A Day at Home + Ice Skating 12/22

The boys played an epic game of Monopoly together this morning for 2+ hours. They were *so* loud. I took the opportunity to test out my new camera indoors. Love it!



Anthony took out one of his animals ("anns") and said he was his mascot. Ramsey ran into his room and brought out one of his animals. Soon there was a plethora of animals on each boy's side!



Ramsey eventually won though it was neck and neck for a long time. He took the above 3 pics on my iPhone (there are more!) documenting his win. Ha ha.



Aunty Annie arrived at 12:30! The boys were so happy to see her! She brought the boys presents!

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We went ice skating in Palo Alto with John's family at 3:30-5:00. Ramsey said he remembered this rink though I don't think we've been there for 5+ years. I think Owen had his 5th or 6th birthday party there and I don't recall going after that. I'm not sure Ant has ice skated in the recent past. We all did go roller skating together within the last 2 years though. Anyway, the boys (John, Ram and Ant) get on the ice. Ant is pretty much walking on the ice instead of "skating" on the ice. Within 2 minutes they decide to play tag. Oh my! They were not following normal counter clock wise directional skating and were just cutting through people. Geesh. I think the highlight was getting hot chocolate and watching the Zamboni mid way through resurface the ice. Ant was done by 4:30. He said his feet hurt. He had not improved that much but wasn't "walking" anymore. Ram skated until the end and he improved a lot! He wasn't choppy and was confident in stopping by skating in a circle. He figured it out. When we got back, Aunty Annie had split pea soup on the stove for us!

A Few Things...

Ramsey had soccer after school on Monday. I thought it was at Burgess from 4-5pm. It was at his school from 4-5pm and he called me to say he would stay at school but could I bring him his soccer things? I found him doing homework at the lunch tables and as we were walking to our car, he told me (in a somewhat sad voice) that a boy ripped his puff puff while fouling him during lunchtime basketball and could I fix it. I looked at it and the trip is at the left pocket upper corner and is through the material. I sewed it up by hand -- can you tell? Yes, there is a huge pucker but so far it has held for 2 days.



I bought both boys advent calendars from Trader Joe's a while back (because last year they ran out early and the boys did not get advent calendars). Ramsey asked me if I could get him a lego advent calendar instead (one small lego thing per day!) but Anthony was super excited and has woken up on Tuesday 12/2 morning saying, "I get my calendar chocolate!" and ate his chocolate before breakfast.



Tuesday 12/2 afternoon, Ant and I went to Encinal to sort all the uniforms into different teams (there are 21 teams). Meanwhile, I had to drop off Ramsey's "Halloween outfit" to him at Rowan's house as Ram, Rowan and John are partners for a Spanish project and they were filming their skit and Ramsey is the game show host announcer. His "Halloween outfit" has come in quite handy. Ram didn't finish at Rowan's house until 6pm.

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After a quick dinner (of croissant turkey cheese sandwiches), I left Ant at home and dropped Ram at his NJB basketball practice which started at 7pm. Hen has a busy week and is out for work Tues, Wed and Thurs this week. I came home and spent time with Ant and then went back to pick up Ram at 8:30. I arrived about 5 minutes early and took the above pic and video. Ram seems to really enjoy this team because everyone on the team is a good basketball player.



I volunteered in Ant's art class on Wed 12/3. When I arrived, I found they had completed self portrait sketches last week. They had to use wax paper and trace the sketch with a fine tip sharpie.



Then they were told to go read while everyone finished that step. Check out Ant -- he's not fooling around, he really was reading.



The teacher then demo-ed the coloring portion with sharpies and skin toned markers. Ant got right down to it and then insisted on drawing a yellow and a pink duck next to his self portrait. He then went to Casey's area and taught Casey how to do the same (and Casey has a yellow and a pink duck next to himself too…his whole class knows he likes ducks…he told me in the car, "Guess what my expert topic (writing essay) is about?" I said ducks. He said, "Why does everyone guess that? My whole class kept asking me if I was writing about ducks Mom. No, I'm doing the Houston Astros."). Check out his completed self portrait: sharp chin, big ears, he thinks he has spiky hair.



