Interview with a Seven Year-old

Happy Birthday!  My oldest baby is 7 years-old...  What a special boy he is!

Bubba, at what age do you think a person is a grown-up?  28 ,just seems right
If you could be invisible for one day, what would you do?  I would sneak up on my sister and scare her.

What is something that makes our family special? Our name has a silent "K". 

Are you a good friend?  yes  Why?  Because I am really nice to other people and I let them play games with me.

How would the world be different if animals could talk?  I would ask my pet fish if he could teach me how to swim like a fish

What is the best thing about being a kid?  Not having to go to school in the summer; because you have to work in the summer

What is the worst thing?  Having to ask before going outside to play

What is your favorite place in the world?  Gulf Shores, AL  because there is a beach there and a pool and we get to swim

If you could give one gift to every kid in the world, what would it be?  Legos

Tell me 5 words that you would use to describe yourself.  nice, cool, funny, crazy, and creative

If you could invent something, what would it be?  a robot that you could ask to give you anything you wanted

What is your favorite:
color: obviously green, why wouldn't I like green
food: pizza
song: Elephants have wrinkles
book: Ready, Freddy
activity: art
toy: transformers
subject at school: math
friend: Samuel
animal: cheetah
TV show: Phineas and Ferb, Storage Wars
movie: Star Wars
What does Dad like to do?  play video games with me

What does Mom like to do?  that's a hard one... (thinking, thinking, thinking...) 

What makes you special?  my silver teeth

What is one thing you would most like to do?  play Lego Batman on Wii

What would you like to write a book about?  super heroes

Describe what you look like.  brown hair, brown eyes, peach skin

What are you looking forward to this summer?  going to Gulf Shores

What did you accomplished as a 6 year-old?  first grade, joined Cub Scouts, how to ride a scooter, how to roller blade, play the Wii better, read chapter books


It's been a great year.  I am so proud of all you have done and how you have grown.  First grade was fun, challenging and a great opportunity for you.  You continued to do well with your school work.  Math was your favorite- I thought some of the work you did was crazy hard for 6 year-olds but you did it without much difficulty.  Your reading improved so much.  You can independently read chapter books, sound out words you don't know and discuss the story after you read it.  We did learn that we need to practice spelling words throughout the week instead of at the last minute!  You enjoyed your specials- music and art continued to be favorites.  You have good friends at school.  Samuel is your best buddy but you played with many of the other kids as well. 

Awesome Mrs Beck!

Awards Ceremony- Best Artist, Stars Recognition, Super Scientist, Super Star Reader

Best Buddies!  Samuel

Class Photo

This year you joined Cub Scouts.  Your pack is made up of boys from 4 or 5 different schools.  At first you were a little hesitant because you didn't know many boys, but you have grown more confident over the year.  You were a Tiger Scout this year and you den had 24 boys!  They split you up into 3 smaller groups and Mr Boone was your den leader.  Your bet buddies in Cub Scouts are Jacob and Quang.  Through Scouts you went on your first overnight camp-out with Uncle Mike, went to Twilight Camp, earned 5 belt loops and earned your Tiger badge. 

Spring Campout

Twilight Camp with Jacob

pinewood derby

You are a great big brother to Huck.  Your face lights up when you see him and vice versa.  After Mama and Dada his next word was Bubu for Bubba.  You and Duchess can play together nicely as well.  The two of you come up with great imaginary games.  You both like to have "sleep overs" when it is not a school night and sometimes stay up very late talking and laughing.  Of course, you have moments when you fight, but I think all siblings do.  The two of you are taking ballet and tap class together this summer.

You still love to play outside.  You mastered your scooter and are working on roller blading.  You have been swimming several times this summer already and are doing great- jumping in from the side, diving for toys, swimming underwater...  One goal for this summer is to learn to ride a two- wheeler! 

For your birthday this year we celebrated with just our immediate family.  The only thing you asked for was a snorkel, which you got from MomMom.  You also got Legos, an electronic Nerf gun, Socker Boopers (boxing glove-type things) and some water guns.  You asked for crab legs for dinner so we went  to Red Lobster.  I tried to make you a light saber cupcake cake but it looked more like a sword... 

I am very proud of you and am looking forward to watching you grow even more this coming year!  We love you!

Twilight Camp

No, not vampires... Cub Scouts.  Bubba's Cub Scout pack attended Twilight Camp last week.  It was a week long camp at twilight- 4-8:30 PM.  They had a great time and it was worth all the prep work.  Which seriously... I appreciate that the Boy Scouts are careful, but it was a bit ridiculous.  The paperwork I had to fill out was extensive- for both him and me.  Yes, I am now an official adult member of Boy Scouts of America!  There were applications, medical forms, insurance information... all submitted on line and THEN printed and turned in.  I had to attend a 2 hour camp orientation and Youth Protection Training class.  We had to prepare a "bucket"- a 5 gallon bucket from Lowe's that had to be decorated.  It served as their tote to lug everything around camp as well as a seat.  Then there were the "swaps"- a small item that was pinned to a cap which could be traded with other boys.  Bubba's were sea creatures.

Bubba's pack planned to carpool so The Hubby dropped him off at the church and off he went.  The first day they did wood shop (made a tool box), archery and BB gun safety training, Scout Skills, and sports.  He had a blast and couldn't wait to go back the next day.

Tuesday was my day to go with him as a Walking Den Leader (a.k.a. chaperon).  We had a great time.  They started with soccer, then did archery.  He enjoyed it but was a bit frustrated because they only got 7 arrows to shoot.  It took him about 5 before he got the hang of it and really wanted to shoot more.  Then we had dinner and there was some entertainment- The Circus Freaks put on a fun show.  After that we headed to the Savannah Challenge, which was Frisbee golf.  They earned a belt loop for that.  They finished up with Scout Skills where they learned about protecting the environment.

