Destination Imagination

I am coaching J.'s Destination Imagination team this year. She wanted to join but they didn't have any volunteers to coach the team. So here I am.

We have had three meeting so far and each once has certainly been an adventure. I am learning a great deal about how first graders interact and that team work is not something they understand! I think our biggest challenge will be working as a team without fighting, yelling or tears.

J. gets upset if she does not 'win' something or if her idea is not the one that everybody wants to use. I am hoping that this DI season will teach her some teamwork and how to not have everything her way and still enjoy herself. We will see. She has ended up in tears at two out of three of our meetings.

We had our DI Winter Workshop this last weekend and the kids all seemed to enjoy it. It was just for the younger kids and told them about writing stories, making costumes, teamwork, and performance. I hope they retained even a little bit of it!

Our subject for the year is, "Big Bug's Bad Day" The kids have to research bugs, come up with a play and present it to the judges in February. We only have a total of 11 more meetings before competition and I don't know how the kids are going to pull all of this together!

Wish us luck!

Christmas Party at Raytheon

Friday, December 5th--First of all, Happy Birthday, M.!! Your party isn't until Sunday, however. :) Every year, we go to Raytheon for their Christmas party. We have pizza, the kids decorate cookies, make crafts, look at the model train set, and listen to a ridiculous children's show by the Morris Brothers. We look forward to it every year. Outside, they usually have bounce houses and a train ride. Each year we get the same photo taken with the same background. Here is this year's picture......

Santa

Wednesday, December 3rd--S. and J. went to visit Santa today. Every year, Santa visits TBJ and collects food for our local food pantry. S. was fascinated with Santa and watched him the whole time. He wasn't afraid but was just enthralled.

Gymnastics

Saturday, November 8th--J. is taking gymnastics at WOGA where Nastia Luiken, Olympic gold medalist, trains. Her first exhibition was a series of events on the floor, beam, high bar and vault. It was very cute. Afterward, Grandma, Grandpa, and the family went to Covino's for dinner.

Carving Pumpkins

Monday, October 27th--The kids got to carve their pumpkins this evening. This is one of their favorite holiday activities. They make great 'Bleck' faces for the camera when they are cleaning out their pumpkins each year! This year, J. had a very odd pumpkin. It was nearly impossible to cut! The shell was rock hard and K. had to get a hacksaw to cut it. M. was able to use the small carving saw to cut out is jack-o-lantern face but J. just had to draw her's on with marker and K. had to cut it out. Yikes! But, as usual, the kids had a great time and turned out some fabulous faces.

The Pumpkin Patch

Friday, October 17th-- We went to the pumpkin patch today. J. had a play date with our favorite little guy, J.L., so he joined us in the fun. Every year, we hit at least one pumpkin patch for photos and so we can choose the best carving pumpkins. The kids love to run around and play amongst the pumpkins. This was the first year for S. and he had a field day playing with...and eating, the hay. This year we went to two different pumpkin patches. The first one we went to had a great set up for photos along with rows and rows of large pumpkins to chose our carving pumpkins. Our second pumpkin patch is really a farmers market that always has fabulous and interesting gourds, 3 for a $1.00. We all try to find the most interesting gourds and add them to our Thanksgiving cornucopia centerpiece.