taking them to the store so they could spend their money on more Nerf guns ... and it happened to be birthday time for Cooper, Keaton and Landon too ...
The hallway downstairs has become a battlezone ... the boys set up barricades (a card table, Callahan's old science fair tri-fold, etc) ... it makes it quite hard to get to J&G's gym, even if there isn't a game going on (it's almost impossible when they are in the middle of a battle, and they often aren't good at not shooting the mommy!). And several boys sweating in such a small space? It get's pretty stinky!
Sometimes the Nerf Wars move outdoors ...
Friends and neighbors join in
Can you say crazy?!
The boys have been watching several funny Nerf videos on YouTube as well ... here's one of their favorites ...