Since I volunteered for art which is 1:30-2:30 on Wednesdays, I stayed and drove Ant home. When we got to our front door, I saw how nice the fall colors are and made Ant pose for some pics. The little Japanese maple tree to Ant's left is the one whose colors were so brilliant a week+ ago and I made Ram pose in front of it. We are also taking care of our neighbor Rhoda's cats while she is away. Ant loves this orange one named Natasha. "I want to go pet 'Tasha Mom!"



I went out at 4:30-ish to pick up Ram from his Hillview 7th grade basketball practice which is 3:45-4:45. Ram stayed after school though complained that the wait form 2:30 (school ends at 2:30 on Wed and Thurs and 3:05 otherwise) was way too long. The clouds were so pretty at the time we left his school at 4:55-ish.

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Ant had his 3rd grade basketball practice from 5:30-6:30 on Wed. I left to take Ant as soon as I got home from picking up Ram.. Ant is very active and engaged at practice (and uses up so much energy! Hen and I think he is like a bright burning star -- blue giant stars burn bright but have short lifetimes -- everyday he uses up all his energy so fast (like how he uses up any money that he has so quick) and then is a huge grumpapotamus in the evening with us with temper tantrums galore) and the coach told me (and told Hendrik on Sunday which is their other weekly practice) that Ant is a pleasure to coach because he is so coachable and engaged. Huh? Can we have a bit of that at home??

Ramsey's Xtreme and Anthony's Alpine Strikers Seasons are Done

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Ramsey's Xtreme 12u Hackers season ended with a Turkey Bowl this weekend. All the teams (13u, 12u, 11u and 10u) were mixed up and competed against each other tournament style. Poor Ramsey's team lost the 2 pool games on Saturday (Hendrik took Ram so no pics!) and lost the single elimination game on Sunday morning. Ramsey had an okay Xtreme season. He didn't pitch as much (or as well) as I thought he would and his hitting was okay but not as spectacular as what I remember from last Xtreme season or even his 11 year old Majors little league season (spring 2015). The most important thing was he had fun!

Hendrik took Anthony to his soccer games on Sunday. His team lost both games 0-4 and 0-1. The other teams were really good. His Alpine Strikers season is over and he has 4 tryouts in early December for the spring season. He will be on a new team as the teams are being realigned by birth year. Half of the kids on his current team have 2006 birth dates and half have 2007. He will be one of the youngest kids on his new team. He had a great second half of this soccer season -- he really started shone as an offensive player.

Bubble Wrap

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What does Anthony do when Ramsey is reading his drone's instruction manual? He says to Ram, "Let's go jump on this!" Ram is too busy to do so but Ant has a great time!

Anthony's Soccer and Baseball Games - 11/1

Anthony had two sports events this morning. He had a soccer game 9:30-10:30 (had to be there by 9) and then a fall ball game 12-2pm. I had picked him up from an unplanned impromptu sleepover at Robby's house at 8:15am and then had to hustle him home to change and get out to soccer. He had begged for the sleepover and claimed he wouldn't be tired today…right! Hen's assessment was he played pretty well at soccer though his team lost 2-1. Well as soon as he got into the car after soccer, he started WHINING. He wanted me to sit next to him and "no one is paying attention to me!" and "I'm hungry!" Oh boy.



We got home and fed the boy and then he was in a better mood. He still looked tired though. We took him to his fall ball game which is the last one he can play in -- he has a soccer tournament in Morgan Hill (South San Jose) next week which conflicts with his last game.



Ant pitched an inning and he looks so much better than he did during spring. He still throws a lot of wide pitches but occasionally he has a nice zinger pitch! He looks less like a flamingo than he did 6 months ago. Yay. Below are one video of Ant batting and two videos of Ant pitching. Ram set one of the videos to time lapse mode… Meanwhile, Ram was hanging out with Sonny (brother Casey on Ant's team) and John Q (who happened to be at the field).

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