First Day

Ethan started the first grade on Sept. 7th. He rode the bus to and from school. From what I gathered from him talking on the phone to Dad and Grandma Harman it was a good day. His only complaint was that they had Art class instead of Music. Mom's complaints are: he forgot to bring home his lunch box already (forgets the second one today - and its hot lunch tomorrow) and the afternoon bus was more then 30 minutes late. I expect that the bus will run smoother as the week goes on.

Ethan's teacher has said she will be sending home very little paper/pencil homework and just some reading work once a week since they work so much in class. So lucky Ethan, or unlucky, he gets to do the extra work I have for him from a first grade work book. So far, he does not seem to mind doing it as long as he gets some say in what page(s) we do.

Here are some photos from the first day. And for those waiting, I hope to get to work on the photos and updates from all our summer trips soon - when I have a large block of free time.

BRAVO - rec. gymnastics program

Ethan participated in his gymnastics gym recreational program called BRAVO a little while back. He had fun, but was really geared towards the girls. In fact the announcer was calling everyone girls and ignoring the fact that boys were there too until part way through. Ethan really enjoyed competing, he even showed he could hold himself off the pommel horse longer then I thought he could.

Oh, and by the way, Ethan told me he was upset that Grandpa got rid of his high bar instead of keeping it for him. I told him that this happened before he was even a thought - but he still wanted it to have been saved. Silly boy.





























Here are also some more photos to follow up from the Spring hair cut. We did this to his hair on a day there was no Kindergarten. As as you can see above, the mohawk is already shaved clean. It was just a brief bit of fun.





















And finally, I picture Rob took of me. For once a decent one. How rare that is.

Spring Hair cut

Well, it is spring time - and time for Ethan to have his hair cut for the warmer weather.

Yes, he decided this is what he wanted on his own. And I figured he is 6, it is summer, so why not. Not really sure why he got the idea, he likes spikey hair.

Glasses and curtains

As some of you already know, Ethan has been using an eye patch periodically to strengthen one of his eyes. While this has shown improvemet, the improvement has been slow. So, the decision was made to get him glasses. They have a very light perscription in them and he does not have to wear them all the time. This should speed up the improvement in his eye and hopefully he will not end up in glasses full time or permamenently. He picked them out on his own from the tinny selection the store had. I think he looks good, but really different. He is fairly excited about them and a little nervous too I think. Today he wore them to DayCare, the big test will be tomorrow when he wears them to Kindergarten.

Also this past weekend, I broke out the sewing machine for the second time ever and made curtains for Ethan's room and our hobby room. Ethan picked the fabric, of course. I think the camo goes "great" with the bird houses. But the paint will change this spring or summer. And no, even though he wants it the color will not be camo all around. Maybe the lower half of the wall and an accent wall of the olive color but that is the limit.

Winter Fun

This winter we all went skiing with Grandma and Grandpa from Indiana. It was a really good time, I am surpised that we got Ethan off the slopes and impressed by Dad's skiing skill retained from when he was a kid. It was a nice day above 30! And the slopes were not over crowded.

Mom decided to try snow boarding instead of skiing. It went okay, but did not make it off bunny slope. I am just not that into falling down it seems. But, nothing broken and was a good time.

I also decided that snowboarders tend to spend more time just sitting on the slopes (usually in the middle or right where you want off the tow line) chatting. I must have been the only one to go down and then go again without sitting on the slopes for 10 minutes. Not saying I was like Ethan and just kept wanting to go again and again though. I just did my sitting out of the way.

Here is Ethan coming down the bunny slope that they give lessons on and first timers use a lot. He did really awesome.

Ethan and Dad after skiing down the larger "bunny" slope. Ethan did this run a number of times. It was bigger but he still did not have to steer much to remain in control. If it wasn't for needing help with the rope tow I think Ethan would have skied all day long.

Another thing we did this winter was go to Frankemuth's SnowFest. They had ice and snow carvings, petting zoo, mini golf, food, and fire works. It was a nice day to go too - sunny and low 20's without wind. I liked the snow sculptures better then the ice, but the diversity of snow sculptures may be way. The ices sculptures seemed to have had to stay within a theme since there were a lot of seahorses, carp, eagles. All amazing.

Here are some examples of the snow sculptures. They were amazing pieces of all types of design. The rhino is one of my favorites there. The snow was holding up well to the sunny day. We did not get to see any being made, but got to get real close to most of them.

Here are some photos of an Ice sculpture from a design themed Atlantis. This was done by a higher level group. The carving going on that we could watch was still amazing with seahorses, eagles, hummingbirds and other things. We actually had the timing to catch the start and see them lob pieces from their ice blocks and the middle where carving and detail was being added and the end where the pieces were gently flame kissed to clear the ice.

We were at SnowFest from about 3 in the afternoon and arrived home after 8:30. Saw some great fireworks. About the only time other then eating where the cold started to sink in.

I think Ethan got tired out. Dad carried him into the house, where he woke up once sat down and was asked to take his stuff off. As you can see he made it to unzipping the jacket and then fell back to sleep.