Monday, June 30, 2008

Blackham Update (June 2008)


June Update

Here’s the June update from the Blackham clan.

Well, today is the last day of school, then summer is here for us. We walked to school today, we try to do that at least once a year. With the end of the year, I was invited to the school a few times. Keaton’s first grade put on a cute program, and then the next day I was back for an awards assembly. Landon and Callahan both got awards for “Outstanding Effort” on the end of year tests, and Keaton received three reading awards I left the two babies home with a sitter as they are often hard to control at these types of activities. Callahan’s class had a “multiplication bee” a little earlier in the week and Callahan was the winner for his class, and 2nd in the third grade.

Field Day was a great success and after a year or more of planning (really two years) , it’s hard to believe it is actually OVER! Having done it last year, we thought it would be pretty easy, but it was still a huge amount of work. Of course some of this was due to addition of activities, mainly “rockets” ... Gray created a water bottle launcher that used an air compressor to shoot 2-liter bottles high into the air. The kids got to pull a string which activated the trigger. The activity right before the launching was decorating the rockets with fins, a nose cone, etc. They also had a big inflatable obstacle course, a dunking machine (which we got to try out at our house on Saturday night ... even I got dunked), a huge plastic water slide, water balloon launcher, and even the water balloon filling machines are always a big hit (and actually help to provide the water balloons for other activities). Many kids were heard to say “this is the best field day ever” ... some of the “A” track kids even said that and they only got to do the rockets due to inclement weather earlier in the month.

Summer means scout camp. Landon has already been on a couple overnighters, and has a week-long camp coming up. Gray went with Landon on the backpacking campout and said that was one of the hardest things he had done in a while!

Callahan has been busy with scouts, soccer and basketball. Soccer has been having two practices a week, although they are going to take July off. The practices are just over here at the nearby soccer park, so Callahan and his buddy usually just rode their bikes over. I would often pack up a couple of kids and walk over to watch the end of the practice, letting the little ones play on the playground while I watched. Basketball has been nice too, as I can really kill two birds with one stone, watching Callahan play (or practice) while I jog around the track overhead.

We’ve always called Keaton our “little monkey” because he is always climbing on things. This last little bit he overdid it on the monkey bars at school and worked up several large blisters on his hands. I’m currently battling a couple large blisters on my toes! Ouch.

Cooper is our “Costumed Kid” of late, living in pajamas and various superhero attire. He often mixes and matches and is often a conglomerate of six or seven different people ... spiderman, hulk, superman, batman, power rangers, ninja turtles, etc. He doesn’t want to change out of these and has ended up wearing the costumes to the store and to bed.  Colton likes to dress up too and the two little ones are often “fighting” all day long.


One thing that will get Cooper out of costume, at least temporarily, is swimming in the backyard.  The two little boys and I go out almost everyday. They love to play in the little pool, squirt each other with spray bottles, run through the sprinklers, etc. I catch some sun and have gotten a good tan. I have managed to protect the kids pretty good with sunscreen, they always bring me the bottle and giggle as I apply it. I didn’t get the big boys last Saturday when they were playing with the dunk tank all afternoon and they all got pretty toasted on their shoulders.  We had a couple fun water days over at Blackham’s this month, and the older boys are looking forward to going swimming in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool. It will be interesting to see if Cooper’s love for swimming extends to the big pool ... I’m not holding my breath.

Well ... until next month ...
Jen and da boys

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