They all headed out to camp on Wednesday but as soon as they got there it started to rain.  They hung around for about 1 1/2 hours waiting to see if it would let up but no luck.  Camp was cancelled and the boys returned home soaking- but happy!  Thursday was cancelled as well because the fields were too wet and the city asked us not to use them.  I guess they thought 500 boys traipsing around might wreck them...

Friday camp was back on!  It was Family Picnic night so Huck, Duchess and I joined him for dinner.  We also stayed to watch him do BB guns.  So fun!  He loved it.  They got to shoot for about 20-25 minutes at a variety of targets- pie pans, cans, clay targets, bulls eye.  He got to keep his busted clay target.

He says his favorite parts were archery and BB guns and least favorite part was getting rained out.  He DEFINITELY wants to do it again next year. 

Catch Up

What a month!  We've had lots going on, hence the lack of posts.  Soooo, I'll do my best to remember.  The big family event was a trip to Branson, MO with Grandma and Grandpa. We left on a Friday after school and planned to just drive until we wanted to stop.  The crazy Hubby kept driving all the way to Harrison, Arkansas which is only 45 minutes from Branson.  So we rolled into the Holiday Inn Express about midnight.  But the good thing about that was that we got to do some fun things on Saturday instead of spending it driving.  We went to Mystic Caverns.  There are two beautiful caverns that we toured- we saw some cave salamanders and a bat.  We also learned about natural cave lighting... which means they turn out all the lights and you see the blackest black ever.  You can't see your hand in front of your face.  Kinda cool. 

We meet Grandma and Grandpa in Branson that afternoon.  We stayed in a nice house outside of town that was 2 minutes from the lake.  The house was great- lots of room for kids and the Grandparent's dogs. A house makes vacation sooo much easier- separate bedrooms, washer and dryer (helpful for when a kid/dog throws up in the middle of the night), a kitchen.  Grandpa took Bubba fishing and he caught his first fish!  They fished every day while we were there and Bubba really enjoyed it- enough to get up at 6:30 in the morning our last day to get in one more fishing trip.  Dutch had a couple of boat rides and much preferred to go slow.  We also went to a fish hatchery, the damn and shopping in downtown Branson.  We had one yummy lunch on the lake.  We also had a little problem with ticks.  I found the first one in Dutch's armpit.  She stayed remarkably calm considering.  The Hubby ended up with 3 during the trip and Huck had one.  Bubba and I remained tick free, thank goodness.  You can bet your life I was very quickly Googling Lyme's disease and learned that it is very rare in Missouri, whew!  While we were gone there were some big changes to our house, but I'll do house catch up later.

As for the rest of the month, I'll go person by person.
Bubba- We returned from Branson on a Wednesday and on Friday Bubba went on a Cub Scout camp out.  Because the Hubby missed work the weekend before we asked Uncle Mike if he could take Bubba.  It was his first overnight camp out and it went well.  Uncle Mike called it Family Camping because it was pretty tame.  They went to a state park about an hour east of Dallas.  They did fishing, hiking, worked on some belt loops (the Cub Scout equivalent of badges), had campfires, and slept in a tent.  They had a good time and we are thankful to Uncle Mike!  Bubba has just 3 days left of school.  We are all very ready for the summer!

Dutchess-  She is no longer a Preschooler!  Our girl is ready for Kindergarten!  Dutch had her end-of-year sing-a-long and "graduation."  She did a great job singing and signing.  She kept her chin down on her chest much of the time and when asked about it she said she needed to keep her eyes on her music teacher because sometimes she forgot her hand motions if she looked around the room.  They got a certificate of completion but no big "graduation" for which I am glad.  I don't quite get the cap and gown for 4 year-olds.  Cute, but a bit much.  She also had her ballet recital and did wonderfully.  Mom Mom was in town and the whole family made it in time- without flowers (for anyone who remembers the debacle from last year when the Hubby missed the show because he was buying flowers.)  She has had several playdates with one of my friend's niece and can't stop talking about her friend Gracie.  She has a birthday party tomorrow at a nail salon and can't wait.

Huckelberry-  Is so fun these days!  Well, not this morning when he was up at 6:30 but as a general rule.  He is practically running and is constantly in motion.  He is saying MaMa, DaDa and BuBu (Bubba.)  He "talks" a lot, points to what he wants and fusses when you don't understand him.  On more than one occasion he has come to get me from another room to tell me something.  The other day he came into the kitchen calling me and wanting me to follow him.  He led me to right outside his room to show me he had spit up on the floor.  I got a towel to wipe it up but he kept pointing to a paint spot on the floor wanting me to clean that up as well.  When I didn't, he went into his room, got a cloth diaper insert (which looks like a rag) and tried to wipe up the paint spot.  Cutey!  He likes to sweep, use the electric floor sweeper and wipe up water spills in the kitchen.  He is eating mostly table food and seems to favor chicken, bread and pasta over fruits and veggies.  He likes yogurt, mac and cheese, pancakes, waffles, goldfish and "O's".  He drinks from a cup.  He doesn't take bottles anymore while I am at work but is still nursing 4-5 times a day/night.  He is sleeping in his very own bed in his very own room!  He starts out there and ends up coming into our bed sometime during the night but we are working on that.  He loves to dance and he bobs his head and bounces up and down.  His new move is to stomp his foot to the beat.  He is starting to climb and gets up onto things by himself and then can't get back down again.  He HATES to take a bath.  HATES.   He is very friendly these days.  He is being very sweet to Mom Mom and is generous with hugs and smiles.  He is a pretty happy guy most of the times.  His face just lights up when he sees his family and it melts my heart every time.

Enough for now.  I'll do another post on the house progrss soon.