Mischief and Mayhem

Don't let that Kyle Bear fool you. He may give you a big grin and look all kinds of innocent, but believe me, he has mischief on his mind.

 

If you leave the pantry door open, even just a tiny crack, he goes in and grabs whatever he can reach off the lowest shelf and leaves it in a pile on the floor. He's usually only interested in the baby food though. So far he's left the cans and other heavy things alone.

Then there was the time he grabbed a casserole lid out of the cabinet and dropped it on the floor. Who needs lids anyway....that's what foil is for. Baby locks on the other hand, not a bad idea.

The gigantic power button on the TV makes it all too tempting.

On. Off. On. Off. On.



So, let's see who's on the chopping block...

-click-

Ahh, Kyle I was watching that! 

If he's not emptying the drawer full of CDs, then he's emptying the one full of video games.



Then when I'm trying to empty the clothes out of the dryer, he'll wedge himself right in front of me so that he can help.

And if I take my eye off him for too long, I find that he's gone into the office to wake up the computer.

Or into the kitchen to play in the cat food bowl.

 

Rick isn't home as much, so maybe he didn't get the memo: everything within reach goes on the floor. Yeah, so he'd better move those brand new clothes up to higher ground. 

 

Someday I'll look back at all this silly mischief and laugh, but for now....ahhhhhh!

Race Day

Today was the big Dash for Cash fundraising race at Tyler's school. He had two weeks to collect donations and after a rough start, he rallied back, raking in $167...even topping his total from last year. Most everybody chose the easier route and gave a flat donation, except for his teacher who sponsored each student in her class for .25 cent per lap. 

 

I wasn't about to miss out on the action, so I made sure to get to the school right at lunch time, since the race was taking place during lunch recess.

 

As luck would have it, it also turned out to be Book Club Wednesday. I guess a group of kids get together during lunch on Wednesdays and have Book Club, where a parent comes in and reads to the kids while they eat lunch. Cool! So Kyle and I got to join the club for today and listen to a Magic Tree House story.

But soon enough lunch was over and everybody headed out to the field. The kids had 30 minutes, the length of lunch recess to run as many laps as they could. And to keep everyone honest and well, to just keep track of the laps, each of the kids wore a numbered bracelet with a barcode that they scanned every time they passed the orbiter.

Flash the Bunny was out cheering the kids on.

Now the event is called Dash for Cash, which to me implies running, but it's not really a race. I mean nobody comes in 1st place or anything. You can either walk or run and it's really just a personal goal to see how many laps you can finish in the allotted time. Tyler went in with a goal of completing 6 laps, but came up a little short. He did run some of the time, but from what I saw, he mostly walked at a decidedly non-urgent, lackadaisical sort of pace.

La-di-da.

All the commotion in the field inspired Kyle to practice standing up by himself. No walking though, just standing. One step at a time, as they say.

We'll have to wait for the official read-out to see how many laps Tyler completed, but I think it was 4, which would equal 1 mile. While not record breaking, 1 mile is a respectable total. I'll take it! Good job Tyler!

Day at the Fair

When we look back on this year, I think it'll be known as 'the year of the fires'. With all the fires and smoke in California earlier this summer and now with the same going on in Washington, it's a little bit like deja vu. Unfortunately with the poor air quality, the annual Sunfair Parade that was scheduled for Saturday was cancelled. The fair itself was still a go, so we went yesterday and actually, the weather was nice and cool and the smoke really wasn't an issue. The sky was a little hazy, but that's about all.

 

Last week in school, Tyler completed his Reading Round-Up, so after reading 300 minutes, he was awarded a coupon for a $1 admission to the fair. That's a great deal considering that a child admission is usually $8. We also bought his wristband for unlimited rides ahead of time and saved a few dollars on that as well.

We got there about an hour after the gates opened and the lines for the rides were still reasonably short, so Tyler was able to bounce around rather quickly. We started off in the kiddie section, but Tyler was really only interested in the two fun houses and the small roller coaster before wanting to move on to the 'big rides'.

Kyle was fine watching his big brother go on all the rides, but after a while he did get tired of sitting in his stroller and wanted to come out.

Tyler is exactly 48 inches tall, which is the height requirement for most of the adult rides. So his first grown up ride ever was on the 1001 nachts. Rick and I were expecting him to freak out a little when the ride started, but nope, he's too big for that. He loved it and actually went on the ride 5 or 6 times during the course of the day.

The ride goes up and around in the air, but according to Tyler, 'it's not scary at all'.

 

He was even tall enough to go on the bumper cars as a driver, which is cool because he's never been a driver on anything except the bumper boats at the fun center here in town. 

After 2:00 or so, Kyle turned into Mr. Grumpsterville. The 20 minute nap he got in the stroller just wasn't enough.

Poor Kyle...his big brother was just getting started. Tyler's next ride: Drop Zone...see him over there on the right in seat 10.

Well I've got to hand it to him. Tyler thought Drop Zone was even easier than 1001 Nachts. You'd never see me on that ride though. My legs get wobbly just going on the swings.

Oh and look, Kyle got his second wind, thanks to a few sips of raspberry lemonade.

Finally we tore Tyler away from the rides and headed off to see the exhibits. The big headline exhibit in Pioneer Hall this year was called Toytopia and much to Tyler's amazement, they had the most gigantic KNEX ferris wheel right outside the door.

Wow, one of the best exhibits I've seen in years. Even better than the jelly bean one 3 years ago.

Then it was off to get some fair food. Earlier we ate lamb burgers and chili for lunch, but for a treat the boys shared a huckleberry waffle cone.

 

In the Washington State Building we looked at some student artwork and some really cool lego robots.

Our last stop of the day was at the barnyard animals. Kyle wanted to touch the larger ones and just like with the cats at home, he gently patted the cows and horses. We even saw a mama cow that was set to give birth in a couple of days and a mama pig that had eight little piglets.

Also in the same barn as the pigs were the goats. Did you see that one over there with four eyes? He's a handsome one!

Open House

Last night was Open House at Tyler's school. Normally Rick is at work or at the gym in the evenings, but he moved his schedule around and was able to go with us. So it was his first time meeting the teacher and seeing the classroom.

Our first stop was the gym for an introduction of the teachers and staff.  We got there a few minutes late so we had to sneak through the back to find some empty seats on the far side of the room...that's why we're sitting all by ourselves, not because we have the plague or anything.

In the classroom Tyler was super excited to show us his reading book and the story about the dragon that he's been telling us about at home. We also got to look in his journal, his science notebook, his math folder and so on. I even peeked inside his desk and was amazed to see that it was actually very clean and organized....the exact opposite of his desk at home. Hmmmm.

Then the teacher came over to say hello and asked if Tyler had told us about how he'd gone to the Principal's office earlier in the day. My heart sank. No, if you can imagine, he actually didn't tell us anything about it. Ugghhh....Tyler! Why?

 

But then trying to keep the evening on a happier note, we headed out to the hallway to look at some of his work.

 

It looks like the kids drew a self-portrait in the center of the paper, family in the top left, favorite food in the top right, favorite subject/activity in the bottom left, and pets in the bottom right. Ha! I always have to laugh at Tyler's depiction of our family. Rick is super tall,while I'm the same height as Tyler and little Kyle is sitting at our feet. And what about that random chicken in the pet quadrant?

Around the Town

For a little while, we had entertained the idea of going camping again over the weekend one last time before the end of the season. But with the uncertainty of the weather, we just decided to skip it and go again next year.

So we stayed in town after all, but had plenty of things to keep us busy.

On Friday, Tyler brought home the dreaded 'Dash for Cash' fundraising forms from his school. Neither Rick nor I enjoy carting him around the neighborhood asking for money, but what are you going to do?

On Saturday we took him to 10 or so houses on our street and of the 2 that opened the door, one said 'no thanks' and the other said 'come back later'. We weren't off to a very good start, so we just put it away for later and decided to go out and do something a little more fun.

First stop: the library

The brand new West Valley library. It just opened about a month ago, so everything inside is new and sparkly. And of course they have more books now, which makes it even easier for Tyler to find some good picks.

He has his own library card and checks out his own books.

This time he got a few Geronimo Stilton books to try. He started reading them before we left the library and by the end of the night, he'd read both of them cover to cover. That's a good sign. We'll have to look for more next time.

After finishing up at the library, we headed over to Johnson Orchards to pick up some peaches and necterines - the only fruit we haven't gorged on yet this summer.

We went inside the warehouse, which is where they keep the peaches and man, it was kind of a frenzy in there. We must have looked silly carrying only a single bag while everyone else was walking out the door with boxes at a time.

We were almost tempted to get some Honey Crisp apples, but we still have plenty at home after our trip to the U-Pick blueberry orchard, where we got all those pears and apples.

The Pluots though, we couldn't resist. I mean, just look at that advertising. And let me tell you what, they live up to the hype. Holy cow! So good! They taste like fruit punch. Mmmm. Definitely worth the high price per pound.

Then on Sunday we went to the Farmer's Market, again trying to get in a few last visits before they close for the season.

I saw a few booths that had purple bell peppers. I've never seen those before. They'd go perfect in my garden at home with my rainbow carrots and yellow tomatoes. Too bad I didn't get one to try. What was I thinking?

Also at the Farmer's Market, we had one of those parenting moments where you realize your child is actually bigger than you thought. I nursed Kyle until he was a year old and it wasn't until the very end when I started supplementing with formula and then switched to whole milk that he even started using a bottle. And recently we've been trying to get him to start using a sippy cup. Turns out he is perfectly capable of drinking out of a cup and straw, just like everybody else. Well, at least when there's blueberry lemonade to be had. Good to know. Now we won't have to worry about bringing his sippy cups into restaurants.

Speaking of Mr. Kyle Bear, he's still not walking, but he's thinking about it.

Next we stopped at the park...the Kiwanis Park across town, near the fairgrounds. It's been at least a year since our last visit and now they have two complete baseball fields built right next to the park. Looking good.

So the weekend was fun while it lasted, but now it's back to work. Rick has a busy week of work ahead and Tyler has lots of things going on this week...back to school night, picture day, reading round-up, more fundraising. Phew